What is a workflow application? VMware enters application suite? Discover here.
At VMworld 2017, we learned about Workspace One Mobile Flows, the entry of VMware into the "workflow application" space.
Today, let's look at what a workflow application really is; what we know about the VMware offer; how VMware works with its partners; and why this is useful.
A "workflow" application is a rather specific type of application, not for general file access, conversation or content manipulation; is to perform separate tasks based on events, time, location, or other contextual entries. Tasks could be business decisions; small sets of dependent and recurring operations; or quick data entry or retrieval. Generally, these are tasks that can be completed quickly, within a few seconds to a maximum of minutes. These applications can also be called micro-applications.
One of the functionality of workflow applications is to facilitate tasks involving other systems, including email / chat, databases, CRM / HR / ERP, service tickets, and more. This is especially important on mobile devices, where switching between applications can be a pain.
Workflows are often presented in what is called a "map" user interface basically, a small snippet of an application that displays the information you need along the entries needed to take action on the information . Usually, a single card is not worth its own stand-alone application, so it is inserted in other places, for example, inside or next to emails, in chat applications like Slack or in another application that displays multiple workflow cards as needed.
In VMware Things
VMware has thought about this concept at least as far as AirWatch Connect 2016, where they showed proof of concept. It's like Siri, except that you can access Salesforce, employee directories, maps, use the Workspace One infrastructure, and so on. "
Colin Steele took advantage of the announcement of Mobile Flows a few weeks before VMworld, and Mobile Flows appeared in the super session of EUC. I spoke to Marshall Anne Busbee, Product Manager, for more details.
The mobile streams are now in the technical overview, with no general schedule available at the moment; interested customers can register for the beta. This will be an additional payment for Workspace One, with prices to be determined.
Like many similar products, we covered, it is useful to think about the three-part mobile stream. You need a client end where you can present cards; you need some backend integrations to connect to all your recording systems; and you need a policy engine and logic between the two.
With mobile workflows, VMware Workspace One is obviously the center, as it already has a policy and compliance engine, identity integrations, device and application visibility, Workspace One Intelligence data, integration with AirWatch mobile application management, and DLP functionality, and more. Some of these things will be available in the mobile streams right away, others will take time, but you get the idea.
At the end of the customer, they say "everywhere", but for now, the cards will appear in the body of the Boxer email; launch a mobile stream SDK, so you can create your own client deployments; and they will also make an example application that is a reference implementation of the SDK. In the future, VMware will be part of Workspace One customers. Partners can also display maps, as Powwow demonstrated in VMworld (video via VMBlog).
On the other hand, to integrate with the recording systems, VMware will have pre-built connectors for Salesforce and Jira (and you can imagine that it's easy enough to extract the data from the workspace to create computer-based workflow maps). They also have an open source connector to create custom integrations. Beyond that, VMware relies on partners for future integrations, with partners Capriza, Dell Boomi, Powwow and Sapho .
