SAP and Cronacle Mobile Alerting Service

The following press release was issued today concerning Redwood Software's announcement of a mobile application for IT staff to receive and respond to real time alert notifications on their mobile devices. This software application works with SAP and other ERP systems. This announcement follows an earlier one that is stated to be the first iPhone business application for enterprise process automation. I am a strong believer that the future of enterprise mobile applications must include a business process automation component as discussed in this article.

MORRISVILLE, NC -- 08/17/09 -- Redwood Software, an industry leader in delivering enterprise and mobile software, today announced immediate availability of the Cronacle Mobile(TM) Alerting Service for the iPhone(TM) and iPod® touch. The Cronacle Mobile Alerting Service enables IT staff to receive and respond to alert notifications in real time on their mobile device. With Redwood's new service, customers' IT departments using SAP® solutions gain unprecedented portability, visibility and control of business processes and the enterprise systems that underlie them.

Today's announcement of the Cronacle Mobile Alerting Service follows Redwood's recent launch of Cronacle Mobile, the first iPhone business application for enterprise process automation and job scheduling. The Cronacle Mobile Alerting Service extends the capabilities of Cronacle Mobile by taking advantage of the new Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) to deliver time-critical system information immediately to the iPhone or iPod touch.

"We are very excited to deliver a solution to our customers that is as mobile as they want or need to be," says Tijl Vuyk, CEO and president of Redwood Software. "With our new alerting service we extend our mobile platform so customers can monitor their systems, and receive real-time notifications wherever they are and whenever issues require their attention."

Cronacle Mobile Alerting extends the benefits of mobility and remote management to any back-end systems which run Redwood's industry leading process automation and job scheduling solutions, including Redwood Cronacle® and the SAP Central Process Scheduling application by Redwood. All SAP and Redwood customers can use Cronacle Mobile Alerting to manage their entire enterprise landscape, including both SAP and non-SAP applications.
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An iPhones is My Mobile Phone and Handheld PDA

I have and use an iPhone as my primary mobile computing device which means a PDA or Smartphone. It has some exceptional features including:

• GPS
• Easy application uploading and updating
• High speed Internet
• Great screen
• Many great operational features for ease of use

However, the iPhone has some problems or is missing some key features that are required by business users including:

• GPS fails to track fast enough to use while driving
• GPS fails to pinpoint the location of the user
• No TASK function - Apple has not included even a basic TASK function. Many of my colleagues use the standard Microsoft TASK function regularly, and Apple's exclusion of this simple but useful tool is strange
• No CUT and PASTE function - The exclusion of this feature is another strange choice by Apple - who wants to retype every note or phone number that needs to be moved around on the iPhone....what a pain. My only guess is that Apple wants to train us to email everything to a desktop or laptop for editing....very strange and inefficient
• The keyboard on the iPhone is clever, but Apple makes another very strange choice to limit the email keyboard to portrait view only. The Internet browser permits a landscaped keyboard which is very nice, but the keyboard in the email only allows portrait...this view of the keyboard is too small for fast and effective 2 fingered typing. Why would they limit the keyboard in the very application where fast typing is most required?
• The landscape view of an Internet browser is too small for viewing. It is nice that they try to show you a complete view of a full sized website, but it is too small for real use. You continue to find yourself enlarging the view and scrolling all around the website to view it. Not convenient or enjoyable.

I spent some time reviewing all of the applications available on iTunes for the iPhone in December 2008. There were many interesting applications, but there was an obvious lack of real business applications. I consider real business applications as running relational databases and synchronizing or communicating directly with recognized business software applications like SAP. Where are the applications that extend workflows from ERPs into the field?

The lack of real business applications again points to the challenging environment of mobile software. The market is so fragmented that mobile users will find it hard to find a mobile version of their exact ERP or Field Service application. This means companies will need to develop their own customized version, use an experienced mobile software development company or use a mobile software development tool kit from a company like MobileDataforce.

Why is it hard to find a mobile version of your office software? Software companies need to find markets where they can build one software application and then sell it many times to make a profit. In IT environments where customized database applications and customized workflows are the norm, mobile software companies are not able to pre-build mobile applications. They don't know how you want the application to function or what data you need in the field. This must be configured on a customized basis in most companies. Therefore, companies need to work with a mobile software company that can offer a cost effective, very flexible mobile software toolkit so you can take advantage of their tools, synchronizing technologies and application development environments to keep the development costs reasonable.

iPhone Enterprise Mobility Apps

Finally, it appears that iPhone has real enterprise business applications available to run on it. This article lists the top enterprise mobile software applications as:

1. Oracle for iPhone
2. Salesforce for iPhone
3. Sybase's Mobile Office for iPhone

These are small applications, but with great potential.

iPhone Business Applications

On Tuesday, August 5, 2008 the Wall Street Journal published an article called Ringing Up Business With iPhone Applications by Raymund Flandez. In this article, an example of a business applications is a set of medical flashcards that work on iPhones. They also suggest these business applications, at $39.00 are expensive. OK...let's talk.

Real mobile business applications are extensions of key business applications that are run in the office. These mobile business applications enable you to integrate mobile devices with large, complex database applications that include workflow automation, database queries and business automation. The challenge that Apple has today is that their software SDK (software development kit) does not include synchronization technology that enables software developers to easily move data between a database applications in the office and the iPhone.

Another criticism I have for this article is suggesting that $39.00 for a business application is expensive. Expensive is of course relative, but significant business applications can often be worth $39,000-$390,000 to companies that can automate and mobilize their mobile users.

- Kevin Benedict

MobileDataforce Announces iPhone Software Development Services

MobileDataforce® Announces iPhone Software Development Services

New iPhone software development services enable businesses to deploy custom mobile business applications to the popular iPhone

Boise, Idaho— July 17, 2008 – MobileDataforce®, a leading provider of mobile software solutions for businesses, today announced a new professional services offering for users of the popular Apple iPhone.

MobileDataforce has for years been developing mobile software applications for use on handheld PDAs and helping our customers develop and deploy mobile enterprise software applications around the world on the Windows Mobile and Pocket PC operating systems. We are now adding the capabilities to develop enterprise mobile business applications for use on the iPhone.

About MobileDataforce®

MobileDataforce® is a leader in the development of enterprise class and business critical software solutions for use on mobile computers including Smart Phones, Handhelds, PDAs, Tablet PCs and laptops. MobileDataforce has sales offices in Europe, North America and in Australia to support their expanding customer base and sales channels. Privately held, MobileDataforce has been mobilizing business solutions since 2000. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.mobiledataforce.com/.

Apple Could Make Things Easier for th iPhone Smartphone

It is a good thing MobileDataforce's professional services organization has so much experience developing enterprise mobile software applications and synchronizing with back office systems, because Apple has certainly not offered much help in making the iPhone enterprise ready. We are developing iPhone applications now for customers and are often coding our own software to fill many gaps in Apple's SDK.

This experience is predictable when new technology is released. It takes companies like MobileDataforce to fill in the missing links. Even with these early stage issues, it is certainly fun and the iPhone smartphone is absolutely capable of being a value enterprise tool for the mobile workforce.

GPS Features on the iPhone

One of the coolest features of the Apple iPhone for businesses is the integrated GPS functionality. Companies can use these features for a large variety of purposes including:

• Adding time and date stamps PLUS GPS coordinates to work orders as a way of proving the time, data and location of work performed
• Enabling service technicians and delivery vans to be tracked in near real-time.
• Helping drivers reach their destination faster and with less fuel
• Associating job estimates to a GPS location
• Locating and identifying the location of various pieces of equipment and other assets
• Associating conditional assessments for asset management with a GPS location. This can be used to locate buildings, walls, sidewalks, sprinkler heads etc, that require repair

The list can go on forever because there is a HUGE amount of value in adding geospatial information to just about any field service activity. Including this feature on an iPhone is one more step toward making the iPhone a valueable business tool for the enterprise.

MobileDataforce is currently working on a number of mobile business applications for the iPhone.

Business Applications for Apple iPhones

MobileDataforce has just started a very cool mobile business application for use on the Apple iPhone. My team has over 50 years experience developing custom mobile applications yet are still excited about using their experience with the iPhones.

This iPhone business application involves the following:

• Login to an office database application from an iPhone
• Enter Sales Order information on the iPhone in the field and transfer the order to the database application in the office
• Enter Shipping information on the iPhone and transfer the information to the database application in the office
• Initiate credit card processing on the database application in the office
• Receive acknowledgement of Order acceptance and CC processing
• Initiate an order fulfillment and shipping process in the warehouse

This is just one of many iPhone applications and projects that MobileDataforce is reviewing and/or developing for our customers at this time. It is fun, but challenging as Apple has not provided complete tool sets for iPhone development yet. Currently we must develop many of the tools ourselves to address the needs of the enterprise business application market, but eventually Apple will offer more tools to simplify the most common enterprise integration needs.

Let the fun begin for the iPhone enterprise application market!