BlinkMobile
Spearheading the Activity-based App Revolution

Mobile devices have penetrated the enterprise world and are set to change the way everyone works. However, since organizations comprise different departments with varied needs, delivering highly discrete mobile solutions that meet those needs is complicated. “Deploying one master application to serve everyone is the wrong way to do it,” states Darren Besgrove, Director and Founder, BlinkMobile. “Enterprises need to deploy multiple mobile initiatives that support different workgroups in their daily activities. Ovum have called them ‘Soldier Apps.’”

As challenging as it might be, achieving this cost effectively and quickly while working cohesively with the larger business is imperative for CIOs. “The constant flow of new devices and evolution of cloud services massively magnify the challenges. CIOs need to be confident they can easily employ each new development that adds value,” points out Besgrove. With an approach that is a blend of technology and unique deployment strategy, BlinkMobile’s all-encompassing service eases the CIOs’ enterprise mobility concerns.

Technically, BlinkMobile’s enterprise mobility solution straddles many technology areas. Its managed platform integrates elements necessary for enterprise-wide mobility deployments, including the operational aspects of managed infrastructure, back-end services and integration—beyond just straight app development. “We’ve built this in a manner that allows complex organizations to rollout multiple ‘activity-based apps’ very quickly. Think in terms of weeks, not months or years” says Besgrove.

Working with an enterprise that has a high degree of complexity in its back-end systems is one of BlinkMobile’s strengths. “Looking at say airport operations, the application requirements of someone like a customer services officer handling lost property enquiries is very different from someone completing maintenance inspections or tracking aircraft movements on the tarmac, or filling in a bird strike report,” describes Besgrove.

This is where BlinkMobile’s platform comes into its own. For instance, Queensland Airports Limited quickly developed very discrete apps for each of these diverse activities, all directly integrated with their SharePoint system.

We focus on an organization’s needs to rollout ‘activity-based apps’ quickly

“Time to market in the mobile world is very important. And we excel in this regard because of a number of factors,” explains Besgrove. “Our app containers already exist within our infrastructure and can instantly be turned on anywhere in the world.” This ensures an organization can be in pilot mode very quickly. Moreover, the process of building an app is one of configuration and not burdensome coding—meaning, it doesn’t take rocket scientists to use the platform. Besgrove again stresses the importance of a strategy to deploy multiple smaller apps (or ‘soldier apps’)—focused on workgroups—instead of embarking on longer development cycles in a ‘one size fits all’ app approach. For example, if those few employees that just needed an app to help manage the Lost Property Desk were waiting for a complete airport wide app to be deployed; they could be waiting up to a year. “Whereas in our world, we can get that lost property app out there in a matter of weeks!” states Besgrove. This activity-based approach, supported by technology that is easy to use, in conjunction with commercial agreements that place no limit on the number of apps that a company can build, makes BlinkMobile’s proposition highly attractive.

Knowing that the enterprise mobility market is still in its early stages, BlinkMobile continues to invest more than 50 percent of revenues in R&D to stay at the forefront. Looking to tomorrow, BlinkMobile is keen on growing its channel partner network and opening direct offices in the U.S. and UK. “We have purposely designed our platform with the capacity to deploy and service customers anywhere in the world, and we intend to leverage it to the fullest,” asserts Besgrove.