"Standing Alone" increasingly challenging for mobile-first EMM ISVs
Larry Dignan's article over at ZDNet this past week was a shot across the bow for the EMM market. In case you missed it, MobileIron announced that their CFO was departing, and issued a profit warning in their pre-announcement of their Q1 earnings (the company's Q1 earning call is scheduled for this Thursday). In their pre-announcement, MobileIron said that its Q1 non-GAAP revenue will be between $32M-$33M (down from its previous outlook of $34M-$37M). Gross billings (between $35.5M-$37M) were also lower than the $40M-$42M that they had expected. MobileIron's CEO Bob Tinker attributed the miss to several large deals not closing in Q1. Tinker also argued that the company's customers were moving toward monthly subscriptions and that the trend was cutting into revenue (reasonable).
What MOBL's Miss Means for the Broader Market
The EMM space is the most visible of the "segments" of the enterprise mobility ecosystem: not only have there been notable acquisitions (AirWatch, BoxTone, Fiberlink, and Zenprise), but participating vendors have demonstrated that they can win large deals, and attract key partners in the channel. However, being one of the two (Tangoe is the other) public "pure-play" mobile-first EMM ISVs is a challenge, as every move is "under the microscope". While EMM vendors are enjoying success in the market, the market is shifting beneath their feet. "Standing alone" as several prominent vendors currently are (e.g., Globo, Good Technology, MobileIron and SOTI) will be increasingly challenging moving forward as global channel expansion and substantial R&D investments that ensure continual product enhancements will be required— not to mention the growing footprint of large and established vendors who have recently entered / plan to enter this market (e.g., Accelerite, CA, Dell, Microsoft, and Oracle).
Pivot!
I wrote about the "EMM Pivot" I was expecting this past March — and recent discussions I’ve had with several prominent EMM vendors has revealed an interesting approach on how they intend to evolve and differentiate their platforms moving forward. Key initiatives that are in development and on most road maps include:
If you participate in this market, I'm still taking briefings to discuss the evolution of EMM and the pivot that I anticipate.
View the 2017 Enterprise Mobility & Connected Devices Research Outline to learn more.