SAP's Acquisition of Sybase in 2010 Revisited - A Third Cup of Coffee


Cup #1
A third cup of Java's "bowl of soul" coffee, and now I am having flashbacks to May 2010.  I was and am a big fan of SAP's acquisition of Sybase.  I was a long time partner of Sybase and valued their mobile middleware, which I embedded in my mobile business apps for years. The cautions I shared in 2010, were that Sybase did not have a library of mobile apps or a robust SDK at that time, and businesses still needed to figure out how to get mobile apps.

[Kevin Benedict, May 12, 2010]  … none of [Sybase’s] solutions provide a company with mobile applications that solves their [business] problems.  A database is not an application.  Synchronization is not an application.  Mobile device management is not an application.  All of these solutions are just pieces that offer no value unless somebody builds something with them.

[Kevin Benedict, May 12, 2010]  Sybase is not a mobile application company.  They have great mobile middleware, mobile databases, synchronization and integration technology and mobile device management.  However, none of these products provide a company with a mobile applications that solves their problems.

Cup #2
[Kevin Benedict, May 13, 2010]  Sybase is not known for their mobile applications.  They primarily license mobile middleware and mobile databases to companies that develop mobile software applications.  SAP users need mobile applications.  Mobile applications, not mobile middleware, provide the ROIs customers seek.

[Kevin Benedict, May 12, 2010]  Sybase does not have an SDK.  How can a large enterprise with custom mobility needs build an application?  

OK, I am back to 2012!

SAP's announced intent to acquire Syclo last week will provide SAP with a proven SDK, a library of valuable mobile applications and a mobile app customer base.  These are good.  These were the missing pieces of the puzzle.  With this acquisition, however, there will be some overlap in capabilities between Sybase and Syclo as this 2010 interview with Syclo's EVP Jeff Kleban reveals (oh no!  Another 2010 flashback!!!!).

Cup #3
[Kevin] Who is Syclo's biggest competitor? [Jeff] It varies since there are so many point solutions in the market, but if a customer were looking for a MEAP, they will tend to look at Syclo and Sybase who are the leaders.   

Soon both MEAP vendors will be owned by SAP.  SAP will, I expect, continue to port the Syclo solutions onto SUP to unify the solutions.  I am scheduling a call with the SAP mobility team next week to learn more.

The new partnerships with Adobe's PhoneGap, Sencha Touch and Titanium SDK from Appcelerator will give mobile app developers even more tools and options for rapid application development.  In addition, long term SAP partners Open Text, Sky Technologies and ClickSoftware also have mobile solutions and SDKs that are tightly integrated with SAP solutions.  Again, this is good for the SAP ecosystem, although a plethora of choices does not always make for speedy decision making and lower TCOs (total cost of ownership).

It now seems the pieces to the enterprise mobility puzzle are on the table, however, the puzzle picture to be solved is unknown in many cases.  The problem for many companies, is the lack of strategy.  Now that developers have the technologies and tools - what are they to develop?  This is most often a decision that the business must make.  The business must paint the puzzle picture.  They must understand how enterprise mobility and mobile apps can and will change the competitive landscape of their industries.  The business must understand this and work with developers to take advantage of mobility.

It would be sad for the developers to have a wide selection of powerful tools to develop innovative mobile solutions, but then not be able to get the business to paint the picture or to re-engineer their processes to take advantage of them.

On a side note - Just because all of these tools are now available, it does not mean a company should develop their own mobile solutions.  Companies may be better off out-sourcing, subscribing to a cloud based solution or purchasing an off-the-shelf app.  There are a lot of different points to consider. We will discuss this in more details soon.

***Next week on April 26th I will be speaking in Atlanta at a lunch event organized by Motorola and ClickSoftware.  If you are interested in attending please register here.  I will be providing an update on my latest research into enterprise mobility, best practices and mobile strategies.

Read more on the subject of SAP's intent to acquire Syclo here:
SAP Acquires Syclo - A First Analysis Over Coffee  
SAP Acquires Syclo – A Second Cup of Coffee and 25 Comments
*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
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.
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Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of April 15, 2012

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 Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

A new study from Juniper Research indicates NFC technology will facilitate transactions valued at $74 billion by 2015, as NFC is increasingly used to pay for goods in store, and for transport ticketing. This is over treble the estimated value of this market in 2011. Read Original Content

In RichRelevance’s “The 2012 Q1 shopping insights mobile study,” the company looked at how iPad shoppers are responsible for a solid chunk of browsing and buying on mobile. The study also looked at the buying habits of iPad owners, which has clear implications on how retailers should be developing tablet-specific efforts. Read Original Content

Intuit is extending its mobile commerce strategy with a new deal to acquire shopping application AisleBuyer. According to reports, Intuit and AisleBuyer have been piloting an integration of the app’s mobile check-out technology with Intuit’s products. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

A new report from KPMG predicts that mobile commerce will grow by 97 percent per year over the next three years, with revenue from mobile commerce expected to hit £591 billion by 2015. Read Original Content


Nokia and Microsoft are jointly jumping onto the NFC bandwagon with the next version of the Lumia 610. Slated to debut in Europe sometime this summer, the new version of the 610 will be the first Windows Phone handset to let users pay for goods on the go via NFC. Read Original Content

NFC technology is slowly being incorporated into mobile phones to create an electronic virtual wallet. Simply pass your phone over a reader and money is extracted from your funds that are stored on a computer someplace else. Those who don't think this is a disaster waiting to happen do not understand technology. Read Original Content
Read more »
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Developing Enterprise Mobility Apps and a Flashback to 2006

Mobility Blogging in 2006
Developing a mobile solution is still a major challenge for most companies.  In 2006, I was just starting to blog and I was the CEO of a mobile applications company (similar to Syclo) and a close partner of Sybase.  Back then I used different terms and device names, but much of the advice I wrote then is still valid.  Here is an excerpt from a blog article in 2006.

Year 2006 - If you have never created mobile applications, there is a steep learning curve.  A lot of mobile [apps and middleware] development is just plain tedious, expensive and risky.
  1. Are you going to develop for just one kind of handheld computer or many? There are many different screen sizes, buttons, accessories, etc. If you want to support many different kinds of handhelds and their unique add-on components yourself - expect a couple of years of development.
  2. How do you develop a solution that will work equally well on all devices such as Tablet PCs, PDAs, Smart Phones, Pocket PCs and/or laptops? What if your business user wants you to support them all with the same mobile application?
  3. How do you develop and manage a synchronization server? Have you ever contemplated how difficult this might be?
  4. How do you add database integration to your synchronization? How do you do this without messing up the production servers?
  5. How do you add data validation to your mobile solutions?
  6. How are you going to manage secure communications between your mobile application and your central database?
  7. How do you build in mobile printing support?
  8. How do you manage the deployment of mobile devices and track all the users and mobile applications?
  9. Who is going to write all the help menus, user documentation, etc., if you develop in-house?
  10. How do you add support for new hardware add-ons such as bar code scanners, RFID readers, GPS, digital cameras, printers to your application?
  11. When Microsoft [or iOS, Android, Blackberry] releases the next version, are you going to re-write your application to support the new smartphones and other hardware? You will be required to since all new handheld devices are sold with the latest OS.
Six years later much has changed, there is HTML5, better mobile devices, and better mobile solutions today, but also much has stayed the same.  There is still a lot you must know about mobile app development.  If you are wanting to learn more, then you might find this upcoming webinar by Verivo of value:

Best Practices - The Mobile App Software Development Lifecycle

Developing mobile apps brings a new set of challenges and software development processes that IT teams must be prepared to address.  Whether you’re building your first app or you’re part of an organization building multiple apps with multiple technologies, attend this webinar to learn about best practices in building mobile apps across the complete software development lifecycle.  Get practical insights and answers to your questions to help deliver the right app, on time, and on budget.

This is the first in a series of webinars that will focus on best practices in the software development processes for building mobile apps.  Attend this webinar to:
  • Understand the key differences between mobile development and traditional IT development across the complete software development lifecycle.
  • Discover hidden risks and best practices in defining requirements, building components, setting up your infrastructure, testing, and deployment.
  • Learn about two team-member roles that are critical to the success of every enterprise mobility project.
Date:  April 18
Time: 1PM EDT
REGISTER HERE!
*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
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.
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What's New in HTML5 - Week of April 16, 2012


SAP has become a big advocate of HTML5 for enterprise mobility.  Many of their recently announced partnerships with mobile vendors include strong endorsements of HTML5.  I also see HTML5 playing a very important role for mobile applications developed in house.  It is very hard to justify creating native applications for all platforms when you are only distributing the mobile apps internally.  The economies of scale that mobility vendors can receive, are often not possible when developing for internal customers.

Information visualization firm Periscopic has worked on a number of HTML5 sites developed for the iPad.  They found that switching from Flash to HTML5 was not as bad as they feared.  Read original content

Sencha reviewed Apple’s new iPad and iOS 5.1 and results of the HTML5 Scorecard indicated the new product and OS were a “mixed bag at best and a disappointment at worst”.  Read original content

Cisco predicts that the number of mobile connected devices will exceed the world’s population in 2012.    This article provides five reasons to turn to HTML5 for building a mobile site.  Read original content

The University of Notre Dame has redesigned its website using a mobile first approach that provides content on any device.  Read original content

With the border between desktop and mobile quickly fading away, the best way to provide content to the end user regardless of desktop or mobile is with HTML5.  This article explores five reasons why HTML5 matters for meeting expectations and providing users what they want, keeping clients focused on your service, product or website.  Read original content

Stating that “we believe that web technologies are important to the future of mobile and that we can help to make HTML5 a well-supported platform for mobile developers to build upon,” Facebook has open-sourced Ringmark, its browser test suite for developing mobile applications.  Read original content

Software company CodeBaby has announced that its 3D virtual assistant technology is now available for mobile devices.  The company’s 3D interactive characters will be implemented on mobile devices through the emerging HTML5 video standards.  Read original content

Speakers at the India Software Developer Conference in March provided advice on developing mobile apps using HTML5, with presentations such as “Building Mobile HTML5 Apps in Hours, Not Days” and ““Cross platform Mobile App Development with HTML 5”.  Read original content

The Pacific Asia Travel Association has launched a real-time travel data platform that travel industry professionals can use on their mobile devices.  PATAmPOWER was created in HTML5 and is available for smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops.  Read original content
*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
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.
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Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly – Week of April 15, 2012

The Field Mobility and M2M 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 Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Google Maps currently covers 187 countries, providing 26 million miles of driving directions and covering 75 percent of the world’s population. Read Original Content

An enterprising team in Los Angeles has created Road Stoves, allowing customers to locate their favorite mobile food vendor. Mobile food vendors install GPS units in their trucks and customers can download an iPhone or Android app to locate the participating vendors. Read Original Content

Tablets and smartphones could become the control point for the connected, automated home of the future, allowing homeowners to dim the lights, open the curtains, engage the alarm or check in on our kids via video feed. Read Original Content

Since 1995, Syclo has enabled hundreds of companies in 37 countries and industries supercharge their businesses with mobility.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Syclo. http://www.syclo.com/.

A new system utilizing bar codes and smart printers has allowed Koegel Meats of Flint, Michigan to streamline their antiquated labeling and product tracking operations. Read Original Content

Consulting firm Burns and McDonnell has found that using rugged tablets and specialized mobile data collection applications has markedly increased the efficiency and accuracy of data collected by its field staff. Read Original Content


Siemens and Streetline have partnered to create an M2M solution for urban parking limitations.  Wireless sensors detect the presence of vehicles in individual parking spaces.  A free smartphone app provides real-time data to motorists, guiding them to available parking spaces, allowing them to keep track of the time left on the meter, and pay for parking. Read Original Content
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Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of April 15, 2012


Welcome to Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility in Asia.  Asia is predicted to be the fastest area of growth for enterprise mobility between now and 2016.


The GSMA has predicted that China will become the largest mobile broadband market in the world by 2016, with 639 million mobile broadband connections.  India is predicted to come in second with 367 million, followed by the United States with 337 million. Read Original Content

The mobile commerce market in India is just emerging, but m-payment and m-banking segments have shown significant growth over the last few years. Research and Markets has added a new report to their offering – "Mobile Commerce Market in India 2012". Read Original Content

ABI Research predicts mobile Internet will account for 44 percent of Hong Kong’s and 40 percent of Japan’s mobile revenues in 2012.  China is growing, with a predicted 25 percent of 2012’s mobile revenue coming from mobile Internet, up from 23 percent in 2011.  In India, mobile Internet will represent 19 percent of the 2012 service revenue. Read Original Content and Read More Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

 Profit by Outsourcing, a web development company in India, has launched Mobile Application Development Services.  The goals of the new services are to enable enterprise mobility for its customers and their end users in the service areas of client professional services and customer support. Read Original Content


Taiwanese firm AppWorks Ventures and 24 app design teams held a press conference last week to present apps designed to make life for mobile device users more convenient. Read Original Content
Read more »
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Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of April 8, 2012

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

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

A recent study by Philips showed compelling and tangible benefits gained from telehealth solutions: 89 percent of health agencies reported an increase in quality outcomes, and 76 percent cited reduction in unplanned hospitalizations. Read Original Content

GreatCall has launched a subscription-based LiveNurse iPhone app, designed to connect patients with care providers in real-time. LiveNurse offers unlimited access to a registered nurse 24 hours a day and seven days a week along with a medical library and symptom navigator tool. Read Original Content

In the developing world, there are only about 11 million hospital beds but 300 million computers and 2.2 billion mobiles. The telecommunications company Etisalat is pushing new mHealth technology, such as its Mobile Baby app, which combats maternal deaths linked to childbirth in developing countries. Read Original Content

Webalo technology eliminates the need for traditional mobile application development tools and custom programming to provide in hours, instead of weeks or months, mobile access to the specific enterprise data and functions that smartphone and tablet users rely on to do their jobs.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Webalo, www.webalo.com.

As detailed in a recent IT Business Edge article – “Health Care Providers’ Interest in Business Intelligence Growing” – many organizations and institutions in the healthcare industry, specifically in the U.S., are beginning to realize the benefits of Business Intelligence solutions. Read Original Content


Two years after passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, mobility is helping guide healthcare IT. For example, mobile devices allow a doctor to immediately record a patient’s vitals, medications and diagnosis, which can then be stored securely on virtual servers and shared through a national network for other providers to gain access. Read Original Content

UnitedHealthcare has donated $700,000 to the Sacramento-based California Telehealth Network to expand telemedicine training and provide technical support for rural and underserved hospitals and clinics in California. Read Original Content
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SAP Acquires Syclo – A Second Cup of Coffee and 25 Comments

This is the second article in this series on SAP's announced intent to acquire Syclo.  You can read Part 1 here.

I am now on my second cup of coffee, a different day, but still pondering SAP's announced acquisition of Syclo.  On the Linkedin group,  SAP Enterprise Mobility (you should all join!), I conducted a poll.  The question was, “Do you think SAP's announced intention to acquire mobility vendor Syclo is a good move?"  Here are the poll results and comments as of this afternoon (105 respondents):

72% - YES
17% - NO
10%   - I don’t know

It seems the overwhelming opinion is that it will be a good thing, however, many of the comments seemed to reflect more frustration from the SAP ecosystem than the poll numbers reflected.  IT departments and systems integrators are obviously having a challenge keeping up with this rapidly evolving field and SAP's moves.

Comments:
  1. I think this will add more confusion for customers and partners who I am sure are scratching their head and trying to figure out which way to go now.
  2. I think SAP will benefit from this acquisition, especially in the utilities sector.
  3. Syclo already supports SUP, so it makes sense to add it to SAPs mobile portfolio.
  4. The only logical conclusion I can draw is that they [SAP] probably wanted to keep Oracle away.
  5. SAP has been selling SUP licenses by millions so it would be interesting to see how those customers will react now.
  6. Syclo has a suite of well-respected vertical mobile applications, which already run on the SUP platform. 

By blending the two I see a flexible, broad-brush, technical platform with industry focused market messaging and improved ability to execute/deliver. 
I therefore see this as a good thing for SAP and for customers who wish to get into mobility.
  7. This will upset partner companies like ClickSoftware who are heavily investing in SAP and the SUP platform.
  8. I think [success] will depend on how well SAP is able to integrate Syclo Agentry platform and Syclo SMART suite with SUP, as they all have very distinct and desirable features.
  9. In my eyes SAP has not done a good job at offering a simple mobility roadmap.  It is confusing.
  10. I definitely think that the acquisition of Syclo will be beneficial for both Syclo and SAP.
  11. SAP customers favor standards and stability!!! 
With SUP the mobility platform already became very complex with too many possibilities and no clear direction. 
Partners are already hesitating to invest, as they don’t know how the whole thing is evolving.
  12. What’s the message to customers who just bought some SUP licenses and just started an EAM project?! What do they say to partners which invested in SUP Apps?! What do all the account executives at SAP tell their customers after preaching that Sybase is the answer to all mobility questions for a year now?
  13. SAP is just losing its credibility with customers and partners.
  14. This move is throwing the whole mobility efforts back by at least 12 months.
  15. 

It’s unclear at the moment how the Agentry platform fits, but I can see SAP merging functionality into the SUP MBO/Integration components to further improve the integration capability of the platform.
  16. SAP has already more choices to mobilize their workforce than they can explain to clients. Why invest in one more absolutely different solution with a new server, a new landscape, new licensing and even worse, no real 4GL?
  17. Clients already dealing with Sybase, now need to communicate with SAP, but these guys have no idea on how to get more licenses. Ask 10 sales people and get 20 different answers....
  18. Before investing into a new product, SAP should do their homework and solve the main 
issues they have - the lack of a clear and fair license strategy to their clients that is communicated through all channels.
  19. I have seen Syclo and ClickSoftware’s scheduler integrated and deployed at a utilities.  It was an EAM implementation. It was not initially a happy marriage but nevertheless provided a good ability to extend SAP to Ruggedized devices with good capability to integrate with GIS thrown in.
  20. My guess is that SAP bought Syclo for the following reasons; Syclo customers, Syclo employees and their expertise within field services and asset management.
  21. What is the road map for Syclo's Agentry framework?
  22. This will result in confusion on the part of many customers who were looking at the SAP EAM Mobile solution.
  23. Once the dust settles, I think this will turn out to be a long-term winner.
  24. SAP customers and partners now face a daunting task of updating their own SAP mobility strategy - for the 9th time?
  25. From the point of view of a customer still trying to work out its mobile strategy this constant change is simply making me wait. I'm not about to make a major investment in skills and technology for a mobile platform that might become obsolete with SAP's next purchase. SAP need to let things stabilize now. Please...

Change is always difficult, and rapid change is even more difficult.  I worked with the folks at SAPinsider on an analyst paper a couple of months back and we found that developing a mobile strategy was one of the biggest challenges.  This intended acquisition is likely to make developing a mobile strategy even more of a challenge in the short term.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Next week, on Thursday, April 19th, I will be participating with Syclo on a webinar organized by ASUG. I will be talking about the role of mobile enterprise application platforms now and in the future.   I hope you can join us, register here.

Read Part 1 of this series here.
Read Part 3 of this series here.


*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
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.
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Mobility News Weekly – Week of April 8, 2012

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 Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly

According to the 2012 State of the Mobile Web survey, higher education has reached the tipping point when it comes to mobile web solutions. Only 39 percent of respondents don’t have any mobile solution yet, and 59 percent plan to implement such a solution within a year.  Read Original Content

ComScore’s latest report shows that 49.5 percent of mobile subscribers downloaded apps in the past ninety days. That’s an increase of 4.6 percent over the three-month average from late last year.  Read Original Content

Despite the fact that Nokia ended 2011 on a very low note worldwide, posting a $1.4 billion loss in the fourth quarter, a recent Gulf News report shows that it happens to be the top selling smartphone manufacturer in the Middle East.  Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

The Reality Checker report on Business Intelligence and Management Information found that 15.2 percent of 56 individual survey respondents were implementing mobile systems in 2012 versus 8.7 percent last year. The figures for cloud development were 6 percent in 2011 and 4.2 percent in 2012.  Read Original Content

In mid-December 2011, 17 percent of American adults reported they had read an e-book the previous year. By February 2012, that share increased to 21 percent.  Read Original Content


The latest Gartner research forecasts 118.9 million tablets will be sold this year, a 98 percent increase from last year’s sales of 60 million units.  Read Original Content
Read more »
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Mobile Marketing News Weekly – Week of April 8, 2012


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 Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

In Forrester’s “Combine social and mobile to build business-to-business customer relationships” study, the research company looked at how social media and mobile can be used together to cultivate a relationship with customers. The report also looked at how business-to-business professionals expect their marketing budgets to be used in 2012. Read Original Content

Mobile paid search budgets grew 221.1 percent during the first quarter of 2012 as smartphone and tablet penetration continues to grow, according to a new report from IgnitionOne. Read Original Content

The gap between smartphone and tablet behavior continues to grow, signaling how the two devices need to be treated with different marketing campaigns, according to a new study from Forrester Research. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

Samsung has joined forces with OpenX Technologies to offer a mobile advertising platform to compete with similar services offered by Google and Apple. AdHub Market allows advertisers to focus their commercial messages on Samsung's tablets and smartphones. Read Original Content

Clickatell has released its new Clickatell Mobile Campaign Manager, a CMCM platform that can be accessed from any web browser and provides simple, straightforward setup and operation. CMCM uses a 5-digit U.S. short code origination address to send text messages to U.S. mobile phone numbers. Read Original Content


According to research conducted by Markets and Markets Business Market Research Firm, the global worth of the mobile applications market is set to reach $25 billion by 2015, which will establish an increase in value of $6.8 billion on the figures recorded in 2010. Read Original Content
Read more »
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SAP Acquires Syclo - A First Analysis Over Coffee

WARNING!  These are my (Kevin Benedict's) personal thoughts and opinions pondered over a cup of my favorite coffee shop's bowl of soul, on the outdoor patio, in the warm spring sunshine of Boise, Idaho.

My first thought when I received the news today that SAP is acquiring Syclo, was, "Smart move SAP!" I respect the fact that SAP is willing to double down on enterprise mobility.  I also respect the fact that SAP is willing to brave the inevitable criticism for having bought the same solution twice.   SAP has smart leaders.  They have made an aggressive and brave decision with this acquisition.  I think they recognized an unmet need, estimated the impact, valued the market and fixed it.  I am sure this was not an easy decision.  It will raise many questions, but I am sure it will make Sapphire 2012 even more interesting (perhaps even more than Van Halen in concert).

SAP has doubled down on enterprise mobility, while Oracle is still not even in the game.  I find it fascinating that the SAP leadership has a vision and is charging ahead while Oracle is on the sidelines.  How curious.
Oracles on the Sidelines

SAP thought they were getting all of the features that Syclo offers (MEAP, SDK, production ready mobile apps, experience, talent, etc.) when they bought Sybase in 2010. However, once they had critically examined Sybase post-acquisition, they realized there were gaps.  Mainly, they spent $5.8 billion, in large part to gain a mobile solution, but then realized there were no batteries included (i.e. mobile apps).

Syclo, on the other hand, offers not only a mobile middleware platform (some say it is better than SUP), but has many industry proven, in production, mobile applications.  These are real mobile apps.  Apps that can transform companies.  These are mobile apps that husky, uniform wearing men and women, with five o'clock shadows use to build national electrical grids and other mud covered systems and objects.

Not only does Syclo offer a library of "real" mobile applications that are in production, but they bring desperately needed enterprise mobility skills, real customers and a passion for mobility to the SAP family.

Let's get back to the subject of mobile enterprise application platforms (MEAPs).  When SAP announced the acquisition of Sybase in 2010, I detected mostly unspoken frustration in the eyes of the Syclo management team when I interviewed them about the acquisition.  I believe they felt their MEAP was better than Sybase's.  It will now be interesting to see which MEAP wins out in the long term.  Yes, I know that Syclo has announced that their solutions will now run on SUP, but I think they agreed to this mostly under duress.

Syclo's SDK is designed to produce "real" production ready mobile apps, not just partial code for programmers.  I know of many large deployments of production mobile apps from Syclo.  Syclo has earned their stripes, and now SAP and SAP customers will benefit from this.

The biggest complaint about SAP mobility has now been addressed - the lack of production quality, real mobile applications being used by happy customers.  It will now be very interesting to see how the SAP mobility stack, stacks up.

The inventory and options for developing mobile solutions has now jumped up another notch.  It was already a challenge to figure out the best way to design, develop, integrate, deploy and support a mobile solution.  Now, instead of having hundreds of different ways to build a mobile solution in the SAP world, there will be more.  It will be interesting to watch how SAP works to simplify their message given so many possible ways mobile apps can be implemented.

SAP will now have the Sybase Unwired Platform, Agentry 6.0 and Smart Mobile Suite from Syclo, Sybase 365, NetWeaver Gateway and all of the other SAP ecosystem partners.  Things will get interesting!

I know the management team at Syclo and value their passion, expertise, perseverance and talent.  They have not always been the flashiest company, some even drive Smart cars, but they have demonstrated their value by quietly deploying thousands and thousands of real mobile applications around the world in production environments and making customers happy.

Now comes other challenges for SAP.  How do they merge and consolidate so many good mobile solutions that may not always be compatible with each other?  Will these solutions be adequate for B2C (business to consumer) apps, or is that a unique category that requires a different acquisition or internal development effort?  I know Syclo has been evangelizing their B2C apps for the past few months.  This is a recent push and it will be interesting to see how it holds up under more scrutiny.

How will SAP manage relationships with important partners like ClickSoftware which also has a powerful and competing enterprise mobility solutions called ClickMobile. SAP private labels a ClickSoftware solution called, SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization by ClickSoftware.  It has its own mobile client.  Again, this will be interesting to watch.

Does the Syclo acquisition enhance mobility in the cloud?  I am not sure.

I love enterprise mobility, and its a good thing because now my coffee is cold.

Read Part 2 in this series here.
Read Part 3 in this series here. 
Read Part 4 in this series here.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
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.
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Kevin Benedict Speaking about Mobile Strategies in Atlanta on April 26th

Motorola Solutions and ClickSoftware are organizing an enterprise mobility lunch event in Atlanta, GA on April 26th from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM (see details).  I have the honor of being asked to speak at this event.  If you are in the area I would love to meet up and discuss enterprise mobility with you!

I will be speaking on the topics of mobile strategies for the enterprise, mobile trends, analyst views and managing the real-time enterprise.

In addition to my presentation, you will also be learning about:
  • Advances in mobile technology, wireless bandwidth, and web services making NOW the perfect time to plan and execute on your company’s mobile vision.
  • Creating a competitive advantage through collaboration between peers and across departments.
  • Using mobility as the catalyst and enabler for aligning the entire enterprise service policies.
  • Defining pre-requisites for tomorrow’s mobile platform to support and connect all mobile employees.
  • Selecting a device that meets the needs of the business as well as the demands of the users.
This will be an intimate lunch event and seats are limited so register soon!
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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
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.
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Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of April 8, 2012

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 Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Fifty-eight percent of consumers who have a smart device use location-based applications, despite concerns about safety and use of their personal information for marketing purposes, according to a survey from nonprofit global information security association ISACA. Read Original Content

Among the top 200 grossing apps at Google Play and the Apple App Store, 60 percent of all revenue came from purchases made through apps on smartphones and tablets. The iPad and iPhone app stores brought in daily revenue of $2.1 million and $3.3 million, respectively, in January 2012. Read Original Content

Nordstrom, the Seattle-based fashion and beauty retailer, is rolling out mobile point-of-sale devices. These mobile POS devices, a modified iPod Touch with a merchandise scanner and credit card slider, allow employees to check out customers from anywhere in the store. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

The new StockTouch app allows you to visualize the stocks of 1,350 companies on one interface. The app is an easy-to-read heat map that displays the top 100 U.S. and top 100 global companies in all 9 industry sectors of the market. The app covers nearly 75 percent of all global trading activity. Read Original Content

A chart taken from a Toluna/Econsultancy survey from May last year found that 19 percent of 2,000 online respondents had used their mobiles to compare prices and look at product reviews while out shopping. Read Original Content


The introduction of open loop "tap and go" payments could cut commuting time by nearly an hour a week, a survey conducted for MasterCard has found, and 47 percent of commuters would be willing to use their mobile phone to make transit payments. Read Original Content
Read more »
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MEAPs are They Needed?

On the SAP Enterprise Mobility Linkedin group I asked the question, "Are stand alone MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) required for a large company implementing multiple mobile applications and multiple mobile devices that will be integrated with ERPs?"

Twenty-one people took the poll and here are the results:
  • 76% said YES
  • 23% said NO
I would like to ask the 23% for their strategy and guidance as to how one would effectively manage many different mobile apps, mobile devices, mobile users and mobile operating systems if you are not going to use a mobile platform.

I know some companies like appsFreedom and Webalo offer cloud based mobile apps for SAP that run on many different devices and mobile operating systems, but if you had custom mobile apps with complexity, wouldn't that be difficult to manage without a platform?

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
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.
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Interviews with Kevin Benedict