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Showing posts with the label enterprise mobile

Mobile Expert Interviews: PowWow Mobile's CEO Kia Behnia

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The enterprise mobility software vendor space has been around for more than a decade, but new start-ups continue to enter the market with ambitions to address unsolved problems and challenges.  In this interview, I ask  PowWow Mobile  CEO Kia Behnia, why an enterprise mobility start-up now?   Kevin Benedict's latest video on mobile commerce trends and strategies: ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Senior Analyst, Center for the Future of Work, Cognizant Writer, Speaker and World Traveler View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of

Competing in Future Time and Digital Transformation

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Digital Transformation is the process of transforming a business from one state to another - from a state where businesses operate in Human time, to a state that operates in Digital time and finally to Future time.  Businesses today must digitally transform in order to compete in all three of these time continuums simultaneously.  Let’s first identify these different time continuums: Human time – time governed by our physical, biological and mental limitations as humans Digital time – time governed by computing, networking and data transmission speeds Future time – time governed by predictive analytics, algorithms and artificial intelligence Human time cannot compete with Digital time in a mobile and always connected world. Human time cannot deliver the real-time mobile and online commerce speeds that digital consumers require. For example, you can’t have a human responding to mobile search queries, or mobile payments, rather you need optimized information logistics systems

Mobile Expert Interview: Mobile Labs' Dan McFall

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In all my years of researching and writing about enterprise mobility, I have not taken the time to learn about automated testing solutions for mobile apps.  These are important solutions as mobile applications are often your brand and primary point of interaction with customers and even employees.  They had better work!  In this interview, we discuss mobile app testing processes and strategies.  Enjoy! Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_LB7wff_S8&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Writer, Speaker, Editor Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant View my profile on LinkedIn Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Browse the Mobile Solution Directory Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterpri

Sitting On the Plane Talking about Enterprise Mobility

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If you have the chance, avoid sitting next to me on a plane. I like to talk, and I particularly like to talk about enterprise mobility.  Last night an unfortunate Accenture consultant sat down next to me. He was on a call with his project team that was working on a large BI (business intelligence) project.  I got so excited just listening to the acronyms roll off of his tongue.  I could hardly wait for him to hang-up the phone so I could jump in and talk with him in the brief seconds before he could pull out his Bose sound canceling headset.  I succeeded. He shared his background, 15 years working for Accenture, focused on BI in the Fortune 100, travels every week.  I told him my background and shared my enthusiasm for enterprise mobility and mobile strategies.  He turned and looked at me, and said as only a geek could do, "I hate mobility." He went on to say he is constantly asked to give presentations on mobile BI.  The problem is, they never buy his solutions.  This pu

Kevin Benedict's What's New in HTML5 - Week of August 12, 2012

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In my 2012 Mid-Year Enterprise Mobility Survey last month, I asked the question, "How important is HTML5 or HTML5 hybrid apps to your company's enterprise mobility plans?"  Mobility consultants rated it 2.6 out of a 4 - with 1 being "Not Important" and 4 being "Critical." The 2.6 weighted average is between "Somewhat Important" and "Very Important" on the scale. Now for the news... HTML5 WebSockets have been identified as a potential security risk.   One key issue is that since WebSocket technology is still relatively new, most firewall and IPS network security devices are not aware of them; therefore, WebSocket traffic is not inspected or secured by the same mechanism as other web traffic.   Read Original Content The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions is developing a suite of tools “to give device manufacturers and HTML5-enabled application developers access to core network capacities”.   The tool

Enterprise Mobility, Institutional Knowledge, New Processes and Context Aware Solutions

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One of the most interesting benefits of mobile technologies is the ability to develop completely new business processes and workflows that provide new and unique values.  These are important, and rarely are considered as part of potential ROIs.  Let's think about the following scenario: A diamond bladed concrete cutter is required for some utility work.  What needs to happen?  The cutting machine needs to be scheduled, located, inspected, transported, and a qualified operator needs to be available to run it.  In addition, a series of safety procedures need to be completed to ensure a safe working environment.  Perhaps municipal government agencies also need to be notified and permits received before the work can begin. As you can see from this scenario, there are a lot of moving parts and steps that need to be completed in order for this job to be done optimally.  Many of the steps in the workflow are also dependent on other parts.  I can imagine companies developing cloud base

Conjecture, Field Services and Enterprise Mobility

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In this Video Comments segment I discuss the word "conjecture" and how it relates to field services and enterprise mobility, plus mobile strategies and decision making tools.  I hope you find it useful. ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups Read The Mobility 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.

Mobility ROI Weekly - Week of August 29th

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This weekly ROI (return on investment) report includes ROIs that I come across in my weekly enterprise mobility and mobile data collection research.  My goal is to create an archive of mobility related ROIs that we can all use when we need them. I hope you find this useful. Mobile Fleet Management Cuts Costs Fleet Advantage provides fleet services to Costco Wholesale that includes installing electronic sensors in freight trucks and trailers.  Equipping vehicles in the shipping industry with sensors to better manage deliveries is a growing trend.  The ROIs resulting from mobile fleet management are: Improved fuel efficiency Analysis of driver behavior that enables improvements to be made that drives down operating costs Detailed reports that enable companies to see when holding on to an old truck costs more than leasing a new one – again this helps drive down operating costs. Data gathered by sensors that allows companies to better make cost comparisons between buying or leas

Mobile Expert Interview Series: ClickSoftware's Israel Beniaminy, Part 3

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ClickSoftware's Israel Beniaminy This is Part 3 in this interview with ClickSoftware's VP of Product Strategy, Israel Beniaminy.   Read Part 1 ,  Part 2  and Part 4 . Kevin:   How are enterprise mobility implementations different from other typical IT projects? Israel:   The good news is that unlike some other IT projects, ROI for mobility projects is usually easy to calculate and achieve.  More tasks per day, per field worker, shorter time-to-invoice, reduced work force required for paperwork, call center and dispatching are just a few examples.  The bad news - The users work in a highly dynamic environment, and it can be quite difficult to imagine all the situations in which the mobile application may be used.  This calls for careful planning and execution of testing, which must include testing in the field, not just within the office. Kevin:   What do companies fail to plan for when implementing mobility? Israel:  Allow me to defer to my colleague Gil Bouhnick wh

Skanska Optimizes Mobile Workforce Management

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I read this week that Skanska, a leading global construction company, is implementing optimized scheduling, location based services and mobility to run on the Apple iOS Platform.  It seems that Skanska UK’s Utilities Operating Unit will run ClickSoftware’s Mobile Enterprise Application on Apple smartphones and tablets running iOS.  Skanska provides telecommunications, gas, power and water companies with infrastructure and asset management services.  Their goal is to drive efficiency, improve customer service, enhance workforce productivity and reduce the impact on the environment. Of critical importance to Skanska’s clients and prospects is the ability to drive productivity without compromising customer service by quickly blending in ‘real time’ planned and reactive emergency work. To achieve this, Skanska is working to optimize the deployment and control of hundreds of engineers in the field. Of particular importance to Skanska is the ability to operate on Apple iOS-based devi

New Trend - Carry More Mobile Devices Til You Can't Walk No More

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iPhone, iPad, Netbook, Blackberry OK, I don't want to report this trend.  I am all about convergence and combining more and better features into small pocket size devices called smartphones, but my journalistic side beckons.  I have conducted quite a few interviews with leading minds in the enterprise mobility space ( read the series here ).  In these interviews one of my favorite questions is, "What mobile device do you carry?" Here are some recent answers to my interview question:

Mobile Micro-Applications vs Thick Mobile Clients

As I have shared before, my background was in the MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) world.  We used different acronyms, some not repeatable in this family friendly blog, but it was the same thing as today's MEAPs.  I have managed development projects where the mobile applications we delivered could be considered a full ERP in many places.  It was painful and expensive, but it worked.  Our customers had hundreds of route sales, service technicians, and delivery folks walking around carrying full functional ERPs on their ruggedized mobile handheld computers. The application I am referring to above consisted of the following: Mobile sales force automation application Mobile order entry application Mobile invoicing Mobile proof-of-delivery application Mobile work order management application Mobile inventory management system Mobile price and promotion management application Mobile enterprise asset management application Mobile CRM to access customer service and

Sybase, iPad and an Analysis - I am Not Usually Snarky

I am mostly nice on this blog, but come on Sybase!!! What were you thinking with this report, "...Sybase has announced the results of a survey on mobile device usage, commissioned by Sybase and conducted by Zogby International. The survey, which was compiled from an online survey of 2443 adults with a mobile phone, 770 of which own smart phones, uncovered that the #1 reason U.S. consumers would use a device such as the Apple iPad is for " working on the go ." Sybase, the next time you want to commission such an in-depth report please call me. I will conduct it for at least 10% less than Zogby International and come up with the same findings. More, "...the study demonstrates that consumers want more access to information and work applications on their mobile devices." OK, with that level of analysis, perhaps I would need to add another 5% to my proposal. I looked up the definition of the word snarky . Sybase's report makes me feel that way. If you want to he

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: 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 solutio

Mobile Expert Interview Series - Jane and Keelin Glendon of HotButtons

I had the pleasure of interviewing two mobile experts this week, Jane Glendon and her daughter Keelin Glendon. Jane founded her mobile software application company, HotButton Solutions, http://www.hotbuttonsolutions.com/index.html , in Calgary, Alberta in 2000. HotButton Solutions focuses on mobile field data collection applications for the oil and gas industry. The focus is deep, as in deep mud and snow. Jane and Keelin have a lot of great stories to tell about selling and supporting mobile applications in the wilderness. I learned that moose gather on the roads to lick the salt, bears like to scratch their backs on oil well heads and a rugged handheld computer screen only survives 4 whacks with a hammer and nail to break. I also learned that northern Canadian oil workers have been known to express their dislike for new technologies by throwing ruggedized handheld computers into a moving compressor fan (it still worked), and that clever oil workers customize mobile applications to kee

Scrutinizing SAP’s Mobile Strategy from Managing Automation

On the website Managing Automation, http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/ they have an article this week by Stephanie Neil called Scrutinizing SAP's Mobility Strategy . Here is an excerpt, "... a quick search (on the SAP EcoHub) for ‘mobile infrastructure’ brings up Sybase, Antenna Software’s Concert development platform, and SkyConnect from Sky Technologies... I question whether or not SAP needs the same broad base of partners in mobility as it does in manufacturing. Most manufacturers are just starting to implement a wireless strategy, and since it is untapped terrain for them, they may just want a turnkey solution from SAP, not a menu of choices." This is an interesting perspective. Neil seems to suggests that many SAP users (at least in manufacturing) would prefer just one designated turnkey SAP MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) and that having a plethora of partner selections is not necessarily useful. The challenge I have with Stephanie's comm

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 cove

Workforce Mobility and MEAPs

I had an interesting call with a company today that is involved in real workforce mobility. They have a solution called Total Employee Mobility. Here is a brief description from their website. "Now more than ever, companies rely on the mobility of their employees to realize new opportunities and growth. Employee travel , relocation , international assignments , and virtual office work make business happen. However in most organizations, each component of workforce mobility is overseen by a different department, making it very difficult to manage−much less evaluate−the return on investment. This fragmented approach to employee mobility results in lost opportunities to reduce costs, gain efficiencies, and enhance employee satisfaction." They help companies manage mobile workforces by managing the entire "mobility" component. Everything from corporate cars, mileage, expense reports to corporate aircraft and remote overseas offices. I never cease to be amazed at the

Mobile Strategy Seminar - Sky Technologies

I came across this announcement today and it is likely to be of interest to many of you. With more than 10 years of experience in Mobilizing SAP with customers in 60 countries.Sky Technologies have developed a mobile framework that manages all mobile applications within your existing SAP system Join us on February 18th to learn how to design a mobile strategy that will support your business needs today and will evolve to support your business needs of tomorrow. In this seminar, you will learn how to: Define your own mobile strategy Realize the benefits of adopting a mobile framework inside your SAP landscape Understand the skills and resource required Identify which applications to mobilze for optimum efficiency Avoid solutions that provide partial mobile device support Advantages of middleware-free solutions Register Today to ensure you hear the latest information on SAP mobility solutions. *************************************************** Author Kevin Benedict Independent Mobili

Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Working with SAP, Part 3

Mobile micro-apps seem to be the hot topic now days at SAP. These are small mobile applications for iPhones , Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile. These applications can be limited and provide access to one part of one SAP application and business process, or expose an entire business process. For example, travel requests and expense report approvals can be part of a business process that is exposed in a mobile micro-apps. In the case of an Expense Report approval, a manager can be alerted to an expense report that needs approved before it can be paid. The manager can access the report through the micro-app on his/her iPhone, review it and approve or reject it. There is not much to these applications, but they are novel today and will continue to evolve into more powerful mobile applications. SAP has some big ambitions about adding mobile users to their systems. They are encouraging these kind of mobile micro-applications to extend functionality to more users. They would even like t