mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software

The need for self-service reporting

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EducationDid you know that a full 90% of the data in the world has been generated over the past two years? We’re creating more data than ever before, and this trend is only growing. The only problem: Many businesses still aren’t sure how to capitalize on all of this data.

Oftentimes, the data is inaccessible to the very people who need it most. Salespeople have no way of easily viewing their sales data. Marketing managers can’t easily create the reports they need to view prospect data. As a result, all of that data goes to waste.

The fact is, as businesses generate more data than ever before, self-service reporting becomes increasingly important. You must give your employees a way to pull that data out of your systems and turn it into meaningful management information–without going through the IT department.

Unfortunately, this is still a problem in many companies. They still force end users to go through the process of requesting reports from the IT department, and then waiting around until they’re delivered. While all too common, this process often causes 3 big problems:
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Weekly Recap: 5 mobile app questions to ask the CIO, IT’s failing reputation, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on mobile questions to ask the CIO, why IT’s reputation is so poor, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Why everyone wants a private cloud
Concerns over security and control in the “public” could make the “private” cloud model tempting to many companies. But, is this a solid strategy? Perhaps a better question: Do your applications give you the flexibility to deploy anywhere–private or public?
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8 hidden costs of mobile application development

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EducationMobile apps are taking off in the business world. In fact, a recent survey found that most companies plan on building a mobile app this year, and believe that enterprise mobile app development will outpace desktop application development.

However, with every new field, there’s bound to be some surprises along the way. As more and more businesses jump into mobile app development for the first time, many make a crucial mistake: They go into the process with a limited understanding of the true costs of developing a mobile app. In fact, many falsely believe that development cost starts and ends with the developer.

The truth is, the cost of developing an enterprise mobile app reaches far beyond the actual development. The big question: What unexpected costs should businesses plan for when building mobile apps? What expenses might surprise you during the mobile app development process?

photo credit: William Hook via photopin cc
photo credit: William Hook via photopin cc

Today, I’d like to outline the mobile app development costs that businesses may not anticipate. Hopefully, this will better prepare your company for mobile app development, and reduce some of the surprises along the way.

However, before we get into these unexpected costs, I want to differentiate between mobile app types. People tend to associate the term “mobile app” with “native app,” but that’s not entirely accurate. It’s important to note that there are three types of mobile apps:

  • Native app: An app that’s installed on the device itself and distributed via the platform’s app store/market.
  • Mobile web app: Commonly referred to as an “HTML5 app”, these are cross-platform apps that are accessed through the device’s web browser.
  • Hybrid app: Built with web technologies and wrapped in a native shell, these apps are a combination of the two previous apps. They look and feel like a native app, but are actually web apps inside of a native wrapper.

I explain the difference between each app type because the following “hidden costs” don’t necessarily apply to each one. To help differentiate, I’ve listed which costs apply to each application type at the end of each point. Sound good? Okay, let’s get started. Here are 8 of the unexpected/hidden costs to watch out for when building mobile apps for your business:
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New graphs and charts (with demo)!

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AnnouncementI’m excited to announce that we’re bringing improved graphs and charts to m-Power! They’ll be available to m-Power users in the coming weeks, but if you’d like to get a glimpse of what’s in store, head on over to Crazybikes.

While you’ll find the new graphs and charts across many of the applications over on Crazybikes, you’ll see the widest variety on the User-Defined Dashboard demo. Try adding a few different charts, graphs, or gauges to the dashboard to get a glimpse of what the new m-Power charting will look like.

How will this help you? Here are a few ways:
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Weekly Recap: Stupid security mistakes developers keep making, mobile BI strategies, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on stupid security mistakes developers keep making, the new age of real-time architecture, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Data, Legacy Systems, and the New Age of Real-Time Architecture
In a world of instant data–where we can access data from across the world at any given moment–why do businesses have so much trouble with data access? Why are reports so difficult to access in many companies? Why do we still have disparate systems in companies that still can’t communicate with each other? The fact is, these legacy applications were never designed for the world we live in now. They weren’t built for integration. If you’re in this situation, how can you bring flexibility and integration to these legacy systems? My advice: Explore your modernization options.
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8 big challenges facing CIOs and IT leaders in 2014

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EducationWhat’s the biggest tech trend facing businesses right now? Is it the rise of mobile? BYOD? Cloud computing? Consumerization?

The fact is, you could make a case for any one of them…which highlights the most important point: We’re currently going through a fundamental shift in technology. We’re seeing a number of disruptive technologies converging on businesses at the same time. When combined, these changes create a unique set of challenges for CIOs and IT leaders going into 2014.

So, what are the biggest challenges facing CIOs and IT leaders in the coming year? Perhaps a better question: How can they address these challenges? We asked these questions to other CIOs and IT leaders, and have listed these responses below. I’ve also included a brief tip on how to address each challenge. So, without further ado, here are the biggest challenges facing CIOs and IT leaders in the coming year:
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Pre-registration is now open for a new consulting program

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AnnouncementI’m happy to say that we’ve just opened up pre-registration for a brand new consultant program! This new program gives consultants access to a low-cost, cloud-based version of our enterprise web application development platform, m-Power.

If you’re a consultant, you’re familiar with the struggle of finding new projects. Completing the project is the fun part. It’s the lull between projects that makes consulting difficult.

Small, and one-man consulting operations have an especially difficult job. After all, they can’t afford to hire a marketing and sales to team to bring in business for them. They handle all aspects of their business themselves. The majority of their time is spent either working on projects or looking for new projects.

The problem with this arrangement: In between working on projects and finding new projects, there’s little time to keep your skills current. How can you keep up with the ever-changing technology trends if you spend all of your time working on, or looking for, projects? Why is this such a problem? Because consultants who fall behind the rapidly changing technology curve risk losing out on valuable new business in the future.

Now, larger consultant shops often address these problems with development platforms (like m-Power). This offers a number of benefits, such as:
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Weekly Recap: Hot IT skills for 2014, Blackberry’s demise, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on hot IT skills for 2014, the demise of Blackberry, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Blackberry agrees to sell itself for a measly $5 billion
In a bit of sad news this week, Blackberry agreed to sell itself for $4.7 billion (at press time, though there’s rumblings the deal might fall through), ending the company’s rapid decline over the past few years. If $4.7 billion sounds like a lot of money (which it is), consider that the company was worth $77 billion just 5 years ago.
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7 deadly sins of web application development

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EducationWhat percentage of IT projects fail? It’s hard to say. I’ve seen surveys that put the number at 25%. Others surveys push it closer to 70%. While that’s quite a range, the point is this: those numbers are far too high. Even if it is “just” 25%, that’s still 1 out of every 4 projects. That’s too many.

How can we bring those numbers down? Today, let’s focus on ways to reduce failure for one common project type: web application development projects. In this article, we’ll take a look at mistakes that hurt web application development projects. These are chronic bad habits that turn web application development projects into disasters.

What deadly sins do even the most experienced web application developers make? What common web app development mistakes crop up over and over again? We posed those questions to a few experienced developers and have compiled these answers below. Without further ado, here are 7 deadly sins of web application development:
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What killed the big companies?

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EducationWhy do 70% of the companies listed on the Fortune 1,000 list ten years ago no longer exist today? Inflexibility. They couldn’t adapt to change. In the past, big companies ate small ones. Now, fast eats big.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder that CIOs list legacy modernization as one of their top priorities. Legacy applications aren’t flexible. They don’t quickly adapt to change. As such, companies that rely on these applications lack flexibility, which…kills companies.

Hence, the growing push towards modernization. Application modernization promises flexibility. It frees these companies from the shackles of their legacy software.

The problem: Modernization isn’t exactly straightforward. There’s more than one way to modernize. By my count, there’s five. How do you know which way is best?
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