In an article I read today on mobile marketing it said, "Consumers who own an Apple iPhone are more likely to shop online from their phones, than those consumers who owned phones based on Google Android or BlackBerry operating systems...BlackBerry is way behind the Android and iPhone."
Showing posts with label RIM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RIM. Show all posts
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Open Text's Micah Kalen
For those of you unfamiliar with Open Text, they are an SAP Co-Innovation Partner (like Syclo and RIM). They are an enterprise software company and leader in ECM (enterprise content management). Open Text brings two decades of expertise and supports millions of users in 114 countries. They are focused on helping organizations capture and preserve corporate memory, increase brand equity, automate processes, mitigate risk, manage compliance and improve competitiveness. With that said, they are also developing a mobile enterprise software application called Open Text Everywhere.
SAP to Acquire Sybase, Day 3 - Kevin Benedict's Thoughts and Analysis
There have been several additional comments made in the past 24 hours that seem to shed light on the thinking behind SAP's intent to acquire Sybase. These statements seem to be highlighting three specific themes:
Add these highlighted statements to SAP's co-CEO Bill McDermott's, "We see a huge emerging market for the real-time, unwired enterprise," and SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe's, "We want to make sure that SAP solutions can be accessed from all leading mobile devices."
I see the fog beginning to rise. The Sybase acquisition can ensure that a standardized way of integrating mobile devices and mobile enterprise applications with SAP systems is defined and available through Sybase's mobile middleware and integration tools. I spoke to an unnamed source in SAP who confirmed this statement with two taps on the table. This same source said there will always be choices in how to integrate, but there will be a defined SAP way for mobile software providers to integrate. SAP must have read my blogs.
I read and interpret that SAP believes mobility, mobile device support, and integration with mobile applications is too important to leave totally up to the discretion of partners. SAP wants to bring order to the chaos and define a path, methodology, and strategy for their partners.
On the question of where SAP's current mobility partners fit into this new world order, SAP's Rothenstein provided this statement, "SAP’s intent to acquire Sybase will expand opportunities for our joint ecosystems and we believe our software and implementation partners can capture new opportunities by innovating on Sybase’s open and market leading mobile platform."
The SAP statement above seems clear. Mobile software companies that develop "rich or thick mobile clients" in the SAP ecosystem will want to seriously consider embedding Sybase's mobile middleware, synchronization, integration, and device management technology in their future mobile software upgrades to better align with SAP's future direction.
I have had a chance to talk to a number of SAP's mobility partners in the last few hours who, after they digested the announcement, seem to have embraced it. To summarize (as I will blog more on this soon), they see incorporating relevant pieces of Sybase mobile middleware into their solutions, but continuing to see themselves as the subject matter experts on complex, tactical, and industry specific mobile applications.
One last thought for today (as my irrigation system needs to be activated before I leave for Sapphire) is that SAP seems to really be emphasizing the "support for all mobile devices" theme. This is very different than last year when there was a specific emphasis on RIM products.
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Kevin Benedict SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor,CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Mobile Industry Analyst, Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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- A shift from desktop to mobile devices
- A goal to connect with billions of mobile users
- Support for all leading mobile devices
Add these highlighted statements to SAP's co-CEO Bill McDermott's, "We see a huge emerging market for the real-time, unwired enterprise," and SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe's, "We want to make sure that SAP solutions can be accessed from all leading mobile devices."
I see the fog beginning to rise. The Sybase acquisition can ensure that a standardized way of integrating mobile devices and mobile enterprise applications with SAP systems is defined and available through Sybase's mobile middleware and integration tools. I spoke to an unnamed source in SAP who confirmed this statement with two taps on the table. This same source said there will always be choices in how to integrate, but there will be a defined SAP way for mobile software providers to integrate. SAP must have read my blogs.
I read and interpret that SAP believes mobility, mobile device support, and integration with mobile applications is too important to leave totally up to the discretion of partners. SAP wants to bring order to the chaos and define a path, methodology, and strategy for their partners.
On the question of where SAP's current mobility partners fit into this new world order, SAP's Rothenstein provided this statement, "SAP’s intent to acquire Sybase will expand opportunities for our joint ecosystems and we believe our software and implementation partners can capture new opportunities by innovating on Sybase’s open and market leading mobile platform."
The SAP statement above seems clear. Mobile software companies that develop "rich or thick mobile clients" in the SAP ecosystem will want to seriously consider embedding Sybase's mobile middleware, synchronization, integration, and device management technology in their future mobile software upgrades to better align with SAP's future direction.
I have had a chance to talk to a number of SAP's mobility partners in the last few hours who, after they digested the announcement, seem to have embraced it. To summarize (as I will blog more on this soon), they see incorporating relevant pieces of Sybase mobile middleware into their solutions, but continuing to see themselves as the subject matter experts on complex, tactical, and industry specific mobile applications.
One last thought for today (as my irrigation system needs to be activated before I leave for Sapphire) is that SAP seems to really be emphasizing the "support for all mobile devices" theme. This is very different than last year when there was a specific emphasis on RIM products.
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor,CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Mobile Industry Analyst, Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
***************************************************
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Syclo's Jeff Kleban
I was able to track down Jeff Kleban EVP and co-founder of Syclo for a good talk this morning. He was kind enough to share his perspective on the world of enterprise mobility and the SAP ecosystem.
To start, Jeff carries a BlackBerry 9700 series, and his favorite mobile application on it is Google Maps. He has been with Syclo from the beginning when there were only four people. Today, Syclo has over 135 employees.
Syclo is one of three co-innovation partners of SAP in the world of enterprise mobility. The three are RIM, Sybase, and Syclo. SAP co-innovation partners share sales revenue, development efforts and product roadmaps with SAP. I wonder if the co-innovation partnership increases the prices of their solutions? I also wonder if having SAP define the roadmap will allow the co-innovation partners to innovate fast enough to keep up with the markets fast changing technologies?
Jeff shared that SAP has designated some mobility applications and business processes as strategic. The strategic ones he identified are:
1. CRM sales force automation [Sybase is the co-innovation partner for this category]
2. CRM field services/enterprise asset management [Syclo is the co-innovation partner for this category]
RIM is also a co-innovation partner, but I am not sure what it covers these days. I have always wondered how an ERP vendor could cozy up to a particular mobile device manufacturer? The next greatest mobile device is always just a press release away so how can you predict which vendor to bet on? Also, who wants to bet against Apple?
I asked Jeff who Syclo's biggest competitor is, and he said it varied since there are so many point solutions in the market but if a customer was looking for a MEAP that they tended to look at Syclo and Sybase who are the leaders. Interesting! OK, SAP's two co-innovation partners for mobility are each other's biggest competitors. That ought to make for some interesting business development and partner meetings. I can imagine the demarcation line between Sybase and Syclo's territories are being battled over daily in Waldorf.
Jeff reported that Sybase uses SAP's NetWeaver Mobile as their integration platform. Syclo, on the other hand, has its own integration technologies which pre-dated the co-innovation partnership. They are using these while they collaborate with SAP to leverage additional integration points.
A question that came to mind following my discussions with Jeff was how does SAP determine which vendor to recommend to a customer needing both mobile SFA and mobile FSA? In many cases CRMs encompass both categories. Does SAP really recommend that a customer select two separate mobility vendors to support one SAP CRM? I hope someone from SAP comments on this.
I asked, "Outside of the categories of mobile CRM SFA (sales force automation) and CRM FSA (field service automation), who should an SAP customer use for custom mobile applications?" "Syclo of course!" Jeff answered but then added, "There is still a lot of room for innovation and other SAP EcoHub partners in this mobility space." So outside of SFA and FSA the market is wide open for the rest of SAP's mobility partners. The challenge, of course, is getting mindshare. If Sybase and Syclo are being promoted in certain specific categories, then how does the best of breed from the rest of SAP's mobility partners capture a category and gain recognition and exposure?
I asked Jeff about Syclo's target markets and he answered, "Complex and strategic mobile applications for SAP users." He then explained that they like the big mobility projects with hundreds and thousands of users but will also entertain smaller mobility projects if there is a future potential for more mobile enterprise applications with the customer. "We like projects with hard ROIs (returns on investment)," he explained.
Jeff said that the enterprise mobile software market is still very fragmented, and no one really has a sizable market share. SAP reports around 90,000 customers, and Syclo has around 750 mobility customers but not all are SAP shops. The bottom line is there are a lot of opportunities available for mobility vendors in the SAP ecosystem.
Jeff added that in the mobile operating system market, there is increased fragmentation rather than decreased. It seems there is a lot of new innovation happening in the world of mobile operating systems.
I asked Jeff what he expects to see happen in the next few years in enterprise mobility. He said, "TCO (total cost of ownership) will drop dramatically as mobile application development tools become easier and MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) more mature. He already believes Syclo has a low TCO but believes there is much more that can be done. He then added that it will be very interesting to watch how companies manage important data on their employees' smartphones. He said perhaps companies will have "sandbox" locations on their employees' personal smartphones. These sandbox locations would be reserved for confidential company data and controlled and managed by the company. Interesting indeed!
I asked Jeff about the term MEAP. He said, "It is Gartner's term, and they defined the meaning." He then pointed out that Syclo is in the Leaders section of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for MEAPs. He believes a MEAP should be able to support many different kinds of mobile enterprise applications, include an SDK and be able to integrate with many different back-end ERPs, business applications and databases.
I asked Jeff for his opinion on mobile micro-applications. He said, "There is a lot of room for innovation! They have their role. Especially with consumers and reaching out to mobile employees." He added, "Companies are seeking mobile applications for a variety of reasons including branding and establishing a closer relationship with their customer base." Again, there is much room for innovation here!
Where does Jeff see the hottest markets for Syclo?
• Field services
• Utilities
• Oil and gas companies
• Oil and gas supply chains
• Life science companies that have FDA compliance requirements
• Government
Jeff said government has a couple of things going for it now:
1. Government economic stimulus money
2. Government's support for, and desire to use, technology to make things more efficient.
What business processes are they targeting?
• Work order/service tickets
• Plant maintenance
• Enterprise asset management
• Social workers/Case managers (and similar roles in other areas)
• Police incident reporting
• Replacing any paper-based processes used in the field
I asked what were some of the most interesting developments in mobility in the past 24 months for him. He said, "Apple iPhones, Apple iTunes and the explosion of smartphones used by consumers." He added that these developments have totally changed the game and has had a major impact on the enterprise. "IT cannot ignore the pressures to mobilize now," he said. In addition, he pointed out that it is surprising there has not seen more consolidation. Rather, there are even more new players and mobile operating systems entering the market today."
I asked Jeff what he thought about SAP's mobile strategy. He said, "SAP must own the roadmap for the most critical mobile applications and business processes." He likes their strategy.
What differentiates Syclo from other SAP mobility partners? Jeff answered:
• Lower TCO (total cost of ownership)
• Pre-packaged mobile applications are relatively inexpensive
• Co-innovation with SAP
• Syclo shares revenue with SAP
• SAP sales teams are incented to promote Syclo
• Syclo has an model-driven development approach which enables mobile applications to be developed without programming.
• IBM resells Syclo solutions
• Syclo integrates with Oracle
• Accenture and CSC are systems integrator partners (there must be a lot of money on the table for these SI companies to be involved).
What are some of the most interesting mobile applications that Syclo has developed? "We partnered with Motorola and IBM to help the Red Cross manage their supplies and logistics after hurricane Katrina," Jeff answered. "Twenty of our staff worked together to develop the mobile application in 14 days."
Thank you Jeff for sharing your insights as a Mobile Expert!
For more articles in this series please see:
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Leapfactor's Lionel Carrasco
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Neil McHugh
Mobile Expert Interview Series: ClickSoftware's Gil Bouhnick
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Vivido Labs' Greg Tomb
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Troy O'Connor
Mobile Expert Interview Series: EntryPoint’s Pete Martin
Mobile Expert Interview Series: PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Ahmed El Adl, PhD
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Nokia's John Choate
Mobile Expert Interview Series: HotButtons' Jane and Keelin Glendon
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************
To start, Jeff carries a BlackBerry 9700 series, and his favorite mobile application on it is Google Maps. He has been with Syclo from the beginning when there were only four people. Today, Syclo has over 135 employees.
Syclo is one of three co-innovation partners of SAP in the world of enterprise mobility. The three are RIM, Sybase, and Syclo. SAP co-innovation partners share sales revenue, development efforts and product roadmaps with SAP. I wonder if the co-innovation partnership increases the prices of their solutions? I also wonder if having SAP define the roadmap will allow the co-innovation partners to innovate fast enough to keep up with the markets fast changing technologies?
Jeff shared that SAP has designated some mobility applications and business processes as strategic. The strategic ones he identified are:
1. CRM sales force automation [Sybase is the co-innovation partner for this category]
2. CRM field services/enterprise asset management [Syclo is the co-innovation partner for this category]
RIM is also a co-innovation partner, but I am not sure what it covers these days. I have always wondered how an ERP vendor could cozy up to a particular mobile device manufacturer? The next greatest mobile device is always just a press release away so how can you predict which vendor to bet on? Also, who wants to bet against Apple?
I asked Jeff who Syclo's biggest competitor is, and he said it varied since there are so many point solutions in the market but if a customer was looking for a MEAP that they tended to look at Syclo and Sybase who are the leaders. Interesting! OK, SAP's two co-innovation partners for mobility are each other's biggest competitors. That ought to make for some interesting business development and partner meetings. I can imagine the demarcation line between Sybase and Syclo's territories are being battled over daily in Waldorf.
Jeff reported that Sybase uses SAP's NetWeaver Mobile as their integration platform. Syclo, on the other hand, has its own integration technologies which pre-dated the co-innovation partnership. They are using these while they collaborate with SAP to leverage additional integration points.
A question that came to mind following my discussions with Jeff was how does SAP determine which vendor to recommend to a customer needing both mobile SFA and mobile FSA? In many cases CRMs encompass both categories. Does SAP really recommend that a customer select two separate mobility vendors to support one SAP CRM? I hope someone from SAP comments on this.
I asked, "Outside of the categories of mobile CRM SFA (sales force automation) and CRM FSA (field service automation), who should an SAP customer use for custom mobile applications?" "Syclo of course!" Jeff answered but then added, "There is still a lot of room for innovation and other SAP EcoHub partners in this mobility space." So outside of SFA and FSA the market is wide open for the rest of SAP's mobility partners. The challenge, of course, is getting mindshare. If Sybase and Syclo are being promoted in certain specific categories, then how does the best of breed from the rest of SAP's mobility partners capture a category and gain recognition and exposure?
I asked Jeff about Syclo's target markets and he answered, "Complex and strategic mobile applications for SAP users." He then explained that they like the big mobility projects with hundreds and thousands of users but will also entertain smaller mobility projects if there is a future potential for more mobile enterprise applications with the customer. "We like projects with hard ROIs (returns on investment)," he explained.
Jeff said that the enterprise mobile software market is still very fragmented, and no one really has a sizable market share. SAP reports around 90,000 customers, and Syclo has around 750 mobility customers but not all are SAP shops. The bottom line is there are a lot of opportunities available for mobility vendors in the SAP ecosystem.
Jeff added that in the mobile operating system market, there is increased fragmentation rather than decreased. It seems there is a lot of new innovation happening in the world of mobile operating systems.
I asked Jeff what he expects to see happen in the next few years in enterprise mobility. He said, "TCO (total cost of ownership) will drop dramatically as mobile application development tools become easier and MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) more mature. He already believes Syclo has a low TCO but believes there is much more that can be done. He then added that it will be very interesting to watch how companies manage important data on their employees' smartphones. He said perhaps companies will have "sandbox" locations on their employees' personal smartphones. These sandbox locations would be reserved for confidential company data and controlled and managed by the company. Interesting indeed!
I asked Jeff about the term MEAP. He said, "It is Gartner's term, and they defined the meaning." He then pointed out that Syclo is in the Leaders section of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for MEAPs. He believes a MEAP should be able to support many different kinds of mobile enterprise applications, include an SDK and be able to integrate with many different back-end ERPs, business applications and databases.
I asked Jeff for his opinion on mobile micro-applications. He said, "There is a lot of room for innovation! They have their role. Especially with consumers and reaching out to mobile employees." He added, "Companies are seeking mobile applications for a variety of reasons including branding and establishing a closer relationship with their customer base." Again, there is much room for innovation here!
Where does Jeff see the hottest markets for Syclo?
• Field services
• Utilities
• Oil and gas companies
• Oil and gas supply chains
• Life science companies that have FDA compliance requirements
• Government
Jeff said government has a couple of things going for it now:
1. Government economic stimulus money
2. Government's support for, and desire to use, technology to make things more efficient.
What business processes are they targeting?
• Work order/service tickets
• Plant maintenance
• Enterprise asset management
• Social workers/Case managers (and similar roles in other areas)
• Police incident reporting
• Replacing any paper-based processes used in the field
I asked what were some of the most interesting developments in mobility in the past 24 months for him. He said, "Apple iPhones, Apple iTunes and the explosion of smartphones used by consumers." He added that these developments have totally changed the game and has had a major impact on the enterprise. "IT cannot ignore the pressures to mobilize now," he said. In addition, he pointed out that it is surprising there has not seen more consolidation. Rather, there are even more new players and mobile operating systems entering the market today."
I asked Jeff what he thought about SAP's mobile strategy. He said, "SAP must own the roadmap for the most critical mobile applications and business processes." He likes their strategy.
What differentiates Syclo from other SAP mobility partners? Jeff answered:
• Lower TCO (total cost of ownership)
• Pre-packaged mobile applications are relatively inexpensive
• Co-innovation with SAP
• Syclo shares revenue with SAP
• SAP sales teams are incented to promote Syclo
• Syclo has an model-driven development approach which enables mobile applications to be developed without programming.
• IBM resells Syclo solutions
• Syclo integrates with Oracle
• Accenture and CSC are systems integrator partners (there must be a lot of money on the table for these SI companies to be involved).
What are some of the most interesting mobile applications that Syclo has developed? "We partnered with Motorola and IBM to help the Red Cross manage their supplies and logistics after hurricane Katrina," Jeff answered. "Twenty of our staff worked together to develop the mobile application in 14 days."
Thank you Jeff for sharing your insights as a Mobile Expert!
For more articles in this series please see:
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Leapfactor's Lionel Carrasco
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Neil McHugh
Mobile Expert Interview Series: ClickSoftware's Gil Bouhnick
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Vivido Labs' Greg Tomb
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Troy O'Connor
Mobile Expert Interview Series: EntryPoint’s Pete Martin
Mobile Expert Interview Series: PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Ahmed El Adl, PhD
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Nokia's John Choate
Mobile Expert Interview Series: HotButtons' Jane and Keelin Glendon
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************
SAP's Mobility Theme Launch
SAP kicked off their Mobility Theme on EcoHub today. They will be promoting mobility over the next few weeks leading up to Sapphire by highlighting blogs, videos, demos, webinars, and other events related to mobility. SAP is promoting its mobility partners including Sybase, Syclo, Sky Technologies, Leapfactor, RIM, Vivido Labs, and others.The SAP banner above this article allows you to answer several questions and be directed to various mobility vendors that are partnered with SAP. Very clever SAP!
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
**************************************************
Mobile SAP Apps for Sales Order Capture and Delivery
Banks Holdings Limited (BHL), a SAP customer, is one of Barbados' most successful public companies and the island's largest beverage conglomerate. BHL has four subsidiaries comprising of two beverage manufacturers, a dairy processing plant and a distribution firm.
BHL has recently mobilized three key SAP business processes:
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
**************************************************
BHL has recently mobilized three key SAP business processes:
- Pre-Selling - The Pre-Selling scenario enabled the capture and confirmation of new orders by the mobile salesforce as they interacted with the end customers, giving them visibility into their individual orders and pricing structures. By delivering SAP pricing schemas to the mobile device, BHL's sales representatives now have the ability to highlight to customers any volume scale based price breaks and a potential for cross selling opportunities.
- Dispatch - Dispatch is responsible for managing the inventory required to fulfill the orders being delivered on a daily basis. Leveraging the SAP FIFO and guided picking processes, the mobile dispatch process ensures the correct stock is not only loaded into the correct delivery truck but also in the most efficient order for the actual deliveries being fulfilled.
- Delivery - The delivery process is responsible for the Proof of Delivery (POD) process to the end customers. The mobile component not only manages core delivery processes, but also allows for any last minute adjustments to a delivery requested by a customer and the corresponding downstream SAP pricing impacts these changes may have.
- The ability to work both online and offline when mobile staff is beyond mobile device coverage boundaries.
- Support for multiple device types such as Motorola’s hand-held devices and printers.
- Integration without the need for complex middleware.
- Flexibility of the GUI interface.
- In-depth SAP experience.
- The ability to extend SAP specific business processes to the point of activity (mobile)
- The ability to utilize existing SAP ABAP skills kept cost of enhancements low as any future changes and enhancements could be performed in-house.
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
**************************************************
Advice for Mobile Start-Ups - Article Series
A few months ago I started an article series called "Advice for Mobile Start-Ups." These articles are spread out over a couple of months and mixed in with several other series, so I have created this index to make them easier to find.
Advice for Mobile Start-Up Series:
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Author Kevin Benedict
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
**************************************************
Advice for Mobile Start-Up Series:
- Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Find Your Market Aggregation Points
- Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: You are a Publishing Company Like it or Not!
- Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Focus on Mobile Content, Mobile Business Processes, Integration and Workflow
- Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Working with SAP, Part 1
- Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Working with SAP, Part 2
- Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Working with SAP, Part 3
- Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Working with SAP, Part 4
- Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Working with SAP, Part 5
If you haven't already joined, I would like to personally invite you to join the Linkedin Group called SAP Enterprise Mobility. It is for everyone involved in mobility projects and mobile solutions in and around SAP.
In addition, if you have an enterprise mobile software application or service that integrates with and supports SAP, please add your solution to the SAP Enterprise Mobility solution directory here so we can share your information with the group.
I provide executive and marketing workshops for mobile start-ups in the enterprise mobility industry. If you are interested in learning more please contact me.
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
**************************************************
SAP’s Mobility Challenge, Part 1
I am very interested in watching SAP's emerging mobility strategy as it matures, evolves and morphs yet again. I am not critical; this is how all of mobility is these days. Four years ago we were all using the term Palm, Pocket PC and PDA. Now we are speaking of iPhone, Android, RIM and iPads. Within these different technologies are literally hundreds of different mobile applications and mobile extensions that can add value to SAP's ecosystem. I have been seeing a lot of activity in this space. I have seen SAP partnership announcements with RIM (Blackberry folks), Sybase, Sky Technologies, Syclo and ClickSoftware. I have seen SAP comments from many different industry and solution groups within SAP related to mobility.
What I believe is particularly challenging to SAP is trying to determine if mobility is an extension of an industry business process, or an integrated technology platform. Let me provide three examples of the challenge – work order management is both a back office solution and a mobile client (work orders are dispatched to mobile handheld computers in the field that are carried by the service technicians). Likewise, asset management involves both back office solutions and a mobile client (inspectors, facilities managers, plant maintenance teams and service technicians use mobile clients). Route/Sales management also involves back office solutions and mobile clients (route sales people track sales, inventory, delivery and promotions on mobile devices). So are the mobile applications/clients part of the work order management, asset management or route management categories or do they justify an integrated SAP mobility platform? What do you think?
I image this is a very complex and difficult discussion within SAP. SAP has selected specific partnerships within different industry verticals. These partners are often producing their own mobile applications to extend the capabilities of their solutions; however, these mobile solutions may in fact not align with SAP's overall mobile platform strategy.
From a purely technology perspective, it may make more sense for SAP to develop or select a MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) that best integrates and supports SAP's underlying architecture and product roadmap, however, their vertical industry partners would not like this strategy at all as they see mobility as a major growth area for them. Very interesting times indeed!
Read SAP's Mobility Challenge, Part 2 here.
Related articles:
Mobile SAP CRM
In a recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan called, European Mobile Sales Force Automation (CRM/SFA) Markets, it is stated that mobile SFA is the largest application segment after wireless email, and this segment will grow close to 300% between now and 2013.
SAP seems to be making a big push in this area with mobile CRM partnerships with Sky Technologies (Certified SAP Partner, Certified SAP NetWeaver Partner) Sybase and RIM (Innovation Partners) in this area. What are the key areas covered by mobile CRM?
The future of mobile SAP CRM in my opinion is the combination of mobile SAP CRM and business intelligence. The ability to fully brief a traveling sales person on a customer’s account status, order history, shipments, credit status, financials, latest news and potential opportunities using text and audio files is very useful. Audio because many times a sales person is flying or driving and would benefit from having this information in audio format so they could listen to it.
In addition to the obvious account information, what additional kinds of mobile information do you think would be useful to integrate within a mobile SAP CRM?
For related articles please read:
SAP seems to be making a big push in this area with mobile CRM partnerships with Sky Technologies (Certified SAP Partner, Certified SAP NetWeaver Partner) Sybase and RIM (Innovation Partners) in this area. What are the key areas covered by mobile CRM?
- Activity management – Phone call, email, cold calls, what to do each day
- Lead management – receive leads, contact, qualify
- Opportunity Management – define, document and manage specific sales opportunities
- Account Management – organizational charts, people, budgets, plans, needs
The future of mobile SAP CRM in my opinion is the combination of mobile SAP CRM and business intelligence. The ability to fully brief a traveling sales person on a customer’s account status, order history, shipments, credit status, financials, latest news and potential opportunities using text and audio files is very useful. Audio because many times a sales person is flying or driving and would benefit from having this information in audio format so they could listen to it.
In addition to the obvious account information, what additional kinds of mobile information do you think would be useful to integrate within a mobile SAP CRM?
For related articles please read:
- The Future of Mobile and Route Sales Applications for Smart Phones, Part 1
- The Future of Mobile and Route Sales Applications for Smart Phones, Part 2
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Author Kevin Benedict
Mobility Consultant, Wireless Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert and as such I work with, and have worked with, many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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SAP Mobility – Is Change Coming?
I read a very interesting article in BusinessWeek (February 9, 2010 edition) today called "What SAP Needs After Apotheker" by Aaron Ricadela. Last week, as many of you know, Leo Apotheker was replaced as CEO of SAP by both Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe who were announced as Co-CEOs. In the article SAP mobility is raised again and again as an area where improvements are needed. Here is an excerpt, "In order to fix SAP, former North American sales boss McDermott and Snabe, head of product development, need to stock its pipeline with products that companies are more interested in buying… SAP must develop versions of its complicated software that can be delivered over the Internet and run on new classes of mobile computing devices."
In December of 2009, SAP unfolded their 5-year strategic plan that emphasized the following five points: on-demand computing, cloud architectures, flexible pricing, mobile and in-memory computing. This event was covered well by InformationWeek in an article called SAP Outlines 5-Year Enterprise Software Plan. I assume this 5 year plan announced in December was developed by Snabe and his team, so Apotheker's departure is unlikely to change this emphasis.
Don Bulmer, SAP VP of industry relations is also quoted at a recent Influencer Summit in Boston saying, "Sixty to seventy percent of the population has mobile devices… There are lots of opportunities for SAP." This seems to back repeated comments from SAP executives that they recognize the importance of mobility.
Here is another excerpt from BusinessWeek, "SAP needs to articulate to customers a clearer plan for delivering new technologies that can save money and make workers more productive, says Forrester analyst Hamerman." He goes on to add, "the company (SAP) must deliver more software over the Web and let users interact more capably with it through smartphones and tablets...Those are on the road map but they don't seem to be a priority...We haven't seen from them (SAP) a comprehensive technology strategy."
Hamerman does not seem to feel a listing in the 5 year enterprise software plan is sufficient. He wants to see a comprehensive technology strategy and a demonstration that mobility is a priority.
More from BusinessWeek, "Additional announcements of SAP software for cloud computing and mobile devices will come later this year, according to a person close to SAP. To get the message across, Plattner (Hasso Plattner, SAP co-founder) even plans to deliver his keynote address in Orlando with the help of an Apple iPad."
McDermott also tried to communicate that mobility was a SAP priority with the following announcement, "SAP plans to announce new online software under the Business By Design brand name for customer management, human resources, and procurement. Once it arrives in the second half of this year, customers will be able to run the software on their own servers, access it through the Web, and run portions of it on mobile devices."
In summary, SAP says mobility is one of the 5 key points in their strategic 5-Year Enterprise Software Plan. SAP's new Co-CEOs have reiterated that mobility is a high priority. Don Bulmer, SAP VP of industry relations agrees that there are lots of opportunities for SAP in mobility. Forrester analyst Hamerman says that it is not enough to say it, "Show me the money!" SAP Co-Founder Hasso Plattner says, "OK, watch me do a Sapphire power point on an iPad."
Here is another challenge – SAP has announced multiple reseller and co-innovation agreements with mobile solutions companies like Sky Technologies, RIM, Sybase, Syclo and ClickSoftware. So a customer looking for mobile solutions on SAP's EcoHub will find a plethora of mobile software solutions. In fact, mobile solutions for just about any need.
If I am looking for a good mobile enterprise application platform to work with SAP, I will find the following; Sybase for mobile Field Sales (except RIM users who can use RIM's mobile SAP CRM or Sky Technologies customers who can use their mobile version of SAP CRM?), Syclo for mobile field services, ClickSoftware for mobile route optimization, Sky Technologies for companies wanting to standardize on SAP embedded code? Is that clear to you? No, me neither.
Gartner analysts are suggesting that large enterprises should reduce the number of mobile application vendors. Read the following excerpt from Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms published December 16, 2009. "Enterprises are increasingly mixing solutions from multiple vendors, each with separate software stacks for data transport (which results in poor battery life). This also leads to conflicts with managing network connections on mobile devices, an inability to administer security and devices, complexities with testing, an increase in software defects, and higher service and support costs."
It will be very interesting to watch how SAP maneuvers the mobility landscape in 2010. Will SAP leave the task of bringing order out of chaos to third-party MEAP vendors, or will they?
Microsoft's View of the Mobile World
The following 4 comments this week from Microsoft on where they see the mobile market going were very interesting and revealing:
Opinions and Comments:
It is interesting that Microsoft sees Google porting Android over to PCs soon. This will really stir things up. I am a big fan of Google applications already and can see how this could evolve quickly and change the market. Microsoft has a major challenge.
I also see a problem with the comments and positions of Microsoft - they seem to have given up on winning the consumer market, but believe they will continue to sell well to consumers in this tough market. If they are conceding defeat in the consumer market, I wouldn't be betting on increased sales for long. There better be a new strategy soon.
Microsoft says they do not plan to launch a Smartphone. Hummm...Apple and RIM both launched Smartphones and operating systems and they are winning. What part of this is Microsoft missing?
I find myself doing more and more work on my iPhone and Google applications. I can see how even in tough economic times the "personal computing devices" will become increasingly popular.
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http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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- Microsoft sees Linux being more competitive on the PC desktop going forward because the company believes that Google will port its Android mobile OS to the PC.
- Microsoft is strongly positioned in the business world and should remain a RIM contender (however, it seems to be giving up on the consumer market where iPhone and Symbian users are growing at a much faster rate than Windows Mobile users)
- Ballmer says that the smart phone market will continue to grow despite the economy and that the low price of some Windows Mobile phone offers will help.
- Microsoft does not plan to launch their own phone
Opinions and Comments:
It is interesting that Microsoft sees Google porting Android over to PCs soon. This will really stir things up. I am a big fan of Google applications already and can see how this could evolve quickly and change the market. Microsoft has a major challenge.
I also see a problem with the comments and positions of Microsoft - they seem to have given up on winning the consumer market, but believe they will continue to sell well to consumers in this tough market. If they are conceding defeat in the consumer market, I wouldn't be betting on increased sales for long. There better be a new strategy soon.
Microsoft says they do not plan to launch a Smartphone. Hummm...Apple and RIM both launched Smartphones and operating systems and they are winning. What part of this is Microsoft missing?
I find myself doing more and more work on my iPhone and Google applications. I can see how even in tough economic times the "personal computing devices" will become increasingly popular.
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http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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