Mobile apps are an important part of our disease-management program for diabetes patients who are monitoring blood glucose levels and need to get information anywhere at any time. When integrating our back-end systems, especially medical databases, we put a lot of effort into understanding requirements around data protection and security, and then confirming that they are in place for mobile. We look across the entire application architecture to make sure that our bases are covered on access points like Web browsers, PCs or mobile devices.

I agree with Vince's idea of approaching mobile portals differently than simply taking the PC version and making it accessible on mobile devices. The user interface just doesn't have the same amount of real estate, and you have to be much more selective about what you show and where you position it on the screen.

We start by creating one GUI for the Web, and then do that again to get the mobile version right. To determine which apps are client-installed and which are accessed via a browser, we use a decision matrix. My team considers things like the target user base and what they plan to do with the data. Viewing class schedules or checking sports scores could be done with a website; more UI-intensive tasks, like GPS, would require an installed app. The downside of installed apps is that you need to have a software-update and change-management strategy in place.

Advice: Secure the back end, Evaluate intensive tasks

Dave Corchado, CIO, iCrossing