Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Syclo's CEO Rich Padula

October is traditionally a very busy time for high tech companies, and this year there is no busier category than enterprise mobility. For that reason, I was especially pleased that Syclo's CEO Rich Padula made himself available for a brief interview last week.

Kevin: Rich, what mobile device(s) do you carry?
Rich: I carry a Blackberry, iPad, Netbook and iPod. I have a desktop in the office.

SAP CIO Oliver Bussman

I am excited to report that I will be conducting the SAP TechEd Live interview (see sample) with SAP CIO Oliver Bussman later this month at TechEd in Las Vegas. Oliver Bussman is involved in all the major mobility projects that are rolled out within the SAP organization.

Oliver spoke about some of his recent mobility projects in this article:

SAP has rolled out almost 1,500 iPads for users across its business
The iPads were configured with email access, access to a virtual private network (VPN), Citrix software to enable access to server-based applications and business intelligence tools via BusinessObjects.
The company currently has 17,000 BlackBerrys rolled out across the organisation and Bussmann said that within 12 months, there will be as many iPads in use by SAP employees.

If you have questions that you want me to ask Oliver, please comment below and I will add them to the list.

I hope to see you in Vegas!

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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.

What are Machines Talking About?

M2M and Kevin Benedict

In the article M2M: Driving Expoential Growth in Connections, author Perry LaFarge writes, "The number of machines communicating with each other wirelessly will soon dwarf the number of people connected via mobile devices."

What kind of machines are communicating with each other? Machines like Redbox movie kiosks communicating DVD inventories to iPhone users; tractors and other heavy equipment reporting their maintenance status to the central office; and all kinds of high value assets reporting their location, status and numerous other details monitored by remote sensors. Homes are also reporting minute by minute energy consumption to both the homeowner and the utility through smart meters and smart grids. The use cases are endless.

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly - October 5, 2010

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile retailing applications, mobile payments and mobile marketing applications that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

iPhone Owners First in Online Shopping and BlackBerry Owners are Last

In an article I read today on mobile marketing it said, "Consumers who own an Apple iPhone are more likely to shop online from their phones, than those consumers who owned phones based on Google Android or BlackBerry operating systems...BlackBerry is way behind the Android and iPhone."

Santa Claus Smartphones and Online Shopping

I read this in the Dallas Morning News online version today, "Last year, more than 60 million Americans were mobile Web users, up 33 percent from 2008, according to Nielsen. This holiday season, Nielsen predicts one-third of all mobile phones in use will be smartphones, up from 21 percent a year ago.

Mobile Expert Interview Series: WorkLight's COO Kurt Daniel

I interviewed WorkLight's COO, Kurt Daniel this week. This was an interesting interview, as WorkLight is following a different strategy than most enterprise mobility vendors. They have developed a MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) and a mobile SDK (software development kit), not for their own use, but rather for systems integrators and end customers to use to develop their own enterprise mobility solutions. They want to be a technology company, not a mobile application company.

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:

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.
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.
Hear from industry experts and utility organizations that have implemented workforce management systems to transform their business.

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - September 30, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

SMS, Human Capital Management and Mobile Applications

It is easy to think that high value mobile applications need to be complex and sophisticated, but that is not always the case. This morning I read about a solution that helps firefighters manage their human resources and schedules by interacting with their staff via SMS. The solution, called ClickRoster, will automatically create the roster for every fire station and every shift for both full time and part time firefighters, allocating individuals to specific roles based on skill requirements and the Watch Managers’ decisions.