Good Technology hosted its inaugural Good Exchange in NYC on June 3, 2014, an event I had the pleasure of attending. Good has a long and often colorful history in the enterprise mobility market. Perhaps best known for its secure email solutions, the company has evolved considerably as it sets itself up for an IPO. Acquisitions have played prominently with Good acquiring BoxTone in early 2014, a pioneer in the mobile service management space, bookended by today’s announced acquisition Fixmo, a leading provider of mobile security and device integrity solutions. Buttressing these acquisitions include a series of new launches including a secure mobile collaboration app and a trusted authentication framework, consisting of APIs that can be used with two-factor, single sign-on biometric and smartcard authentication modes. Early partners supporting this initiative include EyeVerify, Biometrics Associates, Intercede, Mi-Token and Precise Biometrics. Rounding this out includes a Salesforce.com application and a much needed new interface for Good for Enterprise. This is clearly a sign that Christy Wyatt and her executive team are taking the new market dynamics to heart and are on their way to integrating the necessary pieces to deliver a much needed secure and trusted mobile management and development service.
So what does this all mean? Ever since VMware’s monster acquisition of AirWatch, IBM’s acquisition of Fiberlink and Citrix’s greater push into mobile device management, the mobile landscape – including the rules of engagement – has changed dramatically. Not to mention that BlackBerry – its renewed enterprise focus notwithstanding – continues to lose customers as Apple expands its enterprise support capabilities and Google recently announced its acquisition of Divide. Good is attempting to plug the void that BlackBerry is leaving in the market and has most of the assets to do so. However, as evidenced by their recent IPO filing, Good needs to dramatically scale to hit key financial benchmarks. Key considerations for Good in achieving these goals:
However, at the end of the day, it is all about the apps. Today the majority of Good customers are relatively basic when it comes to their current mobile status. A primarily BYOD-influenced MDM investment is perhaps an apt characterization. However, Good, and the market, wins only when mobility becomes more strategic in how a salesforce engages with customers, how service technicians manage assets, how nurses care for their patients. It is when mobility becomes truly transformational that Good can elevate its status within customer organizations. Put another way, all the security capabilities Good is building out are only useful if there are apps available for them to protect. While Good is enabling its customers and partners through Good Dynamics to develop and deploy secure applications, today Good has only limited mindshare and cache among developers. Good is working on building out its app eco-system as evidenced by its Salesforce.com relationship and is talking about White Labeling its platform to carriers and managed service providers to extend its reach to smaller organizations. This will be a substantial initiative for Good, requiring significant marketing investments and also a more consultative approach to their sales engagement.