Valorem was founded in 2002 with the aim of bringing smart technology solutions to people where they work. Enabling people on those sites to their work faster, quicker and with a better overall result. In 2002 this was so innovative as to be patentable!
These nine years have seemed like a lifetime, as we have introduced mobility into the facilities management and facilities services industries and lead the innovation. From the first days of the company we were delivering solutions on Palm PDA’s, then Palm smartphones, and we continued to innovate and move our software into the Windows Mobile world as well.
Over the last few years, there has been an absolute explosion in the choices of devices that are available, and the number of operating systems and software flavours. This year is also the first year that mobile devices with smartphone operating systems will have sold more devices than PC’s (desktops and laptops combined).
Valorem continues to innovate in mobility, and serve customers in Australia as well as around the world. Our view on the mix of devices, is both personal and pragmatic. These are the main issues, or trends that we see that are influencing our business and our customers.
1. Diversity Will Increase, As Costs Fall
The market is continuing to grow, and with that comes more choice and lower costs. Similar to the automobile marketing 100 years ago when the mass market production was young, you could get a Ford Model T in black, or a Ford Model T in black. Within decades, you had a variety of brands, models, and you could custom order a range of options. The same thing is happening in mobile computing, and it is just early days, this movement will continue.
2. Choice Is Personal, Use Is Professional
People are increasingly choosing amongst devices based on personal preference. Across the range of options – device brand, features and model, and the operating system. The device is as much a personal choice as a professional one, as most people are using their smartphones in their private life as much as they are in their work. This creates a demand on IT departments from their staff to have their personal choice of equipment being accepted into the work networks, email and documents. This is much easier in a cloud based infrastructure, but also possible in most modern infrastructures when built with current tools (such as Sybase iAnywhere mobile office tools).
3. Design, Ease of Use, and Pleasure of Use
The trinity of good design which is great looks, being easy to use, and generating a pleasurable user experience – this will continue to win market share. This trinity is even more powerful now that these devices are penetrating across work and home experiences, integrating with the person’s daily experience. Most people accept a lower level of usability, and a crappy design, when a device is just for work. But place that device in a home or recreational setting, and the demands are much higher. Also, quality designs will result in an easy to use device – which opens larger and larger markets. For these reasons (and others), Apple will continue to lead this market, while other players will grow the market with a larger, more diverse range of products.
4. Clouds are Durable
This last point is important for Valorem, and for our clients. We believe the long term durability in infrastructure and applications lies in cloud based or web-based approaches, as these are the only approaches that are device agnostic and bridge across all platforms. Using cloud based solutions, you can achieve the benefits from the explosion of devices and platforms, while keeping to standard application interfaces and functions. We are also developing native applications to run on any mobile device, so that the benefits of the common infrastructure of the cloud will continue, even if you’re not connected to the internet.
