Field Mobility News Weekly - Week of March 28, 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 Money News Weekly
Also read Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile NFC News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

As companies continue to make businesses more fuel-efficient, European and North American markets for fleet telematics could jump to $700 million in 2015 from $80 million in 2008.

http://sdbj.com/news/2011/mar/21/rising-fuel-prices-pump-fleet-management-businesse/

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A Norwegian organization that manages nationwide pallet leasing for retailers and manufacturers, is trying out RFID technology in a pilot project to see how effective the tags are for tracking plastic pallets.

http://www.rfidworld.ca/pilot-project-rfid-pallet-tracking-for-food-industry/301

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Stockholm is becoming an m-health hotspot as smartphones and mobile applications are poised to play a greater role in healthcare as doctors and patients embrace the mobile Internet to treat chronic illnesses and improve quality of life.

http://www.swedishwire.com/business/9098-stockholm-a-frontrunner-in-m-health

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The RFID market is expected to grow around 17 percent during 2011-2013.  The reason for this phenomenal growth is that various applications across different verticals have emerged around this technology.

SAP Enterprise Mobility is All About Reducing Options


Reducing Options
One of my criticisms of Sybase in the past was that they gave customers too many options for designing, developing and deploying enterprise mobility solutions.  What is wrong with a plethora of options?  It can lead to indecision and paralysis.  That does not benefit Sybase or the customer.

In my opinion, much of Apple's success can be attributed to their lack of options.  They tell developers how they should develop mobile applications, what devices they can use, they then review them for compliance to their standards, and tell them how they can be uploaded and sold on the one Apple App Store.  Limiting options may frustrate some, but it provides a very well defined path for their customers and development partners. 

Over the past 9 years I have spoken often to Sybase and iAnywhere staff about mobile development projects, and nearly always left these conversations with more questions than answers.  That was rarely useful.  I think that the faster customers and development partners can be directed to the appropriate path and have their options reduced, the better.  This reduction in options will enable decisions to be made and actions to occur.

Since there are literally thousands of different ways mobile solutions can be designed, developed and deployed, the best thing we can do is to learn from mobile experts who have tried many different models and methodologies and can help direct us down the right path or paths.

What do you think?  Is it better to be provided with a limited number of options based upon a quick decision tree, or to provide you with an unlimited number of options?  I would love to read your comments!

In an upcoming webinar on April 7th at 12:00 PM EDST, myself, mobile solutions guru Steffen Schwark and Sybase mobility consultant Sam Lakkundi will be sharing our experiences and advice to help you reduce your options :-).  The panel will explore current trends in enterprise mobility through analysis of the business processes and strategies used by successful companies to mobilize their workforce, with an emphasis on SAP environments and ecosystem. Kevin and Steffen will share their research on the future of enterprise mobility and outline customer best practices; Sam will elaborate on the specific role that SAP/Sybase plays in supporting mobility for the enterprise. The presentation will be followed by a real-time Q & A session.

Register Here!

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin
Read The Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Read The Field Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Money News Weekly
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.

Mobile Retailing News Weekly - Week of March 21, 2011

The 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 and mobile marketing applications 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 Money News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile NFC News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

The mobile retail market will exceed $12 billion by 2014 due to one-to-one marketing and smartphone adoption, Juniper Research reports.

http://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/the-diversification-of-mobile-media-into-product-media-019270

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Brands significantly increased their UK mobile marketing spend last year, as part of their efforts to capitalize on the growth of smartphone use.

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1061104/Brands-ramp-spend-mobile-ad-platforms/

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Mobile penetration in the Czech Republic is among the highest in Central European nations and is high even by western European levels.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110316005789/en/Research-Markets-Czech-Republic---Mobile-Market

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Advances in smart phone technology and accelerating consumer adoption of tablets and other mobile devices have spurred an opportunity for marketers looking to make good on the long sought promise of mobile marketing.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Australian Post's John Moy

John Moy works for the Australian Post, an SAP customer, and he is an enthusiastic student of mobility.  He was kind enough to grant me a video interview this week in Sydney.  The Australian Post currently has a handful of customer facing mobile applications, and they are looking to expand.  Here is a current list of what they have available on mobile applications:
  • calculate postage costs via the postage assessment calculator tool
  • search for a postcode
  • view and track parcel items
  • locate any Australia Post retail outlet
  • find a nearby street posting box
  • pay a variety of bills online.
I spoke to one of the mobility guys at SAP recently, and he shared that there are potentially thousands of valuable mobile applications that can and should be integrated with SAP systems.  I believe there are many uses for mobile applications, but I may want to argue about whether they all deserve stand alone mobile applications.  It seems to me that many of these mobile "apps" could really be one application with capabilities to support many business processes from the same mobile application or client.   

Here is my interview with John that I recorded in Sydney, Australia at the Mastering SAP Technologies conference.



I want to thank John for sharing both in person and on his tweets. You can follow his tweets on Twitter @jhmoy.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin
Read The Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Read The Field Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Money News Weekly
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.

Network Centric Operations, Syclo and ESRI

This week in Sydney, Australia I taught a class on Network Centric Operations.  I covered the convergence of enterprise mobility, GIS (global information systems), business intelligence and M2M (machine to machine) technologies in ways that helps field service managers have real-time visibility into their field service operations.  This convergence requires news ways of thinking, managing, process re-engineering and news ways of integrating these solutions into a unified view.

The recent announcement by Syclo about their integration and partnership with GIS software ESRI fits right into vision.



***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin
Read The Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Read The Field Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Money News Weekly
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.

Interviews with Kevin Benedict