Mobility Vendor Strategies for Supporting SAP's Unwired Platform

SAP Unwired Platform

I read a whitepaper today, ClickSoftware's Mobility Suite and the Sybase Mobility Solutions that details how ClickSoftware intends to support SAP's mobility strategy and the reasons for doing so. 

I get a lot of questions from systems integrators about how the various SAP mobility partners will be supporting SUP and SAP's mobility strategy, so this is a timely whitepaper from one vendor that does a good job of explaining their strategy.

Related links:

• Sybase's Shawn McEwen
• ClickSoftware's Nigel Clark

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – December 16, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

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In the first three months of 2010, just 2.1 percent of smartphones shipped in Australia were based on the Android platform, but over the succeeding three months to the end of June, the percentage of Android shipments had more than trebled, reaching 7.1 percent at the end of that period. Then in the three months to the end of September, Android’s share of the smartphone market exploded again — up to 21 percent.

http://delimiter.com.au/2010/12/09/android-triples-aussie-market-share-in-3-months/

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Samsung has been in overdrive to catch up with rivals Apple, which makes the iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry in the smartphone sector. In the last quarter, Samsung tripled its market share to nine percent, making it the fourth biggest player in the smartphone segment.

http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_bus/2010-12-08/696861479515.html

Mobile Expert Interview Series: ClickSoftware's Founder Dr. Moshe BenBassat

I had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Moshe BenBassat, Founder of ClickSoftware yesterday about the release of their lastest version of ClickMobile called ClickMobile Professional.  He was calling from Israel where they have been having some very stormy winter weather over the past week. 

Let me first give you some background on Dr. BenBassat.  Following a long and successful academic career with positions at USC, Tel Aviv University and UCLA, he established himself as one of the world's leaders in the area of optimization and decision support software for a wide variety of applications. His research work was supported by DARPA (the U.S.’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency); NIH (National Institute of Health); Ballistic Missile Defense Agency (via TRW); ARI (U.S. Army Research Institute); NASA; and NSF (National Science Foundation).  Now that is credibility!



*Important Note:  These are not Dr. BenBassat's exact words, rather a compilation of my notes taken during our discussion.

Kevin:  Tell me about the new version of ClickMobile Professional that you announced today.
Dr. BenBassat:   What makes this version unique is that it uses HTML5 to become device agnostic.  It has what I call a universal mobile client that can run on and support all the major mobile operating systems, plus device specific features, offline/online and data syncing capabilities.

Mobile Expert Interview Series: SAP's Nick Brown

SAP's Nick Brown on the right

I had the opportunity to catch up with SAP's Nick Brown with the Mobile Business Unit on the phone this morning.  He was calling from dark and snowy Waldorf, Germany.  This call was scheduled to help cover some of the questions that did not get answered at last week's SAP Infuencer Summit (see my full report from this event here).

Here are the questions that were asked by you the readers of this blog that were not answered in full at the event.

*Important Note:  These are not the exact words of Nick Brown.  I have often shortened the answers and revised them to be more concise for the purpose of this article.  I have tried my best to keep the original meaning.  Blame me for any misinterpretations.

Kevin:  Will there be Android support in SUP (SAP unwired platform)? 
Nick:  Yes, full support will be released in the second half of 2011.  However, partial support for lightweight applications will be sooner.

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 15, 2010

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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Bango forecasts that in-application charging in 2011 will grow more than 600 percent to account for close to 30 percent of all mobile application payments.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/in-app-billing-revenue-to-grow-600pc-in-2011-bango/

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ABI research has announced that about 50 percent of smartphone users are planning to use their devices for mobile banking, including mobile shopping. A parallel announcement this week highlighted the ABI survey findings when Wells Fargo began rolling out its mobile banking pilot.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/client/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228701963&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

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Mobile banking impacts consumers' bank selection, according to the Mobile Banking Perception Study by global market research company Synovate. Perceptions change about a bank if it does not offer mobile banking services and the study shows that about 50 percent of consumers of this service use it for stock trading.

HTML5 and Workforce Management and Service Optimization Solutions

I have been following the developments around HTML5 with interest so was intrigued by the following announcement.

This week ClickSoftware announced the availability of ClickMobile Professional, a major release built with the cutting-edge abilities of HTML5.

The flexibility of HTML5 technology allows for a “hybrid” deployment of the application:  as a web-based application, it requires no download or installation.  In “no-connectivity” situations, technicians can still use the application offline and when connectivity is back, store and forward messages.

With ClickMobile Professional the entire service ecosystem – in the field, in dispatch and call center, in HR and in the warehouse – gains real-world, real-time visibility and flexibility for the unpredictable service world where surprises are the norm and real time updates are a must.

B2M mProdigy and Mobile Application Analytics

mProdigy from B2M

I had an interesting discussion last week with Padraig Regan the CTO of B2M Solutions.  B2M focuses on two key areas:

1. Mobile Device Management
2. Mobile Intelligence

The area of particular interest to me was mobile intelligence.  B2M has a solution called mProdigy that can be embedded in mobile applications to report on all device and application related information.  Specifically, it can monitor all activities in the mobile application and business process, so it can be used to analyze mobile device, application processes and human performance.

One simple example is battery life analysis.  You can view when a mobile device is charged and how much it is charged when it is removed from the charger. You can monitor the average battery charge your team starts with each morning and each time a critical battery level occurs?  You can evaluate which devices have the best battery life and which have the worst?  You can see when batteries are bad and which groups are simply not following correct battery charging processes? 

Kevin’s Mobile Retailing Newsletter Weekly - December 14, 2010

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile retailing applications and mobile marketing applications that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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While 57 percent of consumers would be interested in opting in to a brand's loyalty club via a mobile social networking application such as Facebook, 80 percent still have not been marketed to by their favorite brands via their mobile device.

http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=2047982&spid=24698

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Fresh off a partnership with Target, Shopkick is bringing its geo-coupon system to Android phones with a free app. Android users can now access in store coupons from Best Buy, Macy’s, Target, American Eagle, Sports Authority and more.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/18/shopkick-brings-in-store-mobile-coupons-to-android-phones/

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This holiday season Toys ‘R” Us is equipping its retail outlets with scanners that can read coupon bar codes on mobile phones and is launching a text messaging program alerting shoppers to deals.

SAP Influencer Summit 2010 Report on Enterprise Mobility

SAP Mentors John Appleby
and Jon Reed

Last week I attended the SAP Influencer Summit in Santa Clara, California.  About 220 people were in attendance at the Santa Clara Marriott on Mission College Blvd.  The purpose of the summit was for SAP to provide an update to industry analysts, bloggers and other people with loud voices in the market place, on the progress they have made on the goals that were shared earlier in the year.  A consolidated view of my real time tweets from the event last week can be found in a blog article here.

This is a long article, so if you have limited time here is the executive overview.  At TechEd in October 2010 SAP was not prepared to talk about any roadmaps or details on the integration of SAP and Sybase.  However, at the SAP Influencer Summit 2010, they brought the right people that were prepared to answer detailed questions.  I was impressed that smart people are in charge and taking SAP enterprise mobility in the right direction.  That direction should result in product releases by Sapphire 2011 (May 2011).

Mobile Retail Applications a Transformational Trend

 I read an interesting article today in Bloomberg about mobile shopping and mobile retailing applications.  Here are a few excerpts.

• Almost 60 percent of mobile consumers expect to use their phones to help with shopping plans and holiday celebrations this season, according to the Mobile Marketing Association.
• Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm recently stated, “The phone is going to be the payment mechanism of the future.  You’ll probably just scan whatever thing it was that you’re buying. It will cause the checkout to happen. It will cause the security to happen, so that when you walk out of the door it won’t ring the bell.” 
• About eight percent of consumers in the U.S. have bought something with a phone. That compares with 32 percent in Taiwan, which tops the list of major industrialized countries, according to IE Market Research Corp.  Finland was No. 1 in Europe, at 13 percent.

The article highlights the fact that Best Buy, Home Depot and Amazon.com all have mobile retailing applications now.  I have had many discussions with the mobile retailing experts at Smartsoft Mobile Solutions, and I find this market very interesting.  It combines the following:

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - December 9, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

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SAP AG has unveiled new innovations for the SAP StreamWork application that provide business and IT with valuable new choices.

http://www.sap.com/about/newsroom/press.epx?pressid=14474

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Best Buy, Home Depot and Amazon are among the retailers ramping up efforts to let shoppers scan bar codes, get discounts and find product information on their phones.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-02/best-buy-amazon-com-use-phones-to-reach-shoppers-swipe-sales-from-rivals.html

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Research firms have ramped up forecasts for 2010 smartphone sales and now expect the market to double from a year ago. The fast sales growth is causing shortages of components, with manufacturers scrambling for parts such as phone screens.

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 8, 2010

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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EBay sees growth in mobile payments, pushing its PayPal service toward the offline world.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10941154/1/ebay-sees-mobile-payment-growth-offline.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN

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Mobile shopping grew a massive 310 percent from last year as shoppers choose to dial up deals rather than deal with the crowds and traffic.

http://www.bizreport.com/2010/12/paypal-black-friday-mobile-shopping-grew-310.html

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Dueling mobile money deployments have already racked up some impressive numbers in the Fiji Islands, a country of 800,000 people and over 300 islands. After only four months of service, nearly a quarter of all Fijians now have mobile wallets allowing them not only to transfer money to each other, but also to pay utility bills as well as top up their mobile phone airtime.

What I Learned about Mobility at the SAP Influencer Summit 2010

I have compiled my tweets (join me on Twitter @krbenedict) that I published over the past few days here at the SAP Influencer Summit in Santa Clara, CA. I focus on enterprise mobility so this is the topic of most of these tweets.

1. Prashant Chatterjee said 100% of customers add customized features to their mobile apps today.

2. We got solid mobile roadmap answers at the SAP Influencer summit.

3. The 365, Mobiliser Service Platform and SUP will start to converge around the tools in the mobile SDK.

4. Sybase Mobiliser Service Platform consists of communications, apps and commerce functions (365).

5. Mobile developers may have a revenue opportunity developing add-ons to the mobile SDK and selling on SAP EcoHub.

List of Submitted Questions for SAP's Mobile Business Unit

Prashant Chatterjee, John Appleby

This is the list of questions concerning SAP's mobile strategy that readers have submitted to me over the past three days.  I am attending the SAP Influencer Summit this week and have shared these questions from the mobility teams at SAP/Sybase.  I have some answers already and will write these up in a separate article later this week.  If you would like to add a question to this list please email them to me and put SAP Influencer Summit Questions in the subject line.

Here is the latest compilation of questions submitted by readers of the blog http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/.

Mobile Applications and Location Context

The other day a group of us mobile technology consultants met at the Chicago airport before driving out to a client's location.  Having missed lunch, we decided to search for a quick bite to eat. 

We found a Subway Sandwich location right off a freeway exit.  However, once we arrived we found that the restaurant had one-inch thick bullet proof glass separating the customers from the restaurant staff, and a group of men were guarding the entrances to the parking lot and making non-stop transactions through the windows of a long line of cars.

Our mobile applications and mobile maps helped us quickly find a restaurant, but our mobile apps did nothing to help us know if the locations were healthy or safe.  I want a mobile application that will show me more than simply data points.  I don't just want to know where food is sold, but where it is safe to consume it.  Who wants to find an unsafe restaurant in which to eat?

This experience, has made me really appreciate the value of mobile applications that include contextual features and capabilities.  I want to know the following:

When Mobility Is Not About Mobility

Where is the value in a mobile application?  Today, at the SAP Influencer Summit, Prashant Chatterjee with Sybase, an SAP company, hinted at an answer.  He said the value mobile software developers need to bring to the SAP mobile ecosystem is vertical industry knowledge.  The value of a mobile application is found in its ability to support very specific business and industry processes.

The ability to integrate and automate best practices and rich content into mobile applications is powerful.  No one is looking for vendors that can simply build screens on a mobile device.  They want intelligent mobile applications, with deep industry expertise architected into it and integration into core business software systems and database content.

Prashant gave an example of an oil refinery environment.  He said there are very unique requirements for enterprise asset management in an oil refinery and in the management of pipelines.  These unique requirements, supported by a mobile application, would be a great vertical niche market.

An example of a mobility solution vendor is Syclo, a co-innovation partner of SAP.  They have tightly integrated their mobile applications with the SAP enterprise asset management solutions to provide this industry support.

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly – December 7, 2010

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile retailing applications and mobile marketing applications that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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On Cyber Monday mobile commerce sales from eBay shoppers in the United States increased 146 percent year over year, with California, Nevada, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida leading the way as the top mobile shopping states.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/ebay-us-mobile-commerce-sales-soar-146pc-on-cyber-monday/

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IBM announced that the Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. website has experienced a double digit increase in sales using IBM software to advance its online and mobile commerce initiatives. Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. sells leading brands in apparel, cosmetics and home furnishings.

HTML 5 and Sybase Unwired Platform

Sybase, an SAP company, has made a lot of money over the years selling mobile client databases.  These databases (SQL Anywhere Database Client) reside on the mobile device and are synchronized with a technology called SQL Anywhere Mobilink.  I wonder how this revenue stream will be impacted by the emergence and adoption of HTML 5.

Does anyone dare share an opinion?

HTML 5 has a database built into it.  Every mobile client that uses this HTML 5 database means one less potential SQL Anywhere Database Client license for Sybase. 

I read this week on Gil Bouhnick's blog MobileFever, that ClickSoftware is releasing their first HTML 5 version of their ClickMobile solution.  Last month I saw a demo of their iPad version running HTML 5 and it was a great looking application.

I look forward to your thoughts and comments regarding the impact you believe HTML 5 will have on the enterprise mobility market.

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – December 2, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

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Analysts predict the mobile application market will be worth $4 billion by next year.

http://green.tmcnet.com/news/2010/11/25/5158630.htm

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Google's Android OS has successfully managed to dethrone Symbian as the most popular smartphone OS in Asia for the third quarter of 2010.

http://www.pcworld.in/news/android-most-popular-smartphone-platform-asia-41562010

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The iPhone's popularity in Japan is cracking open an industry long thought inaccessible to outsiders.

Facebook, Mobility and Field Services Applications

I have been watching with keen interest the convergence of social networking and enterprise mobility.  Recently, SAP mobility partner, ClickSoftware announced a social media extension to their SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization solution that is very interesting and worth highlighting. 

Customers can book and change service appointments directly on a service organization’s Facebook page.  Customers can receive reminders and notifications on the expected arrival time of the field service engineer to minimize wait times.  With this extension, Facebook becomes yet another interaction channel for ClickContact, which can also integrate two-way communication with company web pages, automated voice calls, e-mail and SMS. Customers may select their preferred channels of communication at any time.

Right now, Facebook does not support this application extension on the Facebook mobile application, but this is expected in the near future. So today the customer accesses Facebook from their browser and books or reschedules their appointment.  How does this relate to mobility?  Customers can configure the Facebook application to send notifications to their smartphones via email, voice message, Facebook notification or text.

Mobile Enterprise Management Platform

Is another mobile acronym on your Christmas list?  Great!  I have one for you, MEMP (mobile enterprise management platform).  A MEMP is designed to help you keep mobile systems, mobile networks, mobile devices and your mobile workforce working and productive.  This is not easy if you have several thousand mobile devices being used in mission critical roles across a wide geographic area.

When my family and I are traveling on trains in Europe, all of the rail staff that check your tickets and sell you snacks are carrying mobile devices.  Airports and airport gates are increasingly being operated by people with mobile devices.  Public safety and emergency responders are nearly all carrying mobile devices today.

If you have the good fortune of being the person responsible for keeping mission critical mobile applications and mobile devices operating, then you would appreciate the value of a MEMP.

Global Economic Development, Prosperity and Enterprise Mobility

In the book The Birth of Plenty, the author William J. Bernstein proposes that prosperity is based on the following four tenets:

1. Property Rights – Creators must have proper incentives to create.

2. Scientific Rationalism – Innovators must possess the proper intellectual tools in order to innovate and must be able to do so without fear of retribution.

3. Capital Markets – Entrepreneurs must have access to sufficient capital to pursue their visions.

4. Transportation/Communications – Society must be able to rapidly and efficiently move information and finished products.

Bernstein says that the presence of, or lack of, these four items determines the level of prosperity of a people or country.

When I read item four on the list I thought about enterprise mobility.  I have worked on, seen and heard about many mobile enterprise applications that have enabled economic development and a higher quality of life.  Let me share a few of them.

The Intangible Benefits of Enterprise Mobility

Click for Information

In an article re-published in The Wall Street Journal last year, The Secrets of Intangible Wealth, author Ronald Bailey writes the following, “A Mexican migrant to the US is 5 times more productive than one who stays home.”  Did your interest peak like mine when you read that line?  The data comes from research done by the World Bank.  Here is the reason why according to Bailey.  The average American has access to over $418,000 in intangible wealth, while the stay-at-home Mexican’s intangible wealth is just $34,000.

What is intangible wealth? The World Bank’s environmental economics department describes it as, “trust among people in a society, an efficient judicial system, clear property rights and effective governments.”  The value of these intangibles according to the World Bank is significant.  Who wants to invest in property if it can be taken away any time?  Who wants to develop a large manufacturing plant in a location where these intangibles are hard to come by?

Key Performance Indicators in Mobile Applications

Picture this - a service technician, Frank, opens his mobile application and sees that he is ranked sixth out of 18 service technicians in products and services sold.  He also sees that he is the fastest service technician at completing work on a particular piece of equipment.  Overall he can see that he is ranked number three when all of the figures are added up and weighed.  Now let me ask you, "Is this a good thing?" 

Is it useful to develop KPIs (key performance indicators) and then measure and share them?  Will it motivate positive performance?  One of the key challenges managers have is effectively managing a remote and mobile workforce.  Will KPIs that are measured and shared on mobile devices help?

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 1, 2010

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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New forecasts from ABI Research indicate that in 2015 about 244 million people worldwide will carry out financial transactions using their mobile phones.

http://www.sys-con.com/node/1610685
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Google’s newest iteration of its Android phone OS will include a wallet that lets you use your phone to make payments by tapping it against a cash register.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/android-wallet