Author Archives: Maureen

One of 7 Cool Products Interop NY – LINK by Mobile Helix

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Interop Big Apple opens today at the Javits Center.

We are thrilled to announce that LINK was selected by InformationWeek as one of “7 Cool Products” at Interop NY. Thank you very much, InformationWeek, for spotlighting our Link enterprise mobile app as an innovation solution for mobile professionals.

You can see LINK for yourself one of three ways:

1. Attend our session, Enabling Secure Mobile Workflows in the Real World, Weds. 10/1, 11:30 AM at Interop. Details here: http://goo.gl/4Ccucb

2. Visit Booth 429 at Interop to meet us and to see a demo of Link.

3. If you are not at Interop, take a look at our terrific 1 minute videos showing Link Email, Files and SharePoint here: http://goo.gl/V0zZF6

Link frees you from the office. Quickly access your work files, Outlook, SharePoint, and company web applications from a single workspace on your smartphone or tablet. We focus on providing the workflows which you use daily, such as sending a doc from behind the company firewall to a client and editing Office docs while mobile. You can even access your files when you are offline. Link secures sensitive corporate data rather than the mobile device itself and can be deployed on premise or as a cloud service.

See you at Interop – Maureen, Matt, and Ilya

Mobile Helix Introduces Link at INTEROP NYC

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Next week we celebrate our New York City roots by bringing Link to Interop NYC. Link is a secure mobile app which makes it easy to work with company files, Outlook, Office, SharePoint, and intranet apps from a single workplace on your mobile device.

See Link in action and learn more about the workflows which Link enables at our Technology Briefing at 11.30am on Wednesday October 1st, in Vendor Tech Session Room 2, located in Booth #745, Expo Floor, Level 3.

In the Expo, visit us in booth 429 to view a quick demo of Link. You will see, for example, how easy it is to compose an email and attach a link to a file which is stored behind the corporate firewall – no need for public cloud solutions.

You can even take the Link iOS Test Drive in our booth. Install Link on your iOS device and try out Link on the spot.

From the IT perspective, the beauty of Link is that it is simple to deploy and maintain. Total cost of ownership is low as Link runs on standard IT infrastructure such as VMs, app servers, and HTTPS connections. Link is encrypted end-to-end, with AES-256 encryption at-rest and TLS over HTTPS in-motion. We will show you Link’s policies to manage security, roles, users and apps in our management console.

Interop has long been the leading conference on infrastructure, the Cloud, security, and mobility. Interop NYC is held at the Javits Center. In fact, it’s not too late to register for a free pass to the Expo (available through Sept. 26th).

Look for Link at booth 429.

–Maureen

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Three Things That You Need to Try at ILTA 2014

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When we committed ourselves to providing the workflows which legal teams need to get real work done on mobile devices, we were not kidding. It started with listening to legal IT professionals.

Now, at ILTA 2014 we are thrilled to introduce three new features specifically crafted for legal teams.

1. Link’s integration with WorkSite (iManage) Document Management System.
Search, view, edit, and sync docs in WorkSite. Save docs for offline access. All from your mobile device.

2. Link’s secure file sharing with external parties.
Easily send a client an encrypted link to an encrypted doc from your mobile device.
The original doc may be stored in WorkSite, SharePoint, CIFS, NetDocuments, Alfresco and other file management systems.

3. Edit SharePoint docs with Microsoft Office Online, formerly Office Web Apps.
Check the edited doc back into SharePoint.

Take our Link Test Drive on the spot at ILTA14. In our booth you can install Mobile Helix Link from the App Store and then immediately get up and running with files, SharePoint and Outlook Email, Contacts and Calendar in our hosted demo environment.

Bonus – we will have a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card each day for people who take the Link Test Drive.

We are looking forward to meeting you at ILTA14! See you at Booth 814.

– The Mobile Helix Team

Dolly and Taylor, see y’all soon – ILTA14 in Nashville!

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IMAGINE-header ILTA14

For the second year in a row we will be a sponsor of the International Legal Technology Association annual conference, this year in Nashville at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. The Opryland Hotel is sold out and ILTA expects a record-breaking crowd again this year.

Naturally we will be demoing our latest features and workflows in our booth, number 814. If you are familiar with our Link mobile app you know that Link makes it easy to get real work done on mobile devices. For instance, you can search all of your work file repositories to find a doc. That doc may be in SharePoint, your DM system, your ECM, or a CIFS file share. You can edit that doc, sync it back and share it with people both internal and external to your company. With a few taps, create an appointment to review the doc with a client or colleague.

The beauty of Link is that it is a single, integrated app which hosts your Email, Contacts, Calendar, files and work web applications so that you can do all of your work from one app. Because Link is an encrypted container on your mobile device, IT can manage the security of firm data while your personal data and apps remain private.

We will preview the new features and workflows which will be launching at ILTA14 in this blog in early August. Watch for our tweets: @mobilehelix .

To make an appointment for a demo at ILTA14, just email me: Maureen at mobilehelix dot com

We can’t wait to see y’all again this year, in Nashville.

It’s the Small Things

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No, I’m not referring to diamonds and pearls. I’m talking about the mobile user experience. In fact, last week we were meeting with a professional services IT team who was complimenting us on our email features. Their network engineering lead said, “I like the way that you have thought about email. It’s the small things which make a big difference.” So true. The mobile user experience is about small capabilities which make working from mobile devices easier.

Mobile is a new cat. Let’s face it, keying in data is slow and cumbersome compared to the desktop keyboard. Do you key with two hands on your smartphone? Not if one is clutching your briefcase or the subway strap.

The less we have to type on our smartphones, the better. If I am reading an email from Elizabeth and I want to see all of my emails from Elizabeth, I really don’t want to have to type “Elizabeth” in a search box. I want to tap to find all of my other emails from her. And if I want to find an email which Elizabeth had sent me which has an attachment, I want to narrow my search to Elizabeth’s emails with attachments by tapping as well. To advance through those emails, I want to use a swipe gesture.

One of the workflows which we are focused on is taking action on files. If my company’s files are stored behind the company firewall, e.g., in CIFS fileshares, SharePoint, and an ECM, then I want to be able to quickly access those files without typing. If I am waiting for a flight and need to send a file to a client, I want to be able to attach that file to my email in matter of a few taps. If I want to save a file to review it on that flight, I need to be able to do that with a couple of taps.

We enable all of these use cases, and more, in Link. But the work on user experience is never done and we would love your input.

Take our Link Test Drive. No software is deployed on your site. It’s an easy way to see how the little things in Link can enable you to get real work done from your smartphone or tablet. You can contact us here.

– Maureen

ILTA SharePoint Symposium 2014

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sps2014logo
June 10th & 11th, Westin, Lombard, IL

ILTA events are distinguished by their camaraderie and their content. The SharePoint Symposium is entirely devoted to how legal teams use SharePoint. That’s a broad topic spanning business intelligence, extranets, social, compliance and, of course, mobility. Sessions are presented by legal technology and knowledge management professionals at law firms. I can’t think of another industry event where people in the same field are so willing to share their experience with their peers – what’s working and what they have successfully developed.

We are happy to be a sponsor of SPS14 again this year. We will be featuring Link’s unique integration with email, files, and document management systems, including SharePoint. Link equips lawyers with the features and workflows which they need to truly be able to work on mobile devices. There may be no other profession in which time is at such a premium. Link makes the difference between recognizing a task on mobile to act on later and acting on it now.

With Link email, files, SharePoint, Office, and applications are all accessible in a single encrypted workspace on your mobile device. It is simple to search documents in various repositories from your mobile device. Then you can edit, annotate, check-out/in, share, email or save for access later when you may be offline.

We look forward to showing you more of Link at SPS14!

– Maureen

Email, Meet Mobility

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Enterprise email is changing. It has to. If you have a corporate condoned email application on your mobile device, the chances are that it feels laborious compared to your device email app. That same corporate desktop email application which is very productive for us in the office is a heck of a thing to use on a mobile phone. The less I need to type on my touchpad keyboard to respond to a work email, the better. Reading an email on my smartphone can be worse than not reading it. I read my colleague’s email. Acting on it is too complex. I let it go for later. Now it’s submerged in a day’s worth of email.

I recall a tip from a time management class that I went to in the era when we still had paper in the office. “Only touch any piece of paper in your (then physical) inbox ONCE.” Disposition it when you first touch it. Don’t let it remain an open action to be dealt with again later.

While an email in my Inbox is virtual now, the objective is the same. Disposition it the first time.

What will allow you and me to manage email efficiently on our small screen mobile devices? Two things. The first, a user experience designed for mobile. Gesture-based, streamlined and intuitive. The second, integration with the files and data which we need to respond to that email. If I want to check a price sheet for data to answer a question I need to be able to view that data in a few taps. If I want to reply with a file to a sender, I need to be able to tap reply and tap to attach the file.

Our Link Email App is optimized for a mobile experience. Swipe through your inbox. Create an appointment. Tap to see the free/busy scheduler. Reply with a file attachment quickly, accessing any file which you can reach from your desktop.

For daily email actions, Link makes it easier to disposition that email while standing in line at Starbucks. That’s the reality of our work world today.

– Maureen

In the Cloud or on-premises – have it your way

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Enterprises are adopting the Cloud at varying speeds. While there may be debate about Cloud computing today, it’s safe to say that most of us anticipate a day when using the Cloud will be commonplace. At the same time, while on-premises resources may be reduced, it’s hard to imagine local computing going away entirely.

Our message for you about the Cloud is simple. The Link architecture was deliberately designed to be flexible.

Link can be deployed:

• Entirely on-premises
• In the Mobile Helix Cloud
• In your private cloud
• As a hybrid of the first three

We offer Link hosted in our Cloud, which is especially attractive to small and medium-sized businesses. Still, we find that today most companies prefer an entirely on-premises deployment. That’s fine with us. We are happy to say that no matter what your preferred deployment model may be, we support it.

– Maureen

Seahawks, Microsoft and the mobile web revolution

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Today is a huge day in Seattle – congratulations Seahawks fans! And with the apparently impending announcement of Microsoft’s new CEO it seemed a good time to comment on our perspective on Microsoft’s position in enterprise software and the demands for mobility.

It’s always refreshing to get out of my local market, the San Francisco Bay area. Here in the land of Google, Apple, Salesforce.com and Box there are plenty of people who have written off Microsoft. To be sure, Microsoft has a lot of work to do to ensure that its products retain, and regain, relevance in the next three to five years. Microsoft has missed the boat in consumer software. Still, it is important to keep in mind that in the enterprise Microsoft is doing colossal business. For their second quarter Microsoft reported posted profits of $6.6 billion on record quarterly revenue of $24.5 billion, beating the street. There were strong gains in the enterprise services sector, which includes Azure and Office 365 for business users.

In many verticals including financial, insurance, energy and professional services, Outlook and Office are the life blood for many of the largest companies in North America. Small and medium-sized business may have more flexibility to try something new. However, many don’t have huge security teams and therefore don’t want to go out on a limb with technology which may present new security challenges.

Moreover, visit enterprises outside of North America. Microsoft is a long established, trusted entity in many regions. Some regions are very reticent to move files to the public cloud or to use web-based apps.

Windows 7 (or its non-Metro successor) on the desktop, Office and Outlook, Active Directory/LDAP, Exchange, and SharePoint – in large enterprise firms and regions outside North America I see no rush to replace these products. Therefore, we provide intuitive mobile access to these solutions. We receive high praise for our SharePoint and Email (MS Exchange-based) user interfaces.

Yet, our Link Unified Endpoint Architecture APIs are flexible. Link is well-positioned to support the mobile web revolution. We can, and do, support other web applications, including SaaS applications, such as ECM and issue tracking, inside of our secure Link Container.

In summary – Microsoft is bread and butter for us in the enterprise. At the same time, Link is a simple and secure way to mobilize any web app, including SaaS apps. We embrace both.

– Maureen

Offline Access to Data – The Holy Grail of Mobility

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Mobility is fantastic, until you have no signal. I had to smile listening to Visage Mobile’s Mobile Justice League webinar when Benjamin Robbins of Palador commented that he experiences “datanoia”. Datanoia is the nagging concern, will I have the right data with me when I am offline? Benjamin (tweets as @PaladorBenjamin) is famous for working, much of the time on the road, entirely “mobile only” for one and a half years now. Tablet and smartphone only. It is definitely a challenge to have the right presentations, spreadsheets, and proposals, etc., at hand when the corporate network and the cloud are out of reach.

We identified this need for offline data a couple of years back. Offline access is a cornerstone of our offering. I can specifically save files for offline access in our encrypted Container. Moreover, if I have accessed a file while I am online, it will be cached to the secure container automatically. If I lose connectivity while I am working, I will be able to continue to work with a file which I have accessed. I can read, edit, and annotate files while offline, then sync them back when I am reconnected.

To be very clear, access control and security are of paramount importance to us at Mobile Helix. I only have offline access if IT has granted it to me via role, application and geo-location policy. Our Link solution includes policy control pertaining to:

• Which data can be cached offline
• How much data can be cached offline
• How long data can remain in the container before it expires
• What type of password or pincode is to be used for authentication
• Container idle – after a configurable idle period should the container be locked out?
• Whether the user may edit Word and Excel files
• Offline access to Link Email

Finally, all data is encrypted from end-to-end. The container is encrypted with AES-256. Data in-transit is encrypted with HTTPS/SSL.

Don’t lie awake with datanoia. Take your data with you, encrypted.

– Maureen

Additional Resource: Offline Data Architecture White Paper