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Showing posts with the label mobile applications

Mobile Expert Interviews: Xamarin's Steve Hall

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This week I am reporting and working at the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. Between meetings, I hunt down mobile experts to interview and share with you here.  Today, we are privileged to have Xamarin's Steve Hall as our victim/guest.  In this interview we review Xamarin's latest press releases, partnerships and software development strategies.  Enjoy! Video Link: http://youtu.be/Ob01Io7IOLY ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Writer, Speaker, 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 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 person

Misusing Mobile Apps in the Enterprise

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Thinking-Time As the definition of productive work-time evolves from physically being on a production line or in an office, to anywhere and anytime you are contributing to the goals of your employer, there also needs to be an evolution into new ways of valuing and managing time. I recently watched, with great interest, a passenger sitting next to me on a plane answering dozens of emails in the course of a few minutes. At the rate of the responses flying off of the laptop next to me, I suspected the emails were not on topics like complex legal briefs, new government policies, innovative business plans or scientific experiments.  I genuinely felt sorry for this person.  It seemed a shame to me, a waste of brainpower to have some very capable communicator (typist at least) answering mass volumes of simple emails when there are great-unsolved issues begging for mental energy and committed time like great public works, innovations, inventions, health and scientific breakthroughs.  The

Mobile Apps and the Marriage of My Virtual and Physical Worlds

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Greetings Great Mobility Minds!  In January 2010, I asked the world for a mobile application that would help me reduce my personal risks and improve my life experiences.  Nearly 2 years later, I still do not know if this mobile solution exists.  So again, I am asking the great minds of mobility to point me in the right direction if this solution does exists.  If it doesn't exist, I encourage the great minds that are also great entrepreneurs to develop this product.  Here again, is my original blog article, with minor edits, from 2010. I love traveling, hiking and reading good books. I enjoy growing tomatoes and pondering religious and philosophical themes. I love my iPad and iPhone. I crave Thai food. I love drinking coffee in a comfortable chair and reading the New York Times . I want a mobile application that will connect my lifestyle preferences to a map, predict my safety, and suggest locations conducive to my lifestyle choices and interests. I would like to arrive in a

Audio Podcast- Mobility News Weekly, May 5, 2011

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Download this audio podcast of all the mobility news for the week.  Listen to Kevin Benedict's obnoxious voice as he covers the subjects of mobility market trends, field mobility, mobile retailing, mobile marketing and mobile money. Listen to the audio podcast here! Whitepapers of Note The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution Networked Field Services Webinars of Note 3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies The Future of Enterprise Mobility The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise: The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access Redstone Arsenal’s (DOD/Chugach) 3 Maintenance Challenges Solved by Mobile ************************************************************* Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the SAP Enterprise M

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sybase's Mike Oliver, Part 1

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Mike Oliver I first learned about Mike Oliver, European Mobility Marketing Manager for Sybase, because we are both on the agenda for the upcoming conference in Brussels entitled  The Enterprise Mobility Exchange .  Mike was kind enough to schedule some time to share with us. Note: These are not Mike Oliver's exact words, rather my notes from our interview.  However, Mike did review these notes for accuracy prior to publishing. Kevin: Why are you going to the Enterprise Mobility Exchange in May? What is the value? Mike: I spoke at this event last year and found that the quality of the delegates is unmatched. People must pay to attend. The focus has been on utilities and field services and this is a great market for Sybase and our partners. We have found great opportunities from this event every time we have attended. We always get more meetings than we have on our schedule. Kevin: What are your current roles and responsibilities? Mike: I am the European Mobility Ma

The Enterprise Mobility Trends of 2011 - Webinar

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Looking into the Future I would invite you to consider attending the following webinar on enterprise mobility Thursday, March 10, 2011.  It is a panel discussion on how apps and tablets are transforming businesses. Here is the description of the webinar from Sybase: Join us for a lively discussion on the latest trends in enterprise mobility with the expert authors of the just-released Enterprise Mobility Guide 2011 published by Sybase. We'll cover the latest trends in mobile device management and app development - platforms such as iOS, RIM and Android and hardware such as smartphones and tablets - all from the business perspective that matters to you. Guest experts include: Kevin Benedict , a leading independent mobility analyst and consultant in the SAP ecosystem Phillipe Winthrop , former Strategy Analytics analyst and creator of the Enterprise Mobility Forum Lynette Luna, Editor of FierceMobileIT and Contributing Executive Editor to FierceWireless Host: Eric Lai

Challenges in Enterprise Mobility Today

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I recorded and uploaded a new 11 minute Video Comment on what I have learned recently about the challenges in enterprise mobility.  The information in this discussion came from the several dozen mobile experts that I have recently interviewed. So get out the popcorn and soda and pretend to enjoy it! *************************************************** Kevin Benedict,Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer Phone +1 208-991-4410 Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility group 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.

Starbucks Drives Mobile Technology with One Million Mobile Payments in a Month

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Starbucks Card Mobile Payment Starbucks is reporting that between January 19 and February 15 of 2011 over one million payments were made at Starbucks locations using the new Starbucks Card Mobile Payment application.  This mobile app provides the following features: Lets you pay for drinks and food by having your mobile phone screen scanned at the counter Lets you view your balance Lets you check your Stars in the My Starbucks Rewards program Lets you reload your card Find the nearest store With mobile payment accepted at more than 6,800 company-operated Starbucks stores and over 1,000 Target locations, there are many locations to use this mobile app. The Starbucks experience is all about routine, consistency and comfort.  Having 7,800 locations accept and support this same mobile application is a powerful change agent.  I predict that this move by Starbucks will be seen as the launching point for mobile payments among us in the masses. ******** On another note, Smartsof

Mobile Phones, Cameras and Enterprise Mobility

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Touch Inspect I believe that enterprises are not yet taking full advantage of the cameras and video capabilities on mobile devices.  I also believe the saying, "A picture paints a thousand words."  The attached image of the fire hydrant as seen in the mobile application, Touch Inspect from Mobile Epiphany demonstrates how a quick photo, with quick photo editing tools, can communicate a great deal of information. I also predict that as more applications like the iPhone's FaceTime become available you will see more mobile applications within the services sector integrate them into their solutions.  Not only can these digital cameras be used to record work, but connected to a GPS enabled devices, they can help document compliance, monitor SLAs, help in training and provide real-time and onsite expert advice. This 2nd image demonstrates how I believe a junior service technician could utilize a live video feed to communicate with an experienced expert back at the off

The Biggest Challenges in Enterprise Mobility Today

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On Thursday, February 17th, at 1 PM EST, I will be opening a webinar with a discussion on the biggest challenges in enterprise mobility today.  Not just my opinions, but the opinions of over a dozen mobility experts that I have interviewed recently. I will be the first presenter, and then handing it over to Steve Levy, CEO of Pyxis Mobile to discuss  The Latest Thinking and Strategies for Deploying Flexible Mobile Solutions - The Four Big Issues for Mobilizing SAP and Other Enterprise Systems. I invite you to participate by registering here . *************************************************** Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer Phone +1 208-991-4410 Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility group 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

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Acando's Hans Nygaard, Part 1

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 Acando's Hans Nygaard I recently had the privelege of interviewing Hans Nygaard from Acando , a consultancy company with over 1,000 employees in six European countries.  SAP is one of Acando's most important partners. Hans is the Manager for Mobile Solutions and focuses most of his time on blue collar and field services kinds of mobile projects.  They work on a lot of 100-200 user projects, but are currently working on a large deployment that includes 5,000 service technicians in 14 countries. Hans has been working in the SAP ecosystem since 2003 and on SAP related mobility projects since 2007.  He has a wife and two kids and lives 45 minutes outside of Copenhagen. Note:   This interview consists of both written and verbal responses from Hans. Kevin:   Since you have been involved in SAP enterprise mobility since 2007, what are your thoughts about SAP's acquisition of Sybase in 2010? Hans : I have mixed feelings.  It was a lot of money.  Sybase has great of

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Newelo's Kimmo Jarvensivu

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Newelo's Kimmo Jarvensivu One of the things that has been missing from my Mobile Expert Interview Series is the European view on enterprise mobility, so this week you will see a number of interviews from mobile experts from that side of the pond. Today, we are interviewing Kimmo Jarvensivu who is the VP of Sales and Business Development for mobile platform vendor  Newelo  which is located in Finland. Newelo is a spin-off from Nokia currently with ten direct employees and part of the R&D is subcontracted.  He is also a big fan of anything Finnish including Angry Birds ! First, some background on Kimmo.  He worked as a GIS consultant in the 90s, and in 1996 moved to Nokia Networks for Operation Support Systems.  Later, he moved into Nokia's Managed Services area which was responsible for GSM network operations and Field Force Management around the world .  Note:   I interviewed Kimmo using Skype.  He also sent me written responses to many of my questions. 

The Latest Thinking and Strategies for Deploying Flexible Mobile Solutions

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Mobility can be a Challenge I will be participating in a two part webinar next week on Thursday, February 17, 2011 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST that I invite all of you to attend.  I will be presenting my research results in the first part called  Challenges in Enterprise Mobility from the Experts , and the second part, The Latest Thinking and Strategies for Deploying Flexible Mobile Solutions - The Four Big Issues for Mobilizing SAP and Other Enterprise Systems will be presented by Steve Levy, mobile industry expert and CEO of Pyxis Mobile. Enterprise-grade mobility is quickly becoming a core component of every company’s IT environment. However, it brings with it some big and often hidden challenges that companies need to plan for, including: Multi-device proliferation: support for a growing number of smartphones Data integration: the freedom to connect to any data in the enterprise Security: more than just authentication Agility: the need to iteratively update applications wi

Weird, Odd and Strange Mobility Series: iPhones Pointing to Ladies, Creative Hand Gestures and Robot Students

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 WWI Motorcycle with Mobile Radio Included  Student Sends Remote Controlled Robot to School High school student Lyndon Baty has a weakened immune system that prevents him from actually attending school, so he's using a remotely-controlled "robot" that allows him to move from class to class and interact with teachers and other students using nothing more than his laptop and webcam at home.  This is an interesting adaption of M2M (machine-to-machine) and mobile communications.  Soon we will be able to send robots to represent us at speed dating events, class reunions and office parties. http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/03/texas-student-sends-robot-to-school-in-his-place-cant-get-it-t/ Using Hand Gestures on Your Computer? Israeli based eyeSight Mobile Technologies has released its hand gesture interface solution for computers using the Android and Windows platforms.  Users can control their music and video players, browse through eBooks, manage presentations, p

Weird, Odd and Strange Mobility Series: Suicide Bomber Receives Wrong Text

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Early WWI Drones Killer Text: A Russian suicide bomber blows up by accident.   In an article by Daniel Kennedy for ZDNet he writes about a suicide bomber that was set to detonate a belt of explosives in Russia's Red Square on New Years, when instead the explosives went off early inside the safe house.  It seems the explosives were set to be triggered by a mobile phone call.  However, an automated "Happy News Years!" text message sent by the mobile network operator detonated the bomb early to the good fortune of New Years revelers.  The rapid pace of the mobility revolution is having impacts on society in ways we could not have imaged a few years ago.  Mobile technology is helping replace governments, turning industries upside down (book stores, video stores, newspapers, TV and films, music, etc.) and changing the way we all communicate with each other.  How very strange indeed. Silicon Valley's Google and Twitter Enable Egyptians to Tweet via Voice Using Goog

Special Report: Advice from Mobile Experts

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Mobility Experts This report consists of the answers that seven enterprise mobility experts recently provided me in response to the question, "What advice do you have for companies considering implementing enterprise mobility solutions?" • Make sure the users get to provide feedback and direction.  Make sure the mobile users will use it.  Make sure the mobile application actually supports the work and the way the work is done in the field. • Think bigger.  Mobility is not a nice to have or a fad.  It is here to stay.  It will be here for the rest of your career.  It is now a core component of your IT environment. • Plan on supporting your employees' personal devices.  Have a strategy for supporting personal mobile devices, and develop policies for managing and supporting them.

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Pyxis Mobile's T.L. Neff

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TL Neff T.L. Neff, is an EVP at Pyxis Mobile in charge of customer services.  We met last year when we both spoke at the same conference.  T.L. lives in the Boston area and is an expert in mobility.  Last week we were able to schedule some time together for an interview. Note:   These are not T.L.'s exact words, rather my notes from our interview. Kevin: What mobile device(s) do you use and carry? TL: BlackBerry Torch, iPhone 4, iPad and laptop. Kevin:  What are your favorite mobile applications? TL: Mobile CRM from Pyxis, Movela Netflix Queue Manager (a Pyxis app), TagIn (GPS tracking - our kids use it a lot to tell us where they are  located), FaceBook (I use it for both family and business.  Some customers respond faster on FaceBook than on email) and Skype Mobile. Kevin: What industries do you see adopting mobility today? TL : Everybody is implementing now.   Even personal friends tell me their companies are looking at mobility.   Kevin:  Where are you seeing

Mobile Banking is Here!

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Mobile Banking Apps In the past couple of years, mobile banking has grown rapidly among smartphone users, and 2011 promises even faster growth.  During 2010, roughly 10 percent of households in the United States used mobile banking features on their smartphones.  Expect to see significant increases in those numbers in 2011. During 2007 there were 10 million global users of smartphone banking.  By next year 150 million people will be checking their bank accounts on mobile devices, and by 2013 that number will increase to nearly 400 million. These figures are truly impressive. With the rapid increase of mobile banking, financial institutions are realizing that customer satisfaction lies in mobile apps.  Approximately 1,000 U.S. banks now offer some type of mobile app for account management, but 29,000 more banks are expected to develop mobile banking applications within the next year.

Wall Street Analyst and SAP Enterprise Mobility

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Happy Holidays from Kevin Benedict! I received an interesting call yesterday from a Wall Street analyst.  He wanted my opinion on SAP's acquisition of Sybase.  His premise was that there was not $5.8 billion worth of value in Sybase.  I responded that I had no expertise in valuation so could not help him in that determination.  However, I did have more than enough opinions on enterprise mobility to share. I provided him the following list for his consideration during his valuation exercise: 1)  Had he looked into the potential value of Sybase's 365?  I said much of the world, and the fastest growing segments of the mobile market (LDC - less developed countries), are increasingly using SMS for mobile banking, money transfers, mobile payments, and many enterprise applications like field services, inventory, database queries, sales reports, etc.  He had not considered this.

Tablets, Mobile Applications and the Enterprise

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I have been reading several articles lately that talk about how popular tablets are predicted to become in the enterprise market.  Here is an excerpt from one article that I read this morning: More than one in five Americans will own a tablet by 2014, and 37 percent of them will own them for business use, according to a recent survey. Current business use of tablets: Business correspondence (58%) Online meetings/Web conferences (37%) Marketing (34%) Training (33%) Finance/accounting (32%) Sales (27%) Graphic design (27%) Inventory management (27%) Customer support (24%) Another article stated, " Apple could sell 21 million units of its iPad tablet next year as half of the largest and most prominent companies in the world begin testing or deploying the iPad for corporate use, according to an analyst with Wall Street firm Piper Jaffray ."