Smartphones in business management: IBM, Citrix, SAP, battle-ready Giants

The war to control the juicy market of MDM (mobile device management) and related issues (security, application management deployments etc...) business begins to grow.

It must be said that the use of smartphones in business becomes critical, reinforced by the phenomenon of the BYOD (bring your own device). It managers begin to feel outdated and are seeking global solutions embracing the whole.

If a few years ago, this question was the preserve of a few specialised players as American Good Technology today, the great names of computer services are flocking to this market, as mosquitoes on the light.

IBM, SAP and even Citrix go there and complete their offers "tailor-made" course for companies that seek to control from beginning to end this problem.

Offers of end-to-end

Mobility must be placed at the top level of the concern companies, if they do not, they are exposing themselves to a leak for opportunities, repeat for those who do not yet know Christian Cagnol, responsible for mobile development business at IBM.

Big Blue recalls so that the mobile is at the centre of its strategy for several years, ten acquisitions in the field have been made since 2006, resulting in 2013 on the launch of the MobileFirst line.

Complete a line which is to accompany the company's end-to-end with MDM, the development and deployment of applications, mobile access control, based on the context of use, support optimized to manage programmes BYOD and analytical brick which allows to observe behaviour of clients to the applications developed by the company. All interlocking with each other.

"You want to be full because the offer is fragmented among different actors," pleads the head. "Few players offer a comprehensive, there are specialists from MDM for example but they don't offer application brick. "At the same time, the businesses that were started with ad hoc policies externally are sighted activities need for integration, particularly for the application", he continues.

Still, competition is not inactive. "Now, and more than ever, it managers decisions are dictated by the growth of the BYOD and cloud services personal, as well as the emergence of a new generation of users with a whole new idea in the way, the place and the moment where they want to work." By providing powerful cloud solutions, we help our customers to adopt mobile working for success in a dynamic world and mobile. ", explains Patrick Rohrbasser, Director General France, Citrix.

Virtualization specialist launched a product catalog sweeping the virtualization applications on smartphone with Citrix XenDesktop 7, MDM with XenMobile Enterprise, which encompasses the management of devices, applications and mobile data, a unified application library, Worx Mobile productivity applications and support live 'one-touch', as well as storage and work mobile into a cloud.

Not to mention the German SAP which has unveiled its Mobile Secure line which includes roughly the same bricks. The software giant offers a range of tools comprising the deployment secure terminals and applications, security management and security of the content.

How then to sort between these solutions that apparently are close enough? The size of the business account even if all these actors say targeting large companies and large SMEs. The simplicity of the offer also plays a role even if she runs into the will to address the whole issue. "Our offer can be considered to be complex but it has been simplified," said Christian Cabauatan of IBM.

SAP: "we copy us!"

However, the quality of the tools offered by these giants remains difficult to measure, especially because of their youth on the market. Each play of the elbows. "It is present in the Gartner Magic Quadrant in several areas of the mobile, it is the Apple of fleet management. We are the leaders in this market and also we are copied by the competition,"says Sanjay Poonen, in charge of mobility among SAP division.

Obviously, the technical arguments are not sufficient to convince. SAP, which considers to be the one which is copied, argues the economic arguments. Its administration and security solution is marketed in a euro per month and per terminal. "It is through our use of the cloud Amazon Web Services that we can be as low," continues the head of the editor.

IBM in turn highlights the flexibility of its offer: "an offer homogeneous but not monolithic: each brick is connectable independently of the others and each brick can be marketed only", says Christian Cagnol. "Moreover, companies often proceed step by step, first MDM, then security then the development and administration of applications platform".

What ultimately question the maturity of enterprises in the face these questions. "The levels of knowledge are still very different. Some companies are on the move for a long time and are familiar with the tools. Others see the potential but consider that this is not for them. Between the two, and is where it has the largest number, is aware the critical side of the mobile companies but without dedicated strategy", concludes the dg.

This therefore is the target that starts to argue violently the giants of computer services which will also have to deal with specialists, mobile operators and even the manufacturers of terminals (Blackberry with BES and Balance), Samsung with Knox.... In short, the coveted cake may not be greedy enough to satisfy all appetites.