Forces Driving the Digital Transformation Era

The words “digital transformation” appear everywhere today. I use them in discussions daily.  They describe the era we live in - an era where the rules of business, strategies and the pace of business have changed.  In this era the manner in which we operate our businesses, and interact with our customers, suppliers, employees, partners and even physical objects have changed.  This new era is different. We feel urgency for more information, deeper insights, faster operational tempos and business agility.  We recognize a need for change, but to what?

I propose that it is important to understand how we got to the era of digital transformation.  What path led us here?  What are the contributing factors?  For that purpose, let’s begin by considering how we moved over the past decade from a commercial environment full of disconnected unknowns, to the world of connected knowns. How we evolved from mass markets of faceless customers to precision markets of one.  How did we get here today? I posit that rapid advances in six areas have converged to create the era of digital transformation:

I propose that it is important to understand how we got to the era of digital transformation.  What path led us here?  What are the contributing factors?  For that purpose, let’s begin by considering how we moved over the past decade from a commercial environment full of disconnected unknowns, to the world of connected knowns today.  How did we get here? I posit that rapid advances in six areas have converged to create the era of digital transformation:

1. Hardware
2. Software
3. Networks (cables, wireless and human)
4. Societal and industry comprehension
5. Democratization of technology at scale (low costs & mass adoption)
6. Moving beyond human time to digital time 

The evolutionary path to digital transformation followed a timeline that included the invention and development of the following[1]:

1. Computers & Moore’s Law
2. Memory and data storage
3. Mass adoption of PCs and laptops
4. Local Networks
5. ERPs
6. The internet
7. Mobile networks and mobile phones
8. GPS
9. Mass global adoption of wireless devices (laptops, mobile phones, tablets, smartphones, wearables, sensors)
10. Proliferation of websites and online activity
11. Rapid adoption and expansion of online and mobile databases and search
12. Rapid adoption and expansion of online marketplaces and reviews
13. Rapid adoption of online and now mobile payments
14. The transformation from physical to digital (think retail stores to e-commerce, and now m-commerce)
15. Move from paper documents to digits
16. Rapid expansion of embedded computers
17. Rapid adoption and proliferation of mobile apps and the mobile web
18. Online gaming
19. Rapid transformation from traditional marketing to digital and mobile marketing
20. Rapid addition of smartphone enabled sensors
21. Rapid evolution and adoption of online social networks, social media sites and content sharing
22. Online classified sites (e.g. Craig’s List)
23. Rapid emergence of the sharing economy (e.g. Airbnb, Uber, etc.)
24. Rapid adoption of online education services
25. Rapid adoption and expansion of online entertainment movies, TV programs and streaming music
26. Wearables
27. Cloud computing
28. Rapid emergence of cloud based platforms for everything
29. Internet of Things
30. Industrial Internet (telematics, smart grids)
31. Proliferation of analytics and reporting
32. Mobile wallets
33. Development of advanced algorithms
34. Artificial intelligence and machine learning
35. Augmented reality
36. Robotic process automation

All of these innovations and advances, and our adoption of them, changed us.  We are different consumers.  We are different employers and employees.  Our expectations increased.  We became impatient and mobile.  We became global.  We demand immediate, accurate and real-time responses.  We want personalized and contextually relevant experiences.  We want digital experiences that are beautiful, simple and elegant.  We want instant access to all products, services, news, information and friends’ status.  We want to share our lives instantly and globally.  We want to find things, buy things, move money and complete transactions from anywhere at anytime. 

All of these innovations and our resulting behavioral changes – changed commercial marketplaces and brought us to the tipping point.  Definition of tipping point: the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more drastic change.  That drastic change today is – digital transformation.

Read more on digital transformation strategies here:

1. Digital Transformation Requires Agility and Energy Measurement
2. A Doctrine for Digital Transformation is Required
3. The Advantages of Advantage in Digital Transformation
4. Digital Transformation and Its Role in Mobility and Competition
5. Digital Transformation - A Revolution in Precision Through IoT, Analytics and Mobility
6. Competing in Digital Transformation and Mobility
7. Ambiguity and Digital Transformation
8. Digital Transformation and Mobility - Macro-Forces and Timing
9. Mobile and IoT Technologies are Inside the Curve of Human Time

 [1] Not a definitive list

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Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Center for the Future of Work, Cognizant Writer, Speaker and World Traveler

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

Kevin Benedict Interviews Micron's Mike Bokan at Mobile World Congress 2015

In Boise, Idaho, Micron is a very big deal.  They employ thousands of engineers and technicians in Boise to design, develop and manufacture memory for smartphones, sensors, computers and any other type of system requiring memory.  They are also a major donor to Boise State University and many other organizations in the region.  They are also a big deal in the rest of the world as their memory is found in most mobile and wireless devices at the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona this year.  In this interview with Micron's Mike Bokan, VP of Worldwide OEM Sales, we discuss the different kinds of mobile and IoT devices that require memory.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/xyr4r2TKhgU


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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

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

Could Mobile Devices and the Internet have Prevented the Rwandan Genocide?

This week marks the tragic 20-year anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide.  On April 7, 1994, the Hutu majority, which was in power at the time, began an organized effort to wipe out the minority Tutsis living in Rwanda and other neighboring countries.  During an approximate 100-day period nearly 800,000 Tutsis and sympathizers were massacred, most by machete.

The genocide was only stopped when an exiled Tutsi rebel group marched into Rwanda and overthrew the Hutu government.  No outside international forces intervened to stop this massacre.  The UN peacekeeping soldiers, lacking authorization to intervene and protect, stood by as the massacres happened within sight of their forces.  This was and is to this day a great international shame.

In Boise, Idaho we have a fast growing Congolese and Rwandan population of refugees that were forever impacted by this event.  Many have spent the last 15 years living under plastic tarps on mud floors in refugee camps.  The tragedy of these events is personal to me.  It hits home nearly every day as our home is often filled with newly arrived Rwandan refugee families and friends.  Many of my close friends suffer nightmares to this day from the mental and physical scars of these events.

I often wonder if mobile devices with broadband Internet could have prevented or limited the Rwandan Genocide.  In 1994 letters were sent through the postal service from fearful Tutsi families and churches begging for protection.  Here is an excerpt from just one letter sent by a pastor to his church leadership, “We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families.”  Tragically, the pastor’s words went silent and his predictions came true.  His entire family and congregation was massacred.  These letters were sent through the postal service.  The world was not aware, informed or alerted in a manner that rose above the noise.  These letters are now archived for us to read, remember and learn from.

There was no instantaneous access to social media sites, online forums, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or places where citizen journalists with iPhones and broadband Internet could upload photos, videos and articles.  There was no YouTube or widely used public news websites to spark immediate worldwide outrage.

In 1994 the news of the massacres leaked out slowly and the rumors were too horrific to be believed.  Facts were hard to come by. The scope and scale of the tragedy was difficult to measure.  News crews found it dangerous to venture out into remote areas.  It took weeks for the world to begin to learn the full scale of the violence and genocide and by then the tragedy had nearly run its course.

I ask again, could mobile devices with cameras, broadband Internet connectivity and access to social media sites have stopped or limited this tragedy? In 1994, the world had limited news, limited understanding of events, limited perspective of the scale and scope of this tragedy, and limited interest.  These challenges limited international outrage and prevented UN intervention and humanitarian responses.

In the absence of news crews and photojournalists, the Hutu government, militia and instigators of violence felt immune from personal accountability, scrutiny and retribution.  They gave into a mad, uncontrollable and unexplainable bloodlust.  The violence continued unabated for 100 days.

In 1994, the ruling Hutu party controlled most of the radio stations and newspapers in Rwanda. Propaganda ruled the airwaves calling for violence against the Tutsis.  Many of the Rwandan news agencies and broadcasters themselves were later found by International courts to have been guilty of instigating and organizing the violence.

I hope and pray that the ubiquity of mobile devices would make keeping genocide a secret far more difficult today.  Every person with a mobile phone has the potential to be a citizen journalist.  Every act of violence has the potential of being documented and the location and perpetrators identified.

There are models today that demonstrate how mobile devices can be used to help prevent future genocides.  In Kenya, a small group of volunteer programmers have developed a website and mapping solution called Ushahidi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushahidi, where people with mobile phones can report violence and document the location of incidences on a map.  This information is instantly projected to a map on a website for the world to visualize, study and understand.

Today, freedom of speech and the ability to widely communicate news, knowledge and ideas has the opportunity to transform societies and peoples as never before.  Evil does not like the exposure and light of public scrutiny and debate.

In some circles, it is popular to cast disparaging remarks at technology, mobile devices, the Internet and social media, but I for one appreciate the value of information transparency afforded by these technological advancements.  I will celebrate the opportunity and freedom to know, and pray for the strength and courage to react with immediacy.

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Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

The Growing Importance of GIS to Organizations, Industries and Municipalities in 2014

By Caleb Benedict, Research and GIS Analyst

During the past decade GIS (Geospatial Information Systems) has grown from a term representing simple navigational devices and GPS handsets to something much more complex and useful. In the past ten years the GIS market has steadily grown in numbers of applications, use cases, industry adoption and users. Newly published forecasts for the GIS market predict that the GIS industry will grow at an estimated 8% CAGR through 2016.

It is my analysis that GIS applications in both public and private sectors are growing faster than 8%. By researching job announcements on city employment pages, it is obvious there is an increasing demand for GIS analysts, specialists, and technicians.

This growth is due to advancements in GIS technology and the realization that GIS applications are important tools for just about every municipal government, engineering firms, industry and organizations with remote and mobile job sites, projects, assets and workforces today. Digital mapping and remote sensing (the use of satellite imagery outfitted with sensors) is delivering increased safety and savings in the form of time, money and resources.

GIS in the news…

The U.S. government increases the U.S. Geological Survey budget by $41 million to $1.1 billion total. (http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/32343/2/)

Peoria, Illinois is using GIS and LIDAR imagery to collect information on city streets in order to understand street conditions and plan for infrastructure improvements. (http://peoriapublicradio.org/post/peoria-survey-streets)

GIS planning has resulted in a 30% decrease in traffic related deaths in Abu Duabi after GIS planning improved traffic lights and street management. (http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/abu-dhabi-road-accident-deaths-drop-30-in-five-years-1.1310328)

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

Mobile Expert Interview: Micron's Michael Rayfield on the Latest Developments in Mobility

I felt like buying stock in Micron after this interview I recorded today at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.  Disclaimer - I don't have any investments in Micron, but after Michael Rayfield helped me understand where Micron's products could be found in mobile devices today, I am second guessing my portfolio.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFNbb_HRmRg&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


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Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Where the Physical Meets the Digital - GIS and Enterprise Mobility

One of the mega-trends I write often about is the merging of the physical with the digital and the resulting impact on businesses.  A key element of this trend is the association of geospatial or location data with events, tasks, projects, processes, assets and resources.  I asked my civil engineering friend and hero of all ducks, J.D. Axford, to teach us a bit about graphical information systems (GIS).  Here it is for your reading pleasure.

Three broad categories of information are combined in GIS.  As a point of reference, let's consider how a utility company would use these three:

1. Landbase information typically comes from outside sources and depicts the natural (earth) and built (man-made) environment in which the utility operates – roads, rivers, and so on. 
2. Grid information, defining the physical system (power lines, transformers, substations, power generation sites) the utility owns and operates, this information comes from their engineering, surveying, and maintenance crews. 
3. Customer information is generated in-house and includes names, addresses, services provided, and maintenance schedules and requests, in addition to billing information. 

Combining these three data categories into a GIS enables a utility to support:

• outage management systems
• workflow scheduling
• damage prevention
• routine operations and maintenance 
• asset management
• workforce optimization

A GIS serves several purposes.  It is a geospatial database, plus a collaboration and communications tool for sharing geospatial data accurately, quickly, and broadly amongst enterprise teams.  This of course requires enterprise mobility solutions.  It ensures the field crews, engineering design and customer service departments are working together to efficiently meet goals. As always, effective communication require the data shared be accurate and available to those who need it, when they need it, and where they need it.  This is where the utility of mobile devices and especially tablets comes in.

In order to effectively use GIS, mapping software (like LatLonGo) must be developed that works across a number of different mobile hardware platforms to maximize its utilization.  It must also be able to integrate with ERPs, asset management apps and other business solutions.  Specialized software platforms are needed that support GIS integration with mobile devices.

Compressing data is another requirement so mobile devices have the space available to store GIS data, and so it remains accessible even when connectivity is lost. Collecting data through text and voice notes, photographs, and redlined maps and drawings are also essential and must be synchronized back to the main GIS server for collaboration and review.

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

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Using Artificial Intelligence in Health Services Requires Real-Time Enterprise Mobility

I am intrigued by the increasing use of artificial intelligence in areas like field services management and home healthcare services.  I read a use case (http://www.clicksoftware.com/Collateral/Documents/English-US/KinCare-Case-Study.pdf) this morning about KinCare and ClickSoftware in Australia.  KinCare provides all kinds of home and healthcare services across a wide geography in Australia.  They are one of the largest providers of in-home care and assistance in Australia and they get paid by providing documented services compliant with government regulations.  There are designated fees for each service and there are little to no margins for errors. It is very easy to screw up and to lose a lot of money in this kind of operation.

Let me provide an example of KinCare's services:

• Nursing care
• Personal care
• Domestic assistance
• Social support
• Respite care
• Transportation
• Case management

Some of their clients need all of these services.  These services are often provided by different people at different times.  Let's image tens of thousands of clients, care givers and service providers located all across Australia.  All of these participants and their appointments must be scheduled and coordinated.  Does that sound like a big enough challenge for you Mate?

The only way to run this kind of operation efficiently is to make sure the care givers and service providers are connected (via mobile devices) to an intelligent software system (using artificial intelligence and context aware systems) to understand how to most efficiently provide and schedule hundreds of thousands of services.  In addition, must also make sure each care and service provider is qualified, available and in close proximity.  Also it is important to note that these services are critical to a persons health and welfare.

The mobile devices are used as mobile data collection devices, sensors (GPS) and reporting systems in the service delivery process. Mobile devices feed real-time data to the real-time analytics and artificial intelligence systems that schedule all parties across the country.  Since all of these participants are mobile, it takes very careful and fast analytics to ensure all parties can meet in the right places, deliver and receive services efficiently, document services and invoice for those services.

Smartphones and tablets, broadband internet connectivity and ultra-fast artificial intelligence capabilities integrated with human resource, talent management, scheduling, case management, patient and service management, billing and dispatch systems are all required to make this work.  Wow!  Speed and artificial intelligence systems are revolutionizing these kinds of operations today.

When I am out teaching mobile and SMAC strategies to large companies the topics of speed, context aware and artificial intelligence comes up every time.  These are the game changers today.

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

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobility is the Conduit of Business Transformation

This week I am teaching mobile and social strategies and will be visiting four countries in four days.  This type of schedule is a blur of airports, meeting new people and learning more about how mobile and social solutions are being used in the real world.  While on these trips I have a lot of time to ponder on flights.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the the word conduit - a means by which something is received and/or transmitted, as a useful way of describing mobile devices.  Mobile devices are a conduit for voice communications.  Mobile devices are a conduit for social networks.  Mobile devices are a conduit for email, news, data collection, photos/videos, and now as e-wallets and mobile payments.  So much of our lives are now run through this conduit.

In the last couple of weeks I have spent time with over a dozen companies keenly interested in the impact of mobility and social trends on their business.  In each case, the impact will be different, but significant.  In many cases the impact of these trends will be monumental.

Let's talk about retail financial services for a moment.  In the book Bank 3.0 by Brett King, he states, "Retail financial service brands today are a collection of experiences, increasingly defined by multichannel interactions and customer discussions and debates in the social media space."  The term multichannel interactions means communicating with a bank or other retail financial services company through a variety of different means including online, call centers, mobile, ATM (machines), physical offices, etc.  Increasingly, however, these interactions are via mobile devices.

King uses the phrase a "collection of experiences" to describe a financial services company's interactions with customers and prospects.  These experiences, often via online and mobile, are now the discussion of the blogosphere and social networks.  As a result, it is critically important that companies invest time and money to ensuring these experiences are the best they can be.

Social networks are accelerators for good or bad.  If something good happens, the world can know about it in seconds.  Likewise, if something bad happens the world can know about it in seconds.  The rules of the PR game have changed.  Increasingly people go to their networks for recommendations rather than to the manufacturer of the product or the provider of a service.  They trust their networks more than the companies providing the product.

Companies need to operate their businesses and invest in their businesses to meet their customers via the channels their customers are using.  If customers are moving away from visiting physical buildings and preferring to interact with a company via a mobile app, then companies need that mobile app to be the very best possible.  Companies that resist supporting the interaction channels preferred by their markets are in trouble.  If you work for one of these companies - right the ship.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

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

Mission Critical - Mobile Device Management and Control

Have you ever thought about how a company should manage battery life on a smartphone when they support a BYOD IT environment?  Think about it, a person brings their own smartphone to work that only has 10% battery charge, they drive 40 miles out to a job site and their battery dies. They have a dead device when they should be updating work orders, inventory levels, schedules, job status and new product sales.

I am personally impatiently waiting for the release of iPhone 5, because my iPhone does not hold its charge any longer.  By about 1 PM, my battery is getting low.  I am lucky I don't need to use it to take product orders and scan bar codes throughout the rest of the afternoon.  If this impacted my productivity, and I had an employer, I wonder if they would ask me to go out and buy a new personal device?

Click to Download

In many industries and businesses it is not enough to simply hope your workforce manages their personal mobile devices efficiently and reliably, as the business is too dependent upon it.

MDM (mobile device management) systems are intended to help a company manage mobile devices.  There are many MDM solutions available on the market, but many cannot remotely control and access a mobile device, and that is critical.  A few like Soti (www.soti.net) enable remote access and control of mobile devices and this enables the IT helpdesk to efficiently trouble shoot and manage mobile devices to ensure efficient use through out the day.  Soti can even monitor your battery use, and automatically optimize your devices use of the battery.

In a scenario where the business depends upon the efficient and reliable use of a mobile device, it is critical that the company have management control of the mobile device.  This, however, can present some complexity.  In some countries this is not legal.  In businesses where there are unions, the unions may not approve, and your employees may simply not permit it.  These complexities may influence entire industries and geographical areas to insist on company owned mobile devices.  This does not remove all complexities, but helps.

In businesses where company owned mobile devices are supported, MDM vendors like Soti, can collect data on the various manufacturers' device specifications, and then document their performance against the specs. This is very important.  If a manufacture says a battery should last for 1,000 charges before it is replaced, data can be collected on each device to monitor when it was charged and predictions can be made as to when more batteries will need to be purchased.  In addition, the collected data can be used to hold manufacturers accountable to their specs, and the data can be compared with the performance of other mobile device manufacturers.

Some MDM vendors have mobile clients that can turn even the most powerful consumer grade smartphone into a purpose built mobile device by controlling and limiting access to only the work apps.  For example, a new Android phone can be limited to only a credit card swiper, bar code scanner and work order management system with SMS.  All the other apps that are available will not be seen or accessed.  This gives businesses the ability to buy off-the-shelf smartphones and use them strictly for business.

The down side of this scenario is that the mobile workforce would likely be all carrying two different mobile devices, one for work and one for their personal use.  This is not ideal, but may be the reality until something more clever comes along.

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst and Mobile Strategy Consultant

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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

Thinking about Mobile Devices for Field Services?

Boise Foothills

It is interesting listening to mobility vendors today.  Many began as recent start-ups and their entire mobility careers have been focused on supporting white collar workers using powerful smartphones integrated with ERPs.  However, mobility vendors that started a decade or more ago see the world in a different light.  They are more sensitive to the needs and requirements of the field service technician, the lineman and inspector.  These users are in the field, on remote job sites and subject to the weather and harsh working conditions surrounding them.  These workers appreciate the term, rugged, especially as it relates to mobile devices.

PSION EP10

There is a big difference between working environments, which should be considered and influence the kinds of mobile devices selected for use by your mobile workforce.  When I am jogging outdoors it is very hard for me to stop in the bright sunlight of Boise, Idaho and read the screen on my iPhone.  It is very dim in bright sunlight.  What if my entire work was dependent on me using an iPhone app in these conditions?  It would be bad.  My eyes would suffer.  Different working environments absolutely need different kinds of screens, batteries, barcode scanners, RFID, keyboards and different levels of ruggedness.

Syclo, a mobility vendor with many utility and field services customers, has recently published a useful FAQ paper for organizations considering the merits of different kinds of devices.

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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

Mobility ROI Weekly - Week of September 26, 2011, Part 1

This week I will publish several Mobility ROI reports (read Part 2 here), as I have a bunch of them that I have saved up over the past few weeks but have not had time to share.  The ROI (return on investment) report includes ROIs that I come across in my weekly research on the topic of enterprise mobility.  My goal is to create an archive of mobility ROIs that we can all use. I hope you find this useful.

Norton Rose Group, an international business law firm, needed a mobile solution for their employees so they would have full access to company resources and information while on business trips.  Mobileiron was chosen to provide a mobile solution for Norton Rose employees. The company received the following ROIs:

• ROI - Increased productivity by enabling 1,800 employees on three continents the ability to access company resources while traveling between offices and while meeting with clients on business trips.
• ROI - Employees could keep business related information separate from their personal information on mobile devices which enabled a BYOD (bring your own device) policy.  A BYOD policy provides the benefit of reducing capital expenses.
• ROI - Extended the user choice for mobility beyond corporate issued BlackBerry devices to iPhones, iPads and more.  Again, a BYOD policy provides the benefit of reducing capital expenses.
• ROI - Secured and protected sensitive information.  Having a secure mobility system was essential to supporting clients' needs for privacy and the workforce's need for mobility.
• ROI - Cost reduction by enabling different regions to set-up different policies and configurations to ensure compliance with local regulations.  This eliminated the need for different MDM (mobile device management) systems in different regions that would have increased costs.

Original source

Click Software recently provided Angilan Water, a UK based utility company, with a range of mobile enterprise solutions that included mobile-based scheduling and management programs that allowed employees to work more efficiently. The reported ROIs were:

• Increased service levels by 33 percent
• Reduced average travel per job by 24 percent
• Decreased the works backlog by 95 percent in some process areas
• Decreased overtime by 11 percent

Original Source

Helzberg Diamonds needed an easy way for their traveling employees to have access to relevant, updated data on inventory while on business trips.  Webalo was chosen to provide a mobile tool that gave employees the ability to access store inventory data through a handheld device.  The ROIs that followed were:

• ROI - Increased productivity by enabling Helzberg employees to access company data while traveling across country.
• ROI - Access to enterprise data via Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile, or Java-enabled devices enabled Helzberg employees to choose the best device for their needs.
• ROI - Improved productivity and efficiencies by enabling Helzberg executives to view their sales reports and retail totals for all stores within a region on their mobile devices while traveling.

Original Source

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Kevin Benedict's Video Comments: Mobility Without Tactics is Wasted

In this segment I share my thoughts and research around mobile technology as it relates to competitive decision making, adapting to changes, business intelligence and managing the real time enterprise.



Upcoming Events

Virtual Mobility Summit - September 27, 2011
Field Mobility 2011 Australia - October 25 - 27, 2011
Enterprise Mobility Exchange, Las Vegas - November 2 - 3, 2011
Kevin Benedict Speaking Tour, Tokyo - November 14-15, 2011
Kevin Benedict Speaking Tour, Singapore - November 17-18, 2011
Kevin Benedict Speaking Tour, San Paulo, Brazil - December 4-9, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
Healthrageous Mobility Case Study
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise:  The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

Ruggedized and Industrial Mobile Device Articles

Consumer Smartphones or Industrial Smartphones?

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobile Expert Podcast Series: Toa Technologies' Yuval Brisker, Part 2

This is Part 2 (see Part 1 here) of an interview with mobility expert and  Toa Technologies' CEO Yuval Brisker.  In this segment we drill down into cloud computing, versioning, total cost of ownership and enterprise mobility.



Upcoming Events

Virtual Mobility Summit - September 27, 2011
Field Mobility 2011 Australia - October 25 - 27, 2011
Enterprise Mobility Exchange, Las Vegas - November 2 - 3, 2011
Kevin Benedict Speaking Tour, Tokyo - November 14-15, 2011
Kevin Benedict Speaking Tour, Singapore - November 17-18, 2011
Kevin Benedict Speaking Tour, San Paulo, Brazil - December 4-9, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
Healthrageous Mobility Case Study
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise:  The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

Ruggedized and Industrial Mobile Device Articles

Consumer Smartphones or Industrial Smartphones?

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

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Zenware's Jody Sedrick

I had the good fortune of tracking down mobility expert Jody Sedrick last week and scheduling an interview with him. Jody Sedrick is the CEO of Zenware, a twelve person company that designs, develops and deploys both custom and packaged intelligent mobile applications for SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises). He is responsible for driving business and helping companies understand how mobility can revolutionize their businesses.

Mobility is important to all size companies, and I wanted to interview Jody to learn what he is hearing and learning in the SME mobility markets.

Note: These are not Jody’s exact words, rather my notes from our interview.

Kevin: What mobile device(s) do you carry?
Jody: An iPhone, MacBook Pro and an iPad.

Kevin: What are some of your favorite mobile applications that you have on your mobile device?
Jody: Pandora, TweetDeck, Linkedin, Google Maps, EverNote.

Kevin: Do you use your mobile device to buy things?
Jody: No, but I do a lot of product research on them.

SAP to Acquire Sybase, Day 3 - Kevin Benedict's Thoughts and Analysis

There have been several additional comments made in the past 24 hours that seem to shed light on the thinking behind SAP's intent to acquire Sybase.  These statements seem to be highlighting three specific themes:

1. A shift from desktop to mobile devices
2. A goal to connect with billions of mobile users
3. Support for all leading mobile devices

In a comment yesterday on the Linkedin group SAP Enterprise Mobility (you should all join), Sam Lakkundi, Sybase's Chief Architect said, "Moving from the Desktop Computer to a Mobile Device is the new path for enterprise computing that I vision."  In an email exchange between myself and Bonnie Rothenstein, Head of SAP's Enterprise Mobility Communications, Bonnie said, “We’re excited about our intent to acquire Sybase, as we believe the acquisition will enable SAP to accelerate our plans to deliver SAP’s industry leading business applications and analytics offerings to billions of mobile users on any device.” 

Add these highlighted statements to SAP's co-CEO Bill McDermott's, "We see a huge emerging market for the real-time, unwired enterprise," and SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe's, "We want to make sure that SAP solutions can be accessed from all leading mobile devices."

I see the fog beginning to rise.  The Sybase acquisition can ensure that a standardized way of integrating mobile devices and mobile enterprise applications with SAP systems is defined and available through Sybase's mobile middleware and integration tools.  I spoke to an unnamed source in SAP who confirmed this statement with two taps on the table.  This same source said there will always be choices in how to integrate, but there will be a defined SAP way for mobile software providers to integrate.  SAP must have read my blogs.

I read and interpret that SAP believes mobility, mobile device support, and integration with mobile applications is too important to leave totally up to the discretion of partners.  SAP wants to bring order to the chaos and define a path, methodology, and strategy for their partners.

On the question of where SAP's current mobility partners fit into this new world order, SAP's Rothenstein provided this statement, "SAP’s intent to acquire Sybase will expand opportunities for our joint ecosystems and we believe our software and implementation partners can capture new opportunities by innovating on Sybase’s open and market leading mobile platform."

The SAP statement above seems clear.  Mobile software companies that develop "rich or thick mobile clients" in the SAP ecosystem will want to seriously consider embedding Sybase's mobile middleware, synchronization, integration, and device management technology in their future mobile software upgrades to better align with SAP's future direction.

I have had a chance to talk to a number of SAP's mobility partners in the last few hours who, after they digested the announcement, seem to have embraced it.  To summarize (as I will blog more on this soon), they see incorporating relevant pieces of Sybase mobile middleware into their solutions, but continuing to see themselves as the subject matter experts on complex, tactical, and industry specific mobile applications.

One last thought for today (as my irrigation system needs to be activated before I leave for Sapphire) is that SAP seems to really be emphasizing the "support for all mobile devices" theme.  This is very different than last year when there was a specific emphasis on RIM products.

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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.
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Sybase has Record Q1 - Credits Mobile Apps for Growth

Sybase has reported some interesting numbers that seem to be meaningful for the SAP enterprise mobility market in general.

"2010 is off to a strong start for Sybase," stated Chairman, CEO and President of Sybase John Chen. "We achieved historical first-quarter highs in revenue, operating margins, earnings, and cash flow."  Added Mr. Chen, "Expansion of data, mobile devices, and real-time computing is driving adoption of our Unwired Enterprise strategy and stimulating demand for our data management, analytics, and mobility offerings."

If this is an indicator of a trend for enterprise mobility, rather than just an improving economy, then let the fun begin!

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Kevin Benedict
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
 ***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************

Bloomberg BusinessWeek Reports on Productivity Gains - Is Mobility to Blame?

I read an interesting article by Mike Dorning in last week's Bloomberg BusinessWeek.  In summary, the article said surveys are showing that people do not believe the economy is improving despite nearly all market indicators suggesting otherwise.  Of particular interest is the following excerpt, "While jobs have been slow to return, the country has experienced 'an incredible productivity boom' that strengthens the economy for an expansion, says Greenhaus of Miller Tabak. Labor productivity, or worker output per hour, grew at a 6.9 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter, capping the biggest one-year gain since 2002."

I am seeing an incredible interest in enterprise mobility applications these days.  I wonder how much of the 6.9 percent productivity gain in Q4 of 2009 can be credited to companies extending their ERPs to mobile devices.  What are your thoughts?

SAP announced in December that mobility is one of their core focus points for 2010.  I can see this demonstrated with their EcoHub mobility theme this month.  In 2009 it was business intelligence.  This year I believe it is enterprise mobility, and next year the combination of enterprise mobility, business intelligence, and location based services (geospatially aware apps).

I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

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Kevin Benedict
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict  
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/

***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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Simple Mobile Applications Can Offer Real ROIs

The International Telecommunication Union reported in 2009 that 28% of people in Africa have mobile phones but only 5% have the internet.  The report also said that mobile phone subscriptions in Africa were increasing by 50% per year.  As a result of this rapid growth, mobile application developers have been creating simple mobile applications for African businesses that utilize SMS rather than mobile smart phones with data plans.  There are some lessons to be learned.

In a recent CNN article entitled, "Mobile App Developers Tackle Africa's Biggest Problems," the author writes about developers creating powerful and beneficial mobile applications that work with simple and limited 140 character text message inputs.  One example was a mobile application that enables dairy farmers to request the average price of a unit of milk in certain areas.  The text message queries a database that returns an answer.  This may seem to be a very simplistic application, but it means a huge amount to the dairy farmer.  Without access to information on the local market prices for milk, the dairy farmer can be convinced, out of ignorance, to sell his/her product for less that the market price.  Armed with knowledge, the dairy farmer can negotiate for a fair price.

Another example given was a mobile wireless fish sensor in a lake that alerts local fisherman via text messages of the presence of fish.  For the local fisherman whose income depends on being a successful fisherman, this could be a very useful mobile application.

The lesson I learned from these examples is to not undervalue the usefulness of simple mobile applications.  My background is in the MEAP space where we developed thick client mobile applications that were mini-ERPs on ruggedized Windows Mobile devices.  Our MEAPs and mobile applications required large and expensive development efforts.  They were certainly useful and appreciated by our clients, but it does not always require that level of development to provide real value.

Some segments of the mobile workforce could benefit from simple updates, key data provided at the right time, and the ability to query on key data and incremental efficiency improvements.  Mobile micro-applications definitely have their place.

In the SAP ecosystem you are starting to see an increasing number of mobile micro-applications from SAP partners like Vivido Labs, Leapfactor, Sky Technologies.  These applications are designed to replace specific paper processes and enable the mobile workforce to accomplish more while traveling.  I have been given some previews and I believe that Sapphire 2010 will be remembered as the Year of Mobility in the SAP ecosystem.

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Kevin Benedict
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict  
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/

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

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Mobile Expert Interview Series: EntryPoint’s Pete Martin

Pete Martin, the founder of EntryPoint Consulting worked for SAP for over five years. He managed field operations in his region which included sales and pre-sales. His consulting company, which was founded in 2003, resells SAP solutions to US based middle market companies and business units of the Fortune 1000. They focus on SAP CRM, an area where they have a lot of experience. Today mobility is a big issue for his customers.

Pete was involved in one of the first mobile SAP CRM implementations. It did not go well. Why?

• SAP did not have a well defined interface for CRM at that time. There was about five different ways to interface with it and this caused confusion with all involved.
• SAP did not have a strong mobility roadmap or good guidance at the time.
• It was a case of you don't know what you don't know.
• Broadband internet was not widely available and connection and synchronization speeds were slow.
• The customer wanted to download huge price books and massive amounts of customer data which bogged down the system.
• The client wanted to replicate their ERP on the mobile devices – not good.

After this first painful experience, Pete and his team stepped back and studied the mobility space for about three years. However, in 2009 they lost two SAP CRM sales because they did not have a strong mobile SAP CRM offering. This pain motivated them to jump back into researching good mobile solutions for SAP CRM. Pete says that now 100% of SAP CRM sales prospects are requesting mobile extensions. It is no longer an option. A mobilized version of SAP CRM is a requirement.

They looked at a lot of different MEAPs that worked with SAP. There were several things they wanted from a mobility partner:

1. EntryPoint sells to medium and large companies. They need a solution that can scale from a few dozen users to a few thousand. They needed a partner that could support both of these markets and be priced to work in both.
2. They looked for a mobile provider that had already successfully implemented mobile SAP CRM solutions at a large company. They wanted to see a full production environment already in place. The partner they chose already had a successful mobile SAP CRM implementation with one of the largest global CPG companies.
3. They wanted a mobile provider that was not overly complex. They were looking for a simple and elegant architecture that was easy to implement and support.
4. They wanted to partner with and learn one mobile solution that could be broadly implemented across many different business processes.
5. They wanted a mobile provider that "partnered" well. Some mobile providers are large and small partners get overlooked. EntryPoint wanted a mobile partner that wanted them.

The end result was that EntryPoint Consulting selected SAP Partner, Sky Technologies as their mobile SAP CRM partner. They are now confident in telling customers they can have a mobilized CRM in 90 days.

Mobility is a big focus for EntryPoint Consulting in 2010. Why?

• SAP customers are asking for mobile solutions and mobile extensions to their business processes.
• Sales prospects are all asking for mobile extensions.
• When EntryPoint Consulting promotes events around mobilizing SAP CRM they get BIG responses.
• They lost two SAP CRM sales last year because they did not have a good mobile solution provider and plan in place.
• SAP field sales is asking EntryPoint about their mobile solutions and plans. Pete wants a good answer.

I asked Pete what he thought about SAP's current mobility strategy and he said, "In markets where products and technologies are changing fast, it is hard for SAP to keep up. They are simply too big to be nimble. It is best for them to partner for mobile solutions today." In a follow up statement he added, "SAP's sales teams are still a bit confused by SAP's mobility strategy." It seems there is more to be done to evangelize SAP's mobility strategy and plans internally.

Pete also shared his thoughts on what SAP sales teams could learn from other CRM vendors. He said other vendors had learned how to sell to mid-level, line of business folks successfully. This according to Pete, is where CRM is sold. SAP sales teams are great at the C level sales process, but have historically been troubled when selling to the line of business. "If the VP of Sales can't connect to the CRM with his/her favorite mobile smartphone, the sale is lost," said Pete.

To read additional articles from the Mobile Expert Interview Series see below:

• Mobile Expert Interview Series: PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Ahmed El Adl, PhD
• Mobile Expert Interview Series: Nokia's John Choate
• Mobile Expert Interview Series - Jane and Keelin Glendon of HotButtons

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Kevin Benedict
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.utilizer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/

***Full Disclosure: I am an indpedent 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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Mobility Visions of Christmas Present

I visited the same bookstore twice this Christmas season, and both times I was confronted by mobility and the transformation that mobility is bringing to the world.

On the first visit a sales person greeted me at the front door and handed me an electronic book reader. The sales person said this mobile device, with free Internet connectivity through AT&T, would enable me to receive all of my books and many newspapers remotely, so there was no need to come into the store. Interesting sales presentation that does not bode well for the future job of the sales person that was standing before me. I wondered if the sales person had thought that far ahead?

On my second visit I was in the bookstore with my wife and daughter. As was our habit we selected some of the most interesting books from the shelf and ordered hot drinks. When our drinks were emptied and we had selected our favorite books, I directed us to the checkout line to purchase them. My wife looked up from her iPhone and said they were already ordered for half the price and free shipping. I sheepishly looked around and placed our books back on the shelves and exited the brick and mortar.

So the bookstore has been transformed into a comfortable coffee shop and showroom for books that we will buy elsewhere. I am not suggesting that it is good, just reality. It is part of the churn and transformation that mobility is bringing to all industries.

2010 will be the year of the connected, geospatially aware, super smartphone. There will be much change and some victims, but also many new and exciting opportunities.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

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