Mobile Expert Interview Series: Vivido Labs' Greg Tomb

I had the pleasure of interviewing the former CEO of SAP North America, Greg Tomb this week.  Greg and his team have founded a new mobile application company called Vivido Labs that is working closely with SAP on a number of new mobile applications.  As CEO of Vivido Labs, Greg is now leading an effort to mobilize SAP business processes and to create a platform that other mobile application developers can use to integrate their mobile applications with SAP.

I started the interview by asking Greg why he decided to jump into mobility after leaving SAP in 2009.  He said that 18 months ago many SAP customers were asking him how they could leverage their massive investments in SAP to get more value.  For example, one SAP customer had just purchased 3,000 BlackBerrys and wanted to maximize both the value from their BlackBerry investment and their SAP investments. 

Greg added that he also studied the growing momentum around consumer applications that was fast developing.  It got him thinking about how the evolution in smartphones and mobile app stores could add value to the SAP ecosystem.  "The value of mobilizing SAP is massive," Greg stated.  "Not only by making the mobile workforce more efficient, but mobile solutions can change entire business processes.  Some processes can be shortened, others totally re-engineered because of mobility."

I was curious and asked about the names Vivido Labs and the Mowego platform.  Greg said, Vivido is an Italian word that means "bring life."  The word Mowego is the combination of "mobile-we-go."  I must admit that before his explanations I had visions of dancing cheese in my head.

Mowego is a mobile platform for smartphones.  It is light and easy to install.  It supports both web based and native mobile applications.  It can be used in a cloud computing environment or installed on-premises, based upon the needs of the enterprise.

Vivido Labs has 40 mobile micro-applications available today. 

I asked Greg to tell me more about the Mowego Platform and here are his responses:

• It has a smartphone centric focus.
• It was developed for other mobile software developers to use.
• It does not require data to reside on the device.
• The approach is from an enterprise perspective.
• It is not device specific.
• It does not require SAP NetWeaver – sits outside of NetWeaver – and gives them more flexibility with other ERPs.
• It has a workbench that allows you to build and prototype mobile applications.
• Vivido Labs' customers can use the work bench to customize pre-developed mobile applications.
• It includes the Services modeler, UI modeler, and business process modeler.
• Developers can use Eclipse or Java to develop applications that work with the Mowego platform.
• In the future when SAP releases a "gateway" for mobile applications, the Mowego platform would sit on top and help manage and integrate a variety of web services for mobile applications.

I then asked Greg what we should anticipate from Vivido Labs by the end of 2010, and here are his responses:

• We have 40 mobile micro-applications today.  We expect to have 200 by the end of the year, most developed by third party software development partners.
• We will have the most advanced smartphone platform.
• We will be known as the "Enterprise App Store."

The last question I asked was, "What do you think of SAP's current mobility strategey?"  He said, "SAP needs an answer for their customers.  They cannot, NOT have an answer, even if the answer today needs to be changed tomorrow.  Working with mobile partners today is the right answer."

Remember to check out the SAP EcoHub this week! It is focused on mobility.

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

Redbox, M2M and Mobile SAP Micro-Apps

M2M is not only a cool acronym, kind of James Bond like, but a very interesting category in the wireless industry.  M2M in this context means machine-to-machine wireless connectivity.  A few other terms that describe this category are "the Internet of Objects" or the "Internet of Things."  All of these terms relate to machines that can talk or exchange data with other machines via wireless connectivity.

One strange example that I wrote about a few months ago was a bathroom scale that would wirelessly tweet your body weight to your Twitter list every time you weighed yourself.  The scale, a machine, was collecting data and sending it automatically via a wireless connection to another machine (server).

A recent example that I found particularly interesting was Redbox.  These are the DVD rental kiosks that we see everywhere now days. Did you know that Redbox machines are M2M enabled?  You can go to the Redbox website, find a kiosk near you that has a movie you want and reserve it online.  You can also use their micro-app for iPhones to find a movie in a kiosk near you and rent it.

A quick digression - look for a large number of new mobile micro-apps to be announced at SAP's Sapphire event in May.  Companies like Vivido Labs and Sky Technologies, and many others, will be releasing many new mobile micro-apps for iPhones, BlackBerrys, Android and other OSs.  These are typically small, one purpose or business process, mobile apps that are integrated with SAP.

Here in Boise, Idaho there is a local success story involving M2M with a company called Telemetric.  Here is their description:  Telemetric provides wireless remote monitoring and control of equipment and machinery using cellular networks.  We provide solutions that enable electric, water and gas utilities and their customers to measure, monitor and control usage of valuable resources.  Our solutions improve system efficiency, asset management, speed up responses to service interruptions and equipment problems, and automate reporting functions resulting in lower operating costs and more reliable service.

Telemetric develops monitoring equipment that measures and reports wirelessly to other machines.  Managers can watch dashboards and see the measurements from remote equipment.

The bottom line is that field data collection does not always require a person with a ruggedized handheld computer to be traveling around collecting data. High value assets and equipment can be set-up with monitoring devices that report their status to other machines and servers that can be programmed to do certain things based upon the data coming in.  I am now writing a new analyst report on M2M to be released in June 2010.

Related articles:

• M2M, Route Optimization, Handhelds and Business Intelligence
• Mobile Applications and Mobile Data Services
• Fire Control Panels, M2M, Mobile Solutions & Australia

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

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