Technologies, Platforms, Success Factors, And Enablers For Implementing A Mobile Business Solution

Mobile and Executive Computing

Mobile technology is one of the rising and already one of the largest technical advancements in recent times. The developments in mobile technology has aided business operations and solutions by reducing the overall system requirements and what needed to be done in large sized computers previously can now be accomplished using a simple mobile phone. With the increasing popularity of smartphones around the world, the mobile business platform has been further developed and enhanced (Joorabchi, Mesbah and Kruchten 2013). In recent times, many business organizations have starting streamlining their business operations using the mobile platforms in order to reach more customers. Since smartphones are used by people all over the world, the mobile business platform has become extremely popular and the large scale business organizations have been able to gain global reach using the platform.

This report is based on the planning of a mobile business solution for Verizon (Mobile Business Solution Service provider) that wants to enhance the mobile business platform in order to provide more efficient solution services to the clients. In addition to the proposed plan, other necessary factors like technical support and suitable time frame have been analyzed and discussed.

The company Verizon has proposed the development of an expensive and complex mobile business platform that will enable it to provide business solutions services through the mobile platform. Initially, the company started with providing business solutions through the computerized information systems and helped the clients achieve wide ranging technical solutions that in turn enhanced their existing business systems (Harmon, Kalmar and Burgoon 2016). The company also helps building a suitable business platform for various business organizations and the notable clients of the company include Samsung, Synnex Corporation, Broadsoft, Accellion and others. Hence, in this project, a suitable mobile business platform will be designed which will also help building mobile business platform for the clients. However, several important factors that need to be maintained through the entire course of the development are – sustainability of the new platform, economic feasibility of the platform, technical feasibility and others.

The necessary technologies required for this particular development are listed as follows.

Hardware – This type of complex and expensive development will require expensive and technically upgraded hardware for the company. The mobile business platform will first be developed in the computers and then tried and tested in the mobile platform. For that purpose, the highest configuration of computers will be necessary as even simplest of lags and errors will completely destroy the entire progress of the development (Graham et al. 2016). Hence, it is to be ensured that the latest hardware configurations are used. Moreover, use of high graphics are required to develop a suitable user interface that will attract the customers.

Software – Softwares are also the most important requirements of the development. First, the platform subscription will be required on which the development will be done. Since the development will be done for mobile platform, use of android and iOS platforms are recommended instead of the platform emulating softwares. Moreover, development softwares will be required for coding of the proposed application as well as development of the graphical interface and the internal features of the application. Furthermore, security softwares will be necessary to save the project progress against cyber security issues and internal computer errors like random reboot and others.

Proposed Mobile Business Solution Implementation

Android/iOS Platform – The selection of platform is essential for determining the success of the project as well as future success of the business. The company has to determine which mobile platform is more used in the target area. Both Android and iOS are two popular mobile operating systems but development on Android platform is much cheaper than iOS (Zhang et al. 2014). Hence, while preparing the budget for the project, the company should determine which platform to choose. In case the company wants to develop on both the platforms, sufficient funding should be received and hence, selection of a suitable sponsor will be necessary.

As discussed above, the platform where the application will be developed should be chosen before the initiation of the project. Currently, there are three major mobile operating systems namely, Android, iOS and Windows (while others like Java, Symbian and others have become obsolete). Android is an efficient working platform and the developments on this platform are much cheaper. Moreover, getting license for using Android platform is much easier than the others. iOS platform is also extremely efficient but has less features than Android. Moreover, the developments on the iOS platform are extremely expensive and the license for development is extremely hard to get (Stoyanov et al. 2015). Windows on the other hand is slowly becoming obsolete as the users are preferring iOS and Android to Windows. Hence, the target for the company should be on Android platform and if sufficient funds are received, they can also develop on the iOS platform. However, the company must ensure providing continuing support over both the platforms in order to maintain sustainability of the application so that the company is able to provide mobile business solutions to the clients without much difficulty.

The outcome of any project is determined by the success factors that are planned and determined before the initiation of the project. The success factors for the project are as follows.

Complete Business Solution Platform – The primary success factor for the project is the complete business solution platform that will be developed through the course of the project. The main aim of this development is to provide business solutions support to the customers and for that, the mobile business platform will be developed in this project (Al Ayubi et al. 2016). Hence, the main target is to complete the development within time such that the application works according to the requirements without any issues and problems. Moreover, it must be ensured that there are no bugs in the application and sufficient support is provided at regular basis.

Maintenance of the Pre-Planned Budget and Time – Another important success factor for this project will be to complete it within the pre-planned budget and time. Since it is an extremely expensive project, it must be ensured that the available budget is not exceeded as the sponsors will most likely not provide any further funding for the project (Barnett, Vasa and Grundy 2015). Moreover, since the development is related to the business operations of the organization, it must be ensured that the project is completed within the pre-determined timeline.

Necessary Technologies

The entire budget for the project is shown in the following table.

Required Resource	Proposed Budget
Hardware Upgrades	$10000
New Hardwares	$20000
Graphics Accelerator and Hardware Support	$5000
Development Platform Subscription	$10000
Development Softwares	$15000
Support Softwares	$5000
Security Softwares	$5000
Wages of Developers	$20000
Other Expenses	$5000
Buffer Budget	$15000
TOTAL	$110,000

The proposed time frame for the project is shown in the following table.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
Time Frame for App Development	66 days	Fri 22-09-17	Fri 22-12-17
Project initiation	16 days	Fri 22-09-17	Fri 13-10-17
Initial Analysis of Requirements	3 days	Fri 22-09-17	Tue 26-09-17
Proposed Business Solution	4 days	Wed 27-09-17	Mon 02-10-17
Proposed App Features	5 days	Tue 03-10-17	Mon 09-10-17
Feasibility study	4 days	Tue 10-10-17	Fri 13-10-17
Project planning	21 days	Mon 16-10-17	Mon 13-11-17
Preparation of Development Plan	5 days	Mon 16-10-17	Fri 20-10-17
Analysis of Proposed Budget	3 days	Mon 23-10-17	Wed 25-10-17
Project Scheduling	4 days	Thu 26-10-17	Tue 31-10-17
Subscription to Development Platform	4 days	Wed 01-11-17	Mon 06-11-17
Final Project Plan	5 days	Tue 07-11-17	Mon 13-11-17
Project execution	17 days	Tue 14-11-17	Wed 06-12-17
Initiation of Development	4 days	Tue 14-11-17	Fri 17-11-17
Procurement of Hardwares and Softwares	4 days	Mon 20-11-17	Thu 23-11-17
Coding and Application Development	4 days	Fri 24-11-17	Wed 29-11-17
Testing and Risk Management	5 days	Thu 30-11-17	Wed 06-12-17
Project closure	12 days	Thu 07-12-17	Fri 22-12-17
Final Debugging and Troubleshooting	4 days	Thu 07-12-17	Tue 12-12-17
Prepararion of Project Document	4 days	Wed 13-12-17	Mon 18-12-17
Project Evaluation and Sign Off	4 days	Tue 19-12-17	Fri 22-12-17

The architecture features for the proposed application are as follows.

User Interface – The user interface of the application should be attractive so that more customers are interested to test and use the application. An attractive overview always interest more people as they notice the overall look before knowing about the features of any product (Yamagata et al. 2013). However, it is to be ensured that the user interface is not so colorful and catchy that the customers cannot understand the working of the app or read the different options present on the top of the interface.

Presentation Logic – There should be a presentation logic in the overall interface of the application. The customers will not use the application if there is no home page or if the “about us” page opens when the customer clicks the “features” tab. Hence, all the web pages and contents in the application should be logically arranged.

Data Access – The customers should have sufficient data access in the application. The customers will be annoyed if they open a page inside the application and then cannot access the data contained in the page (Iacob, Harrison and Faily 2013). Hence, after limiting the amount of data a customer can access, the access should be kept open so that the customers can have a look on the data. However, in case of paid contents of the data, the page should redirect the customer to the payments / subscription tab.

Security – The company should ensure there is sufficient data security inside the application. Some websites contain malwares inside them and whenever a user opens the application, the malwares infect his device and steals his personal information. Hence, this issue must be addressed and sufficient security measures must be taken.

Data Access – The individuals on the service provider’s should have access to all the data that is being streamlined through the application. This is required in order to ensure continuity and monitoring of the data that is passed through the application.

Remote Administration – This feature is required in order to administer the working of the application from a remote server i.e. the company should provide remote administration services to remote clients in order to provide internationally based services.

Conclusion:

This report is based on the planning of a mobile business solution for Verizon (Mobile Business Solution Service provider) that wants to enhance the mobile business platform in order to provide more efficient solution services to the clients. Based on the analysis, it can be said that the primary success factor for the project is the complete business solution platform that will be developed through the course of the project. During the entire course of the project, an application will be developed for Verizon who wants to provide business solutions support to the customers and for that, the mobile business platform will be developed in this project. Hence, the target that is needed to be achieved in this project is to complete the development within the preplanned time such that the application works according to the requirements without any issues and problems. Moreover, the developers should ensure there are no bugs in the application and sufficient support is provided at regular basis. In the report, the necessary architecture features have also been mentioned that are necessary in order to maintain the feasibility and continuity of the application in both the developers’ and the clients’ end. Another important success factor for this project will be to complete it within the pre-planned budget and time. Since it is an extremely expensive project, it must be ensured that the available budget is not exceeded as the sponsors will most likely not provide any further funding for the project. Moreover, since the development is related to the business operations of the organization, it must be ensured that the project is completed within the pre-determined timeline.

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