This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes the *mobile platform that offers a radically new alternative to enterprises for application mobilization. The platform enables mobilization without requiring any software development, mobilizes applications instantaneously, offers a unified mobilization platform for all of an enterprise?s applications, and enables feature parity controllable by the enterprise. Offered as a cloud-based service, enterprises can non-intrusively adopt ∗mobile to rapidly mobilize applications. At the heart of the ∗mobile platform is an innovative mobile remote computing protocol (MRCP). ∗mobile achieves instantaneous mobilization by allowing the desktop version of the application to be run on a cloud backend, and then using MRCP for intelligently and dynamically interfacing the desktop version with a custom viewer on the mobile device. MRCP performs dynamic transformations both in the downstream - where the transformation is applied to the view presented to the user, and in the upstream - where the transformation is applied to the user actions that need to be delivered back to the application. The transformations are performed in an application agnostic fashion.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will benefit the 85% of enterprise knowledge workers who are expected to have smartphones within the next few years (source: J. Gold Assoc., 2011). A recent survey of CIOs revealed that there are multiple drivers for application mobilization - the key ones being increased productivity of employees, higher revenue, and reduced paper work. Not surprisingly, over 90% of IT managers in a recent survey indicated plans for application mobilization (source: Sybase Survey, 2011). Typical customers for ∗mobile include any fortune 1000 large enterprise, medium-sized businesses, and small-medium (SMB) businesses that use applications for business processes. While there is a strong and deep need for application mobilization, there exists no universal, cost-effective solution that can perform mobilization rapidly. The current market is highly fragmented with no universal, cost effective, and rapid mobilization solutions available. Thus, there is a need for a solution that can achieve rapid mobilization with minimal effort on the part of the enterprise and at the same time provide the rich set of functionality that the enterprise requires.
Award # 1215245 While enterprise applications are traditionally offered on a PC platform, recent studies have shown that knowledge workers typically spend only one-third of their time physically at their desk, but are very likely to possess smartphones. Such trends have motivated enterprises to strategically invest in application mobilization, where applications hitherto accessible only on PC platforms are made accessible from smartphones and tablets. Application mobilization is done today using one of three different strategies: (i) homegrown solutions where enterprises directly invest resources in developing custom mobilized applications; (ii) third party solutions where application vendors such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft provide mobilization platforms that can in-turn be used by enterprises to mobilize applications with appropriate development and configurations; and (iii) cross platform solutions like web applications or solutions such as Appcelerator, AppMobi, etc., that allow for platform independent app development. The typical goals of an enterprise for application mobilization are the following: (i) low cost/time to mobilization, (ii) feature parity with original application, (iii) user friendliness, and (iv) minimal changes to IT. In this context, we have developed a rapid mobilization solution called *Mobile that is built atop a traditional remote computing solution. However, *Mobile dynamically transforms the application views in a manner that make them appropriate for consumption on smartphones and tablets. The *Mobile design consists of two components: (i) virtual view - that virtualizes application views independent of the UI framework used into a set of UI elements and attributes that can be easily manipulated; and (ii) transformation services - that can be programmed onto the *Mobile platform to operate on the virtual view during run-time in order to realize a smartphone friendly view. Our accomplishments towards the three objectives for this NSF SBIR Phase I proposal are summarized below: (i) Cloud Backend: We have successfully developed a cloud based offering of *Mobile using the Amazon EC2 cloud infrastructure to provide a dynamic backend that can increase/decrease computational resources as required by the number of users accessing the system. This cloud-based backend offers the desired scalability and at the same time makes the adoption of *Mobile non-intrusive. All access to the cloud from a mobile device is secured using industry grade SSL encryption. (ii) New Transformation Services: We have also successfully developed more transformation services using the Virtual View API. Customer and Market requirements influenced the selection of the following services as those with highest priority: (1) Layout, (2) Focus, (3) Overflow, and (4) Zoom. These new transformation services work in tandem to provide a user experience commensurate with what a native mobile app would provide to the user. (iii) Mobile Platforms: Finally, we have implemented the *Mobile client for both Android and iOS devices, and for both smartphones and tablets. While the smartphone version of the client is optimized for different possible screen resolutions that are available in the market, the tablet version is currently presented in the 2X mode where the highest smartphone resolution is zoomed to fit the tablet screen. Key accomplishments of StarMobile, Inc., that were significantly aided by this NSF SBIR Phase I award are highlighted below: Filed three US patents and one provisional patent on the core *Mobile technology. Delivered first commercial mobile client software (StarMobile Android v1.0 and StarMobile iOS v1.0), available via Google Play and Apple iTunes AppStore. Delivered first commercial cloud software product release (StarMobile v1.0), a Software-as-a-Services (SaaS) offering available via Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. Entered into exclusive worldwide license agreement with Georgia Tech Research Corporation to use the IP that was invented as part of research conducted in Georgia Institute of Technology. Emerged from the Georgia Tech VentureLab and joined the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) incubator program. Brought on a CEO (Todd Fryburger) with considerable enterprise software and mobility experience (CompuServe, CSC, PeopleSoft, Cramer, CAS and SAP). Delivered first successful proof-of-concept (IHG), and developed a pipeline of other "early adopter" customers who will become commercial customers in 1Q13. Received Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Phase 1, 2, and 3 grants.
