Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

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.

Mobility News Weekly - Week of July 4, 2011

The 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 data and trends.

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

Apple is turning more aggressive in placing orders for its iPad 2 and is set to ship 12 to 14 million units this quarter, up from 7 to 9 million units in the second quarter. Read Original Content

According to The Nielson Company, Android continues to be the most popular smartphone operating system, with 38 percent of smartphone consumers owning Android devices. However, the Apple iPhone has shown the most growth in recent months. Read Original Content

According to reports released this month by comScore, if you factor in all of the devices that use iOS including iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch, Apple reached 37.9 million people. Android reached 23.8 million on phones and tablets. That’s a 59 percent lead for iOS over Android. Read Original Content

Research firm IDC forecasts the number of annual mobile app downloads will increase from 10.7 billion in 2010 to nearly 183 billion by 2015. This is notably more than the 44 billion mobile app downloads by 2016 forecasted by its competitor ABI Research. Read Original Content

Carriers are now activating more than 500,000 new Android devices every day, according to Google Vice President of Engineering Andy Rubin. Read Original Content

Discussions About Sybase's Embedded Mobile Database Business, Part 1

SQL Anywhere

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tom Slee at Sybase. Tom works out of the Sybase office in Waterloo, Ontario. We have known of each other professionally for many years, as I was the CEO of a mobile application company that partnered with Sybase. Yesterday we discussed many different subjects including, HTML5, SQL Anywhere, SQL Lite, SUP, mobile application development strategies, data synchronization and the most interesting developments in the embedded mobile database areas at Sybase.

Tom had commented on an article I wrote several weeks back questioning the role of embedded mobile databases in a future with HTML5 and SQL Lite. He had corrected me by saying SQL Lite is very often used with HTML5, but that it was not an "official" part of the HTML5 standard. I stand corrected. However, yesterday he added that SQL Lite is an unofficial part of HTML5 for many developers.

My questions several weeks ago were directed at learning if developers would continue to need and to purchase Sybase's SQL Anywhere embedded mobile databases (RDBMS) if there was a free option that works with HTML5 called SQL Lite. Tom provided me with a much greater understanding of this issue which I will share to the best of my abilities.

SQL Lite working with HTML5 enables developers to store data on mobile devices. This is very useful when developers want to save data entered into a mobile application, record the state of a mobile application, or record where the user is in an application. Developers can also store product catalogs and all kinds of other data in this database. It is a very good solution when there is no need, or limited need to synchronize the mobile application data back to an enteprise database.

The Mobile Marketing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile marketing 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 Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly

Oracle is claiming $2.6 billion in patent and copyright infringement damages related to its ongoing intellectual property skirmish with Google over the Android mobile operating system. Read Original Content.

Total consumer and advertiser money spent on location-based services could make the sector a $10 billion industry by 2016, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics. Read Original Content.

A recent study by Nielsen has found that during the past three months smartphones outsold traditional cell phones for the first time ever. Read Original Content.

According to BIA/Kelsey, total U.S. mobile ad spending will grow from $790 million in 2010 to $4 billion in 2015. Read Original Content.

According to a Gartner report, global mobile advertisement spending is projected to double in 2011 to $3.3 billion due a more favorable market and by 2015 it could reach $20.6 billion. Read Original Content.

Within the past three years over 4.5 billion apps have been downloaded to Android smartphones. Read Original Content.

Real Estate Companies and Enterprise Mobility

I read today that the Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, Inc., was a recipient of a Digie Award at the Realcomm 2011 tradeshow last week. The award recognizes Inland’s achievements in mobilizing business data and property management information. Never heard of the Digie Award? Me neither, but it honors companies, projects and solutions that represent the most innovative use of technology and automation in commercial and corporate real estate.

Their enterprise mobility solution is said to enhance the productivity of property managers, maintenance supervisors and leasing agents. What was the problem? They were using JD Edwards ERP system and custom built SQL data warehouses in the office, but they printed expensive and out-of-date paper reports to use in the field.

The mobile solution they chose was from Webalo. Now, once on site, employees can use a mobile solution on their smartphones to check the current status of rent receivables, review upcoming lease expiration's, check on outstanding work orders for repairs and improvements, look up and contact approved vendors, access staff and tenant phone numbers and review the history and status of onsite safety equipment. Those are a lot of different business processes that are all supported in one solution.

The article said the Webalo solution connected the existing enterprise with the most current data to the employees’ smartphones without creating mobile apps, and without incurring the expense of traditional mobile development. Without creating mobile apps? Hummm....how do they do it? Here is what their website says, "The Webalo Client automatically generates an interface that’s compatible with the user's device to provide interaction with enterprise applications."

Inland’s John Bedlek said, “In the current difficult economic climate, we were able to quickly and economically provide better service to tenants, more information to property managers and leasing agents and most importantly, greater value to investors.”

I find this model very interesting. You configure your interface to the back end systems in a cloud-based configuration tool, and then the user interface is generated for your mobile device, and you have access to your data. They claim simple mobile projects can be done in hours or days if you have the right business analyst available to help you access and find the right data. Interesting indeed!

You can read the full press release here.

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.

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

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.

Mobility News Weekly - Week of June 27, 2011

The 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 data and trends.

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

The International Data Corporation recently came out with a smartphone market forecast report, which indicates that Apple's share in the global smartphone market could decline from 18.2 percent in 2011 to 16.9 percent in 2015. Read Original Content

Apple holds 40 percent of the smartphone market in Australia with Android in the second place with 30 percent of the market and Symbian coming in a distant third with only 22 percent of the market. Read Original Content

Have you been waiting for Google to come up with a social network that takes advantage of the opportunities a smartphone provides? Google has now unveiled Google+ beta, a social networking backend that can be reached through most web-connected devices and computers. It's in invite-only beta testing, so expect to wait a few months until it becomes available to the public. Read Original Content

According to a report from Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm took first place in fourth quarter 2010 in the smartphone CPU market, and has retained its lead over Texas Instruments through first quarter 2011. As of 2007, Qualcomm had only 3 percent of the smartphone CPU market; but, in first quarter 2011, Qualcomm held 30 percent of the market. Read Original Content

IDC predicts that the number of mobile application downloads worldwide will grow from 10.9 billion in 2010 to 76.9 billion in 2014 and mobile app revenues will surpass $35 billion in the same year. Read Original Content

Frankfurt Eggs with Benedict Mobility Breakfast Series, June 29th

Today, the folks from K2 Partnering and I had another very interesting breakfast meeting, this time in Frankfurt, Germany. The audience included representatives from SAP and SAP CPG customers.

The folks from the CPG company had over 10 years worth of production mobility experience. They shared information about their custom built mobility app that had retail, SFA and merchandizing features. It ran on the Windows Mobile OS, and has been in production for many years. This mobile application was developed in the rich/thick client model and includes a mobile database, and is customized for every region based upon the products sold there. Administrators custom configure each region's mobility applications using a purpose built configuration tool.

The big problem with the CPG customer’s existing mobile application is that it requires Windows Mobile 6.5 and devices that use it OS. Today, smartphones running Windows Mobile 6.5 are nearly impossible to find and the company must scour the internet for replacement devices. Their replacement needs are substantial as they have many thousands of users.

They are now developing a replacement custom mobile application that will run on the Android OS. Why Android? One reason is because Microsoft would not help them figure out a way to support a database on Windows Phone 7. Another reason seemed to be that the CPG company had already gone down a dead end street with a Microsoft mobile OS. They did not want to be in the same situation again.

Another interesting note, Sybase had talked to them earlier this year and had not helped them understand how SUP would be useful for this project. This is unfortunate as it seems to me to be a good fit. I think they may not have had the right mobility expert involved in these discussions. They did recognize big value in Afaria, but that also seemed to lose focus over time.

During my presentations I emphasized that enterprise mobility is NOT about just supporting today’s available mobile devices, but about supporting mobile capabilities for today and tomorrow. In other words enterprises must take a long term platform view of mobility and prepare to support all the major mobile OS platforms today and tomorrow, rather than specific brands and device models. The IT audience in attendance agreed, but said their executives were focused on specific devices such as supporting iPads and iPhones. It is indeed a challenge.

Today’s mobile devices create enthusiasm and passion amongst senior management which open up budgets and encourage projects, but the IT team must temper this enthusiasm long enough to implement a solid infrastructure and platform to support future mobility solutions as well.

Even in Germany, there were no eggs served for breakfast. Tomorrow I am speaking in Brussels and will see if there are eggs there.

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.

Mobile Marketing News Weekly - Week of June 27, 2011

The Mobile Marketing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile marketing 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 Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

A new report from research firm Gartner predicts that driven by expanding consumer adoption of smartphones and tablet computers, global mobile ad revenue will reach $3.3 billion this year, up from $1.6 billion in 2010. Read Original Content

Digital coupon usage is on the rise and 88.2 million U.S. adults are expected to participate in coupon discounts this year. By 2013 eMarketer expects 96.8 million Americans to participate. Read Original Content

The money spent on mobile advertising is expected to nearly quadruple to $7 billion in 2012 from less than $2 billion in 2010, according to ABI Research. Read Original Content

According to data from BIA/Kelsey, local mobile advertising revenues in the United States will increase from $404 million in 2010 to more than $2 billion by 2015. Read Original Content

The U.K. is one of the world’s largest mobile advertising markets. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau it grew 116 percent between 2009 and 2010 to £83 million and the market is expected to double between 2010 and 2011. Read Original Content

According to research firm Canaccord Genuity, Google could make $14 billion in mobile ad sales by 2015. Read Original Content

Geneva Eggs With Benedict Mobility Breakfast Meeting, June 27th

Eggs With Benedict Geneva

Today the folks from K2 Partnering and I were in Geneva, Switzerland for a mobility breakfast meeting. It was a beautiful venue on the lake. We met mobility experts from many different companies and had numerous discussions about interesting projects.

Did you know that in some places in Africa medicine bottles have phone numbers on them so you can text to validate the medicine's authenticity? Seems counterfeit medicine is a huge problem in Africa.

Did you know some companies are wanting to capture and utilize the knowledge of their remote workers around the world by implementing social networking and knowledge management solutions? Seems many remote workers do not even have computers. Companies are considering supplying them with mobile phones with SMS capabilities to integrate with these solutions. Very interesting!

Another issue - It is often very difficult for a remote worker to find in-house experts in the same company in different parts of the world? Seems many in-house experts are only known through personal relationships. Large companies want to optimize the value of their institutional knowledge and expertise through mobility.

I am always interested to learn how different systems integrators around the world view the Sybase Unwired Platform and SAP's mobility strategy. I spoke to an SI today that believes Afaria is top notch, but is less convinced about the rest of SUP. He wondered why SAP did not just expand DOE to cover the mobility feature gap. I shared my opinion that there are many motivations for acquiring a company beyond just a particular product feature set. There is market position, image, perception, momentum, brand evolution and a need to start strong and command attention. Everyone must start and build. Sybase was a good place to start and build.

The SIs I spoke with today are seeing a lot of mobility interest from their clients in central Europe. They have numerous opportunities and a strong mobility sales pipelines.

Tomorrow I will be in Frankfurt for another Eggs With Benedict mobility breakfast meeting. Again I was disappointed that there were no real eggs for breakfast in Geneva. How many croissants can one person eat? There is still time to join me for breakfast in Brussels and London later this week to learn if I will ever see a real egg at these meetings.

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.

Paris Eggs with Benedict Breakfast Meeting, June 26th

We kicked off the Eggs with Benedict mobility series of breakfast meetings yesterday in sweltering Paris, France. Strangely there were no eggs at my breakfast, only croissants, esspresso and fruit. We had an intimate group of attendees that were passionate about mobility and we explored some very interesting subjects related to the global challenges and demands on IT organizations for mobile solutions.

One CTO from a global cement manufacturer shared that he had just returned from Zambia where he met with his African IT organization and mobility was a central discussion point. The challenges they have are often basic infrastructure issues, like how to connect to the internet.

It was also interesting to learn that a global company was trying to figure out a way to connect with over half of their 78,000 employees who had no access to computers. They were looking at how mobility could solve this issue.

I also heard about how valuable SMS (texting) is to companies in many less developed countries. Basic mobile phones can support SMS, and many SMS solutions can provide incredible value. Banking, payments, notification of departure times for deliveries, etc., can all be done using SMS. One production text-based mobility solution discussed automatically notifying customers when their shipment left the depot. These were just a few of the many SMS based mobile solutions discussed over breakfast.

The discussion around SMS solutions helped me to better understand the value of Sybase’s 365 offerings to the overall mobility picture. Many of us who focus the majority of our time in the Western economies often forget there is much value outside of just expensive smartphones and tablets. We have yet to fully tap the power of SMS, but need motivates ingenuity.

The common thread with the meeting attendees was that enterprise mobility is a priority. Now on to Geneva for the next Eggs with Benedict mobility breakfast meeting, perhaps there will be eggs.

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