Ventureforth, a Syclo Independent Software Vendor, licenses and develops off-the-shelf mobile solutions for Oracle, PeopleSoft and Indus (Ventyx) with the configurable mobile platform architecture from Syclo’s Agentry platform. This is interesting for two reasons:
Showing posts with label mobile enterprise application platforms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mobile enterprise application platforms. Show all posts
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 5
This is part 5 of this article series.
As an enterprise mobility vendor you need to recognize where your intellectual property is and where it will be developed in the future. This can significantly impact your potential value. Let me provide a scenario for your consideration.
The first part of their strategy works. They get their generic MEAP and SDK into the hands of many developers. The developers use the SDK to develop very interesting and complex mobile applications for many different markets. The mobile applications are branded by the developer. The developers start creating a customer base and developing their brand.
However, once the developers' businesses grow large enough, they decide they can replace your MEAP and any licensing commitments with their own technology so they can keep more of the revenue. You lose the market, the revenue, and the sales channel. Their customers don't know the difference since the finished mobile application looks the same.
The MEAP vendor is in trouble. Their business plan predicted they would grow at the same rate as their customers. They failed to anticipate they would only be an interim solution.
The MEAP vendor also thought they would own the code generated by their SDK and MEAP, and it would increase the value of their company. However, the software developers quickly begin to resist this notion as they also wanted to build their own IP library and company's value.
Who owns the IP (intellectual property) for the mobile applications developed on the MEAP and the SDK? If your contract says the MEAP/SDK author owns all code developed on it, you will get few developers to use it. The MEAP author wants the MEAP to lock in or tie developers to them. However, developers only brand and promote the finished mobile application. They don't want to promote your SDK or MEAP, only their branded apps.
The MEAP vendor wants to increase their IP and the value of their company. However, the more IP the MEAP vendor provides, the less opportunity there is for developers to build their own IP library and company value by utilizing it.
While the MEAP and SDK vendor's business plan calls for them to become increasingly valuable to their users, they are in fact increasingly competing with their customer base. How do you see reconciling this challenge?
I look forward to your thoughts and comments.
If you would like to discuss this subject or my consulting services in more detail please contact me.
Stay tuned for part 6 in this article series.
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
***************************************************
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.
http://www.clicksoftware.com/e86e075b-4fca-44c9-bfeb-4efcc978f416/knowledge-center-white-papers-delivery.htm
As an enterprise mobility vendor you need to recognize where your intellectual property is and where it will be developed in the future. This can significantly impact your potential value. Let me provide a scenario for your consideration.
An enterprise mobility vendor develops a MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) that includes an SDK (software development kit). They want every software developer in the world to use their platform and SDK. They believe this will drive revenue from many different channels and allow them to enter new markets through these developers which will keep their cost of sales and marketing low. They can see the money train coming down the tracks.
The MEAP vendor is in trouble. Their business plan predicted they would grow at the same rate as their customers. They failed to anticipate they would only be an interim solution.
The MEAP vendor also thought they would own the code generated by their SDK and MEAP, and it would increase the value of their company. However, the software developers quickly begin to resist this notion as they also wanted to build their own IP library and company's value.
Who owns the IP (intellectual property) for the mobile applications developed on the MEAP and the SDK? If your contract says the MEAP/SDK author owns all code developed on it, you will get few developers to use it. The MEAP author wants the MEAP to lock in or tie developers to them. However, developers only brand and promote the finished mobile application. They don't want to promote your SDK or MEAP, only their branded apps.
The MEAP vendor wants to increase their IP and the value of their company. However, the more IP the MEAP vendor provides, the less opportunity there is for developers to build their own IP library and company value by utilizing it.
While the MEAP and SDK vendor's business plan calls for them to become increasingly valuable to their users, they are in fact increasingly competing with their customer base. How do you see reconciling this challenge?
I look forward to your thoughts and comments.
If you would like to discuss this subject or my consulting services in more detail please contact me.
Stay tuned for part 6 in this article series.
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
***************************************************
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.
http://www.clicksoftware.com/e86e075b-4fca-44c9-bfeb-4efcc978f416/knowledge-center-white-papers-delivery.htm
What Happens When You Schedule 2 Opinionated Mobility Bloggers for the Same Webinar?
I have been invited to join popular mobility blogger Gil Bouhnick, the Director of Mobile Solutions at ClickSoftware, to speak at an upcoming webinar entitled, 10 Costly Mistakes to Avoid when Selecting and Implementing a Mobility Solution. I don't know where that title came from as I have made at least a hundred costly mistakes all by myself.Time / Date: Tuesday, 31st August 8am PST / 11am EST / 16.00 GMT
Research firm IDC predicts that some 1.2 billion workers will be using mobile enterprise tools by 2011, representing roughly a third of the total global workforce (Feb 2010). Some of these are almost exclusively mobile, whereas some will only occasionally use mobile enterprise tools. Whatever the case, there are very few who would argue against the fact that investing in mobility has the potential to raise productivity, accessibility and visibility.
However, as many have already discovered, selecting and deploying a mobile solution is complex and brings many challenges and considerations. Scalability, integration, device selection, wireless communications, security, working environments, ‘buy-in’ from the users and so the list goes on. Along with the huge rewards a mobile solution can bring, lie many risk and potential pitfalls.
However, as many have already discovered, selecting and deploying a mobile solution is complex and brings many challenges and considerations. Scalability, integration, device selection, wireless communications, security, working environments, ‘buy-in’ from the users and so the list goes on. Along with the huge rewards a mobile solution can bring, lie many risk and potential pitfalls.
I invite you to join Gil and I - register here.
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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
Phone +1 208-991-4410
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.
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Pyxis Mobile's EVP Christopher Willis
Pyxis Mobile is one of those companies that accomplishes great things, but moves under the radar. Gartner recently highlighted Pyxis Mobile in their Magic Quadrant report so moving under the radar may be over. Pyxis Mobile has over 500,000 mobile clients in the field. Most of their traditional customers are in the financial services industry, but they have been rapidly expanding into higher education, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. I had the opportunity recently to interview Chris Willis, Pyxis Mobile's EVP of Marketing and Strategy.
Chris joined Pyxis in 1998. In 2001 the company became 100% focused on enterprise mobility.
Chris what mobile device do you carry?
I carry two mobile devices, the iPhone for personal use, and the BlackBerry Bold for professional use. I have always used BlackBerrys professionally and am just used to it. I know how to get what I need from it. I use the iPhone as a large iPod.
What is your favorite mobile application?
A CRM application built by Pyxis Mobile. It is connected to our expense management system and enables me to complete my expense reports while on the road. On the personal side I love MLB at Bat. When you see MLB at Bat on an iPad it is amazing. It is better than the programs you get at the game.
What industries do you see adopting mobility?
Financial services is big for us. Seventy percent of our business is still in financial services. We have developed complete trading systems on mobile devices for some customers. Higher education is big for us. We have developed all kinds of mobile applications for universities that show class schedules, grades, etc. Emerging markets for us are in manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
What business processes do you see companies mobilizing first?
Sales and field services to start, however, nowadays we are seeing a lot of B2C (business to consumer) application demand. Companies want to give mobile applications to their customers for product sales, branding, marketing and customer support.
What are some of the most surprising trends that you saw in mobility over the past 12 months?
B2C is the biggest trend - "There's an App for that!" Companies wanting to provide their customers with mobile applications.
What do you see happening in the near future, say 2010-2011?
Mobility vendors delivering on their promises and filling the missing "app gaps." Companies are now educated on mobility. They are now looking for complete solutions and mobility platforms to execute a full enterprise mobility strategy.
Tell me about some of the most interesting mobile applications you have seen in the market.
We have developed a mobile laundry application. It is a M2M (machine-to-machine) application. Laundry machines text students in the dorms when there is a machine available and when it is finished. Another application I love is from Concur Mobile. It helps you book travel, manage travel expenses, call taxis and have it all paid for by the credit card they have on file. No cash needed. You can also use it to photograph receipts and turn them in as well. Nice!
What are some of the most unusual mobile applications you have seen?
There is an application that consists of a website and a mobile application. The website shows a 2D barcode on the screen, and your iPhone captures the barcode and activates various games that use the accelerometer on the iPhone to control various objects in races. Very interesting!
When is a consumer oriented mobile device sufficient, and when do you need a ruggedized industrial grade device?
Consumer devices (smartphones) are capturing market share from industrial grade mobile handhelds. There is less interest in expensive rugged devices, because the service technician is carrying a smartphone anyway. If you buy expensive rugged devices, they will now have two devices to break. Many companies are simply buying rugged cases for smartphones.
What is the most complex mobile application that you have seen?
We developed entire mobile trading systems for use by companies in the financial services industry. Very complex! We developed a very sophisticated mobile application for Thomas Reuters that pulled data from dozens of different sources.
What are some of the biggest challenges you see in the mobile industry today?
Rapid changes to mobile operating systems and new mobile devices. Today Samsung announced a new mobile OS. Today enterprises use the same mobile OS as consumer devices so we need to stay on top of all of them.
What do you see from ERP vendors in mobility?
All ERPs have to mobilize their solutions. Pyxis Mobile is supporting all the majors, and we believe this is a competitive advantage.
What is still missing from MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms)?
I think MEAP vendors are simply taking different approaches. Some try to be ERP agnostic. Others focused on specific markets. I think the differences will be how effective you are with partners. Are you systems integrator friendly? Pyxis Mobile provides tools for SIs to develop and support new mobile applications. This is important!
How important is mobile device management to your customers?
It isn't. Our customers don't ask for it. Smartphones and online app stores seem to have resolved many of the earlier issues. Perhaps in the future our customers will ask for it.
How is Pyxis Mobile positioned?
We are the one mobility platform that enables all of a company's mobility needs including B2B and B2C. We cover mobile enterprise and consumer applications.
What are your thoughts on when thick/rich mobile clients are needed and when micro-apps or browser apps are needed?
We like rich native apps that optimize what you can do on each OS and mobile device.
Do your customers want to develop their own mobile applications using your Application Studio, or do they want you to develop it?
About 80% of our customers want us, or one of our systems integrator partners to develop the mobile application for them. They are not experienced, but we are.
Thanks for your time Chris!!!
To read more interviews in the Mobile Expert Interview series, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-interview-series.html
To watch videos of mobile expert interviews, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-video-series.html
For a weekly recap of mobility news, analysis and market numbers read:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html
***************************************************
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.
***************************************************
Chris joined Pyxis in 1998. In 2001 the company became 100% focused on enterprise mobility.
What are some of the most surprising trends that you saw in mobility over the past 12 months?
What are some of the most unusual mobile applications you have seen?
Thanks for your time Chris!!!
To read more interviews in the Mobile Expert Interview series, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-interview-series.html
To watch videos of mobile expert interviews, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-video-series.html
For a weekly recap of mobility news, analysis and market numbers read:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html
***************************************************
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.
***************************************************
Mobile Expert Video Series: Sky Technologies' Steve Ware
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 Solution Models, Part 2
Even the largest enterprises in the world may only have the need for 200 users of a particular custom mobile enterprise application. For example, I worked on an enterprise mobility project in China that was incredibly complex and expensive to develop and the maximum number of users was about 200.
The solution enabled a government agency to receive real-time quality inspection data on a massive bridge project. They wanted each section of steel to be uniquely identified for quality purposes and the data stored in an archive with the government agency.
The engineering firm requested that my team develop the mobile application on a MEAP. I sent my team to China to work on the requirements for a few weeks. The solution was incredibly challenging to develop, but the end product was a work of art.
Here is my point - this mobile enterprise solution was very expensive to develop, but worth every penny to the customer. The solution enabled the engineering firm to be compliant to government requirements on a project worth over $5 billion.
These types of customized mobile solutions, although very important, will never be developed for the masses. These types of development projects need a MEAP with a powerful SDK (software development kit) so that changes in requirements can easily be made in the future by the users or by other developers.
Custom mobile applications should be developed using a software development kit in a MEAP. MEAPs will help future proof the mobile application by keeping up with changes in mobile operating systems and standards, while providing a development methodology and tools to speed up and manage development efforts. In addition, integration, device management and production environments can all be managed using defined and documented processes.
See related article:
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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
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict twitter:
***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 Interview Series: Troy O'Connor
I had the opportunity to interview Troy O'Connor recently while he was in Australia. He is the CEO of Sky Technologies, an SAP Partner, and an expert in SAP mobility. Sky Technologies is a software company, and their mobile solution for SAP is the SkyMobile Framework.
Troy first got into mobility as a systems integrator for SAP. He cut his teeth on mobile applications for warehouse and inventory management over a decade ago. SAP developed a lot of barcode data collection applications using rugged handheld computers like the LXE.
I asked Troy about his thoughts on mobile micro-applications and MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms). He said that mobile micro-applications are very useful, especially for simple forms-based mobile applications, but he would advocate that mobile micro-applications should be developed using a MEAP and supported by a MEAP. That way there is a standard way of developing, integrating and supporting them. MEAPs should provide a rapid and agile development environment for both thick client applications and mobile micro-applications.
I then asked Troy for his thoughts on the role of thick mobile clients and thin mobile clients. He responded that thick mobile clients are less important when there is 100% connectivity, but there are many cases where rugged working environments do not have connectivity. In such places being able to operate in a connected or disconnected mode is important. He added that he prefers the term "Intelligent Mobile Client" over the term thick client. Intelligent Mobile clients typically have more computing power, on device databases, document management, and data collection capabilities that thin clients.
"What about MEAPs?" I asked. He listed the core features he felt a MEAP should have:
I learned a new term from Troy - "short pants." This term refers to youngsters or pretenders, those that lack a complete understanding of an environment. He used that term to refer to mobile software companies that do not have deep knowledge and experience working with SAP. I have now added that term to my vocabulary.
When asked his opinion on SAP's current mobility strategy, Troy answered that he agrees with SAP's partnership strategy for delivering mobile applications. He said the market and technology is moving too quickly for a large software company to keep up. They need to support the innovation that can come out of their smaller mobility partners.
In response to the question, "What should SAP do differently?" He answered, "Clarify the licensing strategy and price for mobile applications." He shared that some of his SAP customers had run into confusing licensing issues around mobile devices for SAP, and this caused some grief.
The last question I asked was, "What should an SAP customer ask a mobile application vendor before purchasing?" Troy answered, "Where is the master system? Is it SAP or a third party database or middleware application?"
Related Articles:
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
***************************************************
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.
**************************************************
Troy first got into mobility as a systems integrator for SAP. He cut his teeth on mobile applications for warehouse and inventory management over a decade ago. SAP developed a lot of barcode data collection applications using rugged handheld computers like the LXE.
I asked Troy about his thoughts on mobile micro-applications and MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms). He said that mobile micro-applications are very useful, especially for simple forms-based mobile applications, but he would advocate that mobile micro-applications should be developed using a MEAP and supported by a MEAP. That way there is a standard way of developing, integrating and supporting them. MEAPs should provide a rapid and agile development environment for both thick client applications and mobile micro-applications.
I then asked Troy for his thoughts on the role of thick mobile clients and thin mobile clients. He responded that thick mobile clients are less important when there is 100% connectivity, but there are many cases where rugged working environments do not have connectivity. In such places being able to operate in a connected or disconnected mode is important. He added that he prefers the term "Intelligent Mobile Client" over the term thick client. Intelligent Mobile clients typically have more computing power, on device databases, document management, and data collection capabilities that thin clients.
"What about MEAPs?" I asked. He listed the core features he felt a MEAP should have:
- SDK to provide tools for rapid and agile mobile application development.
- Interface management to protect the integrity of the SAP transaction and ensure it happens and is completed in SAP.
- Data modeling, data profiling and data synchronization.
- Device management, which is important so errors and support issues can be discovered and resolved quickly.
- The MEAP must be very flexible, because SAP is very flexible. The SAP user must be able to rapidly customize their mobile applications to match any customization they do in SAP.
- The MEAP must support both pre-developed (canned) mobile applications and custom mobile applications.
- 100% of Sky Technologies' customers have requested some level of customization. That is why the MEAP must support this capability.
- SAP is a transactional management system, and because of that any mobile applications integrated with SAP must also be compliant as a transactional management system and provide complete end-to-end visibility to these transactions.
- SAP interface management is critical. SAP must have visibility into mobile transactions and be able to monitor them from inside of SAP.
- SAP scales up to tens of thousands of users. The mobile enterprise application platform must also scale up.
I learned a new term from Troy - "short pants." This term refers to youngsters or pretenders, those that lack a complete understanding of an environment. He used that term to refer to mobile software companies that do not have deep knowledge and experience working with SAP. I have now added that term to my vocabulary.
When asked his opinion on SAP's current mobility strategy, Troy answered that he agrees with SAP's partnership strategy for delivering mobile applications. He said the market and technology is moving too quickly for a large software company to keep up. They need to support the innovation that can come out of their smaller mobility partners.
In response to the question, "What should SAP do differently?" He answered, "Clarify the licensing strategy and price for mobile applications." He shared that some of his SAP customers had run into confusing licensing issues around mobile devices for SAP, and this caused some grief.
The last question I asked was, "What should an SAP customer ask a mobile application vendor before purchasing?" Troy answered, "Where is the master system? Is it SAP or a third party database or middleware application?"
Related Articles:
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
***************************************************
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.
**************************************************
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- They wanted to partner with and learn one mobile solution that could be broadly implemented across many different business processes.
- 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
***********************************************
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.
***********************************************
Mobile Expert Interview Series: PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Ahmed El Adl, PhD
I had the privilege of interviewing PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Director of Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Dr. Ahmed El Adl a few days ago. He works out of PWC's Boston office and focuses on developing and expanding PWC's mobility practice. He is a big fan of this blog which instantly increased his credibility with me.
Ahmed worked for SAP in Waldorf from 1998-2002 and focused on SAP's CRM solutions. In fact he was involved in one of the very first mobility projects for SAP CRM. At that time SAP's architecture was simply not suited for mobility and it did not go well.
Ahmed said that a lesson learned from that first mobile SAP CRM experience was not to let sales and marketing completely drive design and engineering. The engineers developed everything that the marketing teams asked for, but the result was a mobile application that was far too big and heavy to work for customers.
Ahmed is a fan of SAP's current mobile strategy of working with many mobility partners. He believes SAP should slow down and focus on defining the mobile connectivity layer and open up their system for more nimble and innovative mobility partners to provide mobile applications. Mobility is evolving very fast and it is hard for a giant like SAP to effectively keep up. By opening up to mobility partners, SAP customers can get what they want now without waiting for SAP.Ahmed is the kind of consultant I would want to hire. He has experienced the good and bad of early mobility adoption and brings great wisdom to the table now.
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.
**************************************************
Ahmed worked for SAP in Waldorf from 1998-2002 and focused on SAP's CRM solutions. In fact he was involved in one of the very first mobility projects for SAP CRM. At that time SAP's architecture was simply not suited for mobility and it did not go well.
Ahmed said that a lesson learned from that first mobile SAP CRM experience was not to let sales and marketing completely drive design and engineering. The engineers developed everything that the marketing teams asked for, but the result was a mobile application that was far too big and heavy to work for customers.
Ahmed is a fan of SAP's current mobile strategy of working with many mobility partners. He believes SAP should slow down and focus on defining the mobile connectivity layer and open up their system for more nimble and innovative mobility partners to provide mobile applications. Mobility is evolving very fast and it is hard for a giant like SAP to effectively keep up. By opening up to mobility partners, SAP customers can get what they want now without waiting for SAP.Ahmed is the kind of consultant I would want to hire. He has experienced the good and bad of early mobility adoption and brings great wisdom to the table now.
Although Ahmed agrees with SAP's current strategy and likes what he sees from many of SAP's mobility partners, it doesn't mean he is satisfied. He believes Sybase, an SAP mobility partner, is good but complex, heavy and has too many different components and technology layers. He listed the numbers of technology layers that are involved in a Sybase/SAP integration and it was daunting.
He shared his thoughts on Sky Technologies, another SAP mobility partner. He thought their approach was interesting, but he was concerned that their "mobile SAP innerware" strategy would introduce challenges. He wondered how IT departments would accept a third party mobility solution being so closely embedded with SAP code? Would the benefits out weigh the risks for IT departments? Would they accept it, or avoid it?
He said he likes much of what he sees from SAP's mobility partners, however he is still cautious. In fact, he has recommended to some clients that they should go through a complete RFI process to determine for themselves which vendor has the best fit for them.
Ahmed believes that ultimately SAP customers will want a strong MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) that they can standardize on, but for today mobile micro-apps can provide real value quickly. I was particularly interested in this statement as it aligns with many of the comments that other industry experts shared on the SAP Enterprise Mobility group on Linkedin.
Ahmed identified several areas of mobility that he finds particularly interesting:
- Telemedicine
- Medical diagnostics that feed data to iPhone applications (e.g. EKGs, x-rays)
- The Apple iTune model for app stores that allows small companies to compete against the big software companies.
- He loves the idea of unlimited innovation, on a level playing field, and that one person software companies can help large enterprises increase productivity.
I asked Ahmed what mobile device or smartphone does he carry. He said all of them. He carries a PWC issued Blackberry in his pocket, but he literally travels with a suitcase full of different mobile devices that he can show off and demonstrate to clients. What a nightmare for the TSA agents! Don't get in line behind him.
I want to again thank Dr. Ahmed El Adl for his time and willingness to share his insights.
This article was the third in the series called Mobile Expert Interviews. See related articles:
- Mobile Expert Interview Series: Nokia's John Choate
- Mobile Expert Interview Series - Jane and Keelin Glendon of HotButtons
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.
**************************************************
Scrutinizing SAP’s Mobile Strategy from Managing Automation
On the website Managing Automation, http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/ they have an article this week by Stephanie Neil called Scrutinizing SAP's Mobility Strategy. Here is an excerpt, "... a quick search (on the SAP EcoHub) for ‘mobile infrastructure’ brings up Sybase, Antenna Software’s Concert development platform, and SkyConnect from Sky Technologies... I question whether or not SAP needs the same broad base of partners in mobility as it does in manufacturing. Most manufacturers are just starting to implement a wireless strategy, and since it is untapped terrain for them, they may just want a turnkey solution from SAP, not a menu of choices."
This is an interesting perspective. Neil seems to suggests that many SAP users (at least in manufacturing) would prefer just one designated turnkey SAP MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) and that having a plethora of partner selections is not necessarily useful. The challenge I have with Stephanie's comments is that I believe she underestimates the number of mobile applications and their complexity. Different mobile applications and mobile business processes require different workflows and expertise that may not all be present in one mobile software vendor. It will take a number of years before mobile applications support many of the more niche business processes which is why there is a need today for many industry experts to supply mobile applications.
Neil concludes with the following, "...SAP’s next move should be to acquire a mobile infrastructure vendor upon which it can build a stable of wireless applications that fit into its — and its customers' — long-term mobile enterprise plan. The company can continue co-innovating, but it needs to lead the effort. SAP has a rare opportunity right now to shape an emerging market."
I will dodge the acquisition issue, but I agree with Neil that SAP should take the lead. I believe SAP users would ultimately benefit from a standardized methodology for connecting mobile devices to SAP and managing these connections.
Thanks Stephanie for a thought provoking article.
If you are one of the plethora of mobile application vendors supporting SAP users, please make sure you add your solution to the SAP Enterprise Mobility directory so others can learn about you.
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
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.
**************************************************
This is an interesting perspective. Neil seems to suggests that many SAP users (at least in manufacturing) would prefer just one designated turnkey SAP MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) and that having a plethora of partner selections is not necessarily useful. The challenge I have with Stephanie's comments is that I believe she underestimates the number of mobile applications and their complexity. Different mobile applications and mobile business processes require different workflows and expertise that may not all be present in one mobile software vendor. It will take a number of years before mobile applications support many of the more niche business processes which is why there is a need today for many industry experts to supply mobile applications.
Neil concludes with the following, "...SAP’s next move should be to acquire a mobile infrastructure vendor upon which it can build a stable of wireless applications that fit into its — and its customers' — long-term mobile enterprise plan. The company can continue co-innovating, but it needs to lead the effort. SAP has a rare opportunity right now to shape an emerging market."
I will dodge the acquisition issue, but I agree with Neil that SAP should take the lead. I believe SAP users would ultimately benefit from a standardized methodology for connecting mobile devices to SAP and managing these connections.
Thanks Stephanie for a thought provoking article.
If you are one of the plethora of mobile application vendors supporting SAP users, please make sure you add your solution to the SAP Enterprise Mobility directory so others can learn about you.
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
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.
**************************************************
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 6
Would you use Linkedin if you had to make a phone call and ask each person individually if they were using Linkedin before connecting to them? What if you had to manually program each connection yourself according to the mobile operating system and version each friend or contact was using? What if the programming was different for every mobile device? What if you had to re-program the connection every time a friend changed smartphones or upgraded their OS? The system would quickly cease to be a benefit and start being a big burden wouldn't it?
The value of Linkedin is that it automates and standardizes most processes and connection related issues. Everyone connects in standardized ways and uses pre-built processes to manage all of their connections, security, settings, etc. It is easy to view all of your contacts and manage these contacts from one screen. Enterprise mobility and the support of mobile devices needs these same kinds of concepts in place.
Enterprise mobility, like most IT systems, need standards that include defined methodologies and processes in order to manage it effectively and efficiently. If your company or client has hundreds or thousands of smartphones, handheld computers or other mobile devices using mobile applications, thick and thin clients, MEAPs and micro-applications, there is an absolute requirement for mobile device management. If they don't, it will be a big challenge now that will only get bigger.
In the same way that the IT department needs to record and manage all desktops, laptops and servers and the software licenses and security on each, they will need to do the same for mobile devices that are used outside the four walls of the enterprise.
How is it done today? Many companies allow their employees to select their own smartphones and expense them each month. The company has no visibility to the specific mobile devices, operating system versions or downloaded mobile micro applications until they receive a request to connect it to the ERP or other back office applications. At that point it becomes an SAP challenge.
Is this a challenge that should be addressed in SAP, or is this a challenge that SAP's mobility partners like Sybase, Sky Technologies, Syclo or ClickSoftware should address outside of SAP? There are experts that specialize on mobile device management like B2M Solutions. They focus on the complete mobile project life cycle and provide management tools for each component of this life cycle.
IT asset management, the IT help desk, IT support, IT security, etc., must all embrace mobile devices and enterprise mobility and quickly set-up their internal systems and processes to support them.
On the subject of IT help desk, this is my favorite funny YouTube video on help desks.
I would like to hear your thoughts on how your company or your customers manage mobile devices.
Related Articles:
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 1
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 2
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 3
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 4
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 5
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
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.
**************************************************
The value of Linkedin is that it automates and standardizes most processes and connection related issues. Everyone connects in standardized ways and uses pre-built processes to manage all of their connections, security, settings, etc. It is easy to view all of your contacts and manage these contacts from one screen. Enterprise mobility and the support of mobile devices needs these same kinds of concepts in place.
Enterprise mobility, like most IT systems, need standards that include defined methodologies and processes in order to manage it effectively and efficiently. If your company or client has hundreds or thousands of smartphones, handheld computers or other mobile devices using mobile applications, thick and thin clients, MEAPs and micro-applications, there is an absolute requirement for mobile device management. If they don't, it will be a big challenge now that will only get bigger.
In the same way that the IT department needs to record and manage all desktops, laptops and servers and the software licenses and security on each, they will need to do the same for mobile devices that are used outside the four walls of the enterprise.
How is it done today? Many companies allow their employees to select their own smartphones and expense them each month. The company has no visibility to the specific mobile devices, operating system versions or downloaded mobile micro applications until they receive a request to connect it to the ERP or other back office applications. At that point it becomes an SAP challenge.
Is this a challenge that should be addressed in SAP, or is this a challenge that SAP's mobility partners like Sybase, Sky Technologies, Syclo or ClickSoftware should address outside of SAP? There are experts that specialize on mobile device management like B2M Solutions. They focus on the complete mobile project life cycle and provide management tools for each component of this life cycle.
IT asset management, the IT help desk, IT support, IT security, etc., must all embrace mobile devices and enterprise mobility and quickly set-up their internal systems and processes to support them.
On the subject of IT help desk, this is my favorite funny YouTube video on help desks.
I would like to hear your thoughts on how your company or your customers manage mobile devices.
Related Articles:
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 1
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 2
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 3
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 4
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 5
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
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.
**************************************************
Interesting SAP Mobility Discussion Highlight
In the comment section of the article SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 4 there is an interesting discussion that I wanted to highlight for those that may have missed it.
***Comment 1
Kevin,
I agree about the small custom mobile solutions for small number of users. Usually such projects have high ROIs based on the urgent business needs. However, this is what happened in the past 10 years in the absence of a successful SAP mobility strategy and solutions.
Currently, companies look for company wide mobility strategy which covers most of the departments, or at least covers the main mobility requirements of the main business areas, which need it and prove to deliver high ROI. Based on different market researches and my own daily experiences, the trend is MEAP-based mobility solutions for mid and large size companies. Small companies still have the choice to continue using non-MEAP solutions like Sky Technologies.
Based on the definition of MEAP, vendors like Sky technologies don't deliver that category of mobility platform. MEAP requires middleware for many obvious reasons such as composition, data orchestration, performance... Instead, Sky delivers "innerware", which can be installed inside SAP, based solutions for SAP.
I admire Sky products for small companies. However, to get rid of the big troubles we had and still have on business mobility market, such companies will either have to merge with MEAP vendors or focus on small businesses, which are usually not the main group of SAP customers.
Best Regards,
Ahmed
***Comment 2
Ahmed,
You make some interesting points with regards to MEAP vendors, and I'd like to take the opportunity to discuss a little the Sky Technologies "inside SAP" approach to this. Although the Sky Technologies solution is delivered and implemented “inside SAP” this does not mean that the functions of the MEAP vendor middleware platforms has been ignored.
Using the “inside SAP” approach the Sky Technologies technology enables all of the key functions you describe (composition, data orchestration, performance, etc) to deliver SAP mobile solutions to global enterprises. This has been proven out over and over by the large number of global mobility deployments and customer references currently using Sky Technologies.
These large enterprise implementations understand that being “inside SAP”, the deployment, implementation cycles, ongoing maintenance and support are greatly simplified and lead directly to lower cost of ownership and greater return on investment.
I’d also like to take a moment to talk about “the middleware” requirements of the other major SAP mobility vendors. If we were honest the word “middleware” should be used in a plural form. These vendors require a highly complex landscape of middleware-upon-middleware in order to function. Not only do you have to implement the vendor middleware platforms, but this then has to be integrated with SAP via the SAP DOE Middleware platform. This leaves the mobile user many steps removed from the SAP process being mobilized.
By definition these other vendors mobilize their own middleware, with all of the associated duplication of business processes and rules in the middleware layer, and then attempt to integrate with SAP. In effect there are now at least two versions of the truth in respect of the business processes being mobilized. Sky Technologies maintains a single version of the truth - SAP, and truly mobilizes SAP.
Richard Ling, VP Technology, Sky Technologies
******************
Please add your thoughts and comments to this thread.
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
__________________________________
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.
**************************************************
***Comment 1
Kevin,
I agree about the small custom mobile solutions for small number of users. Usually such projects have high ROIs based on the urgent business needs. However, this is what happened in the past 10 years in the absence of a successful SAP mobility strategy and solutions.
Currently, companies look for company wide mobility strategy which covers most of the departments, or at least covers the main mobility requirements of the main business areas, which need it and prove to deliver high ROI. Based on different market researches and my own daily experiences, the trend is MEAP-based mobility solutions for mid and large size companies. Small companies still have the choice to continue using non-MEAP solutions like Sky Technologies.
Based on the definition of MEAP, vendors like Sky technologies don't deliver that category of mobility platform. MEAP requires middleware for many obvious reasons such as composition, data orchestration, performance... Instead, Sky delivers "innerware", which can be installed inside SAP, based solutions for SAP.
I admire Sky products for small companies. However, to get rid of the big troubles we had and still have on business mobility market, such companies will either have to merge with MEAP vendors or focus on small businesses, which are usually not the main group of SAP customers.
Best Regards,
Ahmed
***Comment 2
Ahmed,
You make some interesting points with regards to MEAP vendors, and I'd like to take the opportunity to discuss a little the Sky Technologies "inside SAP" approach to this. Although the Sky Technologies solution is delivered and implemented “inside SAP” this does not mean that the functions of the MEAP vendor middleware platforms has been ignored.
Using the “inside SAP” approach the Sky Technologies technology enables all of the key functions you describe (composition, data orchestration, performance, etc) to deliver SAP mobile solutions to global enterprises. This has been proven out over and over by the large number of global mobility deployments and customer references currently using Sky Technologies.
These large enterprise implementations understand that being “inside SAP”, the deployment, implementation cycles, ongoing maintenance and support are greatly simplified and lead directly to lower cost of ownership and greater return on investment.
I’d also like to take a moment to talk about “the middleware” requirements of the other major SAP mobility vendors. If we were honest the word “middleware” should be used in a plural form. These vendors require a highly complex landscape of middleware-upon-middleware in order to function. Not only do you have to implement the vendor middleware platforms, but this then has to be integrated with SAP via the SAP DOE Middleware platform. This leaves the mobile user many steps removed from the SAP process being mobilized.
By definition these other vendors mobilize their own middleware, with all of the associated duplication of business processes and rules in the middleware layer, and then attempt to integrate with SAP. In effect there are now at least two versions of the truth in respect of the business processes being mobilized. Sky Technologies maintains a single version of the truth - SAP, and truly mobilizes SAP.
Richard Ling, VP Technology, Sky Technologies
******************
Please add your thoughts and comments to this thread.
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
__________________________________
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.
**************************************************
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 4
I have been involved in managing enterprise mobility projects for many years and have noticed some trends. The largest number of mobility projects within a company are not large enterprise wide projects but smaller departmental and business process specific projects. These often involve only 25-100 users. I have also been involved in projects with 500-3,000 mobile users as well, but there are far less of these. The small size and specific requirements of these smaller mobility projects cause many SAP mobility partners serious challenges.
Sky Technologies is one of the Certified SAP mobility partners that provides a MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) that can address the customized and often smaller business processes and mobility requirements easier than others. ClickSoftware is also vying for this role.
Related Articles:
***********************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobility Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
**Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility expert and Web 2.0 market expert and as such I work with, and have worked with, many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
Small mobility projects are often very important to a specific department. The success of the department can be dependent upon the implementation of a mobile application that helps them do more with less. The department manager will be very keen to find a mobile application that meets their specific requirements. They often have completely unique requirements that are hard for a mobile software vendor to develop and then leverage with other clients. They also have smaller budgets. As a result mobility projects for 25 users are often custom development projects and can cost the same amount to develop as a mobile application development project for 3,000 users. Examples of these types of mobility projects are:
- Scaffold inspections
- Disaster recovery missions
- Bridge construction inspection project for a large engineering firm
- Food processing inspection for a large CPG company
- Hospital equipment sterilization and maintenance inspections
- Hazardous waste inspection for a large engineering firm
- Tire inspections on thousands of trucks and trailers for a large transportation firm
- Weld inspection applications for a giant iron works company
- Dairy farm and calf inspection
- New car inspections after shipping
If the mobile application development project costs $500,000 USD to develop and deliver, then it only takes $167 per mobile user in savings and cost efficiencies to achieve a positive ROI if you have 3,000 mobile users, but $20,000 per mobile application user in cost savings and efficiencies if you have only 25 mobile application users. This makes it difficult for many MEAP and mobile application vendors to deliver a good ROI for small customized projects. Most mobile application or MEAP vendors focus on the $500,000 and higher projects. That leaves most enterprise mobility projects with limited options in the SAP ecosystem.
This is a challenge for mobile application vendors and the companies that require smaller customized mobility projects, but it is a big opportunity for mobile application and MEAP vendors that can figure out how to deliver these smaller customized projects cost effectively.
Some of SAP's mobility partners have solutions primarily designed to mobilize their own business applications, not custom SAP user requirements. It is the hundreds of smaller business processes that often fall between the cracks and cause the biggest challenges.Sky Technologies is one of the Certified SAP mobility partners that provides a MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) that can address the customized and often smaller business processes and mobility requirements easier than others. ClickSoftware is also vying for this role.
Related Articles:
***********************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobility Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
**Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility expert and Web 2.0 market expert and as such I work with, and have worked with, many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 3
Systems Integrators represent a significant sales channel for SAP. Systems Integrators often have resources assigned to various SAP upgrades, integrations, customization and development projects onsite at a SAP customer's location. Often it is the systems integrators who first hear of upcoming sales opportunities and business requirements. SIs are very interested in SAP enterprise mobility (there is even a new Linkedin Group called SAP Enterprise Mobility) as it is seen as a major growth area. Here in lies the challenge.
Since as was discussed in Part 2 of this series, different groups within SAP are providing different mobile solution recommendations, the SI is going to be frustrated. They want to know specifically what mobile solution is recommended and where they can offer value by implementing it. The SI is not going to train on all possible SAP mobility solutions. They want to get trained on a mobile solution that has the maximum reusability across as many different SAP customers and business processes as possible to keep their costs as low as possible. They will not want to learn one mobile solution for EAM (enterprise asset management), another for workforce optimization and another for mobile CRM, etc.
Systems Integrators will want a MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) that they can use broadly to design, develop, deploy and support mobile extensions to existing SAP business processes. In addition, once you start supporting field operations outside the four walls of the enterprise it is common that companies have unique business processes in place. Often these processes, methodologies and techniques provide competitive advantages. If the SAP customer wants to continue these practices then a customized mobile software application for field operations will be necessary. This necessitates a MEAP that can be used by the SI to develop powerful customized mobile applications.
Another challenge is that some of the mobile solutions recommended by various groups in SAP are focused on mobilizing the vendor's specific business applications and supported business processes, not necessarily SAP. You may have an architecture like the following, SAP=>Vertical Application=>Mobile Solution. This may be effective for the vertical application vendor, but does not help the system integrator that wants a MEAP that can be used widely across the entire SAP environment where there are a multitude of business processes and customization requirements.
Related Articles:
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobility Consultant, Wireless Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert and as such I work with, and have worked with, many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
**************************************************
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 2
This article continues the discussion started in SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 1.
In the following excerpts from press releases issued by SAP's partners you can see that SAP understands and appreciates the significance of mobile applications in field service management. How does that appreciation translate into recommendations for SAP customers?
First let's look at an excerpt from a press release issued by SAP/ClickSoftware and a quote from the SAP Solution Management group. "There is growing demand in the market for more comprehensive field service management that incorporates decision support and optimization," said Tobias Dosch, senior vice president, Suite Solution Management, SAP AG. "Our relationship with ClickSoftware is a prime example of how SAP meets specific customer needs by leveraging our partner ecosystem to complement and extend SAP solution offerings."
SAP will resell ClickSoftware's ServiceOptimization Suite as the SAP® Workforce Scheduling and Optimization application by ClickSoftware, helping customers meet the challenge of optimizing the mobile service workforce. SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization helps customers to automate real-time proactive and reactive decision-making. Having the ability to act in real time on data from the field and produce optimal decisions for resource allocation and job scheduling can help SAP and ClickSoftware customers obtain the benefits of implementing a comprehensive service optimization solution.
Second, let's look at an excerpt from a press release issued by Syclo. "Syclo…announced an agreement centered around co-innovation with SAP AG to deliver mobile applications that enable maintenance and service technicians access to SAP® Business Suite software from a broad range of devices regardless of connectivity. They are designed for work order execution, operator rounds, time/attendance tracking and materials management.
"The cooperation with Syclo enables our customers to increase the productivity of maintenance and field service technicians by connecting them to SAP Business Suite for work order or service order execution, operator rounds and materials management," said Dieter Hässlein, vice president, Solution Management for EAM, Sustainability and Mobile.
Thirdly, let's consider the SAP/Sybase announcements.
In March 2009, Sybase and SAP announced a strategic Co-Innovation Partnership to extend SAP to mobile workers on a wide array of mobile devices… "Our customers demand mobile access to proven business applications to stay connected to their customers, suppliers, partners and employees to drive innovation and productivity," said Bill McDermott, president, Global Field Operations, and member of the SAP executive board SAP AG. "SAP is committed to helping customers adapt to business change and optimize the value derived from our leading solutions and extensive partner ecosystem. Working together with Sybase, we will provide the modern mobile workforce with the tools they need on the device of their choice, which will enable faster time to value, through access to business functionality anytime, anywhere."
The three press release excerpts above show that three different SAP groups (SAP Suite Solution Management, Global Field Operation and SAP Solution Management for EAM, Sustainability and Mobile) are recommending three different mobile solutions for the mobile workforce. I can tell you from experience that many mobile business processes such as field services management are very similar across industries. The challenge here is which application does the SAP field sales team recommend to SAP customers? Should SAP customers buy different mobile solutions and different mobile clients for Asset Management, CRM and field services operations?
Last week I received a SAP EcoHub announcement of a webinar called, Defining Your Mobile Strategy. In it, SAP's Certified Partner Sky Technologies discussed the value of using one MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) to organize and manage all mobile business processes from within an SAP environment. Here is yet a fourth mobility alternative promoted from within SAP's partner website.
I am still pondering the question I asked in Part 1 of this series - from a mobile technology and IT management perspective, does it make more sense for SAP to have one MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) that best integrates and supports SAP's underlying architecture and product roadmap, rather than recommending the mobile applications from multiple partners? Can you image the challenges you would face if you were the IT manager of an SAP customer responsible for dozens of different mobile applications, using different mobile middleware, different security methodologies, different application development environments, etc., for each business process? Yikes!!
I would like to hear your thoughts and comments.
Related articles:
SAP’s Mobility Challenge, Part 1
I am very interested in watching SAP's emerging mobility strategy as it matures, evolves and morphs yet again. I am not critical; this is how all of mobility is these days. Four years ago we were all using the term Palm, Pocket PC and PDA. Now we are speaking of iPhone, Android, RIM and iPads. Within these different technologies are literally hundreds of different mobile applications and mobile extensions that can add value to SAP's ecosystem. I have been seeing a lot of activity in this space. I have seen SAP partnership announcements with RIM (Blackberry folks), Sybase, Sky Technologies, Syclo and ClickSoftware. I have seen SAP comments from many different industry and solution groups within SAP related to mobility.
What I believe is particularly challenging to SAP is trying to determine if mobility is an extension of an industry business process, or an integrated technology platform. Let me provide three examples of the challenge – work order management is both a back office solution and a mobile client (work orders are dispatched to mobile handheld computers in the field that are carried by the service technicians). Likewise, asset management involves both back office solutions and a mobile client (inspectors, facilities managers, plant maintenance teams and service technicians use mobile clients). Route/Sales management also involves back office solutions and mobile clients (route sales people track sales, inventory, delivery and promotions on mobile devices). So are the mobile applications/clients part of the work order management, asset management or route management categories or do they justify an integrated SAP mobility platform? What do you think?
I image this is a very complex and difficult discussion within SAP. SAP has selected specific partnerships within different industry verticals. These partners are often producing their own mobile applications to extend the capabilities of their solutions; however, these mobile solutions may in fact not align with SAP's overall mobile platform strategy.
From a purely technology perspective, it may make more sense for SAP to develop or select a MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) that best integrates and supports SAP's underlying architecture and product roadmap, however, their vertical industry partners would not like this strategy at all as they see mobility as a major growth area for them. Very interesting times indeed!
Read SAP's Mobility Challenge, Part 2 here.
Related articles:
SAP Mobility – Is Change Coming?
I read a very interesting article in BusinessWeek (February 9, 2010 edition) today called "What SAP Needs After Apotheker" by Aaron Ricadela. Last week, as many of you know, Leo Apotheker was replaced as CEO of SAP by both Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe who were announced as Co-CEOs. In the article SAP mobility is raised again and again as an area where improvements are needed. Here is an excerpt, "In order to fix SAP, former North American sales boss McDermott and Snabe, head of product development, need to stock its pipeline with products that companies are more interested in buying… SAP must develop versions of its complicated software that can be delivered over the Internet and run on new classes of mobile computing devices."
In December of 2009, SAP unfolded their 5-year strategic plan that emphasized the following five points: on-demand computing, cloud architectures, flexible pricing, mobile and in-memory computing. This event was covered well by InformationWeek in an article called SAP Outlines 5-Year Enterprise Software Plan. I assume this 5 year plan announced in December was developed by Snabe and his team, so Apotheker's departure is unlikely to change this emphasis.
Don Bulmer, SAP VP of industry relations is also quoted at a recent Influencer Summit in Boston saying, "Sixty to seventy percent of the population has mobile devices… There are lots of opportunities for SAP." This seems to back repeated comments from SAP executives that they recognize the importance of mobility.
Here is another excerpt from BusinessWeek, "SAP needs to articulate to customers a clearer plan for delivering new technologies that can save money and make workers more productive, says Forrester analyst Hamerman." He goes on to add, "the company (SAP) must deliver more software over the Web and let users interact more capably with it through smartphones and tablets...Those are on the road map but they don't seem to be a priority...We haven't seen from them (SAP) a comprehensive technology strategy."
Hamerman does not seem to feel a listing in the 5 year enterprise software plan is sufficient. He wants to see a comprehensive technology strategy and a demonstration that mobility is a priority.
More from BusinessWeek, "Additional announcements of SAP software for cloud computing and mobile devices will come later this year, according to a person close to SAP. To get the message across, Plattner (Hasso Plattner, SAP co-founder) even plans to deliver his keynote address in Orlando with the help of an Apple iPad."
McDermott also tried to communicate that mobility was a SAP priority with the following announcement, "SAP plans to announce new online software under the Business By Design brand name for customer management, human resources, and procurement. Once it arrives in the second half of this year, customers will be able to run the software on their own servers, access it through the Web, and run portions of it on mobile devices."
In summary, SAP says mobility is one of the 5 key points in their strategic 5-Year Enterprise Software Plan. SAP's new Co-CEOs have reiterated that mobility is a high priority. Don Bulmer, SAP VP of industry relations agrees that there are lots of opportunities for SAP in mobility. Forrester analyst Hamerman says that it is not enough to say it, "Show me the money!" SAP Co-Founder Hasso Plattner says, "OK, watch me do a Sapphire power point on an iPad."
Here is another challenge – SAP has announced multiple reseller and co-innovation agreements with mobile solutions companies like Sky Technologies, RIM, Sybase, Syclo and ClickSoftware. So a customer looking for mobile solutions on SAP's EcoHub will find a plethora of mobile software solutions. In fact, mobile solutions for just about any need.
If I am looking for a good mobile enterprise application platform to work with SAP, I will find the following; Sybase for mobile Field Sales (except RIM users who can use RIM's mobile SAP CRM or Sky Technologies customers who can use their mobile version of SAP CRM?), Syclo for mobile field services, ClickSoftware for mobile route optimization, Sky Technologies for companies wanting to standardize on SAP embedded code? Is that clear to you? No, me neither.
Gartner analysts are suggesting that large enterprises should reduce the number of mobile application vendors. Read the following excerpt from Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms published December 16, 2009. "Enterprises are increasingly mixing solutions from multiple vendors, each with separate software stacks for data transport (which results in poor battery life). This also leads to conflicts with managing network connections on mobile devices, an inability to administer security and devices, complexities with testing, an increase in software defects, and higher service and support costs."
It will be very interesting to watch how SAP maneuvers the mobility landscape in 2010. Will SAP leave the task of bringing order out of chaos to third-party MEAP vendors, or will they?
Workforce Mobility and MEAPs
I had an interesting call with a company today that is involved in real workforce mobility. They have a solution called Total Employee Mobility. Here is a brief description from their website.
"Now more than ever, companies rely on the mobility of their employees to realize new opportunities and growth. Employee travel, relocation, international assignments, and virtual office work make business happen. However in most organizations, each component of workforce mobility is overseen by a different department, making it very difficult to manage−much less evaluate−the return on investment. This fragmented approach to employee mobility results in lost opportunities to reduce costs, gain efficiencies, and enhance employee satisfaction."
"Now more than ever, companies rely on the mobility of their employees to realize new opportunities and growth. Employee travel, relocation, international assignments, and virtual office work make business happen. However in most organizations, each component of workforce mobility is overseen by a different department, making it very difficult to manage−much less evaluate−the return on investment. This fragmented approach to employee mobility results in lost opportunities to reduce costs, gain efficiencies, and enhance employee satisfaction."
They help companies manage mobile workforces by managing the entire "mobility" component. Everything from corporate cars, mileage, expense reports to corporate aircraft and remote overseas offices. I never cease to be amazed at the fascinating niche market businesses out there.
At the end of my conversation I realized there was a lot I could learn from them. They have studied the costs factors associated with workforce mobility for over 70 years, long before iPhones, Android and turn-by-turn navigatin. Many of the items they consider had never occurred to me. Their advice to the IRS helps set the mileage reimbursement levels set by the IRS each year.
This mobility company's ROI is as follows, "By centralizing oversight of a company’s total employee mobility programs, both companies and their employees gain many advantages.
This company is now active in developing mobile and smartphone technologies to continue and enhance the value added services they provide their clients' mobile workforces.
I can't help but think of MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) in the same way. Until all of your enterprise mobility applications are centrally managed through a standardized MEAP it is hard to provide effective oversight and reduce TCO (total cost of ownership).
A related article on MEAPs can be found here.
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Author Kevin Benedict
Mobility Consultant, Wireless 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 and as such I work with, and have worked with, many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms, SAP and Marketing
Yesterday I was reading Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms. It was interesting to me that one of the points Gartner considers before including a MEAP vendor in their report is marketing. They consider the following:
Gartner understands what many smart engineers have not yet learned. A better mouse trap does not sell itself or pay the expenses - sales do. Unless a comprehensive marketing plan is designed, developed and successfully implemented you will not gain sufficient mind share and market share quick enough to remain viable in this fast changing market.
It almost seems like SAP is holding a marketing Olympics for their mobility partners. They have chosen to partner with a handful of companies like Sky Technologies, Syclo, Sybase, RIM and ClickSoftware. Many of these companies have overlapping mobility solutions, but SAP seems to want to invite their partners to compete on the marketing field and see which one comes out on top.
I enjoy a good game of strategy. Although, I can feel the pain that passionate software engineers must feel. They have dedicated their life to developing a progammer's MEAP masterpiece, but the winner is determined by the folks in the marketing department with the expense accounts and travel budgets.
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobility Consultant, Wireless 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 a mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert and as such I work with, and have worked with, some of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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- Success at marketing (I am guessing it is measured by sales?)
- Market awareness (name recognition within a target market)
- Marketing strategy (if Gartner is convinced you have a good strategy)
- Your ability to recruit a good partner ecosystem and support it through marketing
Gartner understands what many smart engineers have not yet learned. A better mouse trap does not sell itself or pay the expenses - sales do. Unless a comprehensive marketing plan is designed, developed and successfully implemented you will not gain sufficient mind share and market share quick enough to remain viable in this fast changing market.
It almost seems like SAP is holding a marketing Olympics for their mobility partners. They have chosen to partner with a handful of companies like Sky Technologies, Syclo, Sybase, RIM and ClickSoftware. Many of these companies have overlapping mobility solutions, but SAP seems to want to invite their partners to compete on the marketing field and see which one comes out on top.
I enjoy a good game of strategy. Although, I can feel the pain that passionate software engineers must feel. They have dedicated their life to developing a progammer's MEAP masterpiece, but the winner is determined by the folks in the marketing department with the expense accounts and travel budgets.
***************************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Mobility Consultant, Wireless 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 a mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert and as such I work with, and have worked with, some of the companies mentioned in my articles.
**************************************************
ClickSoftware Enters the MEAP (Mobile Enterprise Application Platform) Market
I have wondered for some time how companies like ClickSoftware deal with all the requests for customization from their clients. Inspections, asset management, custom database applications all require custom mobile applictions. This announcement last week from ClickSoftware seems to have answered that question.
ClickSoftware now has back-office and mobile field services software, an SAP partnership and a MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform). They are doing things right.
BURLINGTON, Massachusetts,ClickSoftware has combined years of mobile application experience with the latest functional and technical developments to create a step change in mobile enterprise applications. The Mobility Suite has been designed to enable system administrators to easily configure the system to comply with any business requirement without requiring expensive coding or programming skills. Visual configuration tools make it simple to turn business requirements into simple processes and mobile workflows. All can be deployed and maintained remotely, significantly reducing the total cost of ownership.
Paper can be eliminated, business processes shortened and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) tracked with electronic capture of data through forms, barcodes, RFID, and cameras. Real time location monitoring also provides visibility of mobile operations, allowing organizations to see where resources are, what they are doing, and spot and resolve connection problems.
All this information, in combination with the latest mobile technology, gives rise to some exciting possibilities across all business functions. Accurate expected time of arrival notifications (triggered as a result of real-time activities and location) can be automatically sent via SMS to customers. This means that the end client can plan their day around more important commitments, rather than waiting for hours at home for the engineer to arrive.
ClickSoftware's Mobility Suite totally breaks down the walls that have traditionally existed between the back-office, the field and the customers. This communication revolution is enabled through:
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Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobility Consultant, Wireless Industry Analyst and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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