There are some staggering statistics recently released by Forbes regarding smartphones and apps. According to Forbes (www.forbes.com) there will be 1 billion smartphones sold in 2013, which is twice the number of PC’s predicted to be sold that year.  By 2016 there will be 10 billion mobile internet devices used globally, which is 50 times the size it is today.  Between 2010 and 2011 the time spent on mobile apps began to outpace the time spent on the desktop or mobile Web.  In the same time period there was a 91% increase in the time users spent on mobile applications. By 2015, mobile application development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will out-number native PC projects by a ratio of 4-1. Between 2009 and 2014 the market for cloud-based mobile apps is projected to increase by nearly 90%.

So what does all this mean ???

The mobile revolution is well and truly here. Organisations of all sizes need to have developed a solid and robust mobile strategy, or face being left behind by clients and competitors.  Whilst there is still some contention over the best strategic approach to mobile application development, there is no doubt that mobile applications are front and centre in leveraging market opportunities, client engagement, process efficiencies, and strategic innovation.

In a recent blog post I proposed the inclusion of a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (or MEAP) as an integral part of any mobile strategy. Of course, this particular strategy depends on the nature of the organisation and its key mobility objectives; however MEAP should not be overlooked when considering a long term view to deployment of multiple different mobile applications, using multiple back-end systems, across any device.

For medium to large sized healthcare organisations, a MEAP based mobile strategy has several advantages over a natively developed application, which is often built with a pre-defined range of objectives, or based on one back-end system.  In this scenario, a mobile platform approach is superior because it:

–          Enables the organisation to customise a solution into fit exact requirements, tailored to the business needs and processes

–          Can provide a competitive advantage, as no one else has that particular mobile application

–          Ensures that changes to the mobile solution are immediate, flexible and more cost effective

–          Is not restricted by the type of mobile device. Mobile platform applications built using HTML5 ensure availability on any mobile device

–          Aligns to organisational “bring your own device” policies (if applicable)

–          Ensures that any development code (apps or API’s) can be re-used to help build other apps

–          Fits into the organisations long term strategies and e-health vision to provide mobile solutions for other uses, for example

• Bedside medication management
• Bedside electronic progress notes and electronic care planning
• Capturing of client and staff incidents, risks, compliance and improvement initiatives
• Mobile business intelligence and analytics
• Mobile clinical assessments
• Information management (eg, mobile access to policies or corporate documents)
• Others ???

The above examples are likely to need data integrated from multiple in-house systems, which plays into the hands of a mobile platform. While organisations may not require mobility solutions for all the above examples right now, establishing a mobile platform caters for immediate AND long-term organisational use of mobility, even if the future state is not known.  The mobility platform approach has already harnessed recognition across all the major ICT industry research groups including Gartner and Forrester, and is a key component of the ICT Strategy toolkit.