Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

Wall Street Analyst and SAP Enterprise Mobility

Happy Holidays
from Kevin Benedict!

I received an interesting call yesterday from a Wall Street analyst. He wanted my opinion on SAP's acquisition of Sybase. His premise was that there was not $5.8 billion worth of value in Sybase. I responded that I had no expertise in valuation so could not help him in that determination. However, I did have more than enough opinions on enterprise mobility to share.

I provided him the following list for his consideration during his valuation exercise:

1) Had he looked into the potential value of Sybase's 365? I said much of the world, and the fastest growing segments of the mobile market (LDC - less developed countries), are increasingly using SMS for mobile banking, money transfers, mobile payments, and many enterprise applications like field services, inventory, database queries, sales reports, etc. He had not considered this.

Mobile Shopping

Cameron Franks, area vice president of sales for the Americas at Sybase 365, an SAP Company, recently spoke about a survey they conducted with 1,000 consumers on mobile holiday shopping. The key finding of the survey was that 32 percent of consumers, if offered mobile-based deals, coupons or alerts, could be persuaded to make a purchase on their mobile device.

Another recent survey by mobile marketing agency Briabe Media and mobile-social networking company MocoSpace, they found that 30 percent of survey respondents said they expected to use mobile coupons during this holiday season. Also in the survey, 62 percent said they planned to use mobile phones as a shopping tool prior to entering a store; and 46 percent stated they would use their phones for store or product research.

Tablets, Mobile Applications and the Enterprise

I have been reading several articles lately that talk about how popular tablets are predicted to become in the enterprise market. Here is an excerpt from one article that I read this morning:

More than one in five Americans will own a tablet by 2014, and 37 percent of them will own them for business use, according to a recent survey.

Current business use of tablets:

Business correspondence (58%)
Online meetings/Web conferences (37%)
Marketing (34%)
Training (33%)
Finance/accounting (32%)
Sales (27%)
Graphic design (27%)
Inventory management (27%)
Customer support (24%)

Another article stated, "Apple could sell 21 million units of its iPad tablet next year as half of the largest and most prominent companies in the world begin testing or deploying the iPad for corporate use, according to an analyst with Wall Street firm Piper Jaffray."

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – December 23, 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 data and trends.

Also read Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly

Expectations for the tablet market in 2011 are positive, but to put things in context tablets will still be niche devices, maybe 15 percent of smartphone sales. We’ll see more supply than demand in 2011, and probably some vicious price competition because Apple will remain the leader in style, features and shipments.

http://blogs.gartner.com/nick_jones/2010/12/16/too-many-tablets-too-few-buyers/

Ben Lee over at Smartsoft Mobile Solutions recently directed me to the eBay Mobile Commerce site. On this site you can see mobile purchasing data from six global markets in near real time. Very interesting! I watched for some time the interesting data coming across their digital ticker tape along the bottom of their chart. Here is some of the data about eBay purchases via mobile devices:

Australians bought the most sporting goods via mobile devices in December 2010.
Auto parts were the top selling products via mobile devices on Cyber Monday in Germany.
The iPhone was the leading mobile platform for mobile sales on December 12, 2010.
Toys made up 8.6 percent of mobile sales in France on December 10-11, 2010.
December 12 was the busiest mobile shopping day so far in 2010.
In the USA auto parts made up 8.3 percent of mobile purchases in 2010.
In the USA cell phones and accessories made up 6.5 percent of mobile purchases in 2010.
In the USA vehicle sales made up 16.5 percent of mobile purchases in 2010.

Home Depot iPhone App

I was sitting in my office chair today reading mail. I received a magazine that had a QR code prominently displayed on a page. I grabbed my iPhone 4, opened my Red Laser application and snapped a photo of the QR code. A message instantly popped up asking if I approved - I said yes. Immediately, my browser launched and a person was talking to me about their product. I LOVED IT!

Think of the way companies can change their marketing and sales approach by having their very best sales and marketing spokesperson deliver key product messages to anyone with a smartphone and internet connection anywhere in the world. No longer do you have to ask the sixteen year old sales assistant complex questions. You can simply open a mobile application that supports QR codes, click on a sign or advertisement and learn about the product from an expert.

I was speaking with an SAP executive last month about SAP's partner strategy for enterprise mobility. The executive said that SAP ecosystem mobility partners would be well served to focus on building vertical industry specific business processes into their mobile applications, as SAP would be focusing more on horizontal business processes. The executive went on to say that SAP would seek to partner first for vertical expertise and then consider acquiring select companies that showed success and penetration in key SAP markets.

This conversation got me thinking. Which vertical industries would be the likely targets of mobile applications that SAP might want to acquire? Could it be one of the following?

Oil and Gas
Utilities
Retail (Location-Based Services, Coupons, Mobile Marketing)
Plant Maintenance
Chemicals
Mining
Transportation
Facilities Management
Enterprise asset management

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 23, 2010

Kevin’s Mobile Money 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.

********

This holiday season consumers are beginning to shop and make purchases on their mobile phones. The shift from buying presents in front of the computer at home or work to doing it during bus commutes or while standing in line at cafes is small but noticeable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/technology/18mobile.html?src=busln

********

PayPal has announced a whopping increase in mobile payments this festive season. In the month to December 15 the online payment processing company registered a 300 percent rise, compared to the same period last year.

http://www.bizreport.com/2010/12/more-mobile-users-shopping-via-phone.html

********

A new ABI Research report calls the short term growth of mobile online shopping "nothing short of phenomenal." Purchases in the U.S. attributed to mobile online shopping, excluding travel, grew from $396.3 million in 2008 to $1.4 billion in 2009. ABI expects full year 2010 sales will more than double again, to more than $3.4 billion.

Leadership Change in SAP's Mobility Business Unit - Again

At Sapphire 2010 (May), Kevin Nix was in charge of SAP's mobile application development. At TechEd 2010 (October), Bob Stutz was in charge of SAP's mobile applications development. Today, (December 21, 2010), Raj Nathan is the interim EVP in charge of SAP's mobile application development.

Is Kevin Benedict Next?

I want to volunteer myself for an interim VP role in the SAP Mobility Business Unit. I can wear a tie again for a few months and speak the corporate line. Really! "On premise, on demand, on device and in memory... we want to help our customers better leverage their existing investments and make transformational changes that are game changing." How is that? There must be a list of names they are going down. I have some time on my calendar before spring break.

Here is the official word from SAP, "Bob Stutz has decided to leave SAP and we thank him for his longstanding leadership and contributions to the company. To ensure a smooth transition, John Chen, CEO and Chairman of Sybase, has appointed Raj Nathan, EVP and CMO of Sybase, to serve as interim head of the Mobile Applications Group.”

After the holidays give me a call. Does the job come with an iPad?

***************************************************
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.

Mobile Applications and Device Governance

My friend Puneet Suppal who works in in the Premier Customer Network at SAP, published an interesting article on SAP's Community Network last week, entitled Enterprise Mobility: What did we learn this year? In this article Puneet highlights the fact that with the increasing popularity of enterprise mobility there will be "... a lot of data moving dynamically between a lot of systems and devices." This data is often confidential and important, data that companies do not want to fall into the hands of competitors.

Puneet says companies must step back and develop an enterprise mobility strategy, and one of the most important parts of that strategy is, "the governance model; a model that takes into account the organization’s sensibilities and addresses the management of these remote devices and what sits on them – and the related security aspects."

MeLLmo the Maker of the RoamBI Mobile Application Closes More Funding

MeLLmo, the SAP ecosystem mobile application's company that specializes in visualization software for displaying business intelligence on mobile devices, has closed its third and biggest round of funding for $10 million from private investors. The company has now raised total funding of $20 million since MeLLmo was founded in January 2008. Read more here...

MeLLmo has a way of displaying business intelligence data on mobile devices that is very compelling. I recorded a video interview with Santiago Becerra, the founder of MeLLmo, earlier this year. During that interview Santiago said they recruit developers from the electronic game industry because of their ability to make compelling GUI (graphical user interfaces).

I have heard that one weakness in MeLLmo's strategy is the need to download business intelligence data to the mobile device and store it there. This may concern many executives that don't like the idea of allowing confidential business data to reside on mobile devices. Other vendors in the mobile business intelligence field do not store this data on the device. Rather, they simply hold it in memory and display it during the session. Perhaps this doesn't allow for as compelling a presentation, but the data may be safer.

Click to Download

***************************************************
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 - December 21, 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 and mobile marketing applications that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

********

New research from Berg Insight shows the total value of the global mobile marketing and advertising market will grow from $2.25 billion in 2009 at a CAGR of 41 percent to $17.9 billion in 2015. This will then correspond to 15.7 percent of the total digital advertising market or 3.4 percent of the total global ad spend for all media.

http://www.von.com/news/2010/12/global-mobile-ad-market-growing-fast.aspx

********

Thirty percent of respondents to a recent survey said they expected to use mobile coupons during this holiday season. Interestingly, only 14 percent said they normally use mobile coupons.

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1932818/holidays-report-mobile-shoppers-coupons

********

Mobile marketing is certainly getting plenty of attention these days and for good reason. Targeted mobile campaigns, both B2B and B2C, are finding traction. It appears that today’s leading marketers realize we are only beginning to scratch the surface of mobile’s enormous potential.

Santa Goes Mobile this Holiday Season

Holiday shopping reports show that sales are going mobile like never before. When comparing the number of mobile transactions between 2009 and 2010, we find there is a rapid increase in shopping from mobile devices. Retail is just one of many markets being revolutionized by mobile applications.

PayPal reported a 300 percent increase in online sales this holiday season compared to 2009, and a 27 percent increase in mobile transactions on Black Friday alone. Total mobile sales are expected to double to $3.4 billion from $1.4 billion in 2009. There is still time for more mobile shopping before Christmas that will make these numbers even more impressive.

The continued popularity and record sales of iPhones and iPads, plus the explosive growth of Android powered devices this year has added fuel to the growth in mobile shopping.

What are Your Predictions for Enterprise Mobility in 2011?

I was pondering 2011 predictions for enterprise mobility while on a flight the other day, so was interested this morning to see a great write up on this subject by Ben Lee of Smartsoft Mobile Solutions.

2011 will be the year that the laptop dies.
iPads will trump iPhones in the enterprise.
Business applications reign supreme.
Mobile Middleware will be increasingly flexible for the enterprise.

Ben does a good job backing up his predictions in the article. Do you agree? What predictions would you add? Here are some I would add:

SAP's Mobile SDK launch at Sapphire 2011 is a great start. Systems integrators and IT organizations get very excited about building a massive number of new mobile applications. The demand for training on the Mobile SDK and SUP overwhelms SAP and creates major headaches for them.
SAP's Mobile SDK allows many more systems integrators to enter the mobility market and to compete with established enterprise mobility vendors and SAP's Mobile Business Unit. This new competition forces established mobility vendors to emphasize the content and business logic that they have developed over many years.
SAP's acquisition of Sybase causes unanticipated changes in the enterprise mobility marketplace. More mobility vendors will choose to use SUP, because it is the entry into the world of SAP, plus it supports all the other major markets and ERPs that mobility vendors must address. This creates an upsurge in demand for non-SAP support in SUP. SAP must decide if they should prioritize this interest or focus on SAP specific interests.

I look forward to your thoughts!

***************************************************
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.

Syclo and the SAP Unwired Platform

I listened to the pre-recorded SAP/Syclo webinar Mobility for Utilities Webcast today. At the end of the webcast there was a question and answer segment. The first question asked if Syclo was going to support SAP's SUP (SAP/Sybase Unwired Platform). First, Dan Mahowald, Vice President, North America Enterprise Mobility, SAP Americas answered. He said, "I am encouraged by discussions with the Syclo R&D team. This is a new area that both parties are exploring. Syclo says they intend to support SUP. SAP utility customers want many mobile applications, so SAP wants to help by providing them with a mobility platform (SUP) that can support them."

My interpretation of Dan's last sentence is that Syclo's mobile infrastructure is Syclo specific. SAP utility customers may want mobile applications from a vareity of different mobile vendors, so a mobile infrastructure platform that is not specific to one vendor may be better.

Next, Syclo's Senior VP SAP Business Development Jon Schmidt added, "It is our intent to support the SUP strategy and architecture. It adds great value. It is our intent to migrate our existing solutions to SUP. We are working very closely with SAP on this."

SAP Unwired Platform

I read a whitepaper today, ClickSoftware's Mobility Suite and the Sybase Mobility Solutions that details how ClickSoftware intends to support SAP's mobility strategy and the reasons for doing so.

I get a lot of questions from systems integrators about how the various SAP mobility partners will be supporting SUP and SAP's mobility strategy, so this is a timely whitepaper from one vendor that does a good job of explaining their strategy.

Related links:

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – December 16, 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.

********

In the first three months of 2010, just 2.1 percent of smartphones shipped in Australia were based on the Android platform, but over the succeeding three months to the end of June, the percentage of Android shipments had more than trebled, reaching 7.1 percent at the end of that period. Then in the three months to the end of September, Android’s share of the smartphone market exploded again — up to 21 percent.

http://delimiter.com.au/2010/12/09/android-triples-aussie-market-share-in-3-months/

********

Samsung has been in overdrive to catch up with rivals Apple, which makes the iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry in the smartphone sector. In the last quarter, Samsung tripled its market share to nine percent, making it the fourth biggest player in the smartphone segment.

http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_bus/2010-12-08/696861479515.html

Mobile Expert Interview Series: ClickSoftware's Founder Dr. Moshe BenBassat

I had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Moshe BenBassat, Founder of ClickSoftware yesterday about the release of their lastest version of ClickMobile called ClickMobile Professional. He was calling from Israel where they have been having some very stormy winter weather over the past week.

Let me first give you some background on Dr. BenBassat. Following a long and successful academic career with positions at USC, Tel Aviv University and UCLA, he established himself as one of the world's leaders in the area of optimization and decision support software for a wide variety of applications. His research work was supported by DARPA (the U.S.’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency); NIH (National Institute of Health); Ballistic Missile Defense Agency (via TRW); ARI (U.S. Army Research Institute); NASA; and NSF (National Science Foundation). Now that is credibility!

*Important Note: These are not Dr. BenBassat's exact words, rather a compilation of my notes taken during our discussion.

Kevin: Tell me about the new version of ClickMobile Professional that you announced today.
Dr. BenBassat: What makes this version unique is that it uses HTML5 to become device agnostic. It has what I call a universal mobile client that can run on and support all the major mobile operating systems, plus device specific features, offline/online and data syncing capabilities.

SAP's Nick Brown on the right

I had the opportunity to catch up with SAP's Nick Brown with the Mobile Business Unit on the phone this morning. He was calling from dark and snowy Waldorf, Germany. This call was scheduled to help cover some of the questions that did not get answered at last week's SAP Infuencer Summit (see my full report from this event here).

Here are the questions that were asked by you the readers of this blog that were not answered in full at the event.

*Important Note: These are not the exact words of Nick Brown. I have often shortened the answers and revised them to be more concise for the purpose of this article. I have tried my best to keep the original meaning. Blame me for any misinterpretations.

Kevin: Will there be Android support in SUP (SAP unwired platform)?
Nick: Yes, full support will be released in the second half of 2011. However, partial support for lightweight applications will be sooner.

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 15, 2010

Kevin’s Mobile Money 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.

********

Bango forecasts that in-application charging in 2011 will grow more than 600 percent to account for close to 30 percent of all mobile application payments.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/in-app-billing-revenue-to-grow-600pc-in-2011-bango/

********

ABI research has announced that about 50 percent of smartphone users are planning to use their devices for mobile banking, including mobile shopping. A parallel announcement this week highlighted the ABI survey findings when Wells Fargo began rolling out its mobile banking pilot.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/client/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228701963&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

********

Mobile banking impacts consumers' bank selection, according to the Mobile Banking Perception Study by global market research company Synovate. Perceptions change about a bank if it does not offer mobile banking services and the study shows that about 50 percent of consumers of this service use it for stock trading.

HTML5 and Workforce Management and Service Optimization Solutions

I have been following the developments around HTML5 with interest so was intrigued by the following announcement.

This week ClickSoftware announced the availability of ClickMobile Professional, a major release built with the cutting-edge abilities of HTML5.

The flexibility of HTML5 technology allows for a “hybrid” deployment of the application: as a web-based application, it requires no download or installation. In “no-connectivity” situations, technicians can still use the application offline and when connectivity is back, store and forward messages.

With ClickMobile Professional the entire service ecosystem – in the field, in dispatch and call center, in HR and in the warehouse – gains real-world, real-time visibility and flexibility for the unpredictable service world where surprises are the norm and real time updates are a must.

mProdigy from B2M

I had an interesting discussion last week with Padraig Regan the CTO of B2M Solutions. B2M focuses on two key areas:

Mobile Device Management
Mobile Intelligence

The area of particular interest to me was mobile intelligence. B2M has a solution called mProdigy that can be embedded in mobile applications to report on all device and application related information. Specifically, it can monitor all activities in the mobile application and business process, so it can be used to analyze mobile device, application processes and human performance.

One simple example is battery life analysis. You can view when a mobile device is charged and how much it is charged when it is removed from the charger. You can monitor the average battery charge your team starts with each morning and each time a critical battery level occurs? You can evaluate which devices have the best battery life and which have the worst? You can see when batteries are bad and which groups are simply not following correct battery charging processes?

Kevin’s Mobile Retailing Newsletter Weekly - December 14, 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 and mobile marketing applications that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

********

While 57 percent of consumers would be interested in opting in to a brand's loyalty club via a mobile social networking application such as Facebook, 80 percent still have not been marketed to by their favorite brands via their mobile device.

http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=2047982&spid=24698

********

Fresh off a partnership with Target, Shopkick is bringing its geo-coupon system to Android phones with a free app. Android users can now access in store coupons from Best Buy, Macy’s, Target, American Eagle, Sports Authority and more.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/18/shopkick-brings-in-store-mobile-coupons-to-android-phones/

********

This holiday season Toys ‘R” Us is equipping its retail outlets with scanners that can read coupon bar codes on mobile phones and is launching a text messaging program alerting shoppers to deals.

SAP Mentors John Appleby
and Jon Reed

Last week I attended the SAP Influencer Summit in Santa Clara, California. About 220 people were in attendance at the Santa Clara Marriott on Mission College Blvd. The purpose of the summit was for SAP to provide an update to industry analysts, bloggers and other people with loud voices in the market place, on the progress they have made on the goals that were shared earlier in the year. A consolidated view of my real time tweets from the event last week can be found in a blog article here.

This is a long article, so if you have limited time here is the executive overview. At TechEd in October 2010 SAP was not prepared to talk about any roadmaps or details on the integration of SAP and Sybase. However, at the SAP Influencer Summit 2010, they brought the right people that were prepared to answer detailed questions. I was impressed that smart people are in charge and taking SAP enterprise mobility in the right direction. That direction should result in product releases by Sapphire 2011 (May 2011).

Mobile Retail Applications a Transformational Trend

I read an interesting article today in Bloomberg about mobile shopping and mobile retailing applications. Here are a few excerpts.

Almost 60 percent of mobile consumers expect to use their phones to help with shopping plans and holiday celebrations this season, according to the Mobile Marketing Association.
Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm recently stated, “The phone is going to be the payment mechanism of the future. You’ll probably just scan whatever thing it was that you’re buying. It will cause the checkout to happen. It will cause the security to happen, so that when you walk out of the door it won’t ring the bell.”
About eight percent of consumers in the U.S. have bought something with a phone. That compares with 32 percent in Taiwan, which tops the list of major industrialized countries, according to IE Market Research Corp. Finland was No. 1 in Europe, at 13 percent.

The article highlights the fact that Best Buy, Home Depot and Amazon.com all have mobile retailing applications now. I have had many discussions with the mobile retailing experts at Smartsoft Mobile Solutions, and I find this market very interesting. It combines the following:

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - December 9, 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.

********

SAP AG has unveiled new innovations for the SAP StreamWork application that provide business and IT with valuable new choices.

http://www.sap.com/about/newsroom/press.epx?pressid=14474

********

Best Buy, Home Depot and Amazon are among the retailers ramping up efforts to let shoppers scan bar codes, get discounts and find product information on their phones.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-02/best-buy-amazon-com-use-phones-to-reach-shoppers-swipe-sales-from-rivals.html

********

Research firms have ramped up forecasts for 2010 smartphone sales and now expect the market to double from a year ago. The fast sales growth is causing shortages of components, with manufacturers scrambling for parts such as phone screens.

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 8, 2010

Kevin’s Mobile Money 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.

********

EBay sees growth in mobile payments, pushing its PayPal service toward the offline world.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10941154/1/ebay-sees-mobile-payment-growth-offline.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN

********

Mobile shopping grew a massive 310 percent from last year as shoppers choose to dial up deals rather than deal with the crowds and traffic.

http://www.bizreport.com/2010/12/paypal-black-friday-mobile-shopping-grew-310.html

********

Dueling mobile money deployments have already racked up some impressive numbers in the Fiji Islands, a country of 800,000 people and over 300 islands. After only four months of service, nearly a quarter of all Fijians now have mobile wallets allowing them not only to transfer money to each other, but also to pay utility bills as well as top up their mobile phone airtime.

What I Learned about Mobility at the SAP Influencer Summit 2010

I have compiled my tweets (join me on Twitter @krbenedict) that I published over the past few days here at the SAP Influencer Summit in Santa Clara, CA. I focus on enterprise mobility so this is the topic of most of these tweets.

1. Prashant Chatterjee said 100% of customers add customized features to their mobile apps today.

2. We got solid mobile roadmap answers at the SAP Influencer summit.

3. The 365, Mobiliser Service Platform and SUP will start to converge around the tools in the mobile SDK.

4. Sybase Mobiliser Service Platform consists of communications, apps and commerce functions (365).

5. Mobile developers may have a revenue opportunity developing add-ons to the mobile SDK and selling on SAP EcoHub.

Prashant Chatterjee, John Appleby

This is the list of questions concerning SAP's mobile strategy that readers have submitted to me over the past three days. I am attending the SAP Influencer Summit this week and have shared these questions from the mobility teams at SAP/Sybase. I have some answers already and will write these up in a separate article later this week. If you would like to add a question to this list please email them to me and put SAP Influencer Summit Questions in the subject line.

Here is the latest compilation of questions submitted by readers of the blog http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/.

Mobile Applications and Location Context

The other day a group of us mobile technology consultants met at the Chicago airport before driving out to a client's location. Having missed lunch, we decided to search for a quick bite to eat.

We found a Subway Sandwich location right off a freeway exit. However, once we arrived we found that the restaurant had one-inch thick bullet proof glass separating the customers from the restaurant staff, and a group of men were guarding the entrances to the parking lot and making non-stop transactions through the windows of a long line of cars.

Our mobile applications and mobile maps helped us quickly find a restaurant, but our mobile apps did nothing to help us know if the locations were healthy or safe. I want a mobile application that will show me more than simply data points. I don't just want to know where food is sold, but where it is safe to consume it. Who wants to find an unsafe restaurant in which to eat?

This experience, has made me really appreciate the value of mobile applications that include contextual features and capabilities. I want to know the following:

When Mobility Is Not About Mobility

Where is the value in a mobile application? Today, at the SAP Influencer Summit, Prashant Chatterjee with Sybase, an SAP company, hinted at an answer. He said the value mobile software developers need to bring to the SAP mobile ecosystem is vertical industry knowledge. The value of a mobile application is found in its ability to support very specific business and industry processes.

The ability to integrate and automate best practices and rich content into mobile applications is powerful. No one is looking for vendors that can simply build screens on a mobile device. They want intelligent mobile applications, with deep industry expertise architected into it and integration into core business software systems and database content.

Prashant gave an example of an oil refinery environment. He said there are very unique requirements for enterprise asset management in an oil refinery and in the management of pipelines. These unique requirements, supported by a mobile application, would be a great vertical niche market.

An example of a mobility solution vendor is Syclo, a co-innovation partner of SAP. They have tightly integrated their mobile applications with the SAP enterprise asset management solutions to provide this industry support.

***************************************************
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 – December 7, 2010

********

On Cyber Monday mobile commerce sales from eBay shoppers in the United States increased 146 percent year over year, with California, Nevada, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida leading the way as the top mobile shopping states.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/ebay-us-mobile-commerce-sales-soar-146pc-on-cyber-monday/

********

IBM announced that the Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. website has experienced a double digit increase in sales using IBM software to advance its online and mobile commerce initiatives. Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. sells leading brands in apparel, cosmetics and home furnishings.

HTML 5 and Sybase Unwired Platform

Sybase, an SAP company, has made a lot of money over the years selling mobile client databases. These databases (SQL Anywhere Database Client) reside on the mobile device and are synchronized with a technology called SQL Anywhere Mobilink. I wonder how this revenue stream will be impacted by the emergence and adoption of HTML 5.

Does anyone dare share an opinion?

HTML 5 has a database built into it. Every mobile client that uses this HTML 5 database means one less potential SQL Anywhere Database Client license for Sybase.

I read this week on Gil Bouhnick's blog MobileFever, that ClickSoftware is releasing their first HTML 5 version of their ClickMobile solution. Last month I saw a demo of their iPad version running HTML 5 and it was a great looking application.

I look forward to your thoughts and comments regarding the impact you believe HTML 5 will have on the enterprise mobility market.

***************************************************
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 Mobility News Weekly – December 2, 2010

Facebook, Mobility and Field Services Applications

I have been watching with keen interest the convergence of social networking and enterprise mobility. Recently, SAP mobility partner, ClickSoftware announced a social media extension to their SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization solution that is very interesting and worth highlighting.

Customers can book and change service appointments directly on a service organization’s Facebook page. Customers can receive reminders and notifications on the expected arrival time of the field service engineer to minimize wait times. With this extension, Facebook becomes yet another interaction channel for ClickContact, which can also integrate two-way communication with company web pages, automated voice calls, e-mail and SMS. Customers may select their preferred channels of communication at any time.

Right now, Facebook does not support this application extension on the Facebook mobile application, but this is expected in the near future. So today the customer accesses Facebook from their browser and books or reschedules their appointment. How does this relate to mobility? Customers can configure the Facebook application to send notifications to their smartphones via email, voice message, Facebook notification or text.

Mobile Enterprise Management Platform

Is another mobile acronym on your Christmas list? Great! I have one for you, MEMP (mobile enterprise management platform). A MEMP is designed to help you keep mobile systems, mobile networks, mobile devices and your mobile workforce working and productive. This is not easy if you have several thousand mobile devices being used in mission critical roles across a wide geographic area.

When my family and I are traveling on trains in Europe, all of the rail staff that check your tickets and sell you snacks are carrying mobile devices. Airports and airport gates are increasingly being operated by people with mobile devices. Public safety and emergency responders are nearly all carrying mobile devices today.

If you have the good fortune of being the person responsible for keeping mission critical mobile applications and mobile devices operating, then you would appreciate the value of a MEMP.

Global Economic Development, Prosperity and Enterprise Mobility

In the book The Birth of Plenty, the author William J. Bernstein proposes that prosperity is based on the following four tenets:

1. Property Rights – Creators must have proper incentives to create.

2. Scientific Rationalism – Innovators must possess the proper intellectual tools in order to innovate and must be able to do so without fear of retribution.

3. Capital Markets – Entrepreneurs must have access to sufficient capital to pursue their visions.

4. Transportation/Communications – Society must be able to rapidly and efficiently move information and finished products.

Bernstein says that the presence of, or lack of, these four items determines the level of prosperity of a people or country.

When I read item four on the list I thought about enterprise mobility. I have worked on, seen and heard about many mobile enterprise applications that have enabled economic development and a higher quality of life. Let me share a few of them.

Click for Information

In an article re-published in The Wall Street Journal last year, The Secrets of Intangible Wealth, author Ronald Bailey writes the following, “A Mexican migrant to the US is 5 times more productive than one who stays home.” Did your interest peak like mine when you read that line? The data comes from research done by the World Bank. Here is the reason why according to Bailey. The average American has access to over $418,000 in intangible wealth, while the stay-at-home Mexican’s intangible wealth is just $34,000.

What is intangible wealth? The World Bank’s environmental economics department describes it as, “trust among people in a society, an efficient judicial system, clear property rights and effective governments.” The value of these intangibles according to the World Bank is significant. Who wants to invest in property if it can be taken away any time? Who wants to develop a large manufacturing plant in a location where these intangibles are hard to come by?

Picture this - a service technician, Frank, opens his mobile application and sees that he is ranked sixth out of 18 service technicians in products and services sold. He also sees that he is the fastest service technician at completing work on a particular piece of equipment. Overall he can see that he is ranked number three when all of the figures are added up and weighed. Now let me ask you, "Is this a good thing?"

Is it useful to develop KPIs (key performance indicators) and then measure and share them? Will it motivate positive performance? One of the key challenges managers have is effectively managing a remote and mobile workforce. Will KPIs that are measured and shared on mobile devices help?

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 1, 2010

This weekend I read an article written by Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, called Africa Needs Aid Not Flawed Theories in the November 27-28 edition of the Wall Street Journal. In it he criticizes author Matt Ridley’s ideas (found in the book The Rational Optimist) by saying, “He seems to think that innovation involves simply coming up with a new idea, when in fact the execution of the idea is critical.”

This got me thinking. If the execution of the idea is what is critical, how does this relate to enterprise mobility vendors?

I receive calls and emails from mobile start-ups weekly. Many are convinced they have a better mobile application, a better strategy and a better team. However, they have no money, only three people in the company, no brand recognition, and no global sales, delivery or support infrastructure. I usually ask a few additional questions to learn if there is anything at all that might hint at their ability to execute. Too often there is not.

I have had several opportunities to visit with large enterprises about their mobility strategies lately. It is interesting watching and learning how large companies go about mobilizing business processes. As a result of these discussions and experiences, I propose that there are at least six phases of this evolutionary process. Let me know your thoughts as well!

I believe that phase one of an enterprise mobility strategy is to recognize the need to mobilize enterprise solutions. Enterprise mobility is not a fad. It is strategic and mission critical. Mobile browsing is predicted to surpass all other forms of internet connectivity within the next year or two. I have seen reports that over 40 percent of the workforce is mobile. Giving them access to the right information, at the right time and at the right place to do their job is critical. Everyone has a smartphone these days. They are indepensable tools for the mobile workforce.

Phase two of your mobile strategy is to start mobilizing basic items like business process notifications, approvals and alerts. These simple mobile "instant value" applications are a good first step to mobilizing your workforce and showing immediate value. My mobile ESPN application sends me the scores of my favorite teams. This is an example of a simple notification solution. This phase helps your mobile workforce to ease into using their mobile devices for business purposes and ERP interactions. Study the results, understand the challenges and use this information to prepare for more complex mobile solutions.

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly - November 30, 2010

The True Value in Enterprise Mobility

Have you ever really thought about where the true value is in enterprise mobility? Is it replacing paper documents with electronic forms and data? Is it replacing manual processes with automated? Is it receiving more accurate data from the field? Is it all about speed and efficiencies? What is it? I think the answer is YES. It is all of the above, but there is much more.

Mobile and real-time communications - Just think about how you text friends and family today. In seconds you can learn where your friends and family members are and what they are doing. This is a relatively new development for humanity. We are compressing time by receiving more information at a faster pace that allows us to act on the information quicker.

I read recently that people no longer are asking for detailed location information when meeting people. They simply say, "I will call or text you when I am close. We can figure out where to meet at that time." This is the result of instant and real time communications.

What Happens When the Novelty of Enterprise Mobility Wears Off?

What happens when wireless connectivity and mobile applications are no longer a novelty? What will enterprise mobility companies talk about? Already SAP's acquisition of Sybase has made the discussion of MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) passé. Enterprise mobility vendors will announce their support for leading MEAPs, much like announcing their support for various OSs, and the discussion will move on to more interesting topics.

What is the value that enterprise mobility vendors will bring to the market in 2011? I propose that the value will come in the following areas:

I believe it is useful to not only study current enterprise mobility trends, but also to look at future trends when planning an enterprise mobility strategy. One of the places to keep an eye on for future trends is the US military. Why? The US military must plan years ahead for each new generation of fighter jet or weapons platform, as the technology takes many years to develop and perfect.

Recently US Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the Department of Defense will begin planning for the next generation (6th generation) of fighter jets. One of the most interesting requirements is that it will be capable of being flown pilotless.

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - November 24, 2010 ** Special Edition

This is a special edition of Kevin's Mobility News Weekly. In this edition I have collected the best market and trend numbers from the past few months and aggregated them into one edition. You can save this edition and use these numbers in your own business plans and presentations.

********

Nokia released its results for second quarter, 2010. They reveal a 40 percent slump in profits to €227 million, compared to €380 million a year ago. On a slightly brighter note, the company increased its share of the smartphone market by one percent to 41 percent in the quarter, having sold 24 million smartphones.

http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/nokia-profits-slump-while-smartphone-share-rises

********

Of the four key Motorola business segments, only the company's enterprise mobility segment experienced growth, with sales of $1.9 billion, up ten percent compared to a year ago.

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly - November 23, 2010 ** Special Edition

This is a special edition of Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly. In this edition I have collected the best market and trend numbers from the past few months and aggregated them into one edition. You can save this edition and use these numbers in your own business plans and presentations.

********

According to Forrester, 47 percent of consumers expect to wait no more than two seconds for a Web page to load; 58 percent of mobile phone users expect websites to load as quickly on their mobile phone as on their PC according to Gomez research.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/compuware-gomez-presents-webinar-on-the-top-e-commerce-strategies-for-turning-web-traffic-into-sales-2010-09-08?reflink=MW_news_stmp

********

In a development with importance to e-commerce merchants and other marketers moving to mobile commerce, phones using Android accounted for one quarter of all North American mobile page views in August, up from 6.4 percent in August 2009, according to the latest numbers from Quantcast Corp. Google’s gain came mostly at the expense of iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone. That system lost 11.4 points of mobile Web share, to finish at 56 percent in August.

http://www.digitaltransactions.net/newsstory.cfm?newsid=2631

********

For most retailers, the fourth quarter is relied upon to generate a substantial portion of the company’s yearly revenue. The mobile commerce market is currently $2.5B with a projected four times annual growth rate for 2013. Businesses have made mobility a top priority for growth and view m-commerce as a new retail channel.

http://smartsoftmobile.com/wordpress/2010/09/10/fourth-quarter-2010-trends-in-mobile-retailing/

********

MarketsandMarkets has released a new report predicting that the value of mobile payment transactions in the US will reach $56 billion in 2015.

http://www.nfcnews.com/2010/08/30/report-us-mobile-payments-market-to-reach-56-billion-in-2015

********

According to a new report from ABI Research, location based marketing will increase from only about $43 million this year to $1.8 billion by 2015 as part of overall mobile marketing budgets.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=135110
********

Forrester predicts B2B interactive marketing spending to reach $4.8 billion by 2014 - almost double that estimated for 2009 ($2.3 billion).

http://www.bizreport.com/2010/03/b2b_marketers_embracing_interactive_channels.html

********

By 2014, about 12 percent of all e-commerce transactions will be made using smartphones and other mobile devices, but fraud detection tools for mobile commerce are lagging, Gartner said.

http://thecitizen.co.tz/business/-/4302-mobile-commerce-surge-outpaces-anti-fraud-tools

********

Mobile online transactions are growing at a fast pace. According to market researcher ABI Research, there will be 20 times more data and 40 times more mobile transactions by 2015.

http://venturebeat.com/2010/09/16/ibm-launches-software-that-will-help-corporations-embrace-social-media-and-mobile-devices/

********

Mobile Marketing has seen growth of over 600 percent in the past year. The Kelsey groups forecasts 2000 percent growth by 2013.

http://smartsoftmobile.com/wordpress/2010/10/05/mobile-marketing-trends/

********

According to Gartner, almost three billion of the world's population will be able to make electronic transactions via mobile or Internet technology by 2014.

http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/news/110100404.asp

********

A reported 81 percent of young consumers around the world are "interested" or "very interested" in employing wireless handsets as a "wallet" linked to bank accounts and loyalty cards.

http://www.warc.com/News/TopNews.asp?ID=27323

********

The location-based services market is forecast to reach $21 billion by 2015 and will total 1.24 billion subscribers.

http://www.companiesandmarkets.com/news/gps-to-drive-21-billion-location-based-services-market-n158.aspx

********

Mobile banking is expected to grow exponentially over the next 12 months, as the world's adoption of smartphones increases.

http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=2979

********

During Google’s third quarter earnings call, the company disclosed that mobile ad sales were now at a $1 billion “annualized run rate.”

http://moconews.net/article/419-google-claims-1-billion-in-annualized-mobile-ad-revenues/

********

Fifty-one percent of mobile owners in the United Kingdom use mobile commerce to make payments, redeem coupons or research products and services.

http://www.utalkmarketing.com/pages/Article.aspx?ArticleID=19240&Title=_Smartphone_users_boost_m-commerce_in_the_UK

********

Will Pinnell, director of mobile commerce for Sabre Holdings, told Mobile Commerce Forum attendees that global mobile shoppers will spend $119 billion by 2015 - up from $12 billion last year.

http://www.brafton.com/industry-news/mobile-shoppers-spend-119-billion-in-2015-according-experts-at-mobile-commerce-forum-$800119329.htm

********

Just over half of mobile phone owners in the UK, or 23 million people, are now using their devices for mobile commerce.

http://www.businessandleadership.com/marketing/item/26174-half-of-uk-mobile-users-now/

********

Approximately 49 percent of businesses are willing to pay for the convenience of mobile cash management capabilities, pointing toward the ability for banks to generate fee based revenues.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/survey-shows-high-demand-for-corporate-mobile-banking-around-the-globe-2010-10-25?reflink=MW_news_stmp

********

Mobile financial services are growing at a head spinning clip. The number of active users has climbed to 17.8 million from 4.9 million two years ago and will reach 53.1 million by 2013.

http://www.digitaltransactions.net/newsstory.cfm?newsid=2672

********

Twenty-five percent of consumers have used a mobile phone for research while shopping -- and 55 percent of those aged 18 to 24 have.

http://www.cbc.ca/smartshift/2010/09/smart-retailers-are-tapping-in-to-phone-wielding-bargain-hunters.html

********

Smartsoft Mobile empowers some of the world’s largest multi-national organizations to extend and improve business processes by providing mobile solutions to their employees and customers. Smartsoft has more than 700 experienced ERP/mobile consultants with over 5,000 man years of experience helping 400,000 plus mobile users achieve their business goals with powerful mobile B2B and B2C applications, designed and developed specifically for today’s popular consumer and industrial grade mobile devices. For more information please visit, http://www.smartsoftmobile.com/. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Smartsoft Mobile Solutions.

********

Kevin Nix, presented staggering statistics about the explosive adoption of mobile devices and mobile apps at the 2010 SAP Retail Forum. Three million iPads were sold in eighty days; 1.7 million iPhone 4 devices were sold in three days; and the use of mobile apps is expected to increase to 100 million by 2013.

http://www.retailsolutionsonline.com/article.mvc/Leverage-Mobility-To-Create-Business-0001?VNETCOOKIE=NO

********

There has been a rapid increase in the number of active users of location-based services in the United States, up from 12.3 million in 2009, and it is predicted to hit 33.2 million at the end of 2010.

http://fixed-mobile-convergence.tmcnet.com/topics/mobile-communications/articles/111764-smartphone-adoption-predicted-drive-lbs-services.htm

********

A recent eMarketer report projects that marketers will spend in excess of $1 billion on mobile marketing in 2011.

http://www.ricg.com/marketing_articles/digital_marketing/mobile_marketing_budgets_to_surpass_1_billion_next_year_/

********

Forty-three percent of mobile phone owners have purchased movies, music and games—“shrink-wrapped” physical goods, not digital products—via their phones between March and August.

http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/10/15/mobile-shoppers-are-buying-movies-clothing-and-more

********

Sixty-one percent of mobile operators surveyed thought that coupons or vouchers would become the dominant form of mobile marketing by 2015.

http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/61-of-carriers-see-mobile-coupons-as-the-dominant-form-of-mobile-marketing-by-2015-11065/

********

PayPal Mobile general manager Eric Duprat keynoted the final day of ARM TechCon in Santa Clara last week. He predicts that within five years the majority of $5.5 trillion in retail transactions that occur face-to-face will be handled through mobile devices.

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4210662/PayPal-exec-charts-future-of-mobile-money

********

More than one million people in the UK have used PayPal to make a payment or send money from their mobile phones.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/39301/1m-Brits-have-made-PayPal-mobile-payments

********

Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, mobile industry analyst and experienced mobile industry executive, offers both one and two day onsite workshops designed to educate and inform executives and management teams on enterprise mobility and mobile strategies for businesses. This workshop is designed to provide a complete overview of enterprise mobility and what it means to the business. The workshop is customized based upon the needs of participants. For more details visit http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/workshops.html.

********

Recent Articles by Kevin Benedict

Mobile Expert Interview Series: SAP's Usman Sheikh, December 2010
Vivido Labs Releases New Moible BI Application for SAP Customers
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sybase's Willie Jow, Part 1
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sybase's Willie Jow, Part 2
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sybase's Willie Jow, Part 3
Update on Sybase Reorganization, Revised Edition
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Neil McHugh

Podcast: SAP Enterprise Mobility - Where Do We Go From Here?
********

Archived editions of Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly are available at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-retail-news-weekly.html

You can follow me on Twitter @krbenedict and read my blog, Enterprise Mobility Strategies.

Also available are Kevin’s M2M News Weekly and Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly.

********

I have added a feature to my blog site that supports email subscriptions. You can now receive all blog articles directly via email. If you are interested, click here.

***************************************************
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.

Ben Lee on the Mobile Wallet

Mobile retailing guru Ben Lee has written a very interesting blog article on Google's new mobile payment platform. Some of the most interesting points are as follows:

Google’s next version of its Android Smartphone software will support a technology that lets people use their handsets, instead of credit cards.
Google CEO Eric Schmitt said that support for Near Field Communications will be integrated into the next version of its Android software.
Three of the four largest mobile phone carriers in the U.S. have formed a joint venture to turn phones into digital wallets.
Many mobile application developers will incorporate this new functionality into mobile retailing applications.

Bill Moylan, Syclo's EVP of Sales

This is part four of the an interview with Syclo's Bill Moylan.

Kevin: What other trends are you seeing in the enterprise mobility market?

Bill: We are actually still quite focused on the traditional market of field services. We have a narrower view of enterprise mobility than perhaps you. There are more devices, more operating systems and more choices for mobile devices, but the value propositions are much the same as we have been selling for sometime.

Kevin: What do you predict will be different in 2011 in the enterprise mobility market?

Bill: There will be a massive amount of options available for new mobile devices and operating systems. This will allow Syclo to recommend exactly the right kind of mobile devices for each kind of job. We will be announcing Android support soon.

Kevin: What industry markets are you focusing on today?

Interviews with Kevin Benedict