Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

SAP to Buy Sybase for $6 Billion - First Thoughts

I will have better analysis after pondering this announcement for a few days, but here is my first, off-the-cuff thoughts. SAP will instantly be a leader in mobile middleware with this acquisition, but this acquisition does little to solve the needs of large enterprises today. 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. A database is not an application. Synchronization is not an applications. Mobile device management is not an application. All of these solutions are just pieces that offer no value unless somebody builds something with them. Who will that be?

Sybase does not have a SDK. How can a large enterprise with custom mobility needs build an application? Sybase tells them to go pick a programming environment of their choice. That does not help make developing mobile applications easy!

Sybase does not make it easy for systems integrators to deliver mobile applications either, since there is no SDK.

Afaria is a huge, an even obese mobile device management system. It can do anything and everything you can ever imagine. I once had a consultant tell me that the training class for Afaria was like 3 or 4 days long and was overkill, overkill, overkill! That is far more device management than 99.9% of the world wants in Afaria. I love Afaria, it is just so very expensive and complex.

SAP now needs to explain how this acquisition will deliver mobile applications that provide ROIs. Mobile application partners of SAP may want to start using some of the mobile middleware available through this acquisition and focus on the mobile business processes, mobile applications, mobile workflow and user experiences. More later...

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Kevin Benedict SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor,CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Mobile Industry Analyst, Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************

Sapphire and Enterprise Mobility

I just got off of the phone with Bonnie Rothenstein at SAP. She works in the enterprise mobility group at SAP. She is arranging meetings for me with all the right people at SAP to get the latest news and updates on enterprise mobility. I will be posting updates to this blog as often as I can next week.

Bonnie was sharing the extensive list of presentations, demonstrations and sessions focused on enterprise mobility that will be available at Sapphire this year. The list is long! I am very excited about the focused efforts around enterprise mobility that I am seeing from SAP. I will be attending as many of these mobility related events as my schedule allows. Look for me in an SAP Mentor rugby shirt, #45, at these events and introduce yourself!

If you can't make Sapphire this year, but want a full recap of the developments in enterprise mobility after Sapphire, please contact me to schedule a time to discuss.

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Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Mobile Industry Analyst, Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************

SAP Mobility Goes Mainstream in 2010

I read an interesting article today on SAP's SCN that announces mobility will be a key focus of SAPPHIRE 2010. Here is an excerpt, "We are in the midst of what might be described as a smartphone revolution. It is clear that SAP has also accepted this." In an independent analysis, Bob Evans wrote a piece (Information Week, April 30, 2010) titled: "Inside SAP: 10 Factors Behind Its Dramatic Turnaround." In this article, he calls out "Making Mobile Matter" as one of these 10 factors. He quotes J. Snabe, co-CEO, SAP AG, as saying that SAP is committed to making sure that "SAP solutions can be accessed from all leading mobile platforms, like RIM, Nokia, Apple, Google Android, etc."

SAP's co-CEO Jim Snabe has made enterprise mobility a key priority of SAP. More than a dozen mobile applications that integrate with SAP will be demonstrated at Sapphire this year. 2010 is an extraordinary time to be involved in SAP enterprise mobility. If you would like to learn more about SAP enterprise mobility please join the Linkedin group of the same name or contact me.

If you are attending Sapphire this year and want to look at the latest in mobile applications then look for the following companies:

Vivido Labs
Sky Technologies
Leapfactor
Syclo
Sybase
RoamBI
ClickSoftware

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Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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Enterprise Mobility Discussion Time at Sapphire

I will be available, as an SAP Mentor, in the Orlando Line of Business Area on Wednesday, May 19th from 2-3 pm to discuss SAP enterprise mobility with anyone interested in that subject. See you there!

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Kevin Benedict SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
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Sapphire 2010 Here We Come - The Year of Enterprise Mobility

I must admit it is a self-proclaimed year of mobility, but I believe it is appropriate. I think enterprise mobility will be front and center everywhere you go at Sapphire next week. There are many new and innovative mobile micro-applications that were launched last week by SAP partners.

Business Indicators by Leapfactor (iPhone)
SAP EcoHub by Leapfactor (iPhone)
Mowego Mobile Solutions by Vivido Labs

SAP appointed me to be an SAP Mentor this year focused on enterprise mobility. If any of you will be at Sapphire and would like to meet with me please contact me.

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Kevin Benedict SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************

Enterprise Mobility and SAP's McDermott on the Role of a CIO

I read an interesting interview with SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott today in InformationWeek called Global CIO: Even Oracle and SAP Agree: The Tactical CIO Is Dead. In the article McDermott is quoted as saying, "I have to say that with respect to CIOs, we have tremendous respect for them and their management and IT overall—but the business world has reached the point where if [the CIO] can't have a conversation that goes way beyond technology stacks to roadmapping business strategies and creating growth, those CIOs are just not gonna be relevant." He then added, "For any IT project, hitting budget is okay and finishing on time is okay but what decision-makers really want is value--they want to know that these IT projects are going to steadily increase the company's ability to grow."

As an SAP Mentor with an enterprise mobility focus, I always consider the implications for SAP enterprise mobility when I read statements like McDermott's above. I can see many implications of his comments. I mentioned in an article last week the idea of a "me too" mobile application. These applications will only help you keep up with your competitors, but are not going to provide you with competitive advantages. Competitive advantages come from thinking ahead of the adoption curve and finding new ways to create value by using new and existing technologies.

CIOs need to understand enterprise mobility, and recognize that up to 40 percent of the workforce (according to a recent survey) is considered mobile. What additional value can you bring to your company by mobilizing these workers? Here are some ideas for CIOs:

Integrate business intelligence with geospatially aware mobile applications and put them in the hands of your customer facing teams.
Use real-time business data and business intelligence to provide just in time advice to onsite sales teams.
Implement a network-centric approach that collects real-time business data from all data sources to provide a comprehensive view of your customers' business ecosystem and push it out to your mobile sales and service force. Provide actionable intelligence and advice that can be used immediately to produce more sales and happier customers.
Integrate video and audio training into your mobile applications to provide a consistent high quality product and service.
Integrate social networking technologies and strategies into mobile applications that enable your company experts to be easily available to the mobile workforce. Leverage your experts at the point of work in a scalable manner. Reduce the amount of time wasted waiting for answers from your experts.
Put business process diagrams on the mobile device so mobile workers can understand and view the role they play in the process. Animate the business process diagram so mobile workers can view the progress of approvals, orders, shipments, etc. Make the mobile worker feel part of the process not a lonely outpost guardian.
Provide mobile views of transactional content. This is content associated with a business transaction. Show status of orders, shipments, GPS locations of products, delivery schedules, etc., in a comprehensive view on a mobile device. Think of the time it would take the sales team to track all of this information down. Anticipate the sales team's needs and push it out to them one hour in advance of a customer meeting.
Identify all administration processes, whether paper-based or those requiring online connectivity, that uses up your mobile workforces' productive selling and service time. Consider mobilizing these processes with mobile micro-applications from SAP partners Vivido Labs, Leapfactor or Sky Technologies so more administrative tasks can be completed during non-productive times. The result should be the ability to be more effective and efficient.
Identify transactional content events that your mobile workforce should know about to make them more productive and effective. Push this information out to the mobile workforce in the appropriate context so actions and reactions can be instigated.

As McDermott said, CIOs must look beyond IT project management to adding company value and growth. There is huge potential for both growth and value in enterprise mobility. The value is not necessarily realized just from new technologies, but the leveraging of existing technologies and systems and then extending them into mobile environments in time sensitive, contextually appropriate and geospatially aware manners.

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Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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Mobile Expert Interview Series: Syclo's Jeff Kleban

I was able to track down Jeff Kleban EVP and co-founder of Syclo for a good talk this morning. He was kind enough to share his perspective on the world of enterprise mobility and the SAP ecosystem.

To start, Jeff carries a BlackBerry 9700 series, and his favorite mobile application on it is Google Maps. He has been with Syclo from the beginning when there were only four people. Today, Syclo has over 135 employees.

Syclo is one of three co-innovation partners of SAP in the world of enterprise mobility. The three are RIM, Sybase, and Syclo. SAP co-innovation partners share sales revenue, development efforts and product roadmaps with SAP. I wonder if the co-innovation partnership increases the prices of their solutions? I also wonder if having SAP define the roadmap will allow the co-innovation partners to innovate fast enough to keep up with the markets fast changing technologies?

Jeff shared that SAP has designated some mobility applications and business processes as strategic. The strategic ones he identified are:

1. CRM sales force automation [Sybase is the co-innovation partner for this category]
2. CRM field services/enterprise asset management [Syclo is the co-innovation partner for this category]

RIM is also a co-innovation partner, but I am not sure what it covers these days. I have always wondered how an ERP vendor could cozy up to a particular mobile device manufacturer? The next greatest mobile device is always just a press release away so how can you predict which vendor to bet on? Also, who wants to bet against Apple?

I asked Jeff who Syclo's biggest competitor is, and he said it varied since there are so many point solutions in the market but if a customer was looking for a MEAP that they tended to look at Syclo and Sybase who are the leaders. Interesting! OK, SAP's two co-innovation partners for mobility are each other's biggest competitors. That ought to make for some interesting business development and partner meetings. I can imagine the demarcation line between Sybase and Syclo's territories are being battled over daily in Waldorf.

Jeff reported that Sybase uses SAP's NetWeaver Mobile as their integration platform. Syclo, on the other hand, has its own integration technologies which pre-dated the co-innovation partnership. They are using these while they collaborate with SAP to leverage additional integration points.

A question that came to mind following my discussions with Jeff was how does SAP determine which vendor to recommend to a customer needing both mobile SFA and mobile FSA? In many cases CRMs encompass both categories. Does SAP really recommend that a customer select two separate mobility vendors to support one SAP CRM? I hope someone from SAP comments on this.

I asked, "Outside of the categories of mobile CRM SFA (sales force automation) and CRM FSA (field service automation), who should an SAP customer use for custom mobile applications?" "Syclo of course!" Jeff answered but then added, "There is still a lot of room for innovation and other SAP EcoHub partners in this mobility space." So outside of SFA and FSA the market is wide open for the rest of SAP's mobility partners. The challenge, of course, is getting mindshare. If Sybase and Syclo are being promoted in certain specific categories, then how does the best of breed from the rest of SAP's mobility partners capture a category and gain recognition and exposure?

I asked Jeff about Syclo's target markets and he answered, "Complex and strategic mobile applications for SAP users." He then explained that they like the big mobility projects with hundreds and thousands of users but will also entertain smaller mobility projects if there is a future potential for more mobile enterprise applications with the customer. "We like projects with hard ROIs (returns on investment)," he explained.

Jeff said that the enterprise mobile software market is still very fragmented, and no one really has a sizable market share. SAP reports around 90,000 customers, and Syclo has around 750 mobility customers but not all are SAP shops. The bottom line is there are a lot of opportunities available for mobility vendors in the SAP ecosystem.

Jeff added that in the mobile operating system market, there is increased fragmentation rather than decreased. It seems there is a lot of new innovation happening in the world of mobile operating systems.

I asked Jeff what he expects to see happen in the next few years in enterprise mobility. He said, "TCO (total cost of ownership) will drop dramatically as mobile application development tools become easier and MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) more mature. He already believes Syclo has a low TCO but believes there is much more that can be done. He then added that it will be very interesting to watch how companies manage important data on their employees' smartphones. He said perhaps companies will have "sandbox" locations on their employees' personal smartphones. These sandbox locations would be reserved for confidential company data and controlled and managed by the company. Interesting indeed!

I asked Jeff about the term MEAP. He said, "It is Gartner's term, and they defined the meaning." He then pointed out that Syclo is in the Leaders section of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for MEAPs. He believes a MEAP should be able to support many different kinds of mobile enterprise applications, include an SDK and be able to integrate with many different back-end ERPs, business applications and databases.

I asked Jeff for his opinion on mobile micro-applications. He said, "There is a lot of room for innovation! They have their role. Especially with consumers and reaching out to mobile employees." He added, "Companies are seeking mobile applications for a variety of reasons including branding and establishing a closer relationship with their customer base." Again, there is much room for innovation here!

Where does Jeff see the hottest markets for Syclo?

• Field services
• Utilities
• Oil and gas companies
• Oil and gas supply chains
• Life science companies that have FDA compliance requirements
• Government

Jeff said government has a couple of things going for it now:

1. Government economic stimulus money
2. Government's support for, and desire to use, technology to make things more efficient.

What business processes are they targeting?

• Work order/service tickets
• Plant maintenance
• Enterprise asset management
• Social workers/Case managers (and similar roles in other areas)
• Police incident reporting
• Replacing any paper-based processes used in the field

I asked what were some of the most interesting developments in mobility in the past 24 months for him. He said, "Apple iPhones, Apple iTunes and the explosion of smartphones used by consumers." He added that these developments have totally changed the game and has had a major impact on the enterprise. "IT cannot ignore the pressures to mobilize now," he said. In addition, he pointed out that it is surprising there has not seen more consolidation. Rather, there are even more new players and mobile operating systems entering the market today."

I asked Jeff what he thought about SAP's mobile strategy. He said, "SAP must own the roadmap for the most critical mobile applications and business processes." He likes their strategy.

What differentiates Syclo from other SAP mobility partners? Jeff answered:

• Lower TCO (total cost of ownership)
• Pre-packaged mobile applications are relatively inexpensive
• Co-innovation with SAP
• Syclo shares revenue with SAP
• SAP sales teams are incented to promote Syclo
• Syclo has an model-driven development approach which enables mobile applications to be developed without programming.
• IBM resells Syclo solutions
• Syclo integrates with Oracle
• Accenture and CSC are systems integrator partners (there must be a lot of money on the table for these SI companies to be involved).

What are some of the most interesting mobile applications that Syclo has developed? "We partnered with Motorola and IBM to help the Red Cross manage their supplies and logistics after hurricane Katrina," Jeff answered. "Twenty of our staff worked together to develop the mobile application in 14 days."

Thank you Jeff for sharing your insights as a Mobile Expert!

For more articles in this series please see:

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Leapfactor's Lionel Carrasco
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Neil McHugh
Mobile Expert Interview Series: ClickSoftware's Gil Bouhnick
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Vivido Labs' Greg Tomb
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Troy O'Connor
Mobile Expert Interview Series: EntryPoint’s Pete Martin
Mobile Expert Interview Series: PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Ahmed El Adl, PhD
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Nokia's John Choate
Mobile Expert Interview Series: HotButtons' Jane and Keelin Glendon
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Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************

Mobile Solution Models, Part 2

Even the largest enterprises in the world may only have the need for 200 users of a particular custom mobile enterprise application. For example, I worked on an enterprise mobility project in China that was incredibly complex and expensive to develop and the maximum number of users was about 200.

The solution enabled a government agency to receive real-time quality inspection data on a massive bridge project. They wanted each section of steel to be uniquely identified for quality purposes and the data stored in an archive with the government agency.

The engineering firm requested that my team develop the mobile application on a MEAP. I sent my team to China to work on the requirements for a few weeks. The solution was incredibly challenging to develop, but the end product was a work of art.

Here is my point - this mobile enterprise solution was very expensive to develop, but worth every penny to the customer. The solution enabled the engineering firm to be compliant to government requirements on a project worth over $5 billion.

These types of customized mobile solutions, although very important, will never be developed for the masses. These types of development projects need a MEAP with a powerful SDK (software development kit) so that changes in requirements can easily be made in the future by the users or by other developers.

Custom mobile applications should be developed using a software development kit in a MEAP. MEAPs will help future proof the mobile application by keeping up with changes in mobile operating systems and standards, while providing a development methodology and tools to speed up and manage development efforts. In addition, integration, device management and production environments can all be managed using defined and documented processes.

See related article:

Mobile Solution Models, Part 1

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Kevin Benedict

SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC

Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009

Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services

www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict twitter:

http://twitter.com/krbenedict

http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/

***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************

Mobile Solution Models, Part 1

It appears there are at least six unique mobile solution models. This is a dynamic list, a work in progress, so please help me understand other models that need to be added.

Mobile middleware - often includes a mobile database, a server database, synchronization, and basic database integration tools and general guidelines for using the middleware with your software development projects. Typically, you develop in the programming environment of your choice (e.g. .NET, PowerBuilder, C++, Visual Basic) and integrate, the mobile middleware into your applications.
Mobile browser applications - these are light weight browser based applications that often provide a mobile view into a back office business application or database. They do not provide access to the data collection tools and functionality available on many devices.
SEAP Infrastructure (I made this up) - smartphone enterprise application platforms - supports the testing, deployment, integration, and operations of mobile micro-applications often in cloud computing environments (although on premises versions are also available). Mobile micro-applications may be developed for the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry devices, etc., and downloaded from online application stores, but integrated to back-end ERPs via the SEAP Infrastructure.
SEAP Infrastructure Plus - see number 2 and then add an SDK for rapidly developing mobile micro-applications that work with the SEAP infrastructure.
MBA - mobilized business applications (made it up again) - shrink wrapped or off-the-shelf mobile clients for existing business applications. The MBA can often be configured to match the basic customization of the integrated back-end business applications, but it is not designed for general purpose mobile applications.
MEAPs - mobile enterprise application platforms - this is an enterprise class mobility platform used to support multiple mobile applications, disparate databases, different business processes, a wide range of mobile devices and operating systems, includes a comprehensive SDK for developing mobile applications and mobile device management. It should be able to support mobile micro-applications and thick client mobile architectures.

There is a lot of noise around enterprise mobility today. It is important to understand that a typical enterprise could realize solid ROIs by mobilizing dozens of different business processes. IT departments may be receiving requests for mobile applications from the sales department today, but tomorrow it will be a dozen other departments all with different mobile device preferences and priority business processes. The IT department needs to aggressively formulate a support and management plan that is flexible enough to satisfy a wide range of requests, requirements, and mobile devices before chaos reigns.

Many companies will be followers and simply want a "me too" mobile application that mobilizes common business processes, but others seek competitive advantages through mobile technologies. These will seek to utilize mobile technologies in unique ways where shrink wrap applications do not exist. These aggressive inventors and early adaptors want to control their own destinies and be able to develop mobilized business processes only they have conceived. These inventors don't want to be reinventing the wheel. They want to spend their time developing visionary applications with massive ROIs. They want a powerful MEAP to take care of all the mobile middleware infrastructure, integration, synchronization, security, and development infrastructure, but they want an SDK included that enables them to design, develop, test, deploy, and support a wide range of customized mobile applications and business processes.

Mobile "me-too" applications help you maintain the status quo. Putting the power of a comprehensive MEAP in the hands of your brightest minds can be game changers.

One of the key reasons SAP is following a partnership strategy for mobile applications, I believe, is that they realize they cannot develop all of the mobile applications that are being requested fast enough. A partnership strategy enables dozens of SAP partners to fulfill the demand and enables the SAP ecosystem to compete with each other to make the most powerful and innovative mobile solutions possible. However, just as SAP realizes they cannot solve all the mobility needs of the market themselves, neither can the mobility vendors.

Mobility vendors must target the largest and most common business processes for mobilizing, as this is where the quickest and easiest sales revenue is located. As a result, niche mobility applications that may provide a particular company with an enormous competitive advantage will be necessarily ignored. The only way a company will realize the value of that competitive advantage is to implement it themselves. That introduces another discussion which we will continue in Part 2.

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Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************

MEAPs, Thick Clients and Mobile Chain of Custody Applications

For people with HIV/AIDS in developing countries like Ethiopia, Cote D’Ivoire, Kenya, and Ghana, receiving AIDS mediation in a cost effective, secure and reliable manner is critical to saving the lives of millions. In addition to the health crisis, the geographical challenges of trying to care for patients that live in remote villages where access to medical facilities is minimal is a huge obstacle.

The challenge undertaken by global health organizations and companies funded by PEPFAR was to create a drug delivery system that would accomplish the following:

Expedite the delivery process.
Ensure the secure transfer of drugs.
Provide visibility and transparency to participating agencies.
Ensure accurate deliveries.
Automate ARV drug processes that provide a rapid, regular, reliable supply of medications to patients.
Provide a transactional record of the ARV drugs and test kits at every key point in the distribution chain.

The bottom line goal was to provide a truly mobile chain of custody system that could extend across a challenging geographical landscape with minimal technology infrastructure. How was this goal accomplished? The answer - by implementing a MEAP solution that enabled delivery drivers to utilize a mobile application designed to work in a disconnected or connected model. The application leveraged the power and flexibility of an enterprise quality mobile database in a thick mobile client that enabled the delivery drivers to maintain inventory counts, accept proof of delivery, and store key data on a consumer grade PDA until they could be connected with the internet at a later time.

Prior to implementing mobile solutions, agencies were only able to track drugs to a warehouse located in the larger cities in many countries. Now delivery drivers are supplied with a mobile application that can track the delivery and re-ordering of ARV drugs from the warehouse, to regional distribution centers, to area regional centers and finally to the patient. Every time the ARV medications change hands, a digital record is made of the transaction. The information collected is synchronized back up the chain where program managers can actively manage the continual flow of mediations.

Since implementation this mobile solution has helped over 50,000 AIDS patients receive treatments in the Ivory Coast alone. This, coupled with the fact that the mobile solutions decreased the delivery cycle from three months to as little as three weeks, has caught the attention of many other countries and relief organizations around the world. These thick client mobile applications that operate in a connected and disconnected mode are critical to these kinds of environments. Many organizations are looking at using MEAPs and thick client applications to offer better and more timely treatment to those afflicted with AIDS.

In the SAP ecosystem Sky Technologies, Sybase, and Syclo are the SAP mobility partners that seem to focus on supporting custom mobile applications with MEAPs that operate in both connected and disconnected modes using a thick client architectures. By thick client I mean a mobile application that can operate with or without connectivity and that includes a mobile database for storing data on the device while waiting for synchronization.

In my opinion a good MEAP should have an SDK so that the IT department can utilize it to update and edit mobile applications and develop new ones. Without a good SDK that the IT department can learn, the enterprise is hostage to the vendor. The world of mobility is moving far too fast, and the IT department needs to be able to update and upgrade mobile applications on their schedule not the vendors.

Mobile micro-applications and mobile browser based applications are valuable and provide significant ROIs in many situations, but they cannot support the rugged environments described in this case study and would not have saved thousands of lives like the thick client mobile solution that was used.

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Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************