Mobile Expert Interview: VDC's Eric Klein

I had the pleasure to meet and spend time with VDC Research's Senior Analyst for Enterprise Mobility, Eric Klein this week at the SAPPHIRE conference for SAP users.  In this interview we discuss a wide range of enterprise mobility trends and developments.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4hRuAsb-Ug&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Recommended Strategy Book Code Halos

Recommended iPad App Code Halos for iPads

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: SAP's Brent Cohler on SAP Precision Marketing and Mobility

In this short video recorded in Orlando, Florida last week at SAP's SAPPHIRE NOW 2013, I interview SAP's Brent Cohler on SAP's mobile marketing solution called SAP Precision Marketing and learn about customer use cases and value propositions.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/HI4CHh7yxdI

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

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Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Images from SAPPHIRE 2013

SAP's Sanjay Poonen sharing SAP's mobile strategies

Clockwise from top - Kevin Benedict, SAPPHIRENOW 2013,
Internet of Things Session, SAP-Founder Dr. Hasso Plattner
and SAP Executive Board Member Dr. Vishal Sikka

Clockwise from Top - Suhas Uliyar (SAP VP M2M/IoT),
SAPPHIRE 2013, Orlando FL
Kevin Benedict speaking SMAC strategies
Senthil Krishnapillai (SAP VP Mobile Security)

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

View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Smartsoft Mobile's Dan Homrich

In the Mobility Theater this week I saw the SAP team demonstrating an enterprise asset management application on an iPad that was developed by SAP partner Smartsoft Mobile.  I caught up with Smartsoft Mobile's CEO Dan Homrich to learn about the application and his mobility strategy.

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

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly

Read The Field Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: SAP's Thortsen Stephan

Learn about SAP's mobility announcements this week from SAP's Thortsen Stephan in this interview.  He explains SUP 2.0.

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

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly

Read The Field Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Twitter and Tweet Convert - Kevin Benedict

Twitter Conversion

It's true.  I am but a recent convert to Twitter.  Since I typically write obnoxiously long articles, I had a difficult time understanding the value of a technology that limits itself to 140 characters.  I have now, however, seen the light and the light is an iPad app.

I use the iPad application Flipboard.  Flipboard and Paper.li are two applications that convert RSS feeds, tweets, Facebook and other content into online newspapers or magazines that are easy to read.  I am very impressed with Flipboard's ability to show the original tweet, and automatically open up the tiny URL link and display the content in the online newspaper format. 

I was simply too impatient to read through a list of tweets with enticing titles about world changing mobile technology, and not be able to see the content without waiting for the link to open in a browser and display the content.  In Flipboard it is a one step process.  All the tweet links are automatically opened and displayed in the newspaper.  BEAUTIFUL!

Thoughts on SAP Mobility - Reporting from Sapphire

I have learned a huge amount at Sapphire 2010.  I have spoken to, and filmed interviews with, just about every mobility vendor at Sapphire.  Here are the first few:

• Interview with Kevin Nix, SAP Senior VP of Enterprise Mobility
• Interview with Ahmend El Adl, Director of Mobility, Pricewaterhousecooper
• Interview with Mark Goode, VP of Sales at DSI

Tuesday night thoughts

I believe the saying, “content is king!” Although I would add that “content and business processes are king!” Applications that add unique functionality and value to the SAP ecosystem will have longevity. Companies that are only providing interesting views of existing SAP data are subject to being quickly replaced by the next teenager with a cooler UI. 

Mobile applications developers must add deep value to be able to gain mindshare and then defend their positions in the longterm.  They need to demonstrate unique innovation, deep expertise, and extend value in manners that are defensible.

The term "mash-up" is used often at Sapphire to refer to aggregating data from multiple sources.  This is a very interesting concept.  Pulling data from many different sources to add unique value on mobile applications that are geospatially aware.  This is interesting.

I have seen some absolutely fantastic mobile applications at Sapphire that help companies make collaborative decisions and harvest enterprise's institutional knowledge. These are mobile knowledge and decision management applications.  This is a very interesting area to me.  It is new value.  Not mobilized versions of existing SAP systems.

I have heard and witnessed a lot of chest thumping at Sapphire.  The bottom line is how many SAP customers does a vendor have in production. 

Mobile micro-applications are being labeled as "instant value" applications at Sapphire.  I like this description.  It is good marketing.

Inspections, assessments, asset management and field services are still very interesting areas as there is yet a lot of new value that can be created and provided on mobile devices.

Sybase is not known for their mobile applications.  They are a great mobile middleware company.  It will be interesting to see if they can compete with the incredibile mobile applications that I have witnessed here at Sapphire from ecosystem partners.

There is a persistent rumor that HP may try to outbid SAP for Sybase.  Crazy times!

More later...
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Kevin Benedict SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor,CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Mobile Industry Analyst, Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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Enterprise Mobility Discussion Time at Sapphire

I will be available, as an SAP Mentor, in the Orlando Line of Business Area on Wednesday, May 19th from 2-3 pm to discuss SAP enterprise mobility with anyone interested in that subject.  See you there!

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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
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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Simple Mobile Applications Can Offer Real ROIs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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