Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

Mobile Middleware for Instant Value or Mobile Micro-Apps

Mobile middleware is more than synchronizing databases and providing basic application integration. It needs to include support for business process extensions, and it must provide a set of features and functions that support lightweight, "Instant Value" or "Mobile Micro-Apps" smartphone applications.

There are many features and functions that are needed by mobile workers that are not easily supported by smartphone operating systems like iPhone or BlackBerry. Often the data set is large and the software application is an ERP. The mobile user does not need access to the full ERP or the full data set, just a subset. In these cases it would be useful to have a mobile middleware layer that recognizes the needs of the mobile user and provides an optimized mobile application with functionality that supports either browser based or mobile micro-apps.

It seems there is a need for a new middleware layer that is designed to support a wide range of requirements to address the limitations of lightweight and browser based smartphone apps.

Within the SAP ecosystem I am hearing a lot about this concept from the likes of Vivido Labs and Leapfactor.

Leapfactor says their mobile middleware layer forwards and broadcasts staged digital content collected at a location and delivers it to any designated consignees, on any smartphone, and always with high availability based on a secure and scalable platform. They state that their solution relies on four fundamental technologies:

LeapApps - mobile micro apps for smartphones
LeapShell - an SDK that accelerates development and portability to any mobile OS
Leap Central - a secure cloud-based service-processing component
LeapAgent - securely connects and authenticates LeapCentral with an enterprise

I spent a lot of time working on mobility projects that utilized Sybases' SUP (mobile middleware). The mobile applications were "thick" clients with mobile databases on smartphones to hold data and synchronize data with the back office database application. Our mobile applications often had complex business processes and business rules built into the mobile applications to ensure field work was done correctly. These rules were stored in the mobile database in the thick client.

Where are all of these business rules and business processes stored for "Instant Value" and "mobile micro-apps" for smartphones? Do these lightweight mobile applications simply ignore business rules and business processes, or is this functionality provided in a smartphone middleware layer in the cloud? These are the things I ponder on a Wednesday morning.

Do you see a need for a mobile middleware layer that is specifically designed to support business rules and business processes for mobile micro-apps?

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Kevin Benedict, CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile Industry Analyst
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
***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 Expert Video Series: Leapfactor's Luis Cabrera

At Sapphire 2010 last week I heard Leapfactor mentioned in keynotes and many other presentations by SAP mobility experts. I saw one SAP VP demonstrating a very powerful iPad application that SAP has in a proof-of-concept that was developed by Leapfactor. I also saw that the SAP iPhone application "SAP EcoHub" (free and available on iTunes) was developed by Leapfactor.

I was lucky enough to track down Luis Cabrera from Leapfactor last week and I interviewed him on camera about Leapfactor's focus and solutions including:

Business Indicator - A powerful dashboard for business analytics on iPhones and iPads
Business Alerts and Notifications - Send alerts to mobile devices based on parameters set up in your SAP system
Business Approvals - Enable mobile managers to approve or reject various issues in SAP workflows

The interview: http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/9/Y5l6N2nsrpA

Mobile Expert Video Series: Santiago Becerra of Mellmo

I attended a session at Sapphire last week with Mellmo founder Santiago Becerra! Here is how they describe their solution, "Use Roambi to transform your existing reports and data — from a variety of sources — into interactive visualizations and dashboards for the iPhone or iPad. Explore and analyze your data with the ease of playing a video game and the power of an enterprise reporting tool."

One of the most interesting things Santiago said was that he favors hiring gamers - developers that have experience developing video games and flashy UIs. He believes they think more creatively and that they will be better capable of developing the next generation of enterprise mobility applications.

Here is the video interview: http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/6/01SLH5n5mgI

Related videos:

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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.
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M2M Market Opportunities - An Introduction

Now that SAP has enterprise mobility all figured out, it is time to explore opportunities in the M2M marketplace. M2M is a vision of connecting physical things through a network that will let them take an active part in exchanging information about themselves and their surroundings over the Internet. This will give immediate access to information about the physical world and the objects in it - leading to innovative services and gains in efficiency and productivity.

There are many ways to describe M2M - the Internet of objects, the Internet of things or embedded mobile devices. M2M is a world filled with remote asset management monitors, wireless sensors, telematics, telemetry, smart grids, and eReaders. The military describes this world as Network-Centric Operations.

I wrote an article last year called Network-Centric Mobile Field Force Automation. Here is an excerpt: "Network-Centric operations, is a military doctrine pioneered by the US Department of Defence. It seeks to translate an information advantage, enabled in part by information technologies into a competitive warfighting advantage through the robust networking of well informed geographically dispersed forces. This networking, combined with changes in technology, organization, processes, and people enable organizations to behave and respond in ways never before possible." Specifically, this theory contains the following four tenets in its hypotheses:

A robustly networked force improves information sharing.
Information sharing enhances the quality of information and shared situational awareness.
Shared situational awareness enables collaboration and self-synchronization and enhances sustainability and speed of command.
These, in turn, dramatically increase mission effectiveness.

Juniper Research predicts that the number of M2M (machine-to-machine) and embedded mobile devices will rise to approximately 412 million globally by 2014. ABI Research uses a more conservative set of numbers and says that there were approximately 71 million cumulative M2M connections in 2009 and this will rise to about 225 million by 2014. With either set of figures you get a big number.

ABI's M2M research practice director Sam Lucero encourages MNOs (mobile network operators) to "come up" with M2M connectivity platforms - robust connected device platforms. These are applications and services that connect all of these embedded mobile devices together into a central management application that turns data into actionable intelligence.

Some of the key markets for M2M are:

Utilities/Smart Grids
Equipment Monitoring
Connected Homes/Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS)
Healthcare - Remote patient and health monitoring, medical equipment monitoring
Vending/POS
Remote Asset Management Monitoring
ATMs
Fleet Management/Automotive Systems
Consumer Electronics (eReaders, Wireless Printers, Appliances, Security Systems, etc.)

Think of it like this - all of these embedded mobile devices are capable of sending data to you. What can you do with it? Where can this data provide value? In addition to sending data, many M2M devices can receive instructions and take action as well.

Mobility is more than just people-to-people talking on handsets. Wireless M2M is an entirely new way of thinking. I wonder which one of the mobility vendors in the SAP ecosystem is going to add M2M and M2M connectivity platforms to their product list. I believe this can ultimately be a massive market. I recently read about a GSMA prediction that M2M connected devices could ultimately reach 50 billion. A dollar a device per month would suit me just fine.

Have you ever worked on an M2M project? I would like to hear about it!

Here is a related video I recorded on M2M.

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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.
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Mobile Expert Video Series: Bruce Johnson of Sky Technologies

I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing (with a digital video camera) Bruce Johnson, President of Sky Technologies, America, about his thoughts on SAP and enterprise mobility. Sky Technologies describes themselves this way, "Sky Technologies specializes in Enterprise Mobility for SAP®. With a strong focus on innovation, Sky Technologies has developed SkyMobile, a SAP Certified Mobile Enterprise Appliaction Platform (MEAP), which enables any SAP process to be mobilized on any type of smartphone device."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw0tRoEYFiI

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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.
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