Comms supplement: MobileTechs – Freedom to roam

Mobile technologies are increasingly being used by employees to help them work more effectively or by consumers to more easily access financial services. Tony Dennis investigates the implications for the network and for security, and looks at the various smartphones available

There are those in the financial sector who view the use of smartphones or other mobile devices in the workplace as a high security risk and a technical support nightmare. In sharp contrast, many employees have come to regard smartphones, such as the RIM Blackberry phone, G1, iPhone, or various Nokia models, as an essential tool to enhance their productivity. The mobile devices can be put to a myriad of applications from enabling people in the wholesale banking arena to track markets and cover their positions even when out of the office, to loss adjusters in the insurance space who use them in the field to speed up claims handling procedures.

On the consumer side of things, MoniLink is a mobile bank account checking service with certain restricted payments functions within the bank itself – never outside – and various other options, such as ticketing. The service can be customised to some extent by each bank, and is available to the majority of UK bank customers via the VocaLink ATM network – the firm is one of the joint venture backers for the mobile banking platform, along with Monitise. The growing mobile banking sector is expanding still further with the launch of MoBank, a new service founded by ex-Egg and First Direct technologists, which will allow subscribers to use any internet-connected mobile device to access their existing bank account to check balances or buy things, such as gift or travelcards, or cinema tickets. The move towards mobility is therefore being driven internally by employees and externally by customers – either way, it has consequences for the sector moving forward.

Security
On the question of security, FST spoke to Matt Cooke, a senior product marketing manager with iPass, which offers a single sign-on service for internet connectivity to business users. Clients include Mellon Financial and HSBC. He argues that the solution to security worries with smartphones is to run mobile applications across a secure internet connexion, such as a Virtual Private Network (VPN). It is perfectly possible, for example, to run a VPN on top of the iPass service.

Cooke believes that many companies in the financial services sector have succumbed to the use of smartphones “because they simply can’t stop employees from using them”. It isn’t difficult, for example, for a tech savvy mobile phone user to work out how to access corporate emails running on a Microsoft Exchange mail server, for example. iPass’ business clientele have responded to this realisation by asking for client software which doesn’t just run on laptop computers but on Windows Mobile, Symbian and Apple iPhone smartphones.

Significantly, the company has also responded to requests for its service to run on the Apple iPod Touch. This is somewhat surprising given that the device only offers WiFi connectivity and is generally regarded as a consumer electronic product. The role of mobile technologies is a phenomenon to be aware of – many managers, for instance, would be shocked to learn that their employees are accessing emails on what they might view as an ordinary MP3 player. Amongst the conventional smartphone options, Cooke observes that the Nokia E71 phone – an obvious rival to the popular RIM Blackberry – is proving popular with many iPass customers at the moment.

Businesses do have legitimate worries about employees leaving valuable content, sensitive customer information or contact information on their mobile phones. There are, however, a number of software suppliers, such as Synchronica and Savecell, which allow a handset owner to ‘zap’ the content and/or contacts held on a smartphone by sending out a message over the mobile network, denying access to potential fraudsters. Smartphones even offer a more convenient means of generating key codes for security applications. “By running an application like Digipass for Mobile, users no longer have to worrying about carrying around a separate key-pass device,” maintains Jan Valcke, chief operating officer with Vasco. True, but you better time out the code dissemination quickly if you don’t want lost mobile phones providing a back door into your business.

According to Simon Bransfield-Garth, CEO with Cellcrypt, his company has overcome what he claims is the last security worry with smartphones – namely, voice calls. “Business users routinely protect their valuable documents and data using encryption technologies,” says Bransfield-Garth. “But they have not previously been able to place that same level of protection on their mobile voice calls. With our Cellcrypt Mobile system they can.” Significantly a version of this solution, which works on the popular Blackberry, has just been released. By encrypting voice calls, it is possible for financial institutions to parachute teams into another businesses’ premises – to set up ‘war rooms’ with the assurance that their conversations can’t be tapped. Loss adjusters from insurance firms could, for example, go straight to disaster sites to start working on people’s claims immediately.

iPhone
The popularity of stories about the Apple iPhone in the technical press has led to intense speculation that these devices could find their way into the financial sector. A classic example of this was a story released in August last year that HSBC Bank was considering the purchase of some 200,000 iPhones. These comments were attributed to Brenton Hush, HSBC’s Australia and New Zealand chief information officer. Hush was quoted as saying that “we are actually reviewing iPhones from a HSBC Group perspective... and when I say that, I mean globally.”

His comments were then extrapolated to reach the conclusion that potentially the Bank could place an order for 200,000 units. However, when FST investigated this claim, we found that no such decision had actually been taken. A HSBC spokesperson in London told us that the Bank was happy to work with RIM Blackberries and other options, and that there was no global ‘policy’ to adopt any specific smartphone product. Each financial institution must decide for themselves what mobile device works best for them, based upon their particular needs.

One fan of the iPhone, however, is Dominic Keen, chief operating officer of MoBank and former head of product development with Egg. “We took the approach six months ago to focus on the [Apple] iPhone. It was clear to us that the handset provided a high level of customer experience with using the mobile internet. We saw the iPhone as leading the market and it is encouraging to see that over a million handsets have been sold in the UK. However, everyone else has been playing catch up and by the end of 2009 I’d expect to see around ten Google Android based mobile phones on the market. The Google option is another coming trend.

iPass’ Cooke points out that the success of Apple’s AppStore has created interest in the business sector. This provides a single point of entry from which iPhone users can download applications. It fills a gap because many businesses don’t possess the mechanism to distribute applications to their employees’ mobile phone. For this very reason, Cooke argues, both RIM and Nokia have announced they will offer a similar service to the AppStore in the near future. Disseminating useful applications to the end user is a key consideration when examining what mobile devices to specify for your staff.

Real world examples
A typical example of a financial institution which has adopted mobility is provided by Standard Life, which has introduced some 1,400 RIM Blackberries for its staff, administered by its IT team in Edinburgh. The company – like many others – had started out by using Blackberries to provide access to email. As Billy Campbell, desktop services manager with Standard Life explains: “We were impressed with the BlackBerry email capability, security features and the benefits it provided our mobile workers.”

Next, Standard Life added line-of-business applications that had BlackBerry smartphone modules, such as Bloomberg, plus internal helpdesk and facilities management software. “The investment teams now had real-time access to market data. Facilities managers were more productive because they didn’t have to keep returning to their desk to pick up messages. And the web-based ‘team rooms’ were a natural extension of the desktop,” says Graeme Clark, manager of the desktop services application team. He adds that usually it doesn’t cost extra to bring existing services – like Lotus Domino – to the Blackberries since it is frequently part of the company’s existing software licence. Better still, Clark says: “We maintain our BlackBerry users with the same staff that maintains the Lotus Domino environment. We haven’t needed to add any more employees to run the BlackBerry solution.”

As well as increased mobility and flexibility, the use of Blackberries by Standard Life staff has had some unexpected benefits. By attaching a Bluetooth dongle to the smartphones, for example, these devices can be turned into a pocket-sized video projector to show Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. “This is very popular with users who fly about a lot because they don’t have to carry a laptop, which cuts down delays at airport security,” adds Standard Life’s Campbell.

Another example of an organisation which has gradually moved towards the adoption of RIM Blackberries is provided by David Cross, director of IT with Mazars, an auditing and accountancy firm with many financial services clients. He reveals the business has moved from a voice only mobile phone plan with Vodafone to a voice and email model with Orange. Initially, Mazars settled on two models – a Blackberry RIM 8820 and a Samsung i600 which utilised the Microsoft Windows Mobile OS. “While there was nothing actually wrong with the Samsung – indeed it actually had some better extra features, but some users found it a little complicated to use, so we didn’t stick with it,” says Cross.

Working closely with both RIM and mobile phone operator Orange, Mazars has now standardised on the Blackberry Bold smartphone. These are supplied pre-configured to Mazar’s requirements – even down to the company logo – so that they work straight out of the box. “We used to have a culture of deciding which users needed the phones,” Cross explains. “Blackberries are now provided to quite junior staff, such as new auditors, who have to work on the client’s site.” Looking to the future, Cross would like to see smartphones more closely integrated with the applications the partnership runs, such as Oracle’s Siebel customer relationship management (CRM) software. He is also working on integrating Blackberries with the existing desktop environment for unified communications so that, for example, users only have one voicemail box. Cross says he is urging RIM to take the initiative and integrate a number of applications which all businesses – not just those in the financial sector – utilise. A good example here would be an invoice approval application. As smartphones become more and more popular you can certainly expect to see them become increasingly integrated into a company’s way of working and into its customer proposition.

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