Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

The Confession of an Enterprise Mobility Guy

Yesterday, because it was spring weather in Boise, Idaho, I put on a light weight jacket with only one secure interior pocket. This forced me to choose between putting my wallet or my iPhone in it. I chose the iPhone. I then proceeded to a store where I sat in a number of different chairs. When I returned home my wallet was predictably missing.

As I pondered my earlier choices, I wondered what made me choose my iPhone over my wallet. What decision would you have made? My iPhone is a portal into both my personal and professional life. My wallet is simply a container.

I read in the Wall Street Journal today an article by Katherine Boehret called "A Leash on Mobile Devices that Like to Wander." It lists two different devices that sound an alarm if you walk too far away from your mobile device. The problem is these device manufacturers assume you will lose your iPhone rather than your wallet.

I must confess that replacing my wallet now days seems easier than replacing my iPhone. Someday soon they will be one and the same, and having just one secure pocket in my jacket will suffice.

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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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SAP CRM Partner EntryPoint Consulting Looks to Mobility for Growth

I read with interest today a press release about SAP partner EntryPoint Consulting. I know them, and they are a long term SAP consulting and channel partner that is involved in the CRM side of SAP. They were involved in some of the earliest implementations of mobile SAP CRM several years back and experienced a lot of first mover pain as a result. I know they have been watching the SAP mobility evolution with keen interest for several years.

From today's press release it looks like Pete Martin, managing partner at EntryPoint has decided it is time to get serious about SAP mobility again, and he partnered with SAP mobility partner Sky Technologies to deliver mobile SAP CRM capabilities. I spoke to him several months back, and he said 100% of his SAP CRM sales opportunities this year were asking about mobile device support so he was very interested in the SAP mobility ecosystem.

Here is a quote from today's press release, "We were convinced that we ‘chose right’ when some of the most sophisticated SAP customers, such as Colgate, chose Sky as their preferred mobile platform..." Martin goes on to say, "By combining our CRM consulting expertise with Sky’s leading platform, we now have the ability to offer companies a comprehensive set of CRM consulting in the marketing, sales and service functional areas. In short, we can offer them ‘SAP CRM in the palm of their hand.”

SkyMobile provides a single integrated framework that is used to mobilize and manage SAP applications on all major mobile platforms including Windows, BlackBerry, Android, Symbian, and iPhone.

I would like to hear more about what Colgate is doing in the SAP mobility space with Sky. I know that Colgate is often in the forefront of new technologies and trends. Perhaps, someone from Colgate will share?

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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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Monetizing Mobile Applications in the SAP Ecosystem

SAP is trying to figure out the best way to monetize enterprise mobile applications and B2C mobile applications. These are complex issues. Extending the functionality of SAP to mobile users is a key goal for SAP. They want to enable many, many more users to benefit from SAP. The mobile workforce and consumers are both areas where SAP can extend value, but how do they charge for it?

I have had conversations this month with several SAP ecosystem veterans about this topic. They remembered conversations several years ago when SAP was quoting full PULs (platform user licenses) for each mobile user. That did not go over well. They have since revised that number down, down, down, but now you have mobile micro-applications that just expose little segments of value to users. How is this going to be monetized by SAP. There is value for micro-applications vendors and end users for using SAP functionality on an iPhone, but how should it be priced? How can it be monitored?

SAP's goals are also to extend SAP functionality to consumers' smart phones in a B2C model. An example would be an iPhone enabled catalog that is hosted on SAP. It may include inventory updates, shopping carts/order entry, shipment tracking, etc. How does SAP monetize consumer applications that are developed by mobile application vendors?

I would like to hear your thoughts, as this is an issue that is being worked through now.

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

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

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Mobile Micro-Applications vs Thick Mobile Clients

As I have shared before, my background was in the MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) world. We used different acronyms, some not repeatable in this family friendly blog, but it was the same thing as today's MEAPs. I have managed development projects where the mobile applications we delivered could be considered a full ERP in many places. It was painful and expensive, but it worked. Our customers had hundreds of route sales, service technicians, and delivery folks walking around carrying full functional ERPs on their ruggedized mobile handheld computers.

The application I am referring to above consisted of the following:

Mobile sales force automation application
Mobile order entry application
Mobile invoicing
Mobile proof-of-delivery application
Mobile work order management application
Mobile inventory management system
Mobile price and promotion management application
Mobile enterprise asset management application
Mobile CRM to access customer service and support issues

MEAPs and thick client mobile applications certainly have their place, but there was so much customization that this finished mobile application was probably out-dated by the time we delivered it. If any part of our mobile application needed changed, the entire mobile application had to be updated and re-tested. With a mobile application that big and complex, the opportunities for bugs were endless. We had to charge a fortune to deliver it.

Our customer wanted a thick mobile client application that could work in a connected and disconnected mode so that their employees could work whether there was connectivity with the internet or not. Three years ago there were not a lot of options. As a result there were a lot of thick mobile clients delivered.

With this particulary mobile application, the training requirements were huge. The mobile workforce needed to understand every aspect of their mobile ERP before it could be effectively used. You can image the level of IT support for the first six months.

It will be interesting to see how thick clients and MEAPs evolve. There are some very active debates on the SAP Enterprise Mobility group on LinkedIn on this subject.

Where do MEAPs stop and mobile micro-applications start? If I were to develop that same mobile application today, would I use nine mobile micro-applications rather than try to build all of the features and functionality into one giant mobile application? Good question!

SAP's partners are on both sides of this question. SAP partners like Vivido Labs and Leapfactor focus mostly on mobile micro-applications. Sybase and Syclo focus mostly on thick mobile clients, while Sky Technologies seems to be hedging their bets with both thick mobile clients and mobile micro-apps.

It will be an interesting evolution to watch!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Everyone Wants A Piece of SAP Enterprise Mobility!

I was surprised to read today that SAP's ECM (enterprise content management) partner Open Text Corp. now has a mobile applications strategy. "This move is part of a strategy designed to help organizations harness the power of today’s mobile workforce in an effort to increase productivity."

The solution is called Open Text Everywhere and it is designed to make the entire Open Text ECM Suite available through mobile devices. This move by Open Text highlights an interesting evolution in the mobile ecosystem around SAP. A number of SAP's partners are producing mobile applications that only work if you buy their products. There is nothing wrong with that strategy, but it does add confusion to companies interested in general SAP enterprise mobility. Now there are at least four categories of mobile applications for SAP customers:

MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) - Enables the user to develop, customize and support many different mobile applications and mobile devices on one platform (e.g. Sybase, Sky Technologies, etc.).
Mobile micro-applications - Lightweight mobile applications typically available from App stores that are specific to particular limited business processes in SAP (e.g. Vivido Labs, Leapfactor, etc.).
Mobile solutions that are designed to work primarily with a specific vendor product (e.g. ClickSoftware, Syclo, Open Text, etc.).
Out of the box mobile applications (email, calendars, etc.).

There may be more mobile application categories, so let me know which ones I missed.

I wonder how committed companies like Open Text are to mobility? Are they serious, or are they just trying to excite an exciteable analyst? Initially Open Text is only going to support BlackBerrys, but claims a long term commitment to supporting other mobile devices. They plan to release applications that provide a comprehensive view of business processes, content and workplace social collaboration (as long as it involves their product). Here is the list of mobile applications they are planning to develop:

Manage everywhere for documents and content.
Engage everywhere focusing on process workflows.
Collaboration everywhere using social media.

Although the product descriptions sound general, I expect they will only function with Open Text products. That means SAP users who want these functions, that are not Open Text customers, will need to search for other mobile application vendors.

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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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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:

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

***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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Mobile SAP Apps for Sales Order Capture and Delivery

Banks Holdings Limited (BHL), a SAP customer, is one of Barbados' most successful public companies and the island's largest beverage conglomerate. BHL has four subsidiaries comprising of two beverage manufacturers, a dairy processing plant and a distribution firm.

BHL has recently mobilized three key SAP business processes:

Pre-Selling - The Pre-Selling scenario enabled the capture and confirmation of new orders by the mobile salesforce as they interacted with the end customers, giving them visibility into their individual orders and pricing structures. By delivering SAP pricing schemas to the mobile device, BHL's sales representatives now have the ability to highlight to customers any volume scale based price breaks and a potential for cross selling opportunities.
Dispatch - Dispatch is responsible for managing the inventory required to fulfill the orders being delivered on a daily basis. Leveraging the SAP FIFO and guided picking processes, the mobile dispatch process ensures the correct stock is not only loaded into the correct delivery truck but also in the most efficient order for the actual deliveries being fulfilled.
Delivery - The delivery process is responsible for the Proof of Delivery (POD) process to the end customers. The mobile component not only manages core delivery processes, but also allows for any last minute adjustments to a delivery requested by a customer and the corresponding downstream SAP pricing impacts these changes may have.

BHL wanted a solution that could meet the following requirements:

The ability to work both online and offline when mobile staff is beyond mobile device coverage boundaries.
Support for multiple device types such as Motorola’s hand-held devices and printers.
Integration without the need for complex middleware.
Flexibility of the GUI interface.
In-depth SAP experience.
The ability to extend SAP specific business processes to the point of activity (mobile)
The ability to utilize existing SAP ABAP skills kept cost of enhancements low as any future changes and enhancements could be performed in-house.

SAP has a number of mobility partners including Sybase, RIM, Sky Technologies, Sylco and Vivido Labs. In this case BHL selected SAP Certified Partner, Sky Technologies for their mobile SAP CRM.

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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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Network-Centric Warfare and Network-Centric Field Services

Last year I published an article on Ulitzer called Network-Centric Field Services. This article discussed the way the US military uses mobile data collection, satellites, drones, M2M and many other data collection tools and techniques to create an accurate and real-time picture of their work environment. This approach enables the users of this system to see where their assets are located, where they are needed and how best to manage them at all times.

I believe this approach has great value for field service operations and many other areas and is worth studying in detail. The ability for a company to know in real time where their fleet of vehicles is located, where their human resources is located, where their jobsites are located, the status of their jobs and where their equipment and mobile inventories are located is critical to effectively managing field services. Equipment and mobile inventories can be better shared across projects, and the right people can be used on the right projects at the right time.

In a plant maintenance environment, equipment can be constantly reporting its status and maintenance needs either in a connected or disconnected mode to a plant maintenance team. This data can alert when there is a problem, or automatically schedule itself for maintenance. This is especially useful when maintenance experts are responsible for multiple plants and remote and/or mobile equipment. It enables experts to see a far bigger picture and be at the right place at the right time.

In a field service operations environment - all of the high value mobile resources can be connected wirelessly to a centralized management application. Wireless data collection is now easily available. The bigger challenge is integrating all of this data into a management application that has the business intelligence capacity to recommend how best to use all of the incoming data for optimal efficiencies.

I gave several examples of organizations using this network-centric approach in the article Street Parking and Mobile Data Solutions. One example was of a city using sensors in street parking sites that wirelessly report when they are available. The reports could be viewed on iPhone applications. Another example was of the giant cement company in Kenya called LaFarge that was implementing a SAP solution and mobile appliction to provide better tracking and visibility into materials coming in and inventory going out to the customer.

If you would like to discuss the concept of network-centric field services in more detail please contact me.

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

***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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Mobile Expert Interview Series: EntryPoint’s Pete Martin

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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***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.