Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future: blackberry

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Extinction Events and Democracy - The Death of Blackberry

There is a saying in America, "Every dog has its day." That idiom means everyone will at some time in their life have a moment of success. That moment may be a second, a minute, perhaps a day, a week, several months or even years. BlackBerry had its day.

In an article titled, "The Fatal Mistake That Doomed BlackBerry," writer Sam Gustin identifies a number of critical points in BlackBerry's history that my colleagues at the Center for The Future of Work would describe as crossroads. Good decisions at the crossroads lead to success, bad decisions at the crossroads lead to "extinction events." Here are a few identified by Gustin:

BlackBerry failed to see the power shift from enterprises to consumers. They focused on the enterprise until it was too late. They thought decisions in the enterprise drove demand.
BlackBerry failed to understand and embrace the "apps economy" that started and fueled an uncontrolled frenzy of innovation from developers and demand from consumers. BlackBerry thought they dictated and controlled progress and innovation.
BlackBerry failed to understand mobile phones could become more than voice and text communicators. They missed the whole notion that mobile devices could be entertainment hubs for the masses.
BlackBerry failed to realize that bigger screens trumped physical keyboards. Consumers embracing their devices as entertainment hubs wanted to watch videos, play games and view maps on bigger screens.
BlackBerry considered providing secure email on a mobile phones the pinnacle of innovation, rather than just the start. Apple and Android saw mobile phones as mobile computers that could support an unlimited number of software apps and functions.

I am struck by the amount of power and influence BlackBerry believed it controlled. It seemed a kind of institutional arrogance. The advent of the world wide web, wireless broadband and social media ensured a kind of democracy in technology. The mobile world could and would no longer be controlled by a single company in Waterloo, but rather by the consumer.

Today, I still come across vendors who seem to believe they control the direction of enterprise mobility. As soon as I observe this attitude, a vision of an extinction event fills my mind. Vendors must innovate both in front of and in parallel with the the direction customers are heading. They can no longer dictate and control the direction of the consumer.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview Series: VWFS's Carl Redman

I was able to schedule and conduct an interview with Carl Redman, Head of IT Development and Business Analysis at Volkswagen Financial Serivces in the UK today. He is a veteran mobility user with two enterprise mobility implementations under his belt, and that makes him an expert in my estimation.

His first enterprise mobility implementation was a joint project between his developers and a team from Research In Motion. The mobile solution was the Mobile Stock Audit app and was used on BlackBerry devices. The app was integrated with SAP on the backend. It enabled his team of auditors to check on the status of over 20,000 vehicles distributed at auto dealerships around the UK. Auditing is very important, because it can help detect dealerships that may be experiencing financial troubles.

The Mobile Stock Audit app enabled auditors to have updated reports on their BlackBerrys and to closely monitor the workloads of their auditors.

This first bespoke (customized) mobility app took six months to develop with RIM. The mobile solution worked fabulously, but it was expensive to develop, maintain and support. If they continued to use this bespoke model, they would need to hire additional IT staff just to develop and support future mobility applications. Redman realized that bespoke mobility applications were not the ideal scenario for his future mobility applications.

Mobile Expert Podcast Series: Inland Group's John Bedlek, Part 2

This is Part 2 of this interview with Inland Group's John Bedlek on enterprise mobility and implementations. You can read Part 1 here. John is with the Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, Inc., which is one of the nation's largest commercial real estate and finance groups. They are headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, and employ more than 1,600 people nationwide. With $25.1 billion of assets in 47 states and more than 126.1 million square feet of commercial real estate in our various portfolios.

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Networked Field Services

Webinars of Note

The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise: The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Redstone Arsenal’s (DOD/Chugach) 3 Maintenance Challenges Solved by Mobile
The Future of Enterprise Mobility

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly

Read The Field Mobility News Weekly

Read The Mobile Money News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - June 16, 2010 Edition

If you are reading this you have stumbled upon the premier edition of "Kevin's Mobility News Weekly." This is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I will aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article. I will also be searching for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around enterprise mobility.

Please send me any interesting mobility news links, market numbers, events, case studies, analyst reports or whitepapers you think I should include in my newsletter. Enjoy!

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In April Nokia announced it had increased its smartphone market share to 41 percent, up from an estimated 40 percent in Oct.-Dec. last year. That means Nokia sold roughly 21.5 million of the 52.6 million smartphones sold globally during the first quarter.

http://fixed-mobile-convergence.tmcnet.com/topics/mobile-communications/articles/88417-nokia-slow-apples-rims-momentum-the-smartphone-market.htm

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According to Quantcast, Android currently accounts for 19.9 percent of the smartphone market, a rise of 12.2% over the year. Although it's still the single biggest player in the market, the share of Apple's iPhone OS has shrunk by 8.1 percent. The data shows that Research In Motion's BlackBerry OS and other platforms in the operating system market have shrunk by 1.2% and 2.9% respectively.

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/6/15/android-market-share-growing-iphone-falls-back/

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Devices featuring Apple's iOS mobile operating system lead all other mobile devices with 58.8 percent of mobile Web traffic in the U.S. Android is far behind, but still in second place with 19.9 percent. Next is "other" with 10.9 percent, and after that is Research In Motion with 10.4 percent, according to data released by Quantcast on Monday.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20007637-260.html

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Apple dominates the market for music and mobile apps. However, its share of the global cellphone market is less than 2%, and it still has only a 15% share of the smartphone market.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/15/apple-needs-to-cool-its-rhetoric/

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Apple shares rose nearly 3 percent on Wednesday after it announced sales of more than 600,000 iPhone 4s, a record for just a single day of pre-orders. That put the device on track to surpass sales of its previous iPhone models as well as its iPad tablet computer and sounded a strong challenge to rivals like Nokia Corp., which warned of weaker-than-expected sales at its phones unit.

http://mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/FullArticle/CTECH/ntechnologyNews_uUSTRE65F4IQ20100617

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Nelsen projects that by fall 2011 smartphones will overtake ordinary cellphones in market share.

http://iphone.usatoday.com/News/1801492/full/;jsessionid=98DA02D7457B58E8E0D79D3DF3451F46.wap2

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The smartphone market continues to see impressive growth around the world and in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region particularly. Shipments in the region are expected to grow 53% year-on-year in 2010 to reach 76.7 million units and are projected to easily surpass 100 million units in 2011. In 2009 smartphones accounted for 11% of mobile phone shipments in APAC. This percentage is expected to grow steadily, and in 2012 Canalys expects that 20% of mobile phone shipments in the region will be smartphones.

http://www.indiatelecomtracker.com/archives/1412

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ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. unveiled a major upgrade to its Mobility Suite at the Gartner Wireless, Networking and Communications Summit in San Diego. The solution is specifically designed for service businesses.

http://clicksoftware-mobilefever.blogspot.com/2010/06/clickmobile-advanced-version-811.html

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Forrester Research is already predicting tablet sales in the U.S. will overtake netbook sales by 2012, and desktop sales by 2015.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/17/forrester-tablets-outsell-netbooks/

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The BlackBerry operating system now accounts for 19.4 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, with sales of 10.5 million units in Q1, according to research firm Gartner. BlackBerry trails Symbian (24.0 million units in Q1/44.3 percent market share) but still leads Apple's iPhone (8.3 million units/15.4 percent share) and Google's Android (5.2 million units/9.6 percent share). However, consumer interest in BlackBerry appears to be waning. A recent Crowd Science survey reports that 39 percent of BlackBerry users would prefer an iPhone as their next purchase and 34 percent said they would favor an Android device.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/new-blackberry-devices-rival-apples-mobile-media-dominance/2010-06-15

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Often the IT department finds itself being pressured to support mobile devices and mobile applications that are already in use by employees. All of these issues point to the need to implement and use a mobile device management system.

http://www.vividolabs.com/deskofgregtomb/?p=45

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TOKYO-Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced the launch of a 128-gigabyte (GB) embedded NAND flash memory module, the highest capacity yet achieved in the industry. The module is fully compliant with the latest e•MMC standard, and is designed for application in a wide range of digital consumer products, including smartphones, tablet PCs and digital video cameras. Samples will be available from September, and mass production will start in the fourth quarter (October to December) of 2010.

http://i.engadget.com/2010/06/17/toshiba-cooks-up-128gb-nand-flash-for-next-gen-phones-and-pmps/

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Location services are the latest social media fad, allowing users with smartphones to "check in" to local businesses for points and fun. Twitter jumped on board location services Monday, launching Twitter Places.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/16331/twitter_location

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There are all sorts of mobile phones out there, but the EPI Life is possibly the only handset that can save your life. Designed by Singapore company Ephone International, the EPI Life stands out with a built-in electrocardiogram measurement function linked to a 24-hour health concierge service. It takes 30 seconds to complete a reading, which can be sent back to the firm via GPRS anywhere in the world.

http://mobile.cnet.com/site?t=AaZ5or43whqbfxfoYQ4yKQ&sid=cnet

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Facebook is expected to announce its own location-based service in the coming months, which brings location-based services to more than 400 million users. In other words, location-based networks are only going to get bigger.

http://www.iphoneresource.net/iphone/general/location-based-social-networks-amadeus-consulting-this-week-in-technology

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While Apple has reached its 10,000th iPad application, Google's Android market has increased to about 72,000 total applications. Moreover, the 10,000th iPad application is a fraction of the total number of applications available for Apple's iPad and iPhone, which is more than 200,000 as of Memorial Day last month. According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Apple receives more than 15,000 new application submissions each week. Experts say that if Jobs’s figures are accurate, the company is generating every month about four times the amount of applications over Android. On the other hand, Google records show 14,294 new applications in May 2010 compared to 1,669 in July 2009.

http://www.usanewsweek.com/news/Does-Apple-Need-Verizon-iPhone-As-Apple-vs-Android-War-Intensifies-1276535059/

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In the market for an engagement ring? Forget the usual brick-and-mortar browsing — head to your iPhone's app store and download Tiffany and Co.'s free Engagement Ring Finder. This is truly an iPhone application that you should only use 4 or 5 times.

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/fashion/stylephile/2010/06/engagement_ring.html

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Twitter is also generating high volumes of traffic. In 2007 users were tweeting 5,000 times a day, and by 2008 the number had increased to 300,000, reaching 2.5 million per day in January 2009. One year later, in January 2010, the figure had risen to 50 million tweets per day, climbing to 55 million in April 2010. There are 600 million search queries on Twitter per day, which bodes well for the Promoted Tweets sponsored keyword search advertising program.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/06/16/businessinsider-twitter-grows-up-and-gets-serious-2010-6.DTL

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Global consumer electronics major Samsung unveiled its new smartphone platform 'bada' for developing next-generation mobile applications."Bada, meaning 'ocean' in Korean, will be a driving force in accomplishing our vision of a smart phone for everyone," Samsung president JS Shin said in a statement in Bangalore on Wednesday.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Samsung-unveils-smartphone-platform-for-new-applications/Article1-558687.aspx

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The following links are interviews that I have conducted over the past few months with enterprise mobility experts and CEOs.

Mobile Expert Interview Series

Mobile Expert Video Series

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Kevin's winner for the best enterprise mobility video on YouTube - Leapfactor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBNFtIIZF6g

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I would invite everyone that is interested in enterprise mobility to join the Linkedin Group called SAP Enterprise Mobility.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
***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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Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Neil McHugh

I caught up with Neil McHugh from Sky Technologies the other day. He is a transplant from Scotland to the USA via IBM and is now on the Texas side of the Sky Technologies family. He is VP of Marketing and Business Development – Americas.

Kevin: Neil, tell me about Sky Technologies. I have been working in the mobility industry for many years, but only recently started hearing about Sky Technologies.

Neil: I can understand that. We have actually worked through partners in the US for many years, but never really pushed our brand until last year when we decided to change our go-to-market model and sell directly to customers under the Sky brand (imagine a Scottish accent when you read his answers).

Kevin: How are you finding the market today for enterprise mobile applications (imagine an Idaho accent when you read my questions)?

Neil: We have been very fortunate. The mobile market is strong, and we are winning deals on a monthly basis so our market presence is growing quite rapidly. We also have excellent partners in SAP, RIM, and Motorola and each of these companies bring us business.

Kevin: SAP, RIM, and Motorola all have partnerships with your competitors as well, so how much business do they really bring Sky Technologies?

Neil: Fair question - let me put it this way, these companies will always have multiple partners, but we are known for our ability to support mobile requirements that most other mobility vendors cannot. We are the go-to-guys when they are not getting the answers they want from other mobility vendors.

Kevin: Is this why I see a flurry of press releases from you guys recently. Do you get bonused on the number of press releases you write?

Neil: No, but that is a good idea. We are experiencing record growth in 2010, and every department in Sky Technologies is working around the clock with new implementations, new products, new opportunities, and there is much more to come. In addition, recently some of the very successful and experienced SAP partners have realized mobility is hot and have approached Sky to become their mobility partner. So, the flurry of press releases you see are not just issued by us, but by partners also. It is nice to be receiving this recognition.

Kevin: I remember a mention of Colgate as a recent Sky Technologies customer in the SAP CRM space. Tell me about that.

Neil: You are referring to the EntryPoint statement, right ? This will be a great relationship. EntryPoint are known experts in the SAP CRM market, and we were very excited when they approached Sky. As for the Colgate account. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on that due to confidentiality. Sorry, Nice try Kevin.

Kevin: How significant is the SAP CRM space to Sky?

Neil: All areas of the SAP market are significant. We are not vertical industry focused. We are SAP focused. Anywhere there is an need to mobilize an SAP application, Sky Technologies is there. We have customers both inside and outside the four walls across every industry that SAP works in. So, although we love CRM, we are just as active in the field, manufacturing, utilities, construction and the list goes on…

Kevin: Do you see Sky as a Global solutions company or primarily US and Australia.

Neil: We have customers across 6 continents and 25 countries, so I guess I would classify that as global.

Kevin: Can you give me an example of a global typical customer scenario?

Neil: Certainly. A typical example of a global company utilizing SAP would be BlackBerry and iPhone CRM users in the US, with their field services in Latin America using rugged Windows-based mobile devices and the European operations running Symbian and internal sales using laptops. We can manage them all with a single mobile framework. I guess that also answers the question regarding why partners bring us deals.

Remember to check out the SAP EcoHub this week! It is focused on mobility.

More articles from the Mobile Industry Expert Series:

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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. ***************************************************

Everyone Wants A Piece of SAP Enterprise Mobility!

I was surprised to read today that SAP's ECM (enterprise content management) partner Open Text Corp. now has a mobile applications strategy. "This move is part of a strategy designed to help organizations harness the power of today’s mobile workforce in an effort to increase productivity."

The solution is called Open Text Everywhere and it is designed to make the entire Open Text ECM Suite available through mobile devices. This move by Open Text highlights an interesting evolution in the mobile ecosystem around SAP. A number of SAP's partners are producing mobile applications that only work if you buy their products. There is nothing wrong with that strategy, but it does add confusion to companies interested in general SAP enterprise mobility. Now there are at least four categories of mobile applications for SAP customers:

MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) - Enables the user to develop, customize and support many different mobile applications and mobile devices on one platform (e.g. Sybase, Sky Technologies, etc.).
Mobile micro-applications - Lightweight mobile applications typically available from App stores that are specific to particular limited business processes in SAP (e.g. Vivido Labs, Leapfactor, etc.).
Mobile solutions that are designed to work primarily with a specific vendor product (e.g. ClickSoftware, Syclo, Open Text, etc.).
Out of the box mobile applications (email, calendars, etc.).

There may be more mobile application categories, so let me know which ones I missed.

I wonder how committed companies like Open Text are to mobility? Are they serious, or are they just trying to excite an exciteable analyst? Initially Open Text is only going to support BlackBerrys, but claims a long term commitment to supporting other mobile devices. They plan to release applications that provide a comprehensive view of business processes, content and workplace social collaboration (as long as it involves their product). Here is the list of mobile applications they are planning to develop:

Manage everywhere for documents and content.
Engage everywhere focusing on process workflows.
Collaboration everywhere using social media.

Although the product descriptions sound general, I expect they will only function with Open Text products. That means SAP users who want these functions, that are not Open Text customers, will need to search for other mobile application vendors.

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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.
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Mobile Expert Interview Series: PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Ahmed El Adl, PhD

I had the privilege of interviewing PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Director of Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Dr. Ahmed El Adl a few days ago. He works out of PWC's Boston office and focuses on developing and expanding PWC's mobility practice. He is a big fan of this blog which instantly increased his credibility with me.

Ahmed worked for SAP in Waldorf from 1998-2002 and focused on SAP's CRM solutions. In fact he was involved in one of the very first mobility projects for SAP CRM. At that time SAP's architecture was simply not suited for mobility and it did not go well.

Ahmed said that a lesson learned from that first mobile SAP CRM experience was not to let sales and marketing completely drive design and engineering. The engineers developed everything that the marketing teams asked for, but the result was a mobile application that was far too big and heavy to work for customers.

Ahmed is a fan of SAP's current mobile strategy of working with many mobility partners. He believes SAP should slow down and focus on defining the mobile connectivity layer and open up their system for more nimble and innovative mobility partners to provide mobile applications. Mobility is evolving very fast and it is hard for a giant like SAP to effectively keep up. By opening up to mobility partners, SAP customers can get what they want now without waiting for SAP.Ahmed is the kind of consultant I would want to hire. He has experienced the good and bad of early mobility adoption and brings great wisdom to the table now.

Although Ahmed agrees with SAP's current strategy and likes what he sees from many of SAP's mobility partners, it doesn't mean he is satisfied. He believes Sybase, an SAP mobility partner, is good but complex, heavy and has too many different components and technology layers. He listed the numbers of technology layers that are involved in a Sybase/SAP integration and it was daunting.

He shared his thoughts on Sky Technologies, another SAP mobility partner. He thought their approach was interesting, but he was concerned that their "mobile SAP innerware" strategy would introduce challenges. He wondered how IT departments would accept a third party mobility solution being so closely embedded with SAP code? Would the benefits out weigh the risks for IT departments? Would they accept it, or avoid it?

He said he likes much of what he sees from SAP's mobility partners, however he is still cautious. In fact, he has recommended to some clients that they should go through a complete RFI process to determine for themselves which vendor has the best fit for them.

Ahmed believes that ultimately SAP customers will want a strong MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) that they can standardize on, but for today mobile micro-apps can provide real value quickly. I was particularly interested in this statement as it aligns with many of the comments that other industry experts shared on the SAP Enterprise Mobility group on Linkedin.

Ahmed identified several areas of mobility that he finds particularly interesting:

Telemedicine
Medical diagnostics that feed data to iPhone applications (e.g. EKGs, x-rays)
The Apple iTune model for app stores that allows small companies to compete against the big software companies.
He loves the idea of unlimited innovation, on a level playing field, and that one person software companies can help large enterprises increase productivity.

I asked Ahmed what mobile device or smartphone does he carry. He said all of them. He carries a PWC issued Blackberry in his pocket, but he literally travels with a suitcase full of different mobile devices that he can show off and demonstrate to clients. What a nightmare for the TSA agents! Don't get in line behind him.

I want to again thank Dr. Ahmed El Adl for his time and willingness to share his insights.

This article was the third in the series called Mobile Expert Interviews. See related articles:

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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.
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The Quiet Mobility Company - Sybase

Last March SAP and Sybase(the quiet company) announced a co-innovation partnership to deliver mobility to iPhones, Blackberrys and Windows Mobile devices. Read this excerpt from a March 9, 2009 press release:

"The two companies are co-innovating and collaborating to deliver the new SAP® Business Suite software for the first time to iPhone, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and other devices by integrating it with Sybase industry-leading mobile enterprise application platform."

My question is where is Sybase? Why are they so quiet? I see them making record profits and issuing an occasional press release, but where are the mobility evangelists? Gartner ranks them number 1 on their Magic Quadrant, but I see more publicity from 10 person start-ups than from iAnywhere or Sybase. Are they engaged in a skunk works project that will explode onto the mobility market in a gigantic marketing extravaganza like Apple? It seems they like to make these potentially interesting announcements and then return to their quiet cave.

Here is the problem with Sybase's silence. It gives the mobility stage to others. This stage is where thought leaders participate in educating the market. It is where visionaries paint new images of what is possible. Sybase's history and customer base give them an opportunity to take the stage. I just don't see them doing it. IT decision makers will forget about them.

How many of you know the name of a visionary in Sybase's mobility group? I am sure they exist, I just never see them leave the cave. I don't see them taking the center stage and commanding our attention.

Perhaps I am just missing them and they are all around me. Do you see them everywhere and I don't? I read Ian Thain's blog often, but are there other voices from Sybase? I look forward to your comments so I can be pointed in the right direction.

I know Sybase and iAnywhere. I did not know John F Kennedy. They have some great mobile middleware technology, but the market is not going to wait for them to come out of their cave and tell us about it.

I see it in companies that are big and have a long history. Newcomers and young visionaries within the company do not feel empowered to write or speak. They don't feel worthy of taking the podium where the company founders once stood decades before and shared ideas and visions. Why? They always feel they will say something wrong and the founders will jump out of their graves. The result is a quiet company.

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Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobility Consultant, Wireless Industry Analyst and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: @krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Mobile Applications and 69 Enterprise Support Questions

Often the focus of a mobile software project is on gathering the functional requirements, designing, developing and deploying the mobile solution, but little or no advanced planning is given to the question of how to support it once it is deployed. The following list contains many of the questions your IT helpdesk and support department will want and need to know:

Who does the field worker call if there is a mobile device problem?
Who does the field worker call if their mobile application is not synchronizing correctly?
Who trains new employees on how to use the mobile device and application?
If there is a mobile software problem, who fixes it - IT, consultant, contractor, your systems integrator or VAR? How do you get in contact with them?
Who does the field worker call if the mobile application needs edited or upgraded?
If the user downloads a new version of the mobile operating system and the mobile application doesn't work, who will fix it?
How do you prevent mobile users from downloading new software applications that might break the system?
How do you back-up mobile devices so the information is centralized?
Who owns and defines the business process you have mobilized? They may need to approve any changes to the business process.
Who controls the security of the device?
How do you set-up a new user to securely access the enterprise database?
What kinds of security rules must the field user follow?
Do different users have different security profiles?
Is there a standard set of security rules for mobile devices across the enterprise?
Who controls access to the enterprise database application (a DBA)?
Will the Database Administrator allow you to synchronize data directly to their enterprise database application, or do they want a "staging database" or API layer to review all data before it is loaded to the enteprise database application. They will likely be involved in any future changes to the mobile application.
Are synchronizations done in real-time, near-real-time, or batch on a schedule?
Does one mobile device have multiple synchronizing applications? Are they on different schedules or do they synchronize at the same time?
How many different enterprise database applications are synchronizing with a mobile device? If there is a sync problem, how do you know what database applications may be impacted?
If you hire an additional field worker, how do you order an additional mobile device? Whose budget covers this? Who is the vendor? What support plan or insurance plan should be included?
Who decides if the new mobile device needs to be ruggedized or a consumer grade? What level of ruggedness is required for the specific user?
Do different job functions require different devices, carriers and wireless data service plans?
Who decides what brand of mobile devices are going to be the company standard?
Where do you purchase your mobile devices if one breaks or you need to add one to your inventory? Do you have a corporate discount or volume discount agreement?
How do you manage and control the variable costs of using a data plan from a local wireless carrier? What happens if the costs of the data services gets out of control? Who pays for it?
Are the mobile devices or the mobile software solutions under warranty? Where are these contracts stored? Who owns them?
Is there a yearly support contract IT needs to know about? How much? Whose budget?
What is the account number the warranty is under?
How do you set-up a new data plan for a new user with your wireless carrier? Who does that in the company? What is the account number so you can add subscribers? Whose budget pays for it?
What happens when Microsoft releases a new Windows Mobile operating system and you can only purchase mobile devices with the new OS on them? Who is going to upgrade your mobile software solutions so they work with the new OS?
What happens when the field engineer treks across 2 miles of muddy field to work at a construction site, but the battery on his handheld computer dies about 10 minutes after he gets there? What is the backup battery plan?
What happens when text messages, photos, videos, music, and games claim all the memory on the rugged PDA and the Construction application becomes either too slow or unreliable because of low memory?
How do you know when your mobile workers are synchronizing the latest information? You don't want mobile workers going days without synchronizing their device.
When you send an updated software application to your mobile workers, how do you know who is using the new application and who is still on the old?
How do you disable synchronization on a lost or stolen mobile device?
How do you kill and/or protect your data on the mobile device if it is lost or stolen?
How do you keep track of which workers are using which mobile devices? If there is an operating system update, or firmware update, how do you know who needs it?
What is the process for bringing mobile handhelds into the IT department for repairs and upgrades? Is there a central location, or should various locations be scheduled on specific dates.
If you are taking care of many different mobile field workers and many different mobile devices with a variety of operating systems, wireless carriers and screen sizes, how do you track who gets what?
If you have a project manager that requires visibility to more data than other workers, how do you manage different views on the handheld computer?
Some mobile projects require different levels of security, for different levels of data visibility. How would you manage and track that?
Will your company standardize on 1 mobile operating systems or several (Blackberry, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Palm, Android, iPhone, etc)
Some applications require barcode, RFID, GPS, digital camera and other specialized data collection accessories, while others don't. How does the IT Helpdesk track the brand, version and other details of these accessories?
If a dump truck backs over your supervisor's $1800 ruggedized computer and crushes it into hundreds of unidentifiable pieces, how do you get a replacement out to the supervisor with the exact application and data that is required as quickly as possible?
If a mobile device needs repaired - what is the process for keeping your field workers operating without it? Do you have a stock of spare mobile devices?
Does your mobile device reseller have a replacement program?
How do you deploy new mobile applications to your 1,300 mobile device users? Must they bring all their devices back to the IT department, or can you publish new applications directly to the handheld computer?
How do you support the mobile device, when the user has limited computer knowledge and is sitting on the top of a utility pole? What tools can the IT Helpdesk use to remotely help and diagnose problems?
How do you recognize a defective mobile device that is being shared by 12 different mobile workers? Do you have a method of identifying which problems are being reported on a particular device or are you logging support calls only by users?
What is your process for dispatching work orders to service technicians when they are disconnected or out of range of cellular and wireless networks? A process needs to be defined.
What is your synchronization plan for each mobile worker? Can they sync in the morning and evening at their office desk, or do they need to sync every 5 minutes or in real-time?
What is the synchronization plan for a service technician that rarely has wireless network access? Does it justify a satellite up-link? (Sears Service Technicians use both)
How do you know when information was successfully synchronized with a mobile device in the field? Can you see and determine the success of the synchronization from the IT Helpdesk?
What is an acceptable synchronization time? Is it 20 seconds, 2 minutes, 20 minutes? Does the IT Helpdesk know what times are acceptable so they can consider this when configuring a new user?
Does all data need to be synchronized in real-time, or only some. Product catalogs are an example of updates that may only be needed weekly or monthly?
How much data can be synchronized in a given period of time on the chosen connectivity option? Is that an acceptable speed for the task at hand?
Who determines the hardware requirements that support the mobile application and desired synchronization speeds?
When a new mobile software application is developed, who tests its operating speed on different devices, processors, memory levels and connectivity options to determine what is acceptable and what is not?
When you are updating or reconfiguring an enterprise database, how do you know what mobile applications and mobile users will be impacted by these changes? How do you manage this update process?
How does the IT Helpdesk know which one of the 17 mobile applications on the handheld computer is having a synchronization problem?
If you are supporting 174 work crews and their mobile devices around the globe, how do you know where they are located, and who is responsible for them?
How does the IT Helpdesk know if a mobile device is using a cradle, modem, bluetooth, wireless, USB, satellite or Cellular connection to synchronize? The IT Helpdesk really wants to know before they begin working on the issue.
What wireless carrier, technology and through-put speed is the mobile device using? Is it GPRS, GSM, CDMA, Edge or some other network configuration?
Do you need to stagger the synchronization times? One of my clients had a problem with 300 mobile workers downloading large product catalogs all at the same time each month -the first Monday of the month. This caused a bottleneck and slow downloading times.
What do you do with old and retired mobile handheld devices? Companies like Ryzex buy back old handheld mobile devices and recycle them.
What rugged or semi-rugged cases are required to protect the mobile device?
What add on assessories are supported on the mobile device? Ear pieces, GPS, add-on RFID, barcode scanners? Who supports these and where do you order replacements?
Does the same mobile software application work on rugged mobile handhelds and on mobile consumer devices?
What employees and roles get the different levels of rugged devices?
Do you have a corporate account with a mobile device reseller that will repair all of the different mobile devices or do you work with many different vendors with different support and warranty plans.

All of these questions are very important and need to be answered upfront. If you would like to discuss this subject in more detail please email me.

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http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com
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Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future