Exploring the Future with Kevin Benedict

Social Networking, ClickContact and Enterprise Mobility

Yesterday, I wrote an article about ClickSoftware's integration between their ClickContact application and Facebook. This is a big deal, so I want to comment more. First let's take a look at what ClickContact does:

ClickContact enables service organizations to put the management of the service experience into the hands of their customers by providing self-service appointment booking and updating over the Internet, including automatic customer notifications, and the option for a post-service survey. ClickContact allows a customer to schedule a service call for themselves, without the help of any of the organization's customer support staff.

ClickContact's functionality is now available in an application frame for inclusion on a service company's Facebook page. This means their customers can schedule appointments, change appointments, and receive appointment updates all on Facebook. Service companies will not be required to create their own websites in order to provide this functionality.

The Facebook application enables the service organization to send customers automatic updates via email, text and voice message, etc., including confirmations, updates and estimated arrival time of the service resource to the service location. This can all be received on the customer's mobile device. Changes that the customer makes to their schedule on Facebook will then be reflected on the mobile applications of the service technicians via ClickSoftware's software for the service sector.

"The most successful service businesses tightly link the human experience with the social web," said Simon Morris, of ClickSoftware. This is a very interesting model. It is one of the first examples I have seen of an enterprise mobility company integrating popular social networking sites into enterprise applications.
If you know of other enterprise applications that are integrated with popular social networking sites please share them with us.

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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.

Tuesday at SAP's TechEd 2010 - Focus on Enterprise Mobility

I am sure one could have found sessions and topics unrelated to SAP enterprise mobility at TechEd today, but I didn't. My day was packed from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. with non-stop enterprise mobility. Please follow me on Twitter @krbenedict if you are interested in hourly and daily updates on enterprise mobility news here at TechEd. Here was my day:

Vishal Sikka spoke all about enterprise mobility during his 8:00 a.m. keynote. Yes, you read that right, an 8:00 a.m. keynote.
I interviewed Willie Jow of Sybase today about all kinds of Sybase mobility related subjects. I will be publishing his interview next week.
I interviewed Oliver Bussmann, SAP's CIO on enterprise mobility. I posted the video interview here.
I interviewed Adobe's Matthias Zeller on Adobe's enterprise mobility work. I posted the video interview here.
I lead an Expert Networking session on SAP enterprise mobility and spoke to many companies that are implementing mobile proof-of-concepts. We had some fascinating discussing about real life experiences. I will certainly blog on these discussions.
I spoke with Sybase's mobility guru, Senthil Krishnapillai. We discussed the Sybase solution "mobile workflow" an under-appreciated, but powerful application.
I had a long discussion with fellow SAP Mentor John Appleby on his experiences with enterprise mobility in the UK.
I spoke at length about mobile strategy with Dr. Ahmend El Adl of PWC.
I spoke with Vivido Labs' mobility guru Steve Goldman and discussed his most recent mobility projects.
I am exhausted, but have two more meetings this evening.

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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.

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly - October 19, 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.

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For the second consecutive year, the American Bankers Association has found through their annual survey that many Americans prefer online banking than any other method in dealing with their banks.

http://seerpress.com/u-s-customers-prefer-online-banking-survey-shows/9480/

Throwing Your Food Away and Mobile Applications

In Jonathan Bloom's new book American Wasteland he reports that the US produces about 591 billion pounds of food each year of which about 50 percent goes to waste somewhere along the food supply chain. This includes unused restaurant food, food in the field and vegetables and fruits in the grocery store as examples. Grocery stores throw away an estimated 30 million pounds of food each day.

The New York Times, Starbucks and Other Retail Locations that Need Mobile Applications

I was in Starbucks with my family this evening. The only thing unusual about this was that it was the evening. As I stood in line waiting to order I noticed nine New York Times that remained in the rack. No one is going to buy a Sunday edition on Monday, so these were retail products that were also perishable. This reminded me of a project that I was involved in a few years ago with a newspaper company.

The Transformational Power of Mobile Enterprise Applications, Part 2

This is Part 2 in this series.

Last week I read an announcement from SAP mobility partner ClickSoftware, the company that developed the SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization solution, concerning their new Facebook integration. Here is an excerpt, "ClickSoftware announces tight integration between Facebook and its ClickContact self-service customer portal - helping service businesses deliver a high-value customer relationship online . . . customers can book and change service appointments directly on a service organization's Facebook page, receive reminders and notifications on the expected arrival time of the service engineer to minimize wait times - and reduce the chance that the service engineer will not find the customer at home." You can read the full press release here. ClickSoftware's solutions also come with mobile enterprise applications that are integrated with them.

In P.W. Singer's New York Bestseller, Wired for War, he writes, "World War I proved to be an odd, tragic mix of outmoded generalship combined with deadly new technologies." The generals were simply not able to comprehend how new technologies were fundamentally changing warfare and the ways battles would be fought and won. They continued to cling to the traditional methods and models passed down over generations. I know there are challenges today with executives and managers struggling to understand how to use new mobile technologies and social networking in their organizations.

Link to Recorded SAP Enterprise Mobility Webinar

http://www.sap.com/community/events/2010_10_12_EMW/index.epx

This is the link to the recorded SAP Enterprise Mobility webinar that was conducted about a week ago.

Here are the promoted contents:

The now and future of enterprise mobility.
Trends - How did we get here?
What are some strategy and organizational considerations to ensure success?
What is the role of a robust mobility platform?
Implementation challenges with enterprise mobility and best practices.
How will the new SAP/Sybase mobility product roadmap help you to implement your enterprise mobility strategy?

Who is Paying for Mobile Applications Today?

I had the opportunity this week to spend time with the IT management team of a large consumer products company. I learned a great deal about how large companies approach new and potentially disruptive technologies like enterprise mobility.

I was intrigued that, at times, outdated reseller channels can prevent large manufacturers from making good strategic IT decisions. As we all know, mobility and the mobile web can give customers information directly from manufacturers. There is no barrier to this important information. The customers may also want to purchase more product from the manufacturer. This can cause immediate channel conflict.

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - October 14, 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.

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In a move that highlights the importance of customer relationship management on the go, SAP 's Sybase has introduced an application that makes the BlackBerry a mobile CRM tool.

http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0200028EF1B4