Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - September 23, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - September 16, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly 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 am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

Archived editions of Kevin's Mobility News Weekly are available at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html

You can follow me on Twitter @krbenedict and read my blog, Enterprise Mobility Strategies for SAP and Others.

Also available are Kevin’s M2M News Weekly and Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly.

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I have added a feature to my blog site that supports email subscriptions. You can now receive all blog articles directly via email. If you are interested, click here.

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Market research firm IDC has increased its growth projections for this year's smartphone sales by 10 percent. The firm now expects smartphone sales to increase 55.4 percent compared to last year, to hit 269.6 million units.

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/daily_news/article.php/410846/IDC-Global-Smartphone-Market-to-Grow-554-Percent-This-Year.htm

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ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business. This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

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Startup Leapfactor Inc. is making a big enterprise push with a new cloud-based mobile application platform that it says can mobilize any business app or process for thousands of employees. In its bid to consumerize the enterprise, the SAP AG partner is looking to help the wireless operators take on corporate America.

http://making-money-investing.com/telecom-startup-sees-enterprise-apps-as-telco-opportunity.html

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According to Gartner, Android will capture 17.7 percent of the smartphone market this year, slightly more than BlackBerry's 17.5 percent share. Symbian will remain on top with 40.1 percent this year, while Apple's iOS will come in fourth with 15.4 percent of the market in 2010.

http://www.businessinsider.com/android-will-blow-past-apple-and-rim-to-become-second-biggest-mobile-os-this-year-2010-9

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SAP CIO Oliver Bussmann tweeted recently that the enterprise software vendor has already rolled out iPads to 1,000 employees.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/sybase/sap-has-deployed-1000-ipads-to-its-employees/411?tag=zd-left

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Apple announced recently that it has lifted restrictions on its third party developer guidelines that impacts Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, a feature in the Flash Professional CS5 authoring tool.

http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2010/09/great-news-for-developers.html

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“As mobility continues to play a key role in enabling companies to achieve greater productivity worldwide, IDC expects the global mobile worker population to increase from 919.4 million in 2008 to more than 1.19 billion in 2013, representing nearly 35 percent of the worldwide workforce," said Sean Ryan, research analyst for IDC's Mobile Enterprise group.

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=221309

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The Motorola Solutions business of Motorola, Inc. and Ericsson hope to advance Public Safety communications. Specifically, an LTE based solution for public safety mobile broadband that will interoperate with mission critical voice and data to unify the delivery of high performing voice and broadband multimedia applications.

http://www.telecomengine.com/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_6562

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I registered for SAP's TechEd 2010 Las Vegas! I am excited about it this year - the year of mobility! SAP's 2010 focus is - on premise, on demand and on device - MOBILE device that is. I will be teaching a session on The Future of Enterprise Mobility. I have seen the conference agenda and it is packed full of sessions on mobility. I hope to see all of you there!

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/08/kevin-benedict-on-teched-2010-in-las.html

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Google unveiled Instant, a new predictive search tool that dynamically displays results as the user types, promising the solution will expand from the desktop to mobile devices this fall.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/08/google-instant-mobile/

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RIM recently stated that more than 30 million BlackBerry smartphone users across 65 countries have downloaded BlackBerry App World since the store first opened, with consumers averaging more than a million app downloads each day. The BlackBerry platform now represents 18.2 percent of the worldwide smartphone market according to data issued earlier this month by research firm Gartner, behind Symbian at 41.2 percent.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/blackberry-app-world-edges-past-10-000-applications/2010-09-09?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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Google Inc's Android software will become the world's second most popular operating system for cell phones this year, leapfrogging rival offerings from Microsoft Corp, Research in Motion and Apple Inc, according to a new report.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE68745L20100910

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Dell Inc. wants to put its new tablet into the lab coats of doctors, as it aims to broaden the appeal of the device beyond consumers and tie it more closely to the company's software.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE68E0PJ20100915

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Before nearly 100 reporters and analysts at its San Francisco office today, Twitter unfurled a redesign, which includes multimedia links that can be viewed from within a Twitter account, rather than from a separate browser page.

http://iphone.usatoday.com/Tech/2031973/

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Google has introduced a beta Walking Navigation service for users of Android phones as part of Google Maps for mobile 4.5.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/infrastructure/WAN_optimization/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227400096&cid=nl_IW_daily_2010-09-13_h

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YouTube is conducting a limited test of a live video streaming platform. I wonder what this means for smartphone video cameras?

http://www.informationweek.com/news/infrastructure/traffic_management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227400233&cid=nl_IW_daily_2010-09-14_h

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About 6.4 billion application downloads were made globally in 2009 alone from native and third party application stores, generating revenues of $4.5 billion in the same year.

http://www.live-pr.com/en/mobile-app-downloads-generated-4-5-billion-r1048562564.htm

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Recent articles from Kevin Benedict’s blog Enterprise Mobility Strategies for SAP and Others

• Compliance Functions for Mobile Applications
• 10 Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Selecting and Implementing a Mobility Solution
• My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 1
• My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 2
• My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 3
• My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 4
• My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 5
• SAP Mentor Monday - Pre-Recorded SAP Enterprise Mobility Webinar

Recommended Whitepaper

Networked Field Services - http://www.clicksoftware.com/1c7060c0-1296-4c54-90d6-8f83c5c5ecf0/knowledge-center-white-papers-registration.htm

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 3

In part 1 of this article series we focused on sales channel development and marketing strategies for mobile enterprise application vendors.  In part 2 we focused on sales strategies.  In part 3 we will discuss thought leadership.

In my experience companies looking to implement new mobile technologies and strategies appreciate help.  They appreciate learning from your mistakes and others.  Often they don't even know the questions they should be asking.  They may not even understand the key considerations and choices they need to make.  They need help even getting to the decision making stage.  They need answers.

I am a big fan of experts teaching workshops.  I have developed them myself.  One or two day workshops that identify all of the key issues, considerations and critical decisions enterprises need to understand before they decide on a mobile application strategy.  Thought leaders have this knowledge and provide it.  Inexperienced vendors are still learning themselves and are in no position to teach others. 

I know of many situations where the sales inhibitor was lack of knowledge.  Some companies even have budgets and a desire but delay the sales cycle purely because they are not confident in their knowledge.  They don't have the expertise to ask the questions necessary to make a buying decision.

There is value in experience.  There are SAP mobility and Co-Innovation partners like Syclo that have been around for more than 15 years.  They have been through just about every significant mobile innovation cycle and trend.  They have been there and done that.  You can ask them about the key issues that can make the difference between a successful project that is completed on time and on budget and the ones that weren't.  They have enough experience to share.

Thought leaders tell you how it is.  They don't hide behind marketing brochures.  You want to get to the people that have real world experience and learn.  I know some mobility vendors that hide all of their experts and let only the sales and marketing departments communicate to the world.  This always makes me think they are hiding something.

I respect mobility thought leaders that share their expertise and participate in educating the community.  A real voice, a real face and real world knowledge.  People like Philippe Winthrop of The Enterprise Mobility Foundation,  Ben Lee at Smartsoft Mobile, Gil Bouhnick at Clicksoftware and Lionel Carrasco of Leapfactor, and others voice opinions and educate the market weekly through blogs, tweets and other methods.

I commend enterprise mobility experts that share and educate.  They demonstrate their experience and confidence daily in their communications.

Stay tuned for part 4 in this article series.

Let me know if you would like to be introduced to some of these opinionated and experienced mobile industry experts, and I will do my best to point you in the right direction.  You can contact me here.

My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 1
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 2

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 1

Over the weekend I had a mobile start-up contact me and share their challenges in getting a working sales channel set up and rolling in the enterprise mobility market.  Since this is a challenge that is shared by many small mobile start-ups, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on this matter.

1. One thing that I learned years ago is that resellers and systems integrators like to jump on a bandwagon. If there is no bandwagon, they aren’t motivated to jump. What does that mean? You need a bandwagon that plays music and attracts a crowd before the resellers or systems integrators come.
2. The bigger the market you are targeting, the bigger the amplification system your bandwagon needs.  You need bigger and louder noise in order to be heard. 
3. Another lesson I learned is that resellers want to focus on a repeatable model in a market they can leverage. What does that mean? It means if they sell to an SAP customer, they can reuse the SAP integration and experience with other potential SAP customers, have an SAP reference case and demonstrate knowledge in SAP environments. They can build a good reputation in a specific and defined market.
4. Understand resellers and their business models. They don’t care as much about what is the very best technology. They want the best selling technology. The high tech world is littered with better technology that went nowhere. The best selling technology is the one with a bandwagon. This is a very important concept to understand.  They are out to make money.  They want to offer solid, reliable technology that works and will make them the most money with the lowest cost of sales.
5. Some companies focus on extending SAP and other ERPs to mobile devices.  These are large and defined market places.  While other markets, like the mobile field data collection market, are made up of thousands of small niche markets with thousands of small resellers. It is hard to leverage a mobile bridge inspection application with an EPA application assessment or clinical trials project. The audiences, markets and resellers do not overlap so it is difficult to leverage success in one niche market into other small markets. It seems you are always starting from scratch in the next market. This means you cannot gain momentum and selling does not get easier over time. The cost of sales continues to be far higher than it should.
6. The marketing investment in one niche market is difficult to leverage in another dissimilar market.  The result is a higher marketing budget requirement per customer.  It is easier and more cost effective to attend one ASUG Sapphire or TechEd conference and meet thousands of potential customers, than to attend many small conferences and meet dozens of prospects in different markets. 
7. It often takes the same sales and market investment to close a $50,000 deal as it does to close a $500,000 or $5 million deal.  The difference is you may lose money on the $50,000 deal when the cost of marketing and the cost of sales is factored in.
8. A rule - The sales process must get easier over time.  You need your marketing system, your reputation, brand, reference cases, industry expertise and referrals to help you gain momentum and speed.  If your sales process does not get easier over time it is broken.
9. Once you have worked with the big boys in the ERP space you can understand why this is a good market. Good reputations can be developed through an accumulation of successes and SAP customers are often large enough to buy thousands of software licenses.
10. SAP customers within certain industries like oil and gas or chemical all belong to the same special interest groups and they talk. Not only do they talk, they attend meetings together and have regular webinars. SAP has dedicated sales and industry experts that support these markets. Success with one large customer is quickly known around the industry. With each success the work is easier and the cost of sales goes down.
11. You can replace the name “SAP” with Oracle or IBM Maximo or any number of companies and ERPs. The idea is that big markets, with large customer bases, that belong to the same industries are very good areas to invest in. It takes big markets to gain leverage and economies of scale.

You can see these strategies being implemented by SAP mobility partners like Clicksoftware, Leapfactor and Syclo.  They are focused on supporting the needs of SAP customers and developing a great reputation mobilizing the business processes of SAP users.  As their customer bases grow, so does their expertise, brand recognition and reference list.

If you are interested in discussing this topic in greater detail please contact me. 

My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 2
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 3
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 4
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 5
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 6

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

http://www.clicksoftware.com/e86e075b-4fca-44c9-bfeb-4efcc978f416/knowledge-center-white-papers-delivery.htm

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly - September 9, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly 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 am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

You can read archived versions of the newsletter here - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html.

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India has widened its security crackdown, asking all companies that provide encrypted communications — not just BlackBerry maker Research In Motion — to install servers in the country to make it easier for the government to obtain users' data. That would likely affect digital giants like Google and Skype.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5it_73CxzMozqkSOODLh2r7aCIlLwD9HVV8CO1

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LG Electronics announced yesterday its intent to launch a new line of dual-core smartphones, dubbed "Optimus," by year's end. The Tegra 2 incorporates two 1 GHz chips, which, according to LG, will mean "up to 2x faster web browsing and up to 5x faster gaming performance over single core processors running at 1 GHz."

http://www.dailytech.com/LG+Well+Have+DualCore+Smartphones+By+Years+End/article19568.htm

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Syclo announced today that it's rolling out major enhancements to its Agentry mobile enterprise application platform. Agentry is the backbone of Syclo's mobile solution framework as it provides both the tooling and infrastructure that enterprises need to develop, test, deploy and manage high availability mobile applications.

http://www.fieldtechnologiesonline.com/article.mvc/Syclo-Announces-New-Version-Of-Its-Agentry-0001

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Apple confirmed the launch of its new Apple TV device for later this month. The media player with HDMI and Wi-Fi will allow users to stream online movies and TV series as well as content from their PCs to an HD TV.

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=754422

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Leapfactor, an SAP partner and start up, today announced a cloud-based system to support mobile applications, including back office custom applications for accounting and customer support.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9183898/SAP_partner_launches_cloud_based_mobile_app_service

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Google's Android Market has the largest share of free applications. App store analytics firm Distimo reports that 60 percent of Android apps are free, an increase of three percent from May. Windows Marketplace for Mobile has the lowest percentage of free apps with just 22 percent, while 26 percent of apps in both Apple's App Store for the iPad and BlackBerry App World are free.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/distimo-60-android-apps-are-free/2010-09-01?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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You are tasked with managing a team you cannot see. You are accountable for the safety of your employees in locations you have never been. Your success is based upon your team’s ability to overcome all kinds of technical challenges in remote and distant jobsites. You are responsible for your team following company standards, processes and industry best practices without any supervision. You must expertly balance their schedules, qualifications and workloads to maximize customer satisfaction and profitability from a distance.

http://theemf.org/2010/09/01/managing-the-mobile-workforce/

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Consumers buying items via iPads spend an average of up to 20 percent more per purchase than other mobile shoppers.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/peter-session-1-2/

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ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business. This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

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Google is hoping to debut an Internet based digital music service that would launch later this year in conjunction with version 3 of its popular Android operating system for smartphones, according to various media reports.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/google-negotiating-android-music-service/2010-09-03?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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Total Twitter mobile users has jumped 62 percent since mid April, and, remarkably, 16 percent of all new users to Twitter start on mobile now.

http://blog.twitter.com/2010/09/evolving-ecosystem.html

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Sony Ericsson estimates that China will be its largest handset market in the next three to four years as it looks to increase its share of the country. The Japanese-Swedish joint venture said that smartphone use in China would reach 50 percent of all mobile phone users in the country by 2015.

http://www.mobiledia.com/news/73510.html

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The mobile applications market is estimated to be worth around $25 billion by 2015. However, the economic meltdown has caused some big names within the applications and telecoms industry to shutdown recently and the fears of the aftermath of a recession are still on the clouds.

http://bharatbookseo.blogsome.com/2010/09/03/the-mobile-applications-market/

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SAP AG aims to make China “a second home” as local companies seeking management tools and real time business intelligence will provide “limitless growth” for the software maker, co-Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-03/sap-sees-limitless-potential-in-chinese-market-co-ceo-mcdermott-says.html

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I registered for SAP's TechEd 2010 Las Vegas! I am excited about it this year - the year of mobility! SAP's 2010 focus is - on premise, on demand and on device - MOBILE device that is. I will be teaching a session on The Future of Enterprise Mobility. I have seen the conference agenda and it is packed full of sessions on mobility. I hope to see all of you there!

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/08/kevin-benedict-on-teched-2010-in-las.html

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Samsung, the world’s second largest cell phone maker, has decided to use Google’s Android as a key software platform for its smartphones alongside its own new bada software.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6811FI20100902

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According to IDC's worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker, handset vendors shipped a total of 317.5 million units worldwide in the quarter, up 15 percent year-over-year and eight percent sequentially, driven by seasonal strength.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970204812504575469674114253814.html?mod=googlenews_barrons

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Over the past year Apple has lost ground to Google, losing 11 percent of the mobile web consumption market, while Google picked up 17 percent more market share. iOS still maintains a significant lead with 56 percent of the market, more than twice that of Android, but current growth trends could cause problems for Apple in the near future.

http://www.worldtech24.com/phones/android-gaining-apple-ios-mobile-web-market-share

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Google Android and Windows Mobile will see their smartphone market share increase by 2014, while BlackBerry and Apple will experience declines, according to a new research note from IDC.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Android-Windows-Phone-Will-Lead-Smartphone-Market-Surge-IDC-197754/

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Toshiba Electronics Europe has expanded its family of mobile peripheral device ICs with the TC358751XBG, which provides the interface between a mobile device's host processor and embedded displays as well as external equipment, such as a TV set or projector. The buffer content can be rendered simultaneously on two displays (typically with different content) and external equipment.

http://www.eetimes.de/en/new-mobile-dual-screen-display-ic-offers-1080p.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222903617&vID=8

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Automotive service organization AAA is driving foot traffic to the locations of its retail partners via a loyalty focused Android application. The AAA Discounts application lets consumers know about nearby discounts available to members of its Show Your Card & Save loyalty program.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/aaa-targets-android-users-via-loyalty-program-app/

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Amazon Kindle get’s new firmware and shows up on BestBuy.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Amazon-Kindle-Gets-New-Firmware-Shows-up-on-BestBuy-155779.shtml

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A new survey has revealed that 65 percent of adults sleep with their cell phones on or next to their beds. This latest sampling from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows how cell phones continue to grow ever more vital in our livelihoods.

http://www.technewsdaily.com/two-thirds-of-adults-sleep-with-their-cell-phones-1189/

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Salesforce.com, a provider of software as a service to companies over the web, has introduced mobile application Chatter for social networking inside companies.

http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/index.html?sid=1835_Salesforce.com+introduces+Chatter+networking+solution

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Recent articles from Kevin Benedict’s blog Enterprise Mobility Strategies for SAP and Others

Compliance Functions for Mobile Applications
What Percent of the U.S. Workforce is Mobile?

NEW Recommended newsletter – Kevin’s Mobile Retail News Weekly

Recommended Webinar

I participated in the webinar, 10 Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Selecting and Implementing a Mobility Solution this week. It can be viewed here, http://www.clicksoftware.com/96ec7ed7-023c-4260-a063-a7d5c320dd23/knowledge-center-on-demand-webinars-registration.htm?mgs1=06a52axCfU.

Recommended Whitepaper

Networked Field Services - http://www.clicksoftware.com/1c7060c0-1296-4c54-90d6-8f83c5c5ecf0/knowledge-center-white-papers-registration.htm

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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Completing Field Force Automation - Extending Intelligent Mobility

I recently wrote an article for The Enterprise Mobility Foundation, The Next Step in Business Process Optimization: Mobility.  In this article I describe the enormous amount of work that has gone into designing and automating business processes and ERPs like SAP.  The conclusion of the article is that as sophisticated as ERPs are today, there remains significant feature gaps, especially in extending business processes out to the mobile workforce.

In this article, I want to highlight some areas where there is still much work to be done in field services.  In field services, a number of SAP mobility partners like Clicksoftware and Syclo have comprehensive field services and enterprise asset management solutions with mobile clients for use on smartphones and ruggedized handhelds.  However, there are still feature gaps in the integration of real time data, M2M integration, geotags, business intelligence, augmented reality and multi-media support.

Let me give you a not so futuristic field services scenario to consider.  A field services technician arrives at a customer's location.  Recognizing the location (based on geospatial data and scheduling data), the service tech's smartphone begins to both display and read, using an audio feed, the customer highlights including recent support issues, account status, warranties, contracts and possible upsell sales opportunities.  As the service technician unloads his/her tools and walks toward the worksite, they are getting educated on all the most recent events through their ear piece.

As the service technician passes near various pieces of equipment with a maintenance and repair history the information is both displayed and an audible voice reviews the history.  As the service technician enters a building, the blueprint of the building and a map of  the location of all equipment under service contracts appears on their screen.

Now let's pretend we are movie directors and insert a flashback - before the service technician was scheduled and dispatched, the field service automation system queried the maintenance and support status of all equipment on the customer's campus.  Equipment needing repair or maintenance was identified, parts required were pulled from inventory or ordered for delivery.  Required tools and equipment were pre-loaded into the service technician's vehicle and time was allocated to complete all the necessary work on the premises.  Consolidating all the work possible during a visit reduces fuel, travel and labor costs.

As the service technician arrives at each piece of equipment, he immediately snaps a digital picture of it.  A diagram, with step by step instructions overlays the digital photo and instructs the service technician on how to complete the service most efficiently.  The service technician speaks to the mobile application confirming each step until it is completed.  This audio file is immediately translated, interpreted and the work order is closed.

If any step in the process takes longer than expected, the mobile application will ask if a digital video file demonstrating the necessary steps would be useful.  If the service technician affirms, then the file automatically plays.

If advice from another expert is required, the service technician can request it and the mobile application can initiate a knowledge management process (see solutions from SAP mobility partner's Leapfactor, Open Text's Open Text Everywhere, or SAP's Streamworks) that queries experts and connects with them automatically.  If a connected expert requests a live video feed of the equipment or the work, the service technician simply aims the smartphone digital video camera at the equipment or activates the hat mounted video camera.

Before each peice of equipment is reached, an automatic M2M (machine-to-machine) communication is sent from the office asking the equipment to perform diagnostics on itself.  The diagnostic is completed and wirelessly sent to the service technician's smartphone.

All of the technology in the scenario above exists today.  It just has not been integrated all together into specific use cases like the one above.  Perhaps SAP partners are waiting for customers to request it or for SAP to document it or for you to suggest it.

*Read the Mobility News Weekly at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html.

*Read the M2M News Weekly at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/m2m.html.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M 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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http://www.clicksoftware.com/e86e075b-4fca-44c9-bfeb-4efcc978f416/knowledge-center-white-papers-delivery.htm

Mobile Applications for Knowledge Management, Collaboration and Human Progress

I am very interested in mobile enterprise applications that deliver collaboration and knowledge management functionality.  I believe these solutions will revolutionize businesses that use them.  I saw three of these applications at Sapphire this year that I describe later in this article. 

First let me share a very interesting article by Matt Ridley that was recently published in the Wall Street Journal on May 22-23, 2010, Humans: Why They Triumphed.  Here are some excerpts:

• Collective intelligence is the notion that what determines the inventiveness and rate of cultural progress or change in a population is the amount of interaction between individuals.
• The sophistication of the modern world lies not in individual intelligence or imagination, rather, it is a collective enterprise.
• Exchange stimulated innovation by bringing together different ideas. Exchange and collective intelligence is the key to human progress.
• Once human beings started swapping things and thoughts they stumbled upon divisions of labor, in which specialization led to mutually beneficial collective knowledge. Specialization encourages and promotes innovation. 
• The process of cumulative innovation that has doubled life span, cut child mortality by three-quarters and multiplied per capita income nine-fold-world-wide in little more that a century is driven by the exchange of ideas.

Mr. Ridley believes that the interactive nature of the internet, rather than dumbing down people, will in fact lead to an explosion of new ideas and inventions! Online collaboration and the sharing of idea through blogs, tweets, online forums and discussion groups lead to an increase in knowledge.  I believe the three mobile applications that I saw at Sapphire will do just that.

The mobile collaboration and knowledge management tools that I saw at Sapphire were:

• SAP's Expert Link (a proof-of-concept for internal use only developed by Leapfactor)
• SAP's Streamworks - SAP StreamWork brings together people inside or outside your organization with information for fact-based decision-making and interactive business tools for collecting feedback, strategizing, and brainstorming.
• Open Text Everywhere - As the enterprise moves away from a fixed and location-centric work setting to a dispersed mobile world; the ability to interconnect people, the processes and the core content regardless of where and when becomes a necessity and a competitive differentiator.

For more details on these applications you can watch a short video from Kevin's Video Comments - Kevin on mobile collaboration and knowledge management applications.

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M 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.
***************************************************

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!

********
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

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

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

********

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


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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Sky Technologies' Steve Ware

I was able to meet up with Sky Technologies' CTO, Steve Ware, at Sapphire a few weeks ago and unfortunately for him I had a digital video camera in my hands.  SAP had provided us SAP Mentors with very small Flip digital video cameras, and I recorded  his views on MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms).

I also noted this week that Sky Technologies is now supporting Sprint's enterprise initiative for the new Android phone HTC EVO 4G as described below:

Sprint's new HTC 1GHz EVO- 4G smart-phone enables true multi-tasking while on the move. Road warriors can now view documents and files while simultaneously having a conversation with a colleague on the phone. With the large HTC 4-3 inch touch screen and superfast processing power, the HTC is aimed at customers who have serious mobile business requirements.  The HTC EVO 4G boasts thousands of Android-driven mobile applications, with many geared toward businesses across a variety of industries.

Sky Technologies is a mobile applications company specializing in extending all varieties of business applications to any mobile platform. They have 12 years of experience in the enterprise space.

Related videos:
Mobile Expert Video Series: Leapfactor's Luis Cabrera
Mobile Expert Video Series: Sky Technologies President Bruce Johnson
Mobile Expert Video Series: SAP's VP of EcoHub, Usman Sheikh
Mobile Expert Video Series: Infologix's Senior VP Brian Thorn
Mobile Expert Video Series: Syclo's Founder Rich Padula
Mobile Expert Video Series: Vivido Labs' Founder Greg Tomb
Mobile Expert Video Series: SAP Senior VP of Enterprise Mobility, Kevin Nix
Mobile Expert Video Series: PriceWaterhouseCooper's Director of Mobility, Dr. Ahmend El Adl
Mobile Expert Video Series: DSI's VP of Sales, Mark Goode
Mobile Expert Video Series: Mellmo's Santiago Becerra


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

Mobile Middleware for Instant Value or Mobile Micro-Apps

Mobile middleware is more than synchronizing databases and providing basic application integration. It needs to include support for business process extensions, and it must provide a set of features and functions that support lightweight, "Instant Value" or "Mobile Micro-Apps" smartphone applications.

 

There are many features and functions that are needed by mobile workers that are not easily supported by smartphone operating systems like iPhone or BlackBerry. Often the data set is large and the software application is an ERP.  The mobile user does not need access to the full ERP or the full data set, just a subset.  In these cases it would be useful to have a mobile middleware layer that recognizes the needs of the mobile user and provides an optimized mobile application with functionality that supports either browser based or mobile micro-apps.

It seems there is a need for a new middleware layer that is designed to support a wide range of requirements to address the limitations of lightweight and browser based smartphone apps.

Within the SAP ecosystem I am hearing a lot about this concept from the likes of  Vivido Labs  and Leapfactor.

Leapfactor says their mobile middleware layer forwards and broadcasts staged digital content collected at a location and delivers it to any designated consignees, on any smartphone, and always with high availability based on a secure and scalable platform.  They state that their solution relies on four fundamental technologies: 

1. LeapApps -  mobile micro apps for smartphones
2. LeapShell - an SDK that accelerates development and portability to any mobile OS
3. Leap Central - a secure cloud-based service-processing component
4. LeapAgent - securely connects and authenticates LeapCentral with an enterprise

I spent a lot of time working on mobility projects that utilized Sybases' SUP (mobile middleware).  The mobile applications were "thick" clients with mobile databases on smartphones to hold data and synchronize data with the back office database application.  Our mobile applications often had complex business processes and business rules built into the mobile applications to ensure field work was done correctly.  These rules were stored in the mobile database in the thick client.

 

Where are all of these business rules and business processes stored for "Instant Value" and "mobile micro-apps" for smartphones?  Do these lightweight mobile applications simply ignore business rules and business processes, or is this functionality provided in a smartphone middleware layer in the cloud?  These are the things I ponder on a Wednesday morning.

 

Do you see a need for a mobile middleware layer that is specifically designed to support business rules and business processes for mobile micro-apps?

 

*************************************************

Kevin Benedict, CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile Industry Analyst
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. ***************************************************

Mobile Expert Video Series: Leapfactor's Luis Cabrera

At Sapphire 2010 last week I heard Leapfactor mentioned in keynotes and many other presentations by SAP mobility experts. I saw one SAP VP demonstrating a very powerful iPad application that SAP has in a proof-of-concept that was developed by Leapfactor. I also saw that the SAP iPhone application "SAP EcoHub" (free and available on iTunes) was developed by Leapfactor.

I was lucky enough to track down Luis Cabrera from Leapfactor last week and I interviewed him on camera about Leapfactor's focus and solutions including:

• Business Indicator - A powerful dashboard for business analytics on iPhones and iPads
• Business Alerts and Notifications - Send alerts to mobile devices based on parameters set up in your SAP system
• Business Approvals - Enable mobile managers to approve or reject various issues in SAP workflows

The interview: http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/9/Y5l6N2nsrpA

Related videos:

• Mobile Expert Video Series: Sky Technologies President Bruce Johnson
• Mobile Expert Video Series: SAP's VP of EcoHub, Usman Sheikh
• Mobile Expert Video Series: Infologix's Senior VP Brian Thorn
• Mobile Expert Video Series: Syclo's Founder Rich Padula
• Mobile Expert Video Series: Vivido Labs' Founder Greg Tomb
• Mobile Expert Video Series: SAP Senior VP of Enterprise Mobility, Kevin Nix
• Mobile Expert Video Series: PriceWaterhouseCooper's Director of Mobility, Dr. Ahmend El Adl
• Mobile Expert Video Series: DSI's VP of Sales, Mark Goode
• Mobile Expert Video Series: Mellmo's Santiago Becerra

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

SAP to Acquire Sybase, Day 2 - Kevin Benedict's Thoughts and Analysis

SAP's annoucement that they intend to acquire Sybase is still rumbling in my sleepy head.  Several years ago when I was the CEO of a mobile enterprise application company, I partnered with Sybase/iAnywhere.  As a result, I have a deep appreciation for both their strengths and their weaknesses.  I believe this acquisition or a similar one was inevitable, as SAP has been highlighting mobility since last December, but the timing still took me by surprise.

I expect that events and presentations at Sapphire will bring clarity to this move, but in my current fog of confusion I give you my thoughts. 

I have been recommending for some time that SAP should own the mobile integration layer.  Variations of this have been called Gateway, DOE, NetWeaver Mobile, etc.  I think this move will clarify in the future how mobile applications should integrate with SAP.

Let's take a look at some of the direct quotes from the SAP executive suite:

"We see a huge emerging market for the real-time, unwired enterprise. With this strategic move, SAP becomes the number one provider in this market, a significant first mover advantage for our strategic growth ambitions," SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott.

"This acquisition falls right in line with our three pillar strategy of on-premise, on-demand, and on-device software…Now, with the acquisition of Sybase, we will secure our leadership in on-device, further cementing our ability to bring information to users anytime, anywhere, and on any device. As mobile applications for consumers have changed the world, the way people live and communicate mobile applications for the enterprise will have an equal profound impact in the way they work. We want to make sure that SAP solutions can be accessed from all leading mobile devices," Jim Hagemann Snabe, SAP co-CEO.

"Mobile computing is an unmistakable and profound shift in the market. Sybase will be our platform to support all mobile devices, including Windows, Blackberry, Android, and others," said Vishal Sikka, SAP’s Chief Technology Officer.

Now let's take a look at a couple of statements from analysts and industry dignitaries:

Credit Suisse analyst Peter Goldmacher noted that SAP levered up to pay $5.8 billion for a $400 million business (Sybase’s mobile pieces).  "While the dream around mobile is big and Sybase is the undisputed leader, it is going to take a long time before the mobile business can move the needle for SAP. There is a smaller near term opportunity within SAP to mobile-enable a portion of its existing ERP apps," says Goldmacher.

The problem with Goldmacher's comments on near term opportunities is that Sybase does not have many mobile ERP apps, SAP's mobility partners do.  This will need to be worked out very fast.

Dennis Howlett in his article, "SAP acquires Sybase for $5.8 billion, but why?" echoed the questions I asked yesterday.  On the subject of custom application development he asked, "Does SAP think that Sybase and in-memory gives them an entree to this massive market [Telcos and Financials]? If so how does it plan to manage all the integrations required? Where is the rapid apps development environment [for mobile applications] that would make SAP a natural choice?"

While this move by SAP may be a good long term move, it introduces a host of near-term problems for customers and partners.

1. 2010 is the year of mobility at Sapphire.  The exhibition floor is filled with innovative and powerful mobile application vendors that have invested in SAP partnerships.  What does this move mean for them?  They have powerful mobile applications today, where I see Sybase as a longer term play not a 2010 or even 2011 answer.
2. SAP needs to immediately clarify their recommendations for what customers should do today to address their mobility needs or risk introducing sales and market paralysis.
3. Sybase does not have a user friendly, graphically rich, template based rapid application development environment for enterprises or systems integrators to develop mobile enterprise applications.  It requires deep programming skills and knowledge to utilize their mobile middleware.  I know as I have used it.  What does that mean?  There are very few mobile enterprise applications available today from SAP/Sybase.  The innovation in mobile applications is coming from the likes of Vivido Labs, Leapfactor, Sky Technologies, ClickSoftware and Syclo, all of which are SAP mobility partners and have booths at Sapphire this year.
4. Syclo is a key co-innovation mobility partner with SAP.  What does this announcement mean to them?  Their Sapphire focus and messaging likely changed yesterday.  
5. SAP customers need mobile enterprise applications now.  How does this acquisition help?  It doesn't in the short term.
6. You can bet that all SAP mobility partners are gathered in small rooms with whiteboards today.  They are likely to be grumpy at Sapphire from lack of sleep.
7. There is an ABSOLUTE need for rapid application development tools and environments to help design, development, test, deploy and support rich or thick client mobile applications without significant programming.  These tools are available today from SAP mobility partners like Sky Technologies and Syclo.  These tools will need to be expanded to incorporate some of the mobile middleware functionality that the Sybase acquisition will bring to the table.

Bottomline: 

Sybase is not known for their mobile applications.  They primarily license mobile middleware and mobile databases to companies that develop mobile software applications.  SAP users need mobile applications.  Mobile applications, not mobile middleware, provide the ROIs customers seek.

Sybase/iAnywhere has been arguing for years internally on whether to develop their own SDK and enterprise mobile applications.  In the past they have chosen not to so as not to anger their OEM clients.  In fact, they only had a very small professional services team to deliver custom mobile applications.  I don't see Sybase/iAnywhere suddenly being the mobile enterprise application company.  They are very technical types who can ramble for days on the value of their synchronization, but have little insight into user interfaces, business processes and mobile applications.  This can change, but this has been my experience.

Companies looking for mobile solutions should not expect to find them in the SAP/Sybase acquisition.  The ready for market mobile enterprise applications will be available on the show floor at Sapphire next week.

SAP's mobility partners, those that develop thick or rich mobile client applications, may find value in aligning their future mobile middleware strategies to take advantage of the new SAP mobile middleware offerings.  However, this will be an infrastructure alignment and the end customer should not see much of a difference.

SAP mobility partners, that offer mobile micro-applications with rich user interfaces and experiences, are unlikely to see much impact in the near term from this acquisition.  I expect that SAP will provide a more standardized approach for integrating mobile applications and mobile device management into their ecosystem over time, but again this is not likely something that a customer will notice immediately.  Changes like this are mostly done behind the scenes.

SAP has been pondering how to best monetize mobile applications that integrate with their ERP environment.  Sybase has this down.  They have been embedding mobile databases and mobile middleware and charging a per device fee for many years.  They will likely be able to influence how SAP monetizes the mobile environment going forward.

There was a reason SAP had a partnership strategy for mobile applications.  There are literally thousands of different mobile applications that different business applications, industries and markets require.  SAP cannot possibly supply them all.  They have the responsibility to standardize the way these mobile applications interface and interact with their ERP environment, but they must depend on the ecosystem to fulfill the demand.  This has not changed.  Sybase does not bring a large inventory of mobile applications.  SAP's mobility partners will likely remain the source of tactical and industry specific mobile applications both in the near term and in the long term.

I look forward to your comments!  We will figure this all out together :-)
***************************************************
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.
 ***************************************************

SAP Mobility Goes Mainstream in 2010

I read an interesting article today on SAP's SCN that announces mobility will be a key focus of SAPPHIRE 2010.  Here is an excerpt, "We are in the midst of what might be described as a smartphone revolution.  It is clear that SAP has also accepted this."  In an independent analysis, Bob Evans wrote a piece (Information Week, April 30, 2010) titled: "Inside SAP: 10 Factors Behind Its Dramatic Turnaround."  In this article, he calls out "Making Mobile Matter" as one of these 10 factors.  He quotes J. Snabe, co-CEO, SAP AG, as saying that SAP is committed to making sure that "SAP solutions can be accessed from all leading mobile platforms, like RIM, Nokia, Apple, Google Android, etc."

SAP's co-CEO Jim Snabe has made enterprise mobility a key priority of SAP.  More than a dozen mobile applications that integrate with SAP will be demonstrated at Sapphire this year.  2010 is an extraordinary time to be involved in SAP enterprise mobility.  If you would like to learn more about SAP enterprise mobility please join the Linkedin group of the same name or contact me.

If you are attending Sapphire this year and want to look at the latest in mobile applications then look for the following companies:

• Vivido Labs
• Sky Technologies
• Leapfactor
• Syclo
• Sybase
• RoamBI
• ClickSoftware

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

Sapphire 2010 Here We Come - The Year of Enterprise Mobility

I must admit it is a self-proclaimed year of mobility, but I believe it is appropriate.  I think enterprise mobility will be front and center everywhere you go at Sapphire next week.  There are many new and innovative mobile micro-applications that were launched last week by SAP partners.

• Business Indicators by Leapfactor (iPhone)
• SAP EcoHub by Leapfactor (iPhone)
• Mowego Mobile Solutions by Vivido Labs

SAP appointed me to be an SAP Mentor this year focused on enterprise mobility.  If any of you will be at Sapphire and would like to meet with me please contact me.

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

Enterprise Mobility and SAP's McDermott on the Role of a CIO

I read an interesting interview with SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott today in InformationWeek called Global CIO: Even Oracle and SAP Agree: The Tactical CIO Is Dead.  In the article McDermott is quoted as saying, "I have to say that with respect to CIOs, we have tremendous respect for them and their management and IT overall—but the business world has reached the point where if [the CIO] can't have a conversation that goes way beyond technology stacks to roadmapping business strategies and creating growth, those CIOs are just not gonna be relevant."  He then added, "For any IT project, hitting budget is okay and finishing on time is okay but what decision-makers really want is value--they want to know that these IT projects are going to steadily increase the company's ability to grow."

As an SAP Mentor with an enterprise mobility focus, I always consider the implications for SAP enterprise mobility when I read statements like McDermott's above.  I can see many implications of his comments.  I mentioned in an article last week the idea of a "me too" mobile application.  These applications will only help you keep up with your competitors, but are not going to provide you with competitive advantages.  Competitive advantages come from thinking ahead of the adoption curve and finding new ways to create value by using new and existing technologies.

CIOs need to understand enterprise mobility, and recognize that up to 40 percent of the workforce (according to a recent survey) is considered mobile.  What additional value can you bring to your company by mobilizing these workers?  Here are some ideas for CIOs:

• Integrate business intelligence with geospatially aware mobile applications and put them in the hands of your customer facing teams.
• Use real-time business data and business intelligence to provide just in time advice to onsite sales teams.
• Implement a network-centric approach that collects real-time business data from all data sources to provide a comprehensive view of your customers' business ecosystem and push it out to your mobile sales and service force.  Provide actionable intelligence and advice that can be used immediately to produce more sales and happier customers.
• Integrate video and audio training into your mobile applications to provide a consistent high quality product and service.
• Integrate social networking technologies and strategies into mobile applications that enable your company experts to be easily available to the mobile workforce.  Leverage your experts at the point of work in a scalable manner.  Reduce the amount of time wasted waiting for answers from your experts.
• Put business process diagrams on the mobile device so mobile workers can understand and view the role they play in the process.  Animate the business process diagram so mobile workers can view the progress of approvals, orders, shipments, etc.  Make the mobile worker feel part of the process not a lonely outpost guardian.
• Provide mobile views of transactional content.  This is content associated with a business transaction.  Show status of orders, shipments, GPS locations of products, delivery schedules, etc., in a comprehensive view on a mobile device.  Think of the time it would take the sales team to track all of this information down.  Anticipate the sales team's needs and push it out to them one hour in advance of a customer meeting.
• Identify all administration processes, whether paper-based or those requiring online connectivity, that uses up your mobile workforces' productive selling and service time.  Consider mobilizing these processes with mobile micro-applications from SAP partners Vivido Labs, Leapfactor or Sky Technologies so more administrative tasks can be completed during non-productive times.  The result should be the ability to be more effective and efficient.
• Identify transactional content events that your mobile workforce should know about to make them more productive and effective.  Push this information out to the mobile workforce in the appropriate context so actions and reactions can be instigated.

As McDermott said, CIOs must look beyond IT project management to adding company value and growth.  There is huge potential for both growth and value in enterprise mobility.  The value is not necessarily realized just from new technologies, but the leveraging of existing technologies and systems and then extending them into mobile environments in time sensitive, contextually appropriate and geospatially aware manners.

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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.

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