INTERACTIVE SESSION TECHNOLOGY Systems Development is Different for Mobile Apps Just about all businesses today want to deploy mo- on a mobile device as on a desktop computer screen, bile apps and they want these apps developed in a and the steps in the invoice approval process are very short time frame. That's not so easy. the same. However, given the difficulty of jumping Developing successful mobile apps poses some hack and forth between different screens on a mobile unique challenges. The user experience on a mo- device, the mobile app incorporates the necessary bile device is fundamentally different from that on invoice approval code into its line item detail rather a PC. There are special features on mobile devices than displaying these codes on a PDF attachment. such as location-based services that give firms the On a desktop, users must sign into the SAP system in potential to interact with customers in meaningful order to see an invoice and will receive notification new ways. Firms need to be able to take advantage that an invoice is available for approval via email. of those features while delivering an experience A pop-up notification on the mobile app eliminates that is appropriate to a small screen. There are mul- the need for users to log into the app before knowing tiple platforms for mobile software, including ios, about an invoice. Android, and Windows 10, and a firm may need a Before deploying the mobile app, Great-West different version of an application to run on each had to set up an appropriate mobile infrastructure, of these as well as on devices of different sizes and considering factors such as security, sign-on, and capabilities. Mobile devices might be tiny and worn back-end integration. Since this was the company's on the wrist or they might be large high-definition first mobile app interfacing to the SAP system, the tablet displays. They might include sensors and company had to make sure the mobile app could audio output and even displays combining real and incorporate the entire workflow from the SAP sys- virtual images. System builders need to understand tem and that all the data was encrypted and secure. how, why, and where customers use mobile devices Great-West purchased 1,000 licenses for the mobile and how these mobile experiences change busi- approvals app (which is compatible with both ios ness interactions and behavior. You can't just port a and Android devices) and issued company-owned website or desktop application to a smartphone or devices to senior executives and the heaviest invoice tablet. It's a different systems development process. users. Remaining users are allowed to use the app Many enterprises require applications that link on their own devices as long as they conform to the to corporate systems and function on the desktop firm's BYOD policy as well as on mobile devices. Take, for example, For the past few years, United Parcel Service Great-West Financial, the second largest retirement (UPS) has provided customers with a UPS Mobile app services company in the United States with approxi to track their shipments and obtain pricing informa- mately $461 billion in assets under its administra- tion using smartphones and tablets. UPS developers tion. Company employees spend more time serv- initially wrote and maintained multiple versions of ing customers in the field rather than in the office UPS Mobile, including one for ios in Objective-C and and needed a connection to the company's ERP another for Android in Java. This meant twice the Financials system from wherever they are work- work for UPS mobile developers. The different ver- ing to process accounts payable invoice approvals. sions of the app might not be updated at the same Great-West decided to deploy the Dolphin Mobile time, so customers with different types of devices Approvals app for this purpose. didn't always have access to the latest features at the Great-West selected Dolphin because it could same time. handle all of its SAP workflows in a single app, so UPS was able to move the UPS Mobile app to a that employees did not have to go to one place to ap- single development platform, but this entailed an prove invoices and another to approve everything enormous amount of work. The company selected else. Great-West configured the app to make its look Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin for this purpose and feel as similar as possible to the application because it allowed developers to share one C# code users accessed on their desktops. The user sees the base across platforms and deliver fully native apps same data fields on the invoice header and line item to customers. Xamarin also had better integration 522 Part Four Building and Managing Systems with mobile devices' unique hardware and capabili- Studio Tools for Xamarin. UPS can now add a new ties. Although UPS had to rebuild more than 130,000 feature across all mobile devices in weeks and days lines of code that had been written over a four-year instead of months. period, management realized that rewriting UPS Mobile would produce dramatic time and cost sav- Sources: Rob Bamforth, "Developers at the Mobile Edge, Computer ings in the long run. The company went ahead Weekly, January 30-February 5, 2018; Mary K. Pratt, Linda Tucci, "Enterprise Mobile App Development: No Easy Answers, with developing on a single platform. Much of the searchCIOtechtarget.com, accessed February 20, 2018; Microsoft, Xamarin code would need to be developed only once UPS Paves the way for Better Service with Faster Development and it could support multiple platforms with great and Artificial Intelligence, September 28, 2017; www.greatwest. com, accessed February 20, 2018; and Ken Murphy, "Great-West efficiency in the years to come. UPS mobile develop- Financial Establishes Its Mobile Footprint," SAP Brasvler Profiles, ers rewrote all versions of UPS Mobile with Visual October 31, 2016. CASE STUDY QUESTIONS 3. Describe how Great-West's in voice approvals process changed after the mobile application was deployed. 1. What management, organization, and technology challenges need to be addressed when building a mobile application? 2. How does user requirement definition for mo- bile applications differ from traditional systems analysis? Job Requirements Upcoming or recent college graduate, with BA in Management Information Systems, Finance, Psychology, or related field 3 to 6-plus months of corporate work or internship experience, including experience working with a project team Strong understanding of technology and systems, and business process improvement Strong analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills Ability to work comfortably in a team environment Knowledge and understanding of the software development life cycle and business process improvement Knowledge of MS Office applications Exposure to SQL desirable but not required Interview Questions 1. What information systems courses have you taken, including MIS, database, data analytics, and systems development? Can you write SQL queries? 2. Have you worked on any systems development projects? If so, what exactly did you do? What systems development practices did you use? 3. Have you worked on any other kinds of projects, and what role did you play? Do you have samples of the writing or output you produced for these projects? 4. Which Microsoft Office tools have you used? What kinds of problems have you used these tools to solve? 5. Have you any experience with agile software development