An Executive Review of the Windows Surface Pro

As an executive of a software development company, it is important, if not imperative, to keep up with the latest technology. I was one of the early adopters of the iPad and as revolutionary as it was, it still lacked fundamental business features - it never replaced my laptop. The idea of the Surface Pro is a perfect replacement; the actual Surface Pro is not so perfect, but a great first attempt.

In my opinion, the Surface Pro is the best business productivity tablet on the market. I can run my entire business operations with the Surface Pro, albeit tediously at times. The good parts of the Surface Pro include the fact that it can replace your laptop. It is a full Windows OS and so you can run all your common business applications such as Office, Visio, and Project etc. Its metro UI (now officially called Windows 8 UI) is good too. I do appreciate the more advanced gesture features it includes but it does take some learning. In certain situations the dynamic menu is "context-aware", meaning that the menu features are either dynamically shown or the context of the menu features adjusts to the application. For example, if you swipe your finger from the right-side of the screen towards the left, a menu shows with a search feature (among others). The search feature will search whichever application you are in. If you are in Netflix, it searches movies, if you are in the Windows store, it searches apps.

There is also a bottom menu, left-side menu and top menu. A little practice allows you to split the screen and also show a tile menu of all open applications. You can save just about anything as a Start screen menu item on the Windows 8 UI and you can also switch to the original desktop mode which works exactly as you would expect if you are a Windows user.

The stylus that comes with the Surface Pro is a big help when navigating in desktop mode. It is quite accurate although it seems some people are having issues with the stylus and Microsoft is investigating. It has a great handwriting feature and the recognition is decent, however I still prefer the keyboard. The stylus is good for selecting dropdowns, radio buttons and smaller menu items. It even works at a distance; about an inch from the screen.

Some negatives for the Surface Pro in my opinion are the size and weight, the memory, lack of apps and the touch keyboard. The tablet is about a half-inch thick and weighs 2 pounds; not an issue unless you are trying to hold the device in one hand and type with the other. The memory is lacking and the pre-installed apps take up quite a bit of storage out-of-the-box. The touch keyboard has issues and sometimes does not show when it should. When this happens I need to connect the Type Cover (a magnetic keyboard accessory) or switch to desktop mode where I can manually force the touch keyboard to show.

Overall, the device is great for doing the things I need to do without carrying a laptop around. As the technology advances, I am looking forward to a thinner and lighter device with a better screen (the iPad contrast, clarity and black levels are much better) and having the aforementioned glitches addressed. With the Surface Pro, the real mobile era is upon us as your most familiar business applications can now be used with a mouse, a touch and a stylus all on your tablet.

Smartphone, Tablet and… Phablet?

Yes, Phablet is a real word.  It may not be a word you are familiar with, however it is gaining momentum and the concept behind the word is more interesting.  A Phablet describes a newer category of hand-held mobile devices that fits between a Smartphone and a Tablet.

According to Wikipedia, a Phablet is “an informal class of smarpthones with screen sizes ranging between 5 and 7 inches; these are primarily designed to combine the functionality of a smartphone with that of a tablet.”

A smartphone is great for email, phone calls, utility apps, directions and the like.  A tablet is better suited for larger tasks such as managing documents, reviewing reports, reading and the like.  It would be nice to combine the two, hence the Phablet category.  The Samsung Galaxy Note and Note 2 fit this category and you will see an emerging market for Phablets.
As enterprise mobility is becoming an integral part of business, so is the need for additional mobile device categories.  Don’t be surprised to see “a device for every hand” become a viable marketing campaign for the larger mobile device providers. 

This does present issues for your mobile software designers and developers and IT staff.  This increases the need for testing and various screen sizes and design layouts for the multitude, and inconsistency, of mobile devices on the market.  As an enterprise, you are somewhat fortunate to have control over the types of devices you support; however BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) could mitigate that benefit.

If your organization is moving toward digital libraries, private app stores and mobile application management solutions then BYOD may be a better option (versus mandating and distributing company mobile devices).  With a BYOD policy, your mobile content would need to be distributed to multiple device types and so must be built to handle these types – including new mobile device categories such as Phablets.  It also means your development efforts might be better targeted towards mobile Web Apps with HTML 5 which allows a level of device ubiquity.  Responsive design for centralized Cloud software (such as SAAS – Software as a Service) is another option.  Responsive design is the concept of taking a desktop-designed application and building it to “respond” dynamically to mobile device-sized screens and change its own layout on-the-fly.

eSavV specializes in modern business software by building solutions for the new world – the world of enterprise mobility, security and centralization.  We are experts at building Service Oriented Architecture, SAAS and Cloud software solutions for enterprises with the power to scale, evolve and grow with your organization for any desktop, laptop or mobile device - even Phablets.

Building A Custom Software Solution Means Thinking BIG

If you are looking to introduce new mobile or web-based applications to your competitive arsenal in 2013, think about the big picture first.

What is a Framework?
A foundation of a business application in the software world is sometimes called a framework.  It is a proven, resilient software skeletal structure upon which your custom business functions and departments can be built or integrated.  There are many frameworks out there but many of them are “heavy”, meaning that they contain more features than most companies would ever need and this excess baggage can introduce complexity and even hurt performance and productivity.

A framework is a “system of patterns” where a “pattern” is a reusable blueprint that is designed to solve a common business problem.  Many of the same “problems” repeat themselves in the business software world and in 1994 a revolutionary book was published to address this issue.  Known as the GoF (Gang of Four) book, it was titled Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object –Oriented Software.  It was a catalog of templates that would help software developers solve many common business software problems if they would follow these templates.
A framework is a set of these templates connected together to form a system structure.  Together with new cloud-based Web Services, a well-designed, modern framework can be the backbone of your business for years to come.

Benefits of a Software Framework
The business benefits to having a well designed framework are many and include development cost savings, improved security, centralization, consistency, robustness and extensibility.
Development cost savings come from the fact that you do not have to start a project from scratch.  You are starting with a proven foundation and can build upon that.

• Improved security comes from the secure design with authentication (login), data cleansing and sanitation (checking for bad data), audit logging and encryption.

• Centralization happens by having the framework be the center of your core business functions.  You can use the framework in many different contexts thereby avoiding redundancy and duplication.

• Consistency is afforded by the framework being the standard by which your projects are built.  This allows integration of different systems but a consistent way they are being integrated.  It also fosters consistency among your development team whether in-house or outsourced.  They are required to follow the framework so you do not have to deal with 20 different ways a similar function could be built.  This also helps reduce training costs and time-to-market.

• Robustness means strongly built and in the context of business software means it can handle many scenarios and bad data without failing.  A framework enforces a strong structure that is designed to handle the rigors of a business environment.

• Extensibility is the ability of a software system to be extended.  Businesses grow and evolve and a well designed framework allows new functionality to be added with minimal work and ideally no rework.  This also means extending to different devices.  eSavV’s framework allows integration with mobile devices, desktop browsers and even other systems and departments.

eSavV Framework
As a certified enterprise software architect, I have worked with many frameworks over the years and have seen the pros and cons.  I have worked on numerous mission-critical, multi-million dollar software projects over 15 years and was able to identify the most common business functions, without the excess, and build a lean but powerful framework.  I have taken this experience and these concepts and worked with my top engineers at eSavV to develop a solution that can be leveraged with almost any industry and any device such as a tablet, smartphone and desktop monitor.  The benefits of a framework are passed onto you via cost savings and a foundation that will support the growth of your organization for many years to come.

eSavV Business Framework - A Pattern for Growth

eSavV’s Mobile & Web Software Framework is the Backbone of Your Business

frame•work
noun
1. a skeletal structure designed to support or enclose something
2. a structure composed of parts fitted and joined together

All of eSavV’s custom software solutions are built upon a proven, robust, scalable, extensible and secure foundation called the “eSavV Framework”.  Software application frameworks support the development of an application and are aimed at minimizing the costs of common development activities while allowing for a more robust and reusable software application.  Our framework is an extensive, reusable blueprint for building robust business mobile and web applications without having to create everything from scratch.  Using a framework reduces the time it takes to create the application which reduces the cost of development and makes the application more robust since it is a reusable and therefore tested piece of software.

What makes the eSavV Framework Unique?
Our framework is 10 years in the making!  How? Our framework is developed from years of experience by our founder who spent more than a decade as an enterprise software architect (and is a professionally certified enterprise architect) developing robust solutions for multi-million dollar, mission-critical software projects.  eSavV’s framework is a modern model that fits the real world.  Designing and developing a framework is art more than science and takes years of professional experience.  Our framework is compatible with any mobile device and any web-based software solution for almost any industry.

Benefits of the eSavV Framework:
•    Reduced development cost   
•    Reduced time-to-market for your competitive solutions
•    Based on industry best practices and standards
•    Add new business functions in half the time
•    Integrate ANY mobile solution into your business model seamlessly
•    Integrate with your existing systems (CRM, ERP, RPM, ESB, Legacy, Queues, etc)
•    Competitive advantage with custom features
•    Offer CTS (Client Transparency Solutions) by allowing your clients to securely manage their own information leveraging your existing data
•    Security is built into the framework via data sanitation, cleansing, logging and encryption
•    Cloud-based deployment for reduced time-to-market
•    Full documentation and eSavV expert support
•    It is an already proven, tested framework currently in use by major corporations

How Does it Work?
Our framework is a structure that allows for quick extension of new business functions and supports almost any business scenario with a consistent process flow.  What does this mean in plain English?  Years of research and an expertise in understanding business software systems have exposed many common components that have become a part of our framework.  We have identified common business abstractions and structured those abstractions to create a very powerful business model. 

For example, we have created common business entities such as Person and Organization.  These entities commonly have Roles in a system and other information such as Location, Contacts and Profiles.  Transactions, Payments, Orders and many more of these entities were designed and structured into a common business framework that can be customized in many different ways. 

We also developed a Web Service inventory.  These “Web Services” are again common business functions that can be “specialized” to fit custom business scenarios for your company.  They are fully independent functions that can be arranged to derive many business scenarios with a relatively small number of services.  Imagine a pile of Legos ® of different shapes, colors and sizes.  How many combinations of structures could you build with a small sampling of Legos?  The answer is many!  That is the idea behind Web Services.  Our framework is designed to integrate seamlessly with Web Services.  Since most credible software products are developed today with Web Service extensions, our framework and Web Service inventory can seamlessly tie your systems together allowing an efficient and centralized, holistic business software solution.

Is eSavV’s Framework Proprietary?
It is a proprietary framework, however, it is based on the most widely used programming language (Java) and is also based on industry standards and best practices.  This means that you are not tied to a particular platform or product.  Our framework not only supports your custom solution by eSavV, it can be integrated with your existing systems and is built to support the growth and evolution of your business and the technology that helps support it, for years to come.

Call an eSavV representative at 888-316-6303 for more information.

Why Today’s Upper Management Need Software Architecture Skills

Masterful reusability, reduced time-to-market, minimized risk and significant cost savings all thanks to a smart software architecture.  Unfortunately, much upper management – those who have the authority to hire new staff and select vendors – do not understand software architecture and this can be a detriment to their companies.

Software is second to people when it comes to running a business. In some cases, software can reduce staff and so it becomes one of the most important parts of operating a business. 

Business software (web-based, mobile, or desktop) should be viewed as a holistic solution.  This means that when considering a new solution, be sure to consider all the variables such as other departments, systems, people, strategic and tactical objectives and your return on investment.  Too often, solutions are treated in silos and are built upon an already failing system.

Software should be as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside and this is where business software solutions are falling short. 

The Problem!

When a house is being built, there is an architect(s) who designs the house and a construction team who builds it following the architecture.  This architecture is critical - if it is flawed, the stability of the house is in jeopardy and so is the safety of its occupants.

The same is true for software.  The architecture is the most important consideration and requires significant skill.  But many software developers read from a bulleted list of requirements and build the system with no real design. The result is a solution that has a shorter lifecycle, little to no return, heavy maintenance needs, is buggy, is isolated from other systems in the business and is tightly coupled to an existing product or device wreaking havoc if that product or device changes.  Of course, all of this is also very expensive.

So much money is wasted due to bad software design.  This waste comes from the hodge-podge integrations that must be built to allow different departments to communicate and the inability for the business to scale to leverage new technology such as mobile devices.

The Solution!

SAAS (Software As A Service) is where business software is headed and where it should be.  Service-based computing is the concept of reusable software components called "services" that are separated from any user interface, device or product.  Think of these services as Lego's that you can plug into each other to build different structures.  The same set of 15 Lego’s can be used to build many different structures.  The design and shape of each Lego is important for the number of permutations that can be created.  In your business, each “Lego” is a core business function that is wrapped-up in a software Service.

A small number of Services can be plugged into each other to create varying business scenarios.  Designing these Services is the tricky part.  They must have minimal or no dependencies.  The more dependencies a Service has, the less reusable it becomes.  That statement is a bit of a twister, but think about it for a moment.  If something requires many other things to function, how well can that something operate in different environments or processes?  The dependencies would need to be supported by all the different environments from which the something operates - which is usually unrealistic and therefore makes it less reusable.

The Secret!

Business software solutions should be designed to an interface specification.  This means that each business software process should be built to communicate with abstracted business entities and not the implementation of a specific entity.  Let me explain; I will use a payment process as an example. 

Let's say today you are using PayPal for accepting online payments but you want to switch to Authorize.net instead.  The average system would require changing all the parts of that system that communicate with PayPal to now be changed to use Authorize.net which may be a lot of work and risk and requires extensive regression testing. 

 

Using an abstraction instead would require very little change and limited testing.  Here is how:  all your software processes that use PayPal would use a Service called Payment instead.  Payment would be considered a "parent" Service.  As a parent, it must have children.  A PayPal "child" Service would be created and attached to the Payment parent.  The web application that uses the online payment Service, would call the Payment parent, not PayPal.  "Magic" (a creative design) allows the PayPal child to be called to handle the payment.  If you decide you want to use Authorize.net, then you create an Authorize.net child and swap the PayPal child Service.  However, all the other parts of your system calling Payment remain untouched!  They still communicate with Payment and "magic" handles the Authorize.net specific payment process.  You can even choose to leave both versions, and specific business rules can choose which payment type to use under different scenarios.  If you realize you need to introduce mobile applications into your business process, these mobile apps can use the same parent Payment service! 

 

Masterful reusability, reduced time-to-market, minimized risk and significant cost savings all thanks to a smart architecture.  This is just one very small example so you can imagine the benefits of an entire architecture built with dozens of these concepts infused.

Software is such an integral part of a business and its success that it is important for upper management to understand basic concepts and best practices for software architecture and should be a part of your training.  Even if you have a CTO who manages these things for you, it is still a skill worth having as it will allow for more productive mission-critical conversations between you and allows you to make better informed decisions.

eSavV has certified enterprise software architects with more than a decade of professional experience that is built into every solution we develop.  Our solutions are just as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside.  Know the difference and call eSavV Technologies to expand your business. 

Business Mobile Applications and Security

As your business may be looking to employ the use of enterprise mobile solutions, the concern for mobile security may be on top of mind. While your business may be looking to share its business information with your staff and your customers you need to ensure that information is secure.
 
Regarding enterprise mobile solutions for your team or staff, your mobile applications have several security considerations:

•Mobile infrastructure outside the company network
•Infrastructure of the company network
•The mobile application itself, the mobile operating system and architecture

The mobile infrastructure outside your company network is something that is out of your control such as cell towers and satellites.  Current considerations with mobile infrastructure include cryptography (techniques for secure communication), virtual private networks, and digital authentication (authentication of people or devices over a network).  The fact that many cellular networks use RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) means that the cryptography algorithms that secure transmissions are not as powerful as wired alternatives.

However, extensive research is underway to better address mobile and wireless security considerations as our future becomes ever-more infused with mobile technology.  Enterprise mobile applications for your business can be secured through your existing infrastructure.

As long as the wireless signals stay within your network and defined access points, you have better control over these applications and their security.  You can build a private company mobile app store that lives within a perimeter defense structure and includes authentication mechanisms to those who are looking to access the store.  The users would be required to login to the company store using a user ID and password and any other verification criteria you require. 

The enterprise mobile application itself can also be built with secure features.  The mobile application can have inherent functions such as remote wipe, data encryption, and security wrapping that act as a protective boundary for the mobile application.  Separating critical business data functions from the enterprise mobile application directly can also improve security.  This means building a web service layer behind your company security layers and allowing restricted access to these services.  The mobile application would communicate with these web services where the “real” business functionality lives, and receive an encrypted response to the mobile application that only the mobile application is intended to decrypt and present to the user.

When building enterprise mobile applications, there is always a tradeoff between security and convenience. There are different approaches for security when building internal private business mobile apps for your staff versus external public apps for your customers. For example you have more control over your internal network which is generally not an option with consumer mobile applications.  You can enforce strict login requirements; however, you may sacrifice usability and lose customers.  Therefore, new ways to secure these applications must be considered.  Beyond the mobile application itself, the mobile application developer must also contend with the mobile operating system such as iOS and Android.  There have been instances of very securely written mobile applications but the operating system leaked clear text copies of confidential information into the operating system’s cache.  There are ways to prevent these cache leaks and the developer must implement them while building the application.

As you can see, there are many considerations beyond just building a mobile application and its user functionality.  A lot of effort that goes “unseen” should be focused on the security of the application, especially within an enterprise environment.  eSavV focuses on professional design, usability, maintainability and security with all of our mobile and web applications.

Contact eSavV at 888-316-6303 or operations@eSavV.com

Games at Work? Enter the New Era of "Gamification" Business Software.

Imagine going to work each day feeling like a kid entering a massive arcade and your only job is to win as many games as you can in 8 hours – and the quarters are given to you!

This may be a bit of a stretch, but there are underlying concepts here that are the goals of gamification.  Gamification is defined as the idea of including game-design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging.  Imagine adding a reward layer on CRM, WMS, ERP, time tracking and project management software.  The goal of these reward layers is increased productivity.  After all, isn’t that what business software is all about?  

Gamification has shown surprisingly significant improvements for user engagement and retention, data quality and error reduction, accuracy and timeliness and learning. As kids, many of us grew up with Atari, Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, Xbox, ColecoVision and other video game systems (this is probably bringing back some memories for you).  We would be glued to that TV screen for hours if we were allowed.  So what is it about this software that kept us hooked?  It is the emotion that it created.  It was the heightened cognitive and physical senses to achieve the directed goals and to complete the various levels of the game.  It created an array of emotions including excitement, frustration, happiness, sadness, confidence, worry and more.  This was all part of the design.  The game designers wanted to trigger these emotions at strategic points in the game to keep you playing.

So why can’t key aspects of these games be incorporated into the software used in our work lives?  Could a software application be more productive if it were fun and rewarding to use?  Enter the concept of enterprise gamification.

Gamification characteristics include earning points, completing levels, earning badges, incentives, social sharing, collaborative work to achieve goals, etc.  Of course, these gaming characteristics should align with the business objectives of the enterprise software.  Enterprise software that could benefit from integrated gamification concepts include corporate training (CBC), project management, collaboration & sharing, time reporting, innovation, sales, ERP, CRM, WHM and more.  Adding enterprise mobility with smartphones and tablets further creates opportunities to improve productivity and efficiency in the enterprise.

Gamification does have its critics.  Some claim that gamifying business software will create cheaters who are only looking for ways to shortcut the system for reward and that the real feeling of self-accomplishment and job satisfaction would be lost.  Authenticity of rewards becomes a vital concern for gamifying enterprise software, especially if performance reviews become influenced by these rewards.

There are ways to gamify enterprise software solutions to allow a more fun and engaging experience that leads to higher productivity while also maintaining true job satisfaction and core moral values.  Understanding behavioral science is a key component to properly building gamification enterprise business software.  Some key considerations are:

•Build recognition factors for achieved work, rather than only carrot motivators
•Build self-competing designs, rather than against your team or peers
•Build win/win incentives

It’s time to get creative and to take enterprise business software to the next stage of evolution.  We have started with the migration from PC to mobile smartphones and tablets.  These devices themselves warrant a different way of thinking – just look at the touch-screen paradigm versus the mouse.  Building gamification techniques into your enterprise software solutions can bring greater satisfaction to your staff, create a happier and more productive workforce and derive a stronger ROI.
 
Gamification is not only for your staff, it is a concept that can also be used for your customers.  Data used to be regarded as a private and protected company asset, hidden and inaccessible to anyone outside the walls of security for which the data was guarded.  Today, data should be seen as a resource that can be accessed in creative and customized ways by interactive technology allowing the user to benefit from this data as they see fit. Building consumer applications to interact with this data with gamification characteristics is one such way to engage your customers.

Enterprise software is changing rapidly. With advances in mobile technology and a movement to gamified software, we can expect to see a shift in how core business is conducted and a new found inspiration for employees to go to work each day.