Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

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 Commerce News Weekly - Week of July 4, 2011

The Mobile Commerce News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

Verifone has announced that it now offers a device that turns a tablet into a form of checkout register. The device has both a magnetic device for swiping credit cards as well as NFC capability for mobile payments. Read Original Content.

Despite being unprofitable, Square, the manufacturer of the small credit card reader that attaches to smartphones, is valued at $1.6 billion. Read Original Content.

Asia continues to contain the largest number of mobile phone users who make mobile payments. Currently there are 1.8 billion worldwide mobile phone users who make purchases via a mobile device. By 2015 the Wireless Federation expects there to be 2.5 billion. Read Original Content.

PayPal president Scott Thompson has said that by 2015 paper currency in the United States will nearly become obsolete as the popularity of mobile payments continues to rise. Read Original Content.

Analyst firm Juniper Research has revealed figures predicting that by 2015, the number of people using mobile payment services will have risen by 40 percent to 2.5 billion. Read Original Content.

MasterCard and CSI Enterprises are expected to release a handful of new mobile payments applications for Android, BlackBerry and iOS this summer, but it's unclear whether or not the apps will employ NFC for payment transactions or another technology. Read Original Content.

Social Networking and Enterprise Mobility in Less Developed Regions

I am still pondering a conversation I had last week with a manufacturing company that has 40,000 of their 80,000 employees in remote parts of the world that are not connected to the company through IT resources. They have no computers or Internet connectivity through the company. The company wants to connect with these disconnected employees. They are convinced that there is business value in connecting with them. They see mobility as a key part of their solution. Perhaps not smartphone and laptop apps kind of connectivity, but SMS.

The company believes mobility and social networking for the enterprise are the keys to improved sales, customer services, accountability, community, process improvement and information sharing.

I think the reason this is so interesting to me is that the company sees social networking via SMS as a key element to their strategy. They want groups sharing information. They want to explore all kinds of different SMS based applications that can support different business processes on simple inexpensive phones.

I understand that Sybase 365 is a Sybase solution for SMS. I really need to learn more to see if it can be used to help companies like the one mentioned above. I also need to understand if StreamWorks has an SMS component that can add value here.

What do you think?

Upcoming Events

ClickConnect APAC 2011, (Sydney, Australia) July 11 – 13, 2011
Syclo Mobile Conference 2011, July 13 – 15, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise: The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

*************************************************************

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

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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.

Recruitment and Enterprise Mobility

I was surprised this past month, while participating in the SAP PCN Enterprise Mobility round tables at SAPPHIRENOW 2011, to hear from a number of very large SAP customers that recruiting is impacted by how much enterprise mobility is supported by a company. I had just not connected the dots.

They said young talent just graduating from the university does not want to work for a company that is not able to support their favorite mobile devices. Being told that a company will not support integration on their iPhone or iPad just does not seem right to them. It seems old fashion and out of step with the times.

I had not thought of recruiting as a motivator for enterprise mobility. I had not thought of mobility ROIs in terms of being able to recruit top talent. After thinking about it though it makes sense to me. My wife already looks unfavorably on companies that don't have a mobile app. She feels they are not providing good customer service if they don't have an application.

Here is an example, we accumulate Marriott hotel award points. My wife wanted a Marriott mobile app to check on awards points and to make reservations. We could find no mobile app. She was baffled that Marriott would not support a mobile application and thought it was a poor representation of their business for not having one.

In our house, Amazon.com's mobile application is used weekly to purchase household items and books. Our purchases have gone up dramatically as a result of Amazon's mobile app. We participate in Amazon.com's free shipping program and we know our FedEx and UPS drivers well.

Getting back on the subject of recruitment and mobile applications. People are spending more time on mobile devices today than desktops. People are spending more time on social networking applications on mobile devices than on desktops. The mobile device is much more than just a business tool today. It is a portal into a person's life. People will not look favorably on a company that does not support this portal in the manner their accustomed to.

Do you agree or disagree?

Upcoming Events

ClickConnect APAC 2011, July 11 – 13, 2011
Syclo Mobile Conference 2011, July 13 – 15, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise: The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

*************************************************************

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

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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.

Field Mobility News Weekly - Week of July 4, 2011

The Field Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

ReboundTAG, based in the United Kingdom, has created a new solution focused on preventing baggage theft or loss for airlines and individual business flyers through the use of RFID technology. Read Original Content.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense recently ordered 12,500 rugged tablet PCs at a total cost of £30 million. The tablets are for use by front line commands. Read Original Content.

The total smart grid market in the Asia Pacific region is predicted to be worth $28.8 billion by 2017, up from $11.9 billion this year. Cumulative smart grid investment in the region is expected to reach $171.3 billion by 2017. Read Original Content.

Traffic jams and travel time will be reduced greatly after Mumbai India equips toll routes and commuter vehicles with RFID tags. Read Original Content.

The Army Geospatial Center has recently awarded Technology Advancement Group a contract to build a rugged surveying tablet device. Read Original Content.

FleetMatics has received praise for its new mobile app that allows fleet owners to track their vehicles through a mobile app. Read Original Content.

SAP and the Enterprise Mobility Message

I had the opportunity over the past few weeks to meet with many SAP customers to discuss enterprise mobility. I was surprised over the course of these weeks that none of the folks at the companies that I spoke with had attended SAPPHIRENOW 2010 or 2011. As a result, most had very little knowledge of SAP's enterprise mobility plans, solutions or roadmaps. Even less had knowledge of the Sybase Unwired Platform or Afaria. In many cases it was as if I were the first to be sharing this information with them.

All of the companies that I met with were keenly interested in mobility and were working on mobility strategies and projects. It is obvious to me, as a result of these meetings, that there is an entire community of SAP customers that have missed the enterprise mobility message. I think it would be beneficial for SAP to develop additional marketing strategies to try to target this apparently large community of SAP users and decision makers that don't seem to currently be in the loop on SAP's mobility strategies and solutions.

I would encourage SAP to aggressively promote their mobility solutions and strategies into this community as all were in the process of developing or implementing mobility strategies. Many of these companies were very large companies, and someone in the company may know all about SAP's mobility roadmap, but not the folks developing the strategy.

Upcoming Events

ClickConnect APAC 2011, July 11 – 13, 2011
Syclo Mobile Conference 2011, July 13 – 15, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise: The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

*************************************************************

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

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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.

M2M News Weekly - Week of June 27, 2011

Welcome to M2M News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices. I aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article. I also search for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around the M2M market.

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Juniper Research has released a new study that estimates there will be nearly 412 million global M2M connected devices by 2014. Read Original Content.

Berg Insight reports that the market for home health monitoring devices was $10 billion in 2010, and patient monitoring is set to grow approximately 26 percent annually through 2014. Read Original Content.

Pike Research forecasts that worldwide users of home energy management systems will reach 63 million by 2020, up from just over 1 million in 2011. Read Original Content.

Sprint’s recently launched Mobile Command Center is targeted towards the healthcare industry and remote patient monitoring. Read Original Content.

The Australian M2M market is worth about $300 million and analysts predict it will grow to $1 billion over the next four years. Read Original Content.

London Eggs with Benedict Mobility Breakfast Series, July 1st

Eggs with Benedict London

Today we wrapped up the marathon Eggs with Benedict mobility series in sunny London. Five countries in 5 days. It is very hard to remember your hotel room number after 5 different hotels. I was excited to address our biggest audience of the week and dive down into more enterprise mobility discussions. Our audience included a large multinational company with over 80,000 employees and 40,000 supported IT users, SAP consultants, mobility consultants with a background in Syclo integrations and others with SAP financial backgrounds.

It is a joy to meet people who enjoy and appreciate the complexities of enterprise mobility. We explored the following issues and topics today:

Mobile security models
Mobile app development strategies
Change Management involving the mobile workforce
SMS solutions
Mobile BI
Mobile UIs
Rugged handhelds
SAP Mobile Workflow apps
SUP (Sybase Unwired Platform)
Afaria
ClickSoftware
Syclo
MEAPs
M2M

Rob Fiddaman,
K2 Partnering

I also heard how difficult consultants have it when they need an SUP trial license for a client. They phoned their client's SAP AE for a trial license, but no one at SAP seemed to know how to get a trial license of SUP. There was a long drawn out process, before it was finally resolved. The consultants say there are still many processes that need to be worked out between SAP and Sybase.

I learned from an attending large manufacturer of construction materials that they use M2M (machine to machine) technologies to monitor not just assets, but business processes. They know, with M2M sensors, when a cement truck starts pouring cement and stops. They said they use M2M technologies to gain visibility into processes. I love it! Very interesting! They said the biggest challenges with M2M is the cost of building logic around how to best use this data from the field. It needs to be consumed in a system that can benefit from it.

James Common
K2 Partnering

I am exhausted but happy. I want to thank all those who joined us and shared their thoughts and experiences. I also want to thank K2 Partnering's Rob Fiddaman and James Common who hosted the events, guided me along and who sponsored this educational tour and made it free for all attendees. It was a pleasure to spend time with them this week. They are talented folks with a passion for technology and providing talented resources to their clients.

Upcoming Events

ClickConnect APAC 2011, July 11 – 13, 2011
Syclo Mobile Conference 2011, July 13 – 15, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise: The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

*************************************************************

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

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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.

Brussels Eggs with Benedict Mobility Breakfast Series, June 30th

Eggs with Benedict Brussels

Another day and another city eating breakfasts (still without the promised eggs) and speaking on enterprise mobility and strategies. We had a good group today in Brussels and we learned a lot from each other. One of the companies in attendance has over 10,000 SAP users in EMEA alone. Wow! They were attending to learn more about putting together a global mobility strategy.

Two members of the audience traveled from different countries just to attend our breakfast series on enterprise mobility.

I learned from one of the attendees about a digital pen that they use in South Africa for "proof-of-delivery" applications. It is called Anoto and enables the user to write on pre-formatted forms and the embedded scanner in the pen digitizes the data and the location it was written on the form. This data is uploaded to the integrated enterprise system and is extremely accurate. They have been using it in production for some time now with great results.

One of the attendees shared that the executives in their company had approved buying expensive smartphones, but not mobile applications to go with them. As a result, the smartphones are only used for voice, text and email, although recently the pressure has been increasing for mobile applications.

Another attendee reported that their CEO was insisting that he use only an iPad to manage the entire global company, but this is still just a dream as no budget has been approved to deliver the require mobile solutions. The will is there by all parties, just not the resources yet.

More feedback was that the highest demand internally at one company in attendance was for mobile CRM for their field sales organization. They want to use iPads because of the technical nature and complexity of their products.

Also in attendance was an experienced investor, consultant and former telecom CEO there to learn more about the latest developments in enterprise mobility. We had some very interesting discussions following the meeting. He is looking for investment opportunities within enterprise mobility.

At each of these meetings held across Europe this week I have asked the same question, "Where is your company on the mobility maturity curve?" So far all of the attendees have answered that they are a 1 or 2 on a 4 point maturity scale. There is a huge amount of pent up demand for mobile solutions reported, but resources, time and budget have not yet been fully dedicated.

Today I also spoke to an SAP customer with over 80,000 employees. The attendees from this company were not aware that SAP acquired Sybase and that SAP/Sybase had mobility offerings. They had been trying to figure out how to develop or find existing mobile SAP Workflow apps. They were not aware that SAP already has this. SAP, you owe me.

Tomorrow I wrap up a very busy week of meetings, breakfasts and travel by presenting the last Eggs with Benedict meeting in London. My tour sponsors at K2 Partnering have promised me that they will provide Eggs Benedict for breakfast tomorrow. I will hold them to it.

Upcoming Events

Eggs with Benedict - European Tour - Mobility Strategies and More, June 27 – July 1, 2011
ClickConnect APAC 2011, July 11 – 13, 2011
Syclo Mobile Conference 2011, July 13 – 15, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise: The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

*************************************************************

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

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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.

Small Mobile Apps Prove Big on ROI - Guest Blogger

Today we have an article contributed by my friend and guest blogger Andre Guillemin. Andre has over ten years of experience working in health care, financial services and mobility. He has spent the past three years focused on cross-industry solutions for mobile enterprise application development including line of business users in manufacturing, life sciences and wealth management. Andre frequently contributes to industry publications, panels and other events. He is available for consultation on both strategic and tactical use of mobile technologies in the enterprise.

******

We all know that mobile apps don’t need to do everything your desktop systems do – in fact, mobilizing everything on the desktop usually results in bulky, confusing apps that are difficult to use. Less is always more, and I bet you’ll be surprised at how much value you can get out of an app that’s simple, focused, and highly targeted to the needs of the user.

While working on a project last year, one of our target end users said to me “I don’t care about all the other stuff - I just want to be able to log my expenses.” So I asked a few of his colleagues and they all said the same thing, “just help us with expenses.” Those simple conversations revealed an acute pain that they dealt with day in and day out, which was the result of a clunky expense management system. If we could solve that problem for them, we’d be heroes. It was humbling to see my best ideas for that app summarily rejected – but hey, tossing the stuff that I thought they wanted in lieu of the functionality that they actually wanted cut the scope of the project by about 75%, saved a ton of work, and gave the team exactly what they needed. Nothing more, nothing less.

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to work with a team that built an app for safety inspectors. Sticking to the concept of simple, user-centric design, the app contained very focused, high impact functionality. It was built and deployed in less than a month and immediately made the lives of plant inspectors a lot easier by eliminating the process of manually entering inspection reports into the computer when they returned to the office.

The best part about building small is that your development cycle is a lot more manageable. And when it comes time to upgrade or modify an app, there are less components to deal with, so your release cycles are shorter and updates have more impact. So when you’re designing your next app, don’t forget what’s important to your end user and remember that most of the time, less app is more ROI.

Thanks for sharing your insights Andre!!!

Upcoming Events

Eggs with Benedict - European Tour - Mobility Strategies and More, June 27 – July 1, 2011
ClickConnect APAC 2011, July 11 – 13, 2011
Syclo Mobile Conference 2011, July 13 – 15, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise: The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

*************************************************************

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

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict