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?

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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

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility

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.

Virtual Utility Summit - Optimize Your Mobile Workforce

I came across this virtual utility summit that is offered this week.  If you are involved in enterprise mobility projects for a utility company, this may be for you.  Here is the description:

1. Discuss the challenges and opportunities around effectively managing the mobile workforce in your utility. With today's environmental, regulatory and economic pressures the issue of effectively managing a mobile workforce has never been more critical. Yet very few, if any, events focus on this important subject matter.
2. The virtual summit will explore key aspects of workforce management; from managing a smart metering rollout and handling multi-stage and multi-day work and crew management.
3. Hear from industry experts and utility organizations that have implemented workforce management systems to transform their business.

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

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

Extending Mobile Business Processes in Boise

A friend of mine here in Boise, Jon Young developed a very interesting mobile application on Android.  The application is a great example of the concept of extending business processes.

The application works much like the popular RedLaser iPhone application in that it can scan an ISBN barcode on a book cover and then automatically look it up.  The special part of the application is that it looks up the book in the local library system.  It will show the book's status and allow you to reserve the book if available.  You can read more about it on Jon's blog.

Think about this - you see a book that looks really interesting in a bookstore.  You can use Redlaser to look up the price at other locations or use Jon's mobile application to look it up in the Boise Library System, check the status, and reserve it. 

The Boise Library System also delivers the book free to the local library location of your choice and emails you when the book arrives.  This entire process can be completed on your mobile device.

This is a simple example of a very useful business process that was extended to mobile devices.  On Thursday, August 19, SAP and Sybase will hold a press conference to discuss their mobile enterprise strategies.  I will be listening in particular to how they will be extending ERP business processes out to mobile devices.

The SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization application by Clicksoftware is a great example of extending business processes out to the mobile workforce.  Here is how SAP describes it - it  helps your service organization run at optimal efficiency: from demand forecasting and workforce shift planning to real-time optimized scheduling, mobile workforce management, and business analytics. The solution helps ensure that your service organization meets objectives and commitments smoothly and efficiently.


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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict

Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Vivido Labs' CEO, Greg Tomb

I was the moderator at several enterprise mobility events at Sapphire this year and following one of the sessions I was able to sit down and interview Greg Tomb, the former President of SAP Americas, and now the CEO of an enterprise mobility company called Vivido Labs.  In the interview, he makes three very interesting points about mobility:

1. Mobility is a way of getting more value out of your existing SAP investment by making it available to those in the mobile workforce.
2. Mobility can enable business process re-engineering by compressing the time of some business processes from days to hours.
3. Extending SAP mobility into the hands of those not at their desk, can increase productivity for many users.

Vivido Labs describes themselves as leaders in smartphone enterprise mobility with their Mowego mobile platform and their portfolio of mobile enterprise business applications.

For more videos interviews from the Mobile Expert Video Series click here.

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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.
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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."

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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