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| Acando's Hans Nygaard |
Hans is the Manager for Mobile Solutions and focuses most of his time on blue collar and field services kinds of mobile projects. They work on a lot of 100-200 user projects, but are currently working on a large deployment that includes 5,000 service technicians in 14 countries.
Hans has been working in the SAP ecosystem since 2003 and on SAP related mobility projects since 2007. He has a wife and two kids and lives 45 minutes outside of Copenhagen.
Note: This interview consists of both written and verbal responses from Hans.
Kevin: Since you have been involved in SAP enterprise mobility since 2007, what are your thoughts about SAP's acquisition of Sybase in 2010?
Hans: I have mixed feelings. It was a lot of money. Sybase has great offline and push mobile technology, so that is good, but I am still confused about how Sybase's and SAP's middleware will merge into one mobile middleware solution.
Kevin: What mobile device(s) do you carry?
Hans: iPhone 4, iPad and a laptop (PC).
Kevin: What are some of your mobile applications that you have on your mobile devices?
Hans: For work it’s the Safari browser, email and calendar. Privately the favorites are the Amplitube app (with headphones) for practicing bass without annoying the family, a stock app and Facebook.
Kevin: Do you use your mobile device to buy things?
Hans: Yes, the iPad is perfect for shopping online! I call it couch shopping…it is too easy. I love the eBay app! I even bought a vintage 69 Mustang using the iPad.
Kevin: How many computing devices do you have in your home:
Hans: Nine total. Three iPhones, one iPad, three laptops and 2 PCs.
Kevin: How long have you been involved in enterprise mobility?
Hans: As an SAP solution architect I have been keeping track of developments since it was in its infancy, but full time professionally since 2007.
Kevin: What is different today, than when you started with enterprise mobility?
Hans: The tools have changed for provisioning of mobile devices. Today you just scan the barcode on the box and all the set up is done. It is much easier to set up mobile applications today. The technology infrastructure has matured. Many years ago I worked on a Siemens PDA app, and it was slow and not very good. Today, one SAP system is supporting 5,000 mobile service technicians. It integrates with the SAP CS, MM and HR modules.
Kevin: What industries do you see adopting mobility today?
Hans: The big gold rush is in blue collar apps across industries: field service, spreading to internal maintenance and QA. If you leave email and time & travel out, white collar is still testing and taking baby steps, tablets with mobile OS will change that.
Kevin: What business processes do you see companies mobilizing first, second, third?
Hans: Companies are looking for processes that have a lot of (similar) users and where the business case is clear cut. External field service is top of the list and savings are in removing manual (double) paper registrations, improved reporting, shorter order-to-cash, SLA compliance, better resource allocation, etc. Any one of these alone usually justifies the implementation project. Also time & travel registration, internal maintenance, admin workflows like QA approvals, invoice approvals are in the top five, etc.
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Acando's Hans Nygaard, Part 2
Click here to read more in the Mobile Expert Interview Series.
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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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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.
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