Mobilizing IBM TRIRIGA on mobile

Are you a Netflix subscriber? I am. Or was. Actually, I joined way back in December 2004 for its rental DVDs, canceled my subscription in December 2011, rejoined in June 2013 for its streaming, then recanceled last month in October 2013. So I won’t be surprised if I resubscribe in 6 months.

Does this sound familiar? If so, then you probably have a good grasp of what cloud-based “software as a service” or SaaS is or can be. As a monthly subscriber, you can simply sign in to stream the Netflix content on your web browser or mobile app, and you can cancel or resubscribe at any time.

Netflix on an iPad

Hi, my name is Jay, and I’m an IBM TRIRIGA information developer at IBM. What does Netflix streaming have to do with IBM TRIRIGA IWMS software? I’ll tell you. In terms of not only SaaS but also mobile, I’m beginning to wonder if IBM TRIRIGA has lost its chance to become the Netflix of the enterprise-class IWMS world.

Why choose SaaS? Why choose mobile?

As a subscriber of Netflix SaaS streaming, if you own a computer with a web browser, then you don’t have to worry about buying or renting physical DVDs or using DVD players anymore. Also, if you own a tablet or smartphone with the Netflix mobile app, then you don’t have to worry about watching solely on a web browser either. Like I mentioned earlier, you can simply sign in, stream the content on either your web browser or mobile app, and enjoy the show.

Netflix on an iPad

Similarly, by subscribing to an IBM TRIRIGA SaaS solution, you don’t have to worry about installing, implementing, or maintaining the application servers, database software, and other software components on your physical infrastructure anymore. Also, by integrating an IBM TRIRIGA mobile solution, you don’t have to worry about performing tasks solely on a web browser either. You can simply sign in, perform your real estate or facilities tasks on either your web browser or mobile app, and sign out.

So what’s the problem?

From my personal perspective, one challenge that I see for IBM is that its business partners are leading the way in providing both IBM TRIRIGA SaaS and mobile solutions. To be clear, SaaS and mobile don’t necessarily require each other to address a business need, but when offered together as Netflix has done, the results can be extraordinary. Naturally, I’d like for IBM to release its own IBM TRIRIGA SaaS and mobile solutions, offer them together, and enjoy the same impressive results.

In a previous post, I listed four IBM partners that are currently offering IBM TRIRIGA SaaS solutions. Here are two of them: BRG and eCIFM.

BRG: IBM TRIRIGA SaaS

eCIFM: IBM TRIRIGA SaaS

Moreover, for this post, I can identify three IBM partners that offered pre-acquisition TRIRIGA mobile solutions in the past: Syclo, BRG, and Endmell.

• Syclo Mobile TRIRIGA Work Manager Lite for BlackBerry (2011) (YouTube: 2 minutes): According to its YouTube channel, the Syclo video was published in 2011. However, Syclo was acquired by SAP in 2012. According to the SAP website, the TRIRIGA name is no longer mentioned. So the current status of its IBM TRIRIGA mobile offering is unclear.

Syclo-TRIRIGA mobile offering

Syclo-TRIRIGA mobile offering

• BRG TRIRIGA Users’ Group (2013) (YouTube: 8 minutes): According to the BRG website, the BRG-TRIRIGA mobile solution still mentions the pre-acquisition Syclo name. According to its YouTube channel, the BRG video mentions that the SAP-Syclo mobile product was “still available” in 2013. However, the current status of its IBM TRIRIGA mobile offering is unclear.

BRG-TRIRIGA users’ group

BRG-TRIRIGA users’ group

• Endmell TriMobility: iPhone Solution for TRIRIGA (2009) (YouTube: 14 minutes): According to its copyright date, the Endmell website was last updated in 2009. Meanwhile, its subsidiary Whitesmiths website was last updated in 2011. Consequently, the current status of its IBM TRIRIGA mobile offering is unclear.

Endmell-TRIRIGA mobile offering

Endmell-TRIRIGA mobile offering

Based on these limited findings, a second challenge that I see for IBM is that besides these older mobile offerings, I haven’t found any clear indication of newer IBM TRIRIGA mobile solutions by IBM or its business partners since IBM acquired TRIRIGA in 2011. This mobile observation is perhaps more disappointing than the SaaS observation because in such a mobile-centric era, the Netflix-like opportunity for IBM TRIRIGA to command the mobile IWMS stage might be slipping away, if it hasn’t already disappeared.

What are my final thoughts?

Of course, it’s quite possible that I’m being unfair and it’s not too late. Despite these limited findings, I’m sure that I’m not the first one to recognize these patterns and challenges. On the contrary, there are probably teams at IBM that are developing both SaaS-flavored and mobile-flavored solutions of IBM TRIRIGA at this very moment. If so, then when their releases are announced, it’ll be a new day on the IWMS stage indeed.

On a remotely related note, if Netflix streaming and IBM TRIRIGA solutions can follow this inevitable yet inspiring path toward SaaS and mobile, why can’t DITA-XML editing software like Arbortext, Oxygen, and Flare follow the same path? If I can edit and share my cloud-based Google Drive documents from my smartphone today, why can’t I edit and share my cloud-based DITA topics and DITA maps from my tablet or smartphone in the near future? Why not? As an information developer, I can’t wait. :)

Do I have an update?

Eight months after mobilizing it on mobile, I looked at splitting IBM TRIRIGA into mobile bits!

Potential future of IBM TRIRIGA mobile apps

Related articles

• IBM Faces a Crisis in the Cloud (mashable.com)
• Why tech giants turn to Netflix for IT help (gigaom.com)
• Netflix Winning The Internet, Or Streaming Video Anyway (newsy.com)