Choosing a Mobile App Integration Solution

www.appdome.cominfo@appdome.com

WHITE PAPER

Mobile application services have the power to transform a good mobile app into a great one by integrating mobile apps with a set of rich functions and services that weren’t originally part of the app.

Competitive necessity, rapidly evolving technologies and better ways of developing apps support faster and more secure enterprise “appification.”

For the day-to-day workforce, bring your own device (BYOD) and bring your own applications (BYOA) will continue to thrive.

Employees are accessing mobile apps in the workplace in large numbers because they need these apps to accelerate and maintain work productivity. The 2015 Enterprise Mobile App Trend Report mentioned that the average number of internal-use apps across all companies is 35 – 35, not single digit 2s or 5s. These apps focus on a diverse range of workplace requirements with sales and marketing apps making up 18% of all apps deployed. Field services and human resources apps account for 15% and 14% of the mobile enterprise app landscape, respectively. Recently, Gartner asserted that when employees are given more autonomy to choose the devices, apps, and even the processes to complete a task, the pressure on businesses and/or IT to develop a larger variety of mobile apps in shorter time frames will increase.

The Emergence of Mobile Development Platforms and Services The 2016 State of IT Report from Salesforce Research highlighted that 79% of IT teams are currently developing apps for customers, partners and employees. That same report also mentioned that 68% of CIOs predicted that they will spend more on mobile apps and security in the next two years. This is not surprising as delivering mobile apps to end users has quickly become a strategic imperative for most enterprises.

The traditional mobile application development (MADP) market continues to grow and evolve in an effort to meet the insatiable demand from enterprise users for productivity enhancing mobile solutions. At the same time, new tools have emerged that make the job of building mobile apps faster and easier. Rapid Mobile App Development (RMAD), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Mobile Backend as a Service (MbaaS) platforms are ‘codeless’ or ‘low-code’ solutions which aim to break through the bottlenecks that exist early on in the mobile development lifecycle. These tools provide a better alternative to mobile middleware, with a backend as a service (BaaS) approach that uses unified application programming interfaces (APIs) and software

development kits (SDKs) to connect mobile apps to backend resources in the cloud. RMAD tools provide a codeless or low-code method for building mobile apps from scratch, and MbaSS tools offer cloud-based delivery models midway through the development cycle (for common mobile services such as push notifications, social network integrations, storage, database connections, geo-location, etc.).

The common goal of all these new services is to make the job of deploying rich mobile experiences easier and faster by enabling other mobile professionals to create or enhance mobile apps with codeless solutions, thus relieving the burden on mobile app developers. In fact, Gartner predicted that by 2016, 40% of mobile app development projects will leverage cloud back-end services. What this means is that development leaders will face challenges if or when they lose control of the pace and path of cloud adoption within their enterprises.

SDK Integration: The Achilles Heel in Mobile Strategies Mobile SDKs are designed to reduce development burden required to implement services. Because of this, mobile app developers prefer SDKs as they serve as ‘building blocks’ for connecting apps to mobile services during the development cycle. However, once the app has been compiled, integrating an SDK is not possible without modification to the source code.

Furthermore, against the backdrop of an emerging mobile micro service economy and new codeless platforms allowing the rapid development of mobile apps, SDK integration can become difficult, lengthy and time-consuming. To use an SDK, a mobile app developer has to manually gain access to the SDK and documentation. That same developer has to study the SDK, its commands, events, etc. Implementing the SDK could take months and once the SDK implementation is completed, the developer will need to establish a separate build-release-QA cycle for every release of the SDK, OS, and app that implements the SDK. After all that work, it’s very common to find out that the SDK vendor has issued a new release. As enterprise app usage grows, the investment in dedicated SDK implementation teams can become very costly.

Nowhere is the pain of implementing an SDK to an app felt most than in the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and

Mobile Application Management (MAM) spaces. For EMM and MAM, managing and securing mobile apps for the enterprise is a top priority. Every major EMM and MAM vendor has an SDK, which they strive to make full-featured and easy to implement. However, this has proven to be extremely difficult and resource intensive. Every new or updated app, across different platforms, running on different frameworks, will create a new integration effort, a new build and so on. Versions of each app will need to be managed separately, and simultaneously. There have been great efforts to try and simplify this burden, like the AppConfig Community. However, these efforts have not gained significant traction.

Compare SDK integration with the rising trend or usage in mobile and the emergence of the integrated mobile experience, SDKs now become the Achilles heel in mobile strategies. Integrating SDK at source code level is simply taking too long and without the ability to integrate in parallel for different mobile apps, SDKs become the bottleneck.

How to Choose the Right Mobile Integration Solution How can you determine if a mobile integration solution will meet the goals of your mobility strategy, shorten your time to market as well as leverage your mobile developer resources in the most efficient way possible? Here are six key attributes for your consideration:

1. Integration timeframeHow quickly can a new or existing mobile app be integrated with third party services? Often, it takes months of development efforts for mobile app developers to work with a software development kit (SDK) from an enterprise mobility management (EMM) vendor, and more often than not requires source code modifications. The process can be very time-consuming and manual. Not to mention that prior to integrating an app to an SDK, the mobile app developer has to locate, read and understand the SDK manual and documentations. Consider multiple apps integrations with various SDKs being done in parallel, the integration timeframe will definitely be increased.

2. No or minimum app developer resources requiredIf SDKs can be seamlessly integrated into mobile apps

without requiring development cycles or coding, it will free up development resources and significantly reduce the ongoing operational burden. Mobile app developers would then be able to devote their valuable time to work on higher value projects such as creating new mobile apps and adding new features. In fact, with no complex or coding needed for app integrations, anyone can perform them. Think about it. Now you can empower other employees such as IT, Operations, or Security. Such resource allocation is a far more efficient way of running the business, as opposed to using developer resources to complete integration tasks.

3. Cross-platform, multi-framework compatibility Ever since the initiation of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend, it is now quite rare to find an organization that focuses its mobilization efforts on a single mobile OS platform such as going all iOS or Android. Considering the fact that in the traditional model, supporting a second mobile platform is essentially doubling the effort, time, and cost. It also usually requires a completely different set of resources across the board due to the specialized skills required for different mobile platforms. Making matters even more complicated is the fact that even if you did actually have the resources to pull off cross-platform support, there would almost certainly be significant differences in functionality between platforms. Mobile app developers often need to work hard to bring feature-parity in the OS they support. Including integration with SDKs for different OS and platforms at different time schedule, the workload can seem impossible.

With BYOD, comes yet another mobile trend: bring your own apps (BYOA). Employees start to bring in mobile apps they want when they want to, and on those mobile devices they have already brought into their organizations. In turn, BYOA fuels the type of framework in which the organizations will build their apps on. They might look for frameworks like Ionic and Cordova that offer the best web and native app components that can aim in building highly interactive native and progressive mobile apps. It is also not surprising to know that these organizations usually do not have or get access to the SDKs from EMMs. Even if they do have the SDKs, they are usually outdated and updating them will take a while.

Determining the platform to build mobile apps on are often driven by BYOD and the type of framework to use are driven by BYOA. Combining BYOD and BYOA means that modern IT organizations need to deal with a “multiplier effect” and implement SDKS and mobile services across more apps than ever before.

4. Optimized development and release cycles Regardless of which solution is chosen, they will all have a development or release cycle. However, what businesses need is an optimized solution. A solution that will allow “templatized” rule sets and reusable common implementations and configurations. Leveraging modern or advanced workflow, delegation and collaboration rules will empower mobile teams to work together to complete implementation or integration projects in the most efficient manner.

5. Unchanged app behavior/capabilityWhile integrating an app with SDKs or third party services, it is vital that the app has all the intended features and functionalities. Although corporate apps are created for the employees in mind, they will use only use them if they aid in work productivity. If an app “breaks” after an app integration or if it is missing functionalities that employees need, they will stop using the app.

6. Compliance, management, and deployment of appIt goes without saying that mobile apps need to be in compliance with the organization’s policies and allow proper management and deployment before they can go into the hands of end-users. This applies to integrated apps too. Apps that are integrated with other apps or services need to be baked with the desired security and give organizations the full visibility and auditability to keep them in compliance with internal or external regulatory or governance requirements, especially in environments dealing with highly sensitive data.

There’s a solution that takes in all these considerations.

The Appdome PlatformThe right mobile app integration solution automates and simplifies the entire integration process with SDKs and other third party services. It enables the organization to speed up release cycles, minimize maintenance while ensuring integrated apps are made optimal. That way, corporate data, app use, and end-users are always kept safe, secure and productive.

Appdome’s Unique Technology

AppFusion™AppFusion is a general purpose, open platform which automates the process of integrating features, services, or full SDKs with mobile apps so that those apps can be deployed in enterprise environments. AppFusion speeds up and broadens the applicability of mobile SDKs, extending their applicability across platforms and frameworks, and removing key dependencies that have held back enterprise implementations. AppFusion includes built-in productivity tools which enable customers to complete complex mobile integration projects in parallel. For instance, through templates called “Fusion Sets” customers can combine multiple services with a single app, or integrate collections of services to multiple apps at the same time.

AppFusion saves significant time and effort because it does not require access to or modification to source code. All that is required is a compiled app binary to be uploaded to the cloud-based platform to perform mobile app integrations. Mobile professionals simply select and fuse the services that they want to integrate into existing mobile apps using a simple point and click web interface, as opposed to modifying source code. The fusion process takes only several minutes and once it is completed, the customer receives a new fully integrated app binary, which contains all the services that they selected and nothing more.

With AppFusion, the user experience, performance, and functionality of the app are not affected. Even run time decisions can be made, enabling or disabling certain capabilities based on organizational policy so that unneeded features are not running and thus are not consuming system resources.

Mobile is the Growth Driver Mobility has become deeply entrenched in our daily lives and its impact can also be felt strongly in the modern enterprise. Simply reflect on how we can now work “on the go” and you can see the transformation of businesses. There is no doubt that the rise in mobile apps has increased tremendously over the years. According to the 2016 US Cross-Platform Future in Focus report, it showed mobile now represents 65 percent of all digital media time, with mobile apps dominating that usage. Mobile has become the growth driver, making the desktop a secondary touch point (with 35 percent of digital time spent).

Gartner highlighted that today’s employees use an average of 3 different devices in their workplace. This will increase to 5 or 6 devices as technologies such as wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) become mainstream. What this means is that with the growth of mobile devices in the market, the demand for a variety of mobile apps will also rise. Keep in mind that this also spans across different platforms, device frameworks, etc. where the mobile apps are created.

Mobile Apps are the Mainstay of the Modern EnterpriseFrom the enterprise perspective, increasing growth in mobile app use is a given. Mobile enables new and better business processes. Mobile also transforms the ways organizations, partners, and customers interface with each other.

An influx of apps brought into the enterprise from the outside, as well as mobile apps being developed in-house, will add to the mobile narrative across the enterprise from now to well into the future. IDC predicted that the number of enterprise applications optimized for mobility has quadruple as of 2016.

Runtime Integration ModuleThe Appdome platform includes unique built-in technology interacts with an app on a runtime basis, intermittently substituting commands based on the app’s native logic. The app's native functions are preserved, essentially making SDKs conform to the native design of the app. Because of this, fused apps behave in the way in which they were originally intended by the mobile app developer. The commands which are contained in the RIM are semi-permanent. They exist only as long as necessary to perform the function according to the services that the user selected, allowing the app to operate in its native state at all other times.

AppFusion Adapter AppFusion Adapter is a user-defined, user-driven software adapter that is added as part of a newly compiled app binary, created when you fuse an app. Each AppFusion Adapter is unique and is dynamically generated based on the service choices a user makes on the AppFusion platform. As the user selects features, mobile SDKs, and services on the AppFusion platform, the system assembles the AppFusion Adapter and fuses the adapter to the mobile app(s) chosen by the user.

SecureApp RecommendationsAppdome provides app-specific recommendations in the AppFusion Platform to enhance each mobile app’s security. These suggestions are based on contextual information learned about the app during a non-intrusive, automated app structure scan, which occurs when you upload an app binary. SecureApp Recommendations are completely optional and are designed to allow users greater choice in applying security improvements to an app.

AppFusion Key Capabilities• Mobile Integration Workflow

– The primary interface for users to interact with the AppFusion service that includes a step-by-step, intuitive workflow for uploading, fusing, signing, deploying and analyzing fused apps.

– Allow users to self-select from multiple accounts to best meet their mobile integration needs.

– Include a management interface that allows anyone to enhance the functionality of mobile apps by integrating those apps with other services or SDKs available on the Appdome Platform.

• App library – Enable users to upload and store an unlimited number of mobile apps

in a stateful repository and make them readily available for integration to any number of services or fusion sets.

• Fusion workbench – Allow users to select the preferred services to fuse to a particular app

and creates “fusion sets” (saved combinations of fusion settings unique to each user) to apply to apps.

– Enable users to make individual configuration settings.

• ISV catalog – Allow users to access commercial app binaries (ISV apps) and

commercial SDKs, all of which are available for use with AppFusion.

AppFusion Key Benefits• Rapid deployment: An app can be fused, managed and deployed with

one or multiple SDKs such as the Blackberry Good Dynamics EMM SDK and Appaloosa MAM SDK, etc. and other services in minutes

• Codeless solution: Zero development effort; only requires app binary • Reduced ongoing maintenance: Automate SDK updates through

the cloud • Cross platform: Work exactly the same way for Android and iOS, with no

additional effort on the part of customers • Framework independent: AppFusion works ‘out of the box’ regardless

of the app development environment or framework on which the app was developed. No plug-ins, SDK or app modifications required

• App capabilities: Does not affect app behavior

Embracing the Revolutionized Approach to Mobile App Integration

2 | info@appdome.com / www.appdome.com

Competitive necessity, rapidly evolving technologies and better ways of developing apps support faster and more secure enterprise “appification.”

For the day-to-day workforce, bring your own device (BYOD) and bring your own applications (BYOA) will continue to thrive.

Employees are accessing mobile apps in the workplace in large numbers because they need these apps to accelerate and maintain work productivity. The 2015 Enterprise Mobile App Trend Report mentioned that the average number of internal-use apps across all companies is 35 – 35, not single digit 2s or 5s. These apps focus on a diverse range of workplace requirements with sales and marketing apps making up 18% of all apps deployed. Field services and human resources apps account for 15% and 14% of the mobile enterprise app landscape, respectively. Recently, Gartner asserted that when employees are given more autonomy to choose the devices, apps, and even the processes to complete a task, the pressure on businesses and/or IT to develop a larger variety of mobile apps in shorter time frames will increase.

The Emergence of Mobile Development Platforms and Services The 2016 State of IT Report from Salesforce Research highlighted that 79% of IT teams are currently developing apps for customers, partners and employees. That same report also mentioned that 68% of CIOs predicted that they will spend more on mobile apps and security in the next two years. This is not surprising as delivering mobile apps to end users has quickly become a strategic imperative for most enterprises.

The traditional mobile application development (MADP) market continues to grow and evolve in an effort to meet the insatiable demand from enterprise users for productivity enhancing mobile solutions. At the same time, new tools have emerged that make the job of building mobile apps faster and easier. Rapid Mobile App Development (RMAD), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Mobile Backend as a Service (MbaaS) platforms are ‘codeless’ or ‘low-code’ solutions which aim to break through the bottlenecks that exist early on in the mobile development lifecycle. These tools provide a better alternative to mobile middleware, with a backend as a service (BaaS) approach that uses unified application programming interfaces (APIs) and software

development kits (SDKs) to connect mobile apps to backend resources in the cloud. RMAD tools provide a codeless or low-code method for building mobile apps from scratch, and MbaSS tools offer cloud-based delivery models midway through the development cycle (for common mobile services such as push notifications, social network integrations, storage, database connections, geo-location, etc.).

The common goal of all these new services is to make the job of deploying rich mobile experiences easier and faster by enabling other mobile professionals to create or enhance mobile apps with codeless solutions, thus relieving the burden on mobile app developers. In fact, Gartner predicted that by 2016, 40% of mobile app development projects will leverage cloud back-end services. What this means is that development leaders will face challenges if or when they lose control of the pace and path of cloud adoption within their enterprises.

SDK Integration: The Achilles Heel in Mobile Strategies Mobile SDKs are designed to reduce development burden required to implement services. Because of this, mobile app developers prefer SDKs as they serve as ‘building blocks’ for connecting apps to mobile services during the development cycle. However, once the app has been compiled, integrating an SDK is not possible without modification to the source code.

Furthermore, against the backdrop of an emerging mobile micro service economy and new codeless platforms allowing the rapid development of mobile apps, SDK integration can become difficult, lengthy and time-consuming. To use an SDK, a mobile app developer has to manually gain access to the SDK and documentation. That same developer has to study the SDK, its commands, events, etc. Implementing the SDK could take months and once the SDK implementation is completed, the developer will need to establish a separate build-release-QA cycle for every release of the SDK, OS, and app that implements the SDK. After all that work, it’s very common to find out that the SDK vendor has issued a new release. As enterprise app usage grows, the investment in dedicated SDK implementation teams can become very costly.

Nowhere is the pain of implementing an SDK to an app felt most than in the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and

Mobile Application Management (MAM) spaces. For EMM and MAM, managing and securing mobile apps for the enterprise is a top priority. Every major EMM and MAM vendor has an SDK, which they strive to make full-featured and easy to implement. However, this has proven to be extremely difficult and resource intensive. Every new or updated app, across different platforms, running on different frameworks, will create a new integration effort, a new build and so on. Versions of each app will need to be managed separately, and simultaneously. There have been great efforts to try and simplify this burden, like the AppConfig Community. However, these efforts have not gained significant traction.

Compare SDK integration with the rising trend or usage in mobile and the emergence of the integrated mobile experience, SDKs now become the Achilles heel in mobile strategies. Integrating SDK at source code level is simply taking too long and without the ability to integrate in parallel for different mobile apps, SDKs become the bottleneck.

How to Choose the Right Mobile Integration Solution How can you determine if a mobile integration solution will meet the goals of your mobility strategy, shorten your time to market as well as leverage your mobile developer resources in the most efficient way possible? Here are six key attributes for your consideration:

1. Integration timeframeHow quickly can a new or existing mobile app be integrated with third party services? Often, it takes months of development efforts for mobile app developers to work with a software development kit (SDK) from an enterprise mobility management (EMM) vendor, and more often than not requires source code modifications. The process can be very time-consuming and manual. Not to mention that prior to integrating an app to an SDK, the mobile app developer has to locate, read and understand the SDK manual and documentations. Consider multiple apps integrations with various SDKs being done in parallel, the integration timeframe will definitely be increased.

2. No or minimum app developer resources requiredIf SDKs can be seamlessly integrated into mobile apps

without requiring development cycles or coding, it will free up development resources and significantly reduce the ongoing operational burden. Mobile app developers would then be able to devote their valuable time to work on higher value projects such as creating new mobile apps and adding new features. In fact, with no complex or coding needed for app integrations, anyone can perform them. Think about it. Now you can empower other employees such as IT, Operations, or Security. Such resource allocation is a far more efficient way of running the business, as opposed to using developer resources to complete integration tasks.

3. Cross-platform, multi-framework compatibility Ever since the initiation of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend, it is now quite rare to find an organization that focuses its mobilization efforts on a single mobile OS platform such as going all iOS or Android. Considering the fact that in the traditional model, supporting a second mobile platform is essentially doubling the effort, time, and cost. It also usually requires a completely different set of resources across the board due to the specialized skills required for different mobile platforms. Making matters even more complicated is the fact that even if you did actually have the resources to pull off cross-platform support, there would almost certainly be significant differences in functionality between platforms. Mobile app developers often need to work hard to bring feature-parity in the OS they support. Including integration with SDKs for different OS and platforms at different time schedule, the workload can seem impossible.

With BYOD, comes yet another mobile trend: bring your own apps (BYOA). Employees start to bring in mobile apps they want when they want to, and on those mobile devices they have already brought into their organizations. In turn, BYOA fuels the type of framework in which the organizations will build their apps on. They might look for frameworks like Ionic and Cordova that offer the best web and native app components that can aim in building highly interactive native and progressive mobile apps. It is also not surprising to know that these organizations usually do not have or get access to the SDKs from EMMs. Even if they do have the SDKs, they are usually outdated and updating them will take a while.

Determining the platform to build mobile apps on are often driven by BYOD and the type of framework to use are driven by BYOA. Combining BYOD and BYOA means that modern IT organizations need to deal with a “multiplier effect” and implement SDKS and mobile services across more apps than ever before.

4. Optimized development and release cycles Regardless of which solution is chosen, they will all have a development or release cycle. However, what businesses need is an optimized solution. A solution that will allow “templatized” rule sets and reusable common implementations and configurations. Leveraging modern or advanced workflow, delegation and collaboration rules will empower mobile teams to work together to complete implementation or integration projects in the most efficient manner.

5. Unchanged app behavior/capabilityWhile integrating an app with SDKs or third party services, it is vital that the app has all the intended features and functionalities. Although corporate apps are created for the employees in mind, they will use only use them if they aid in work productivity. If an app “breaks” after an app integration or if it is missing functionalities that employees need, they will stop using the app.

6. Compliance, management, and deployment of appIt goes without saying that mobile apps need to be in compliance with the organization’s policies and allow proper management and deployment before they can go into the hands of end-users. This applies to integrated apps too. Apps that are integrated with other apps or services need to be baked with the desired security and give organizations the full visibility and auditability to keep them in compliance with internal or external regulatory or governance requirements, especially in environments dealing with highly sensitive data.

There’s a solution that takes in all these considerations.

The Appdome PlatformThe right mobile app integration solution automates and simplifies the entire integration process with SDKs and other third party services. It enables the organization to speed up release cycles, minimize maintenance while ensuring integrated apps are made optimal. That way, corporate data, app use, and end-users are always kept safe, secure and productive.

Appdome’s Unique Technology

AppFusion™AppFusion is a general purpose, open platform which automates the process of integrating features, services, or full SDKs with mobile apps so that those apps can be deployed in enterprise environments. AppFusion speeds up and broadens the applicability of mobile SDKs, extending their applicability across platforms and frameworks, and removing key dependencies that have held back enterprise implementations. AppFusion includes built-in productivity tools which enable customers to complete complex mobile integration projects in parallel. For instance, through templates called “Fusion Sets” customers can combine multiple services with a single app, or integrate collections of services to multiple apps at the same time.

AppFusion saves significant time and effort because it does not require access to or modification to source code. All that is required is a compiled app binary to be uploaded to the cloud-based platform to perform mobile app integrations. Mobile professionals simply select and fuse the services that they want to integrate into existing mobile apps using a simple point and click web interface, as opposed to modifying source code. The fusion process takes only several minutes and once it is completed, the customer receives a new fully integrated app binary, which contains all the services that they selected and nothing more.

With AppFusion, the user experience, performance, and functionality of the app are not affected. Even run time decisions can be made, enabling or disabling certain capabilities based on organizational policy so that unneeded features are not running and thus are not consuming system resources.

Mobile is the Growth Driver Mobility has become deeply entrenched in our daily lives and its impact can also be felt strongly in the modern enterprise. Simply reflect on how we can now work “on the go” and you can see the transformation of businesses. There is no doubt that the rise in mobile apps has increased tremendously over the years. According to the 2016 US Cross-Platform Future in Focus report, it showed mobile now represents 65 percent of all digital media time, with mobile apps dominating that usage. Mobile has become the growth driver, making the desktop a secondary touch point (with 35 percent of digital time spent).

Gartner highlighted that today’s employees use an average of 3 different devices in their workplace. This will increase to 5 or 6 devices as technologies such as wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) become mainstream. What this means is that with the growth of mobile devices in the market, the demand for a variety of mobile apps will also rise. Keep in mind that this also spans across different platforms, device frameworks, etc. where the mobile apps are created.

Mobile Apps are the Mainstay of the Modern EnterpriseFrom the enterprise perspective, increasing growth in mobile app use is a given. Mobile enables new and better business processes. Mobile also transforms the ways organizations, partners, and customers interface with each other.

An influx of apps brought into the enterprise from the outside, as well as mobile apps being developed in-house, will add to the mobile narrative across the enterprise from now to well into the future. IDC predicted that the number of enterprise applications optimized for mobility has quadruple as of 2016.

Runtime Integration ModuleThe Appdome platform includes unique built-in technology interacts with an app on a runtime basis, intermittently substituting commands based on the app’s native logic. The app's native functions are preserved, essentially making SDKs conform to the native design of the app. Because of this, fused apps behave in the way in which they were originally intended by the mobile app developer. The commands which are contained in the RIM are semi-permanent. They exist only as long as necessary to perform the function according to the services that the user selected, allowing the app to operate in its native state at all other times.

AppFusion Adapter AppFusion Adapter is a user-defined, user-driven software adapter that is added as part of a newly compiled app binary, created when you fuse an app. Each AppFusion Adapter is unique and is dynamically generated based on the service choices a user makes on the AppFusion platform. As the user selects features, mobile SDKs, and services on the AppFusion platform, the system assembles the AppFusion Adapter and fuses the adapter to the mobile app(s) chosen by the user.

SecureApp RecommendationsAppdome provides app-specific recommendations in the AppFusion Platform to enhance each mobile app’s security. These suggestions are based on contextual information learned about the app during a non-intrusive, automated app structure scan, which occurs when you upload an app binary. SecureApp Recommendations are completely optional and are designed to allow users greater choice in applying security improvements to an app.

AppFusion Key Capabilities• Mobile Integration Workflow

– The primary interface for users to interact with the AppFusion service that includes a step-by-step, intuitive workflow for uploading, fusing, signing, deploying and analyzing fused apps.

– Allow users to self-select from multiple accounts to best meet their mobile integration needs.

– Include a management interface that allows anyone to enhance the functionality of mobile apps by integrating those apps with other services or SDKs available on the Appdome Platform.

• App library – Enable users to upload and store an unlimited number of mobile apps

in a stateful repository and make them readily available for integration to any number of services or fusion sets.

• Fusion workbench – Allow users to select the preferred services to fuse to a particular app

and creates “fusion sets” (saved combinations of fusion settings unique to each user) to apply to apps.

– Enable users to make individual configuration settings.

• ISV catalog – Allow users to access commercial app binaries (ISV apps) and

commercial SDKs, all of which are available for use with AppFusion.

AppFusion Key Benefits• Rapid deployment: An app can be fused, managed and deployed with

one or multiple SDKs such as the Blackberry Good Dynamics EMM SDK and Appaloosa MAM SDK, etc. and other services in minutes

• Codeless solution: Zero development effort; only requires app binary • Reduced ongoing maintenance: Automate SDK updates through

the cloud • Cross platform: Work exactly the same way for Android and iOS, with no

additional effort on the part of customers • Framework independent: AppFusion works ‘out of the box’ regardless

of the app development environment or framework on which the app was developed. No plug-ins, SDK or app modifications required

• App capabilities: Does not affect app behavior

Embracing the Revolutionized Approach to Mobile App Integration

White Paper: Choosing a Mobile App Integration Solution

3 | info@appdome.com / www.appdome.com

Competitive necessity, rapidly evolving technologies and better ways of developing apps support faster and more secure enterprise “appification.”

For the day-to-day workforce, bring your own device (BYOD) and bring your own applications (BYOA) will continue to thrive.

Employees are accessing mobile apps in the workplace in large numbers because they need these apps to accelerate and maintain work productivity. The 2015 Enterprise Mobile App Trend Report mentioned that the average number of internal-use apps across all companies is 35 – 35, not single digit 2s or 5s. These apps focus on a diverse range of workplace requirements with sales and marketing apps making up 18% of all apps deployed. Field services and human resources apps account for 15% and 14% of the mobile enterprise app landscape, respectively. Recently, Gartner asserted that when employees are given more autonomy to choose the devices, apps, and even the processes to complete a task, the pressure on businesses and/or IT to develop a larger variety of mobile apps in shorter time frames will increase.

The Emergence of Mobile Development Platforms and Services The 2016 State of IT Report from Salesforce Research highlighted that 79% of IT teams are currently developing apps for customers, partners and employees. That same report also mentioned that 68% of CIOs predicted that they will spend more on mobile apps and security in the next two years. This is not surprising as delivering mobile apps to end users has quickly become a strategic imperative for most enterprises.

The traditional mobile application development (MADP) market continues to grow and evolve in an effort to meet the insatiable demand from enterprise users for productivity enhancing mobile solutions. At the same time, new tools have emerged that make the job of building mobile apps faster and easier. Rapid Mobile App Development (RMAD), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Mobile Backend as a Service (MbaaS) platforms are ‘codeless’ or ‘low-code’ solutions which aim to break through the bottlenecks that exist early on in the mobile development lifecycle. These tools provide a better alternative to mobile middleware, with a backend as a service (BaaS) approach that uses unified application programming interfaces (APIs) and software

development kits (SDKs) to connect mobile apps to backend resources in the cloud. RMAD tools provide a codeless or low-code method for building mobile apps from scratch, and MbaSS tools offer cloud-based delivery models midway through the development cycle (for common mobile services such as push notifications, social network integrations, storage, database connections, geo-location, etc.).

The common goal of all these new services is to make the job of deploying rich mobile experiences easier and faster by enabling other mobile professionals to create or enhance mobile apps with codeless solutions, thus relieving the burden on mobile app developers. In fact, Gartner predicted that by 2016, 40% of mobile app development projects will leverage cloud back-end services. What this means is that development leaders will face challenges if or when they lose control of the pace and path of cloud adoption within their enterprises.

SDK Integration: The Achilles Heel in Mobile Strategies Mobile SDKs are designed to reduce development burden required to implement services. Because of this, mobile app developers prefer SDKs as they serve as ‘building blocks’ for connecting apps to mobile services during the development cycle. However, once the app has been compiled, integrating an SDK is not possible without modification to the source code.

Furthermore, against the backdrop of an emerging mobile micro service economy and new codeless platforms allowing the rapid development of mobile apps, SDK integration can become difficult, lengthy and time-consuming. To use an SDK, a mobile app developer has to manually gain access to the SDK and documentation. That same developer has to study the SDK, its commands, events, etc. Implementing the SDK could take months and once the SDK implementation is completed, the developer will need to establish a separate build-release-QA cycle for every release of the SDK, OS, and app that implements the SDK. After all that work, it’s very common to find out that the SDK vendor has issued a new release. As enterprise app usage grows, the investment in dedicated SDK implementation teams can become very costly.

Nowhere is the pain of implementing an SDK to an app felt most than in the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and

Mobile Application Management (MAM) spaces. For EMM and MAM, managing and securing mobile apps for the enterprise is a top priority. Every major EMM and MAM vendor has an SDK, which they strive to make full-featured and easy to implement. However, this has proven to be extremely difficult and resource intensive. Every new or updated app, across different platforms, running on different frameworks, will create a new integration effort, a new build and so on. Versions of each app will need to be managed separately, and simultaneously. There have been great efforts to try and simplify this burden, like the AppConfig Community. However, these efforts have not gained significant traction.

Compare SDK integration with the rising trend or usage in mobile and the emergence of the integrated mobile experience, SDKs now become the Achilles heel in mobile strategies. Integrating SDK at source code level is simply taking too long and without the ability to integrate in parallel for different mobile apps, SDKs become the bottleneck.

How to Choose the Right Mobile Integration Solution How can you determine if a mobile integration solution will meet the goals of your mobility strategy, shorten your time to market as well as leverage your mobile developer resources in the most efficient way possible? Here are six key attributes for your consideration:

1. Integration timeframeHow quickly can a new or existing mobile app be integrated with third party services? Often, it takes months of development efforts for mobile app developers to work with a software development kit (SDK) from an enterprise mobility management (EMM) vendor, and more often than not requires source code modifications. The process can be very time-consuming and manual. Not to mention that prior to integrating an app to an SDK, the mobile app developer has to locate, read and understand the SDK manual and documentations. Consider multiple apps integrations with various SDKs being done in parallel, the integration timeframe will definitely be increased.

2. No or minimum app developer resources requiredIf SDKs can be seamlessly integrated into mobile apps

without requiring development cycles or coding, it will free up development resources and significantly reduce the ongoing operational burden. Mobile app developers would then be able to devote their valuable time to work on higher value projects such as creating new mobile apps and adding new features. In fact, with no complex or coding needed for app integrations, anyone can perform them. Think about it. Now you can empower other employees such as IT, Operations, or Security. Such resource allocation is a far more efficient way of running the business, as opposed to using developer resources to complete integration tasks.

3. Cross-platform, multi-framework compatibility Ever since the initiation of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend, it is now quite rare to find an organization that focuses its mobilization efforts on a single mobile OS platform such as going all iOS or Android. Considering the fact that in the traditional model, supporting a second mobile platform is essentially doubling the effort, time, and cost. It also usually requires a completely different set of resources across the board due to the specialized skills required for different mobile platforms. Making matters even more complicated is the fact that even if you did actually have the resources to pull off cross-platform support, there would almost certainly be significant differences in functionality between platforms. Mobile app developers often need to work hard to bring feature-parity in the OS they support. Including integration with SDKs for different OS and platforms at different time schedule, the workload can seem impossible.

With BYOD, comes yet another mobile trend: bring your own apps (BYOA). Employees start to bring in mobile apps they want when they want to, and on those mobile devices they have already brought into their organizations. In turn, BYOA fuels the type of framework in which the organizations will build their apps on. They might look for frameworks like Ionic and Cordova that offer the best web and native app components that can aim in building highly interactive native and progressive mobile apps. It is also not surprising to know that these organizations usually do not have or get access to the SDKs from EMMs. Even if they do have the SDKs, they are usually outdated and updating them will take a while.

Determining the platform to build mobile apps on are often driven by BYOD and the type of framework to use are driven by BYOA. Combining BYOD and BYOA means that modern IT organizations need to deal with a “multiplier effect” and implement SDKS and mobile services across more apps than ever before.

4. Optimized development and release cycles Regardless of which solution is chosen, they will all have a development or release cycle. However, what businesses need is an optimized solution. A solution that will allow “templatized” rule sets and reusable common implementations and configurations. Leveraging modern or advanced workflow, delegation and collaboration rules will empower mobile teams to work together to complete implementation or integration projects in the most efficient manner.

5. Unchanged app behavior/capabilityWhile integrating an app with SDKs or third party services, it is vital that the app has all the intended features and functionalities. Although corporate apps are created for the employees in mind, they will use only use them if they aid in work productivity. If an app “breaks” after an app integration or if it is missing functionalities that employees need, they will stop using the app.

6. Compliance, management, and deployment of appIt goes without saying that mobile apps need to be in compliance with the organization’s policies and allow proper management and deployment before they can go into the hands of end-users. This applies to integrated apps too. Apps that are integrated with other apps or services need to be baked with the desired security and give organizations the full visibility and auditability to keep them in compliance with internal or external regulatory or governance requirements, especially in environments dealing with highly sensitive data.

There’s a solution that takes in all these considerations.

The Appdome PlatformThe right mobile app integration solution automates and simplifies the entire integration process with SDKs and other third party services. It enables the organization to speed up release cycles, minimize maintenance while ensuring integrated apps are made optimal. That way, corporate data, app use, and end-users are always kept safe, secure and productive.

Appdome’s Unique Technology

AppFusion™AppFusion is a general purpose, open platform which automates the process of integrating features, services, or full SDKs with mobile apps so that those apps can be deployed in enterprise environments. AppFusion speeds up and broadens the applicability of mobile SDKs, extending their applicability across platforms and frameworks, and removing key dependencies that have held back enterprise implementations. AppFusion includes built-in productivity tools which enable customers to complete complex mobile integration projects in parallel. For instance, through templates called “Fusion Sets” customers can combine multiple services with a single app, or integrate collections of services to multiple apps at the same time.

AppFusion saves significant time and effort because it does not require access to or modification to source code. All that is required is a compiled app binary to be uploaded to the cloud-based platform to perform mobile app integrations. Mobile professionals simply select and fuse the services that they want to integrate into existing mobile apps using a simple point and click web interface, as opposed to modifying source code. The fusion process takes only several minutes and once it is completed, the customer receives a new fully integrated app binary, which contains all the services that they selected and nothing more.

With AppFusion, the user experience, performance, and functionality of the app are not affected. Even run time decisions can be made, enabling or disabling certain capabilities based on organizational policy so that unneeded features are not running and thus are not consuming system resources.

Mobile is the Growth Driver Mobility has become deeply entrenched in our daily lives and its impact can also be felt strongly in the modern enterprise. Simply reflect on how we can now work “on the go” and you can see the transformation of businesses. There is no doubt that the rise in mobile apps has increased tremendously over the years. According to the 2016 US Cross-Platform Future in Focus report, it showed mobile now represents 65 percent of all digital media time, with mobile apps dominating that usage. Mobile has become the growth driver, making the desktop a secondary touch point (with 35 percent of digital time spent).

Gartner highlighted that today’s employees use an average of 3 different devices in their workplace. This will increase to 5 or 6 devices as technologies such as wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) become mainstream. What this means is that with the growth of mobile devices in the market, the demand for a variety of mobile apps will also rise. Keep in mind that this also spans across different platforms, device frameworks, etc. where the mobile apps are created.

Mobile Apps are the Mainstay of the Modern EnterpriseFrom the enterprise perspective, increasing growth in mobile app use is a given. Mobile enables new and better business processes. Mobile also transforms the ways organizations, partners, and customers interface with each other.

An influx of apps brought into the enterprise from the outside, as well as mobile apps being developed in-house, will add to the mobile narrative across the enterprise from now to well into the future. IDC predicted that the number of enterprise applications optimized for mobility has quadruple as of 2016.

Runtime Integration ModuleThe Appdome platform includes unique built-in technology interacts with an app on a runtime basis, intermittently substituting commands based on the app’s native logic. The app's native functions are preserved, essentially making SDKs conform to the native design of the app. Because of this, fused apps behave in the way in which they were originally intended by the mobile app developer. The commands which are contained in the RIM are semi-permanent. They exist only as long as necessary to perform the function according to the services that the user selected, allowing the app to operate in its native state at all other times.

AppFusion Adapter AppFusion Adapter is a user-defined, user-driven software adapter that is added as part of a newly compiled app binary, created when you fuse an app. Each AppFusion Adapter is unique and is dynamically generated based on the service choices a user makes on the AppFusion platform. As the user selects features, mobile SDKs, and services on the AppFusion platform, the system assembles the AppFusion Adapter and fuses the adapter to the mobile app(s) chosen by the user.

SecureApp RecommendationsAppdome provides app-specific recommendations in the AppFusion Platform to enhance each mobile app’s security. These suggestions are based on contextual information learned about the app during a non-intrusive, automated app structure scan, which occurs when you upload an app binary. SecureApp Recommendations are completely optional and are designed to allow users greater choice in applying security improvements to an app.

AppFusion Key Capabilities• Mobile Integration Workflow

– The primary interface for users to interact with the AppFusion service that includes a step-by-step, intuitive workflow for uploading, fusing, signing, deploying and analyzing fused apps.

– Allow users to self-select from multiple accounts to best meet their mobile integration needs.

– Include a management interface that allows anyone to enhance the functionality of mobile apps by integrating those apps with other services or SDKs available on the Appdome Platform.

• App library – Enable users to upload and store an unlimited number of mobile apps

in a stateful repository and make them readily available for integration to any number of services or fusion sets.

• Fusion workbench – Allow users to select the preferred services to fuse to a particular app

and creates “fusion sets” (saved combinations of fusion settings unique to each user) to apply to apps.

– Enable users to make individual configuration settings.

• ISV catalog – Allow users to access commercial app binaries (ISV apps) and

commercial SDKs, all of which are available for use with AppFusion.

AppFusion Key Benefits• Rapid deployment: An app can be fused, managed and deployed with

one or multiple SDKs such as the Blackberry Good Dynamics EMM SDK and Appaloosa MAM SDK, etc. and other services in minutes

• Codeless solution: Zero development effort; only requires app binary • Reduced ongoing maintenance: Automate SDK updates through

the cloud • Cross platform: Work exactly the same way for Android and iOS, with no

additional effort on the part of customers • Framework independent: AppFusion works ‘out of the box’ regardless

of the app development environment or framework on which the app was developed. No plug-ins, SDK or app modifications required

• App capabilities: Does not affect app behavior

Embracing the Revolutionized Approach to Mobile App Integration

White Paper: Choosing a Mobile App Integration Solution

Competitive necessity, rapidly evolving technologies and better ways of developing apps support faster and more secure enterprise “appification.”

For the day-to-day workforce, bring your own device (BYOD) and bring your own applications (BYOA) will continue to thrive.

Employees are accessing mobile apps in the workplace in large numbers because they need these apps to accelerate and maintain work productivity. The 2015 Enterprise Mobile App Trend Report mentioned that the average number of internal-use apps across all companies is 35 – 35, not single digit 2s or 5s. These apps focus on a diverse range of workplace requirements with sales and marketing apps making up 18% of all apps deployed. Field services and human resources apps account for 15% and 14% of the mobile enterprise app landscape, respectively. Recently, Gartner asserted that when employees are given more autonomy to choose the devices, apps, and even the processes to complete a task, the pressure on businesses and/or IT to develop a larger variety of mobile apps in shorter time frames will increase.

The Emergence of Mobile Development Platforms and Services The 2016 State of IT Report from Salesforce Research highlighted that 79% of IT teams are currently developing apps for customers, partners and employees. That same report also mentioned that 68% of CIOs predicted that they will spend more on mobile apps and security in the next two years. This is not surprising as delivering mobile apps to end users has quickly become a strategic imperative for most enterprises.

The traditional mobile application development (MADP) market continues to grow and evolve in an effort to meet the insatiable demand from enterprise users for productivity enhancing mobile solutions. At the same time, new tools have emerged that make the job of building mobile apps faster and easier. Rapid Mobile App Development (RMAD), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Mobile Backend as a Service (MbaaS) platforms are ‘codeless’ or ‘low-code’ solutions which aim to break through the bottlenecks that exist early on in the mobile development lifecycle. These tools provide a better alternative to mobile middleware, with a backend as a service (BaaS) approach that uses unified application programming interfaces (APIs) and software

development kits (SDKs) to connect mobile apps to backend resources in the cloud. RMAD tools provide a codeless or low-code method for building mobile apps from scratch, and MbaSS tools offer cloud-based delivery models midway through the development cycle (for common mobile services such as push notifications, social network integrations, storage, database connections, geo-location, etc.).

The common goal of all these new services is to make the job of deploying rich mobile experiences easier and faster by enabling other mobile professionals to create or enhance mobile apps with codeless solutions, thus relieving the burden on mobile app developers. In fact, Gartner predicted that by 2016, 40% of mobile app development projects will leverage cloud back-end services. What this means is that development leaders will face challenges if or when they lose control of the pace and path of cloud adoption within their enterprises.

SDK Integration: The Achilles Heel in Mobile Strategies Mobile SDKs are designed to reduce development burden required to implement services. Because of this, mobile app developers prefer SDKs as they serve as ‘building blocks’ for connecting apps to mobile services during the development cycle. However, once the app has been compiled, integrating an SDK is not possible without modification to the source code.

Furthermore, against the backdrop of an emerging mobile micro service economy and new codeless platforms allowing the rapid development of mobile apps, SDK integration can become difficult, lengthy and time-consuming. To use an SDK, a mobile app developer has to manually gain access to the SDK and documentation. That same developer has to study the SDK, its commands, events, etc. Implementing the SDK could take months and once the SDK implementation is completed, the developer will need to establish a separate build-release-QA cycle for every release of the SDK, OS, and app that implements the SDK. After all that work, it’s very common to find out that the SDK vendor has issued a new release. As enterprise app usage grows, the investment in dedicated SDK implementation teams can become very costly.

Nowhere is the pain of implementing an SDK to an app felt most than in the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and

Mobile Application Management (MAM) spaces. For EMM and MAM, managing and securing mobile apps for the enterprise is a top priority. Every major EMM and MAM vendor has an SDK, which they strive to make full-featured and easy to implement. However, this has proven to be extremely difficult and resource intensive. Every new or updated app, across different platforms, running on different frameworks, will create a new integration effort, a new build and so on. Versions of each app will need to be managed separately, and simultaneously. There have been great efforts to try and simplify this burden, like the AppConfig Community. However, these efforts have not gained significant traction.

Compare SDK integration with the rising trend or usage in mobile and the emergence of the integrated mobile experience, SDKs now become the Achilles heel in mobile strategies. Integrating SDK at source code level is simply taking too long and without the ability to integrate in parallel for different mobile apps, SDKs become the bottleneck.

How to Choose the Right Mobile Integration Solution How can you determine if a mobile integration solution will meet the goals of your mobility strategy, shorten your time to market as well as leverage your mobile developer resources in the most efficient way possible? Here are six key attributes for your consideration:

1. Integration timeframeHow quickly can a new or existing mobile app be integrated with third party services? Often, it takes months of development efforts for mobile app developers to work with a software development kit (SDK) from an enterprise mobility management (EMM) vendor, and more often than not requires source code modifications. The process can be very time-consuming and manual. Not to mention that prior to integrating an app to an SDK, the mobile app developer has to locate, read and understand the SDK manual and documentations. Consider multiple apps integrations with various SDKs being done in parallel, the integration timeframe will definitely be increased.

2. No or minimum app developer resources requiredIf SDKs can be seamlessly integrated into mobile apps

without requiring development cycles or coding, it will free up development resources and significantly reduce the ongoing operational burden. Mobile app developers would then be able to devote their valuable time to work on higher value projects such as creating new mobile apps and adding new features. In fact, with no complex or coding needed for app integrations, anyone can perform them. Think about it. Now you can empower other employees such as IT, Operations, or Security. Such resource allocation is a far more efficient way of running the business, as opposed to using developer resources to complete integration tasks.

3. Cross-platform, multi-framework compatibility Ever since the initiation of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend, it is now quite rare to find an organization that focuses its mobilization efforts on a single mobile OS platform such as going all iOS or Android. Considering the fact that in the traditional model, supporting a second mobile platform is essentially doubling the effort, time, and cost. It also usually requires a completely different set of resources across the board due to the specialized skills required for different mobile platforms. Making matters even more complicated is the fact that even if you did actually have the resources to pull off cross-platform support, there would almost certainly be significant differences in functionality between platforms. Mobile app developers often need to work hard to bring feature-parity in the OS they support. Including integration with SDKs for different OS and platforms at different time schedule, the workload can seem impossible.

With BYOD, comes yet another mobile trend: bring your own apps (BYOA). Employees start to bring in mobile apps they want when they want to, and on those mobile devices they have already brought into their organizations. In turn, BYOA fuels the type of framework in which the organizations will build their apps on. They might look for frameworks like Ionic and Cordova that offer the best web and native app components that can aim in building highly interactive native and progressive mobile apps. It is also not surprising to know that these organizations usually do not have or get access to the SDKs from EMMs. Even if they do have the SDKs, they are usually outdated and updating them will take a while.

Determining the platform to build mobile apps on are often driven by BYOD and the type of framework to use are driven by BYOA. Combining BYOD and BYOA means that modern IT organizations need to deal with a “multiplier effect” and implement SDKS and mobile services across more apps than ever before.

4. Optimized development and release cycles Regardless of which solution is chosen, they will all have a development or release cycle. However, what businesses need is an optimized solution. A solution that will allow “templatized” rule sets and reusable common implementations and configurations. Leveraging modern or advanced workflow, delegation and collaboration rules will empower mobile teams to work together to complete implementation or integration projects in the most efficient manner.

5. Unchanged app behavior/capabilityWhile integrating an app with SDKs or third party services, it is vital that the app has all the intended features and functionalities. Although corporate apps are created for the employees in mind, they will use only use them if they aid in work productivity. If an app “breaks” after an app integration or if it is missing functionalities that employees need, they will stop using the app.

6. Compliance, management, and deployment of appIt goes without saying that mobile apps need to be in compliance with the organization’s policies and allow proper management and deployment before they can go into the hands of end-users. This applies to integrated apps too. Apps that are integrated with other apps or services need to be baked with the desired security and give organizations the full visibility and auditability to keep them in compliance with internal or external regulatory or governance requirements, especially in environments dealing with highly sensitive data.

There’s a solution that takes in all these considerations.

The Appdome PlatformThe right mobile app integration solution automates and simplifies the entire integration process with SDKs and other third party services. It enables the organization to speed up release cycles, minimize maintenance while ensuring integrated apps are made optimal. That way, corporate data, app use, and end-users are always kept safe, secure and productive.

Appdome’s Unique Technology

AppFusion™AppFusion is a general purpose, open platform which automates the process of integrating features, services, or full SDKs with mobile apps so that those apps can be deployed in enterprise environments. AppFusion speeds up and broadens the applicability of mobile SDKs, extending their applicability across platforms and frameworks, and removing key dependencies that have held back enterprise implementations. AppFusion includes built-in productivity tools which enable customers to complete complex mobile integration projects in parallel. For instance, through templates called “Fusion Sets” customers can combine multiple services with a single app, or integrate collections of services to multiple apps at the same time.

AppFusion saves significant time and effort because it does not require access to or modification to source code. All that is required is a compiled app binary to be uploaded to the cloud-based platform to perform mobile app integrations. Mobile professionals simply select and fuse the services that they want to integrate into existing mobile apps using a simple point and click web interface, as opposed to modifying source code. The fusion process takes only several minutes and once it is completed, the customer receives a new fully integrated app binary, which contains all the services that they selected and nothing more.

With AppFusion, the user experience, performance, and functionality of the app are not affected. Even run time decisions can be made, enabling or disabling certain capabilities based on organizational policy so that unneeded features are not running and thus are not consuming system resources.

Mobile is the Growth Driver Mobility has become deeply entrenched in our daily lives and its impact can also be felt strongly in the modern enterprise. Simply reflect on how we can now work “on the go” and you can see the transformation of businesses. There is no doubt that the rise in mobile apps has increased tremendously over the years. According to the 2016 US Cross-Platform Future in Focus report, it showed mobile now represents 65 percent of all digital media time, with mobile apps dominating that usage. Mobile has become the growth driver, making the desktop a secondary touch point (with 35 percent of digital time spent).

Gartner highlighted that today’s employees use an average of 3 different devices in their workplace. This will increase to 5 or 6 devices as technologies such as wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) become mainstream. What this means is that with the growth of mobile devices in the market, the demand for a variety of mobile apps will also rise. Keep in mind that this also spans across different platforms, device frameworks, etc. where the mobile apps are created.

Mobile Apps are the Mainstay of the Modern EnterpriseFrom the enterprise perspective, increasing growth in mobile app use is a given. Mobile enables new and better business processes. Mobile also transforms the ways organizations, partners, and customers interface with each other.

An influx of apps brought into the enterprise from the outside, as well as mobile apps being developed in-house, will add to the mobile narrative across the enterprise from now to well into the future. IDC predicted that the number of enterprise applications optimized for mobility has quadruple as of 2016.

Runtime Integration ModuleThe Appdome platform includes unique built-in technology interacts with an app on a runtime basis, intermittently substituting commands based on the app’s native logic. The app's native functions are preserved, essentially making SDKs conform to the native design of the app. Because of this, fused apps behave in the way in which they were originally intended by the mobile app developer. The commands which are contained in the RIM are semi-permanent. They exist only as long as necessary to perform the function according to the services that the user selected, allowing the app to operate in its native state at all other times.

AppFusion Adapter AppFusion Adapter is a user-defined, user-driven software adapter that is added as part of a newly compiled app binary, created when you fuse an app. Each AppFusion Adapter is unique and is dynamically generated based on the service choices a user makes on the AppFusion platform. As the user selects features, mobile SDKs, and services on the AppFusion platform, the system assembles the AppFusion Adapter and fuses the adapter to the mobile app(s) chosen by the user.

SecureApp RecommendationsAppdome provides app-specific recommendations in the AppFusion Platform to enhance each mobile app’s security. These suggestions are based on contextual information learned about the app during a non-intrusive, automated app structure scan, which occurs when you upload an app binary. SecureApp Recommendations are completely optional and are designed to allow users greater choice in applying security improvements to an app.

AppFusion Key Capabilities• Mobile Integration Workflow

– The primary interface for users to interact with the AppFusion service that includes a step-by-step, intuitive workflow for uploading, fusing, signing, deploying and analyzing fused apps.

– Allow users to self-select from multiple accounts to best meet their mobile integration needs.

– Include a management interface that allows anyone to enhance the functionality of mobile apps by integrating those apps with other services or SDKs available on the Appdome Platform.

• App library – Enable users to upload and store an unlimited number of mobile apps

in a stateful repository and make them readily available for integration to any number of services or fusion sets.

• Fusion workbench – Allow users to select the preferred services to fuse to a particular app

and creates “fusion sets” (saved combinations of fusion settings unique to each user) to apply to apps.

– Enable users to make individual configuration settings.

• ISV catalog – Allow users to access commercial app binaries (ISV apps) and

commercial SDKs, all of which are available for use with AppFusion.

AppFusion Key Benefits• Rapid deployment: An app can be fused, managed and deployed with

one or multiple SDKs such as the Blackberry Good Dynamics EMM SDK and Appaloosa MAM SDK, etc. and other services in minutes

• Codeless solution: Zero development effort; only requires app binary • Reduced ongoing maintenance: Automate SDK updates through

the cloud • Cross platform: Work exactly the same way for Android and iOS, with no

additional effort on the part of customers • Framework independent: AppFusion works ‘out of the box’ regardless

of the app development environment or framework on which the app was developed. No plug-ins, SDK or app modifications required

• App capabilities: Does not affect app behavior

Embracing the Revolutionized Approach to Mobile App Integration

4 | info@appdome.com / www.appdome.com

White Paper: Choosing a Mobile App Integration Solution

5 | info@appdome.com / www.appdome.com5 | info@appdome.com / www.appdome.com5 | info@appdome.com / www.appdome.com

Competitive necessity, rapidly evolving technologies and better ways of developing apps support faster and more secure enterprise “appification.”

For the day-to-day workforce, bring your own device (BYOD) and bring your own applications (BYOA) will continue to thrive.

Employees are accessing mobile apps in the workplace in large numbers because they need these apps to accelerate and maintain work productivity. The 2015 Enterprise Mobile App Trend Report mentioned that the average number of internal-use apps across all companies is 35 – 35, not single digit 2s or 5s. These apps focus on a diverse range of workplace requirements with sales and marketing apps making up 18% of all apps deployed. Field services and human resources apps account for 15% and 14% of the mobile enterprise app landscape, respectively. Recently, Gartner asserted that when employees are given more autonomy to choose the devices, apps, and even the processes to complete a task, the pressure on businesses and/or IT to develop a larger variety of mobile apps in shorter time frames will increase.

The Emergence of Mobile Development Platforms and Services The 2016 State of IT Report from Salesforce Research highlighted that 79% of IT teams are currently developing apps for customers, partners and employees. That same report also mentioned that 68% of CIOs predicted that they will spend more on mobile apps and security in the next two years. This is not surprising as delivering mobile apps to end users has quickly become a strategic imperative for most enterprises.

The traditional mobile application development (MADP) market continues to grow and evolve in an effort to meet the insatiable demand from enterprise users for productivity enhancing mobile solutions. At the same time, new tools have emerged that make the job of building mobile apps faster and easier. Rapid Mobile App Development (RMAD), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Mobile Backend as a Service (MbaaS) platforms are ‘codeless’ or ‘low-code’ solutions which aim to break through the bottlenecks that exist early on in the mobile development lifecycle. These tools provide a better alternative to mobile middleware, with a backend as a service (BaaS) approach that uses unified application programming interfaces (APIs) and software

development kits (SDKs) to connect mobile apps to backend resources in the cloud. RMAD tools provide a codeless or low-code method for building mobile apps from scratch, and MbaSS tools offer cloud-based delivery models midway through the development cycle (for common mobile services such as push notifications, social network integrations, storage, database connections, geo-location, etc.).

The common goal of all these new services is to make the job of deploying rich mobile experiences easier and faster by enabling other mobile professionals to create or enhance mobile apps with codeless solutions, thus relieving the burden on mobile app developers. In fact, Gartner predicted that by 2016, 40% of mobile app development projects will leverage cloud back-end services. What this means is that development leaders will face challenges if or when they lose control of the pace and path of cloud adoption within their enterprises.

SDK Integration: The Achilles Heel in Mobile Strategies Mobile SDKs are designed to reduce development burden required to implement services. Because of this, mobile app developers prefer SDKs as they serve as ‘building blocks’ for connecting apps to mobile services during the development cycle. However, once the app has been compiled, integrating an SDK is not possible without modification to the source code.

Furthermore, against the backdrop of an emerging mobile micro service economy and new codeless platforms allowing the rapid development of mobile apps, SDK integration can become difficult, lengthy and time-consuming. To use an SDK, a mobile app developer has to manually gain access to the SDK and documentation. That same developer has to study the SDK, its commands, events, etc. Implementing the SDK could take months and once the SDK implementation is completed, the developer will need to establish a separate build-release-QA cycle for every release of the SDK, OS, and app that implements the SDK. After all that work, it’s very common to find out that the SDK vendor has issued a new release. As enterprise app usage grows, the investment in dedicated SDK implementation teams can become very costly.

Nowhere is the pain of implementing an SDK to an app felt most than in the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and

Mobile Application Management (MAM) spaces. For EMM and MAM, managing and securing mobile apps for the enterprise is a top priority. Every major EMM and MAM vendor has an SDK, which they strive to make full-featured and easy to implement. However, this has proven to be extremely difficult and resource intensive. Every new or updated app, across different platforms, running on different frameworks, will create a new integration effort, a new build and so on. Versions of each app will need to be managed separately, and simultaneously. There have been great efforts to try and simplify this burden, like the AppConfig Community. However, these efforts have not gained significant traction.

Compare SDK integration with the rising trend or usage in mobile and the emergence of the integrated mobile experience, SDKs now become the Achilles heel in mobile strategies. Integrating SDK at source code level is simply taking too long and without the ability to integrate in parallel for different mobile apps, SDKs become the bottleneck.

How to Choose the Right Mobile Integration Solution How can you determine if a mobile integration solution will meet the goals of your mobility strategy, shorten your time to market as well as leverage your mobile developer resources in the most efficient way possible? Here are six key attributes for your consideration:

1. Integration timeframeHow quickly can a new or existing mobile app be integrated with third party services? Often, it takes months of development efforts for mobile app developers to work with a software development kit (SDK) from an enterprise mobility management (EMM) vendor, and more often than not requires source code modifications. The process can be very time-consuming and manual. Not to mention that prior to integrating an app to an SDK, the mobile app developer has to locate, read and understand the SDK manual and documentations. Consider multiple apps integrations with various SDKs being done in parallel, the integration timeframe will definitely be increased.

2. No or minimum app developer resources requiredIf SDKs can be seamlessly integrated into mobile apps

without requiring development cycles or coding, it will free up development resources and significantly reduce the ongoing operational burden. Mobile app developers would then be able to devote their valuable time to work on higher value projects such as creating new mobile apps and adding new features. In fact, with no complex or coding needed for app integrations, anyone can perform them. Think about it. Now you can empower other employees such as IT, Operations, or Security. Such resource allocation is a far more efficient way of running the business, as opposed to using developer resources to complete integration tasks.

3. Cross-platform, multi-framework compatibility Ever since the initiation of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend, it is now quite rare to find an organization that focuses its mobilization efforts on a single mobile OS platform such as going all iOS or Android. Considering the fact that in the traditional model, supporting a second mobile platform is essentially doubling the effort, time, and cost. It also usually requires a completely different set of resources across the board due to the specialized skills required for different mobile platforms. Making matters even more complicated is the fact that even if you did actually have the resources to pull off cross-platform support, there would almost certainly be significant differences in functionality between platforms. Mobile app developers often need to work hard to bring feature-parity in the OS they support. Including integration with SDKs for different OS and platforms at different time schedule, the workload can seem impossible.

With BYOD, comes yet another mobile trend: bring your own apps (BYOA). Employees start to bring in mobile apps they want when they want to, and on those mobile devices they have already brought into their organizations. In turn, BYOA fuels the type of framework in which the organizations will build their apps on. They might look for frameworks like Ionic and Cordova that offer the best web and native app components that can aim in building highly interactive native and progressive mobile apps. It is also not surprising to know that these organizations usually do not have or get access to the SDKs from EMMs. Even if they do have the SDKs, they are usually outdated and updating them will take a while.

Determining the platform to build mobile apps on are often driven by BYOD and the type of framework to use are driven by BYOA. Combining BYOD and BYOA means that modern IT organizations need to deal with a “multiplier effect” and implement SDKS and mobile services across more apps than ever before.

4. Optimized development and release cycles Regardless of which solution is chosen, they will all have a development or release cycle. However, what businesses need is an optimized solution. A solution that will allow “templatized” rule sets and reusable common implementations and configurations. Leveraging modern or advanced workflow, delegation and collaboration rules will empower mobile teams to work together to complete implementation or integration projects in the most efficient manner.

5. Unchanged app behavior/capabilityWhile integrating an app with SDKs or third party services, it is vital that the app has all the intended features and functionalities. Although corporate apps are created for the employees in mind, they will use only use them if they aid in work productivity. If an app “breaks” after an app integration or if it is missing functionalities that employees need, they will stop using the app.

6. Compliance, management, and deployment of appIt goes without saying that mobile apps need to be in compliance with the organization’s policies and allow proper management and deployment before they can go into the hands of end-users. This applies to integrated apps too. Apps that are integrated with other apps or services need to be baked with the desired security and give organizations the full visibility and auditability to keep them in compliance with internal or external regulatory or governance requirements, especially in environments dealing with highly sensitive data.

There’s a solution that takes in all these considerations.

The Appdome PlatformThe right mobile app integration solution automates and simplifies the entire integration process with SDKs and other third party services. It enables the organization to speed up release cycles, minimize maintenance while ensuring integrated apps are made optimal. That way, corporate data, app use, and end-users are always kept safe, secure and productive.

Appdome’s Unique Technology

AppFusion™AppFusion is a general purpose, open platform which automates the process of integrating features, services, or full SDKs with mobile apps so that those apps can be deployed in enterprise environments. AppFusion speeds up and broadens the applicability of mobile SDKs, extending their applicability across platforms and frameworks, and removing key dependencies that have held back enterprise implementations. AppFusion includes built-in productivity tools which enable customers to complete complex mobile integration projects in parallel. For instance, through templates called “Fusion Sets” customers can combine multiple services with a single app, or integrate collections of services to multiple apps at the same time.

AppFusion saves significant time and effort because it does not require access to or modification to source code. All that is required is a compiled app binary to be uploaded to the cloud-based platform to perform mobile app integrations. Mobile professionals simply select and fuse the services that they want to integrate into existing mobile apps using a simple point and click web interface, as opposed to modifying source code. The fusion process takes only several minutes and once it is completed, the customer receives a new fully integrated app binary, which contains all the services that they selected and nothing more.

With AppFusion, the user experience, performance, and functionality of the app are not affected. Even run time decisions can be made, enabling or disabling certain capabilities based on organizational policy so that unneeded features are not running and thus are not consuming system resources.

Mobile is the Growth Driver Mobility has become deeply entrenched in our daily lives and its impact can also be felt strongly in the modern enterprise. Simply reflect on how we can now work “on the go” and you can see the transformation of businesses. There is no doubt that the rise in mobile apps has increased tremendously over the years. According to the 2016 US Cross-Platform Future in Focus report, it showed mobile now represents 65 percent of all digital media time, with mobile apps dominating that usage. Mobile has become the growth driver, making the desktop a secondary touch point (with 35 percent of digital time spent).

Gartner highlighted that today’s employees use an average of 3 different devices in their workplace. This will increase to 5 or 6 devices as technologies such as wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) become mainstream. What this means is that with the growth of mobile devices in the market, the demand for a variety of mobile apps will also rise. Keep in mind that this also spans across different platforms, device frameworks, etc. where the mobile apps are created.

Mobile Apps are the Mainstay of the Modern EnterpriseFrom the enterprise perspective, increasing growth in mobile app use is a given. Mobile enables new and better business processes. Mobile also transforms the ways organizations, partners, and customers interface with each other.

An influx of apps brought into the enterprise from the outside, as well as mobile apps being developed in-house, will add to the mobile narrative across the enterprise from now to well into the future. IDC predicted that the number of enterprise applications optimized for mobility has quadruple as of 2016.

Runtime Integration ModuleThe Appdome platform includes unique built-in technology interacts with an app on a runtime basis, intermittently substituting commands based on the app’s native logic. The app's native functions are preserved, essentially making SDKs conform to the native design of the app. Because of this, fused apps behave in the way in which they were originally intended by the mobile app developer. The commands which are contained in the RIM are semi-permanent. They exist only as long as necessary to perform the function according to the services that the user selected, allowing the app to operate in its native state at all other times.

AppFusion Adapter AppFusion Adapter is a user-defined, user-driven software adapter that is added as part of a newly compiled app binary, created when you fuse an app. Each AppFusion Adapter is unique and is dynamically generated based on the service choices a user makes on the AppFusion platform. As the user selects features, mobile SDKs, and services on the AppFusion platform, the system assembles the AppFusion Adapter and fuses the adapter to the mobile app(s) chosen by the user.

SecureApp RecommendationsAppdome provides app-specific recommendations in the AppFusion Platform to enhance each mobile app’s security. These suggestions are based on contextual information learned about the app during a non-intrusive, automated app structure scan, which occurs when you upload an app binary. SecureApp Recommendations are completely optional and are designed to allow users greater choice in applying security improvements to an app.

AppFusion Key Capabilities

• Mobile Integration Workflow

– The primary interface for users to interact with the AppFusion service that includes a step-by-step, intuitive workflow for uploading, fusing, signing, deploying and analyzing fused apps.

– Allow users to self-select from multiple accounts to best meet their mobile integration needs.

– Include a management interface that allows anyone to enhance the functionality of mobile apps by integrating those apps with other services or SDKs available on the Appdome Platform.

• App library

– Enable users to upload and store an unlimited number of mobile apps in a stateful repository and make them readily available for integration to any number of services or fusion sets.

• Fusion workbench

– Allow users to select the preferred services to fuse to a particular app and creates “fusion sets” (saved combinations of fusion settings unique to each user) to apply to apps.

– Enable users to make individual configuration settings.

• ISV catalog

– Allow users to access commercial app binaries (ISV apps) and commercial SDKs, all of which are available for use with AppFusion.

AppFusion Key Benefits

• Rapid deployment: An app can be fused, managed and deployed with one or multiple SDKs such as the Blackberry Good Dynamics EMM SDK and Appaloosa MAM SDK, etc. and other services in minutes

• Codeless solution: Zero development effort; only requires app binary

• Reduced ongoing maintenance: Automate SDK updates through the cloud

• Cross platform: Work exactly the same way for Android and iOS, with no additional effort on the part of customers

• Framework independent: AppFusion works ‘out of the box’ regardless of the app development environment or framework on which the app was developed. No plug-ins, SDK or app modifications required

• App capabilities: Does not affect app behavior

5 | info@appdome.com / www.appdome.com

White Paper: Choosing a Mobile App Integration Solution

San Francisco | Silicon Valley | Tel Aviv | +1.844.360.FUSE

6 | info@appdome.com / www.appdome.com

About AppdomeAppdome's AppFusion platform enables the rapid integration of multiple third-party functions to apps, shortening the deployment cycle and connecting mobile apps to other services on demand. The codeless service operates as a mobile integration workflow in the cloud, and allows users to perform integration projects on the final application package. No source code or development expertise is required. Likewise, no modifications to an app or an SDK are required to complete integration projects on the AppFusion platform. The solution is currently used by the world’s leading financial, healthcare and e-commerce companies to support productivity, compliance and security for consumers and employees. Appdome was rated a Cool Vendor in Mobile Security by Gartner in 2015. For more information, visit www.appdome.com.

While there may be some mobile app integration solutions that provide benefits in mobile development projects, they still fall shorts in many areas such as requiring a lengthy implementation, having to access source code and working on only one OS, etc. Their inability to provide a complete mobile app integration solution that is simple, easy and quick to utilize makes it more difficult to be at the forefront of competition in this digital age. Organizations need to deliver integrated mobile apps faster and ensure that they work as they are intended for better workflows, usability and user experience. It will help drive end-user adoption and usage, leading to increased productivity and efficiency.

In today’s digital transformation world, the most productive companies are the ones who leverage mobility to scale. They are the ones who are progressive in giving employees the autonomy to choose their devices, apps, and processes to be productive, yet know how to empower internal resources like app developers and IT to create and deploy mobile apps quickly and efficiently. At Appdome, we believe when mobile app integrations are automated, simplified and secure, organizations can easily leverage mobility to spearhead their digital transformation.

The Appdome platform provides:

• Security

• Management

• Engagement

• Analytics

The Appdome platform allows you to:

• Add Apps

• Upload

• Fuse

• Sign

• Deploy

• View

To learn more about the Appdome platform, visit appdome.com or open a free AppFusion account and start fusing.

White Paper: Choosing a Mobile App Integration Solution

Embracing the Revolutionized Approach to Mobile App Integration

Appdome Platform

Mobile Integration Workflow

Fusion Workbench

Fusion Catalog

Figure 1. The Appdome platform automates mobile app integration.