Mobile Expert Interview Series: Pyxis Mobile's EVP Christopher Willis

Pyxis Mobile is one of those companies that accomplishes great things, but moves under the radar.  Gartner recently highlighted Pyxis Mobile in their Magic Quadrant report so moving under the radar may be over.  Pyxis Mobile has over 500,000 mobile clients in the field.  Most of their traditional customers are in the financial services industry, but they have been rapidly expanding into higher education, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. I had the opportunity recently to interview Chris Willis, Pyxis Mobile's EVP of Marketing and Strategy.

Chris joined Pyxis in 1998.  In 2001 the company became 100% focused on enterprise mobility. 

Chris what mobile device do you carry?
I carry two mobile devices, the iPhone for personal use, and the BlackBerry Bold for professional use.  I have always used BlackBerrys professionally and am just used to it.  I know how to get what I need from it.  I use the iPhone as a large iPod.

What is your favorite mobile application?
A CRM application built by Pyxis Mobile.  It is connected to our expense management system and enables me to complete my expense reports while on the road.  On the personal side I love MLB at Bat.  When you see MLB at Bat on an iPad it is amazing.  It is better than the programs you get at the game.

What industries do you see adopting mobility?
Financial services is big for us.  Seventy percent of our business is still in financial services.  We have developed complete trading systems on mobile devices for some customers.  Higher education is big for us.  We have developed all kinds of mobile applications for universities that show class schedules, grades, etc.  Emerging markets for us are in manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

What business processes do you see companies mobilizing first?
Sales and field services to start, however, nowadays we are seeing a lot of B2C (business to consumer) application demand.  Companies want to give mobile applications to their customers for product sales, branding, marketing and customer support.

What are some of the most surprising trends that you saw in mobility over the past 12 months?
B2C is the biggest trend - "There's an App for that!"  Companies wanting to provide their customers with mobile applications.

What do you see happening in the near future, say 2010-2011?
Mobility vendors delivering on their promises and filling the missing "app gaps."  Companies are now educated on mobility.  They are now looking for complete solutions and mobility platforms to execute a full enterprise mobility strategy.

Tell me about some of the most interesting mobile applications you have seen in the market.
We have developed a mobile laundry application.  It is a M2M (machine-to-machine) application.  Laundry machines text students in the dorms when there is a machine available and when it is finished.  Another application I love is from Concur Mobile.  It helps you book travel, manage travel expenses, call taxis and have it all paid for by the credit card they have on file.  No cash needed.  You can also use it to photograph receipts and turn them in as well.  Nice!

What are some of the most unusual mobile applications you have seen?
There is an application that consists of a website and a mobile application. The website shows a 2D barcode on the screen, and your iPhone captures the barcode and activates various games that use the accelerometer on the iPhone to control various objects in races.  Very interesting!

When is a consumer oriented mobile device sufficient, and when do you need a ruggedized industrial grade device?
Consumer devices (smartphones) are capturing market share from industrial grade mobile handhelds.  There is less interest in expensive rugged devices, because the service technician is carrying a smartphone anyway.  If you buy expensive rugged devices, they will now have two devices to break.  Many companies are simply buying rugged cases for smartphones.

What is the most complex mobile application that you have seen?
We developed entire mobile trading systems for use by companies in the financial services industry.  Very complex!  We developed a very sophisticated mobile application for Thomas Reuters that pulled data from dozens of different sources.

What are some of the biggest challenges you see in the mobile industry today?
Rapid changes to mobile operating systems and new mobile devices.  Today Samsung announced a new mobile OS.  Today enterprises use the same mobile OS as consumer devices so we need to stay on top of all of them.

What do you see from ERP vendors in mobility?
All ERPs have to mobilize their solutions.  Pyxis Mobile is supporting all the majors, and we believe this is a competitive advantage.

What is still missing from MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms)?
I think MEAP vendors are simply taking different approaches.  Some try to be ERP agnostic.  Others focused on specific markets.  I think the differences will be how effective you are with partners.  Are you systems integrator friendly?  Pyxis Mobile provides tools for SIs to develop and support new mobile applications.  This is important!

How important is mobile device management to your customers?
It isn't.  Our customers don't ask for it.  Smartphones and online app stores seem to have resolved many of the earlier issues.  Perhaps in the future our customers will ask for it.

How is Pyxis Mobile positioned?
We are the one mobility platform that enables all of a company's mobility needs including B2B and B2C.  We cover mobile enterprise and consumer applications.

What are your thoughts on when thick/rich mobile clients are needed and when micro-apps or browser apps are needed?
We like rich native apps that optimize what you can do on each OS and mobile device.

Do your customers want to develop their own mobile applications using your Application Studio, or do they want you to develop it?
About 80% of our customers want us, or one of our systems integrator partners to develop the mobile application for them.  They are not experienced, but we are.

Thanks for your time Chris!!!

To read more interviews in the Mobile Expert Interview series, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-interview-series.html

To watch videos of mobile expert interviews, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-video-series.html

For a weekly recap of mobility news, analysis and market numbers read:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
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.
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New Research Shows the Importance of Mobility to SAP Customers

I received an email today from a firm that just completed face to face meetings with over 100 SAP customers.  In these meetings the SAP customers identified the SAP solutions they would like to learn more about and then prioritized them.  The fifth hottest topic among these SAP customers was SAP enterprise mobility.  NICE!

SAP, systems integrators and enterprise mobility vendors should all take note of this research.  SAP's customers are wanting to learn more about enterprise mobility.  SAP's SDN site, this blog, the SAP Enterprise Mobility group on Linkedin, and Kevin's Mobility News Weekly are all sites dedicated to sharing information on enterprise mobility.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
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.
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M2M - Growth Opportunities for MNOs in Developed Markets

The new M2M analyst report that I just finished has now been uploaded and is available on the Maximizing Wireless Profits website.  M2M, machine-to-machine communications, is a very intriguing market.  It is closely related to enterprise mobility in that mobile devices (embedded mobile devices, remote sensors and monitors) are collecting and sending data back to a central server. The audiences for this report are mobile network operators (MNOs), M2M and mobile enterprise software companies.

Handset driven customer growth has reached the saturation point in many regions of the world and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are looking for new applications, new markets and new technologies for their next phase of growth. Machine to machine (M2M) devices and applications are an area of wireless data usage with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 25% per year through 2014 and a projected need for up to 50 billion M2M devices by 2025. In addition, low churn rates, low acquisition and operational costs, expected long product lifecycles, and a market that needs many additional value added services makes this a compelling market opportunity for many MNOs.

Why is the M2M market interesting for enterprises?  Nearly all high value assets and equipment that are remote or mobile could benefit from having an embedded mobile device in sensors and monitors that provide information wirelessly back to the asset management and tracking system at the office.  Pressure gauges, measurements, volumes, temperatures, operating hours, mileage, etc., can all be collected and wirelessly sent to the central management system. 

When a piece of remote equipment begins having problems, an alert can be wirelessly sent to the asset management and work order management system so repairs can be scheduled.  Maintenance schedules can also be set based upon data collected by remote monitors.

Embedded mobile devices can also be implemented to both send and receive data.  Some M2M systems provide the capability for instructions to be sent to remote monitors that will change settings on equipment.  I have read about large trucks having their engines adjusted remotely to improve performance or fuel mileage.

I believe that mobile enterprise application platforms (MEAPs) may expand to support M2M data integration that will be used by enterprise asset management systems and service optimization solutions like SAP's mobility partner ClickSoftware at some point.  The data, whether coming from a smartphone or a remote sensor, looks the same to the platform.  It is just data coming in wirelessly to the system.

There are some very interesting M2M companies like Enfora that are offering a wide range of specialized M2M devices, services and systems.  Enfora is a provider of wireless networking solutions that enable enterprises to access, analyze and leverage information from their geographically dispersed assets.  It is interesting to read about how their solutions are being implemented and the ROIs their customers are experiencing.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile & M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
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.
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Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - June 16, 2010 Edition

If you are reading this you have stumbled upon the premier edition of "Kevin's Mobility News Weekly."  This is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week.  I will aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article.  I will also be searching for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around enterprise mobility.

Please send me any interesting mobility news links, market numbers, events, case studies, analyst reports or whitepapers you think I should include in my newsletter.  Enjoy!

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In April Nokia announced it had increased its smartphone market share to 41 percent, up from an estimated 40 percent in Oct.-Dec. last year. That means Nokia sold roughly 21.5 million of the 52.6 million smartphones sold globally during the first quarter.

http://fixed-mobile-convergence.tmcnet.com/topics/mobile-communications/articles/88417-nokia-slow-apples-rims-momentum-the-smartphone-market.htm

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According to Quantcast, Android currently accounts for 19.9 percent of the smartphone market, a rise of 12.2% over the year. Although it's still the single biggest player in the market, the share of Apple's iPhone OS has shrunk by 8.1 percent. The data shows that Research In Motion's BlackBerry OS and other platforms in the operating system market have shrunk by 1.2% and 2.9% respectively.

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/6/15/android-market-share-growing-iphone-falls-back/

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Devices featuring Apple's iOS mobile operating system lead all other mobile devices with 58.8 percent of mobile Web traffic in the U.S. Android is far behind, but still in second place with 19.9 percent. Next is "other" with 10.9 percent, and after that is Research In Motion with 10.4 percent, according to data released by Quantcast on Monday.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20007637-260.html

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Apple dominates the market for music and mobile apps.  However, its share of the global cellphone market is less than 2%, and it still has only a 15% share of the smartphone market.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/15/apple-needs-to-cool-its-rhetoric/

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Apple shares rose nearly 3 percent on Wednesday after it announced sales of more than 600,000 iPhone 4s, a record for just a single day of pre-orders. That put the device on track to surpass sales of its previous iPhone models as well as its iPad tablet computer and sounded a strong challenge to rivals like Nokia Corp., which warned of weaker-than-expected sales at its phones unit.

http://mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/FullArticle/CTECH/ntechnologyNews_uUSTRE65F4IQ20100617

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Nelsen projects that by fall 2011 smartphones will overtake ordinary cellphones in market share.

http://iphone.usatoday.com/News/1801492/full/;jsessionid=98DA02D7457B58E8E0D79D3DF3451F46.wap2

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The smartphone market continues to see impressive growth around the world and in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region particularly. Shipments in the region are expected to grow 53% year-on-year in 2010 to reach 76.7 million units and are projected to easily surpass 100 million units in 2011.  In 2009 smartphones accounted for 11% of mobile phone shipments in APAC. This percentage is expected to grow steadily, and in 2012 Canalys expects that 20% of mobile phone shipments in the region will be smartphones.

http://www.indiatelecomtracker.com/archives/1412

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ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. unveiled a major upgrade to its Mobility Suite at the Gartner Wireless, Networking and Communications Summit in San Diego. The solution is specifically designed for service businesses.

http://clicksoftware-mobilefever.blogspot.com/2010/06/clickmobile-advanced-version-811.html

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Forrester Research is already predicting tablet sales in the U.S. will overtake netbook sales by 2012, and desktop sales by 2015.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/17/forrester-tablets-outsell-netbooks/

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The BlackBerry operating system now accounts for 19.4 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, with sales of 10.5 million units in Q1, according to research firm Gartner. BlackBerry trails Symbian (24.0 million units in Q1/44.3 percent market share) but still leads Apple's iPhone (8.3 million units/15.4 percent share) and Google's Android (5.2 million units/9.6 percent share). However, consumer interest in BlackBerry appears to be waning.  A recent Crowd Science survey reports that 39 percent of BlackBerry users would prefer an iPhone as their next purchase and 34 percent said they would favor an Android device.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/new-blackberry-devices-rival-apples-mobile-media-dominance/2010-06-15

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Often the IT department finds itself being pressured to support mobile devices and mobile applications that are already in use by employees. All of these issues point to the need to implement and use a mobile device management system.

http://www.vividolabs.com/deskofgregtomb/?p=45

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TOKYO-Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced the launch of a 128-gigabyte (GB) embedded NAND flash memory module, the highest capacity yet achieved in the industry. The module is fully compliant with the latest e•MMC standard, and is designed for application in a wide range of digital consumer products, including smartphones, tablet PCs and digital video cameras. Samples will be available from September, and mass production will start in the fourth quarter (October to December) of 2010.

http://i.engadget.com/2010/06/17/toshiba-cooks-up-128gb-nand-flash-for-next-gen-phones-and-pmps/

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Location services are the latest social media fad, allowing users with smartphones to "check in" to local businesses for points and fun. Twitter jumped on board location services Monday, launching Twitter Places.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/16331/twitter_location

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There are all sorts of mobile phones out there, but the EPI Life is possibly the only handset that can save your life. Designed by Singapore company Ephone International, the EPI Life stands out with a built-in electrocardiogram measurement function linked to a 24-hour health concierge service. It takes 30 seconds to complete a reading, which can be sent back to the firm via GPRS anywhere in the world.

http://mobile.cnet.com/site?t=AaZ5or43whqbfxfoYQ4yKQ&sid=cnet

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Facebook is expected to announce its own location-based service in the coming months, which brings location-based services to more than 400 million users. In other words, location-based networks are only going to get bigger.

http://www.iphoneresource.net/iphone/general/location-based-social-networks-amadeus-consulting-this-week-in-technology

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While Apple has reached its 10,000th iPad application, Google's Android market has increased to about 72,000 total applications. Moreover, the 10,000th iPad application is a fraction of the total number of applications available for Apple's iPad and iPhone, which is more than 200,000 as of Memorial Day last month.  According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Apple receives more than 15,000 new application submissions each week. Experts say that if Jobs’s figures are accurate, the company is generating every month about four times the amount of applications over Android. On the other hand, Google records show 14,294 new applications in May 2010 compared to 1,669 in July 2009.

http://www.usanewsweek.com/news/Does-Apple-Need-Verizon-iPhone-As-Apple-vs-Android-War-Intensifies-1276535059/

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In the market for an engagement ring? Forget the usual brick-and-mortar browsing — head to your iPhone's app store and download Tiffany and Co.'s free Engagement Ring Finder.  This is truly an iPhone application that you should only use 4 or 5 times.

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/fashion/stylephile/2010/06/engagement_ring.html

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Twitter is also generating high volumes of traffic. In 2007 users were tweeting 5,000 times a day, and by 2008 the number had increased to 300,000, reaching 2.5 million per day in January 2009. One year later, in January 2010, the figure had risen to 50 million tweets per day, climbing to 55 million in April 2010. There are 600 million search queries on Twitter per day, which bodes well for the Promoted Tweets sponsored keyword search advertising program.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/06/16/businessinsider-twitter-grows-up-and-gets-serious-2010-6.DTL

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Global consumer electronics major Samsung unveiled its new smartphone platform 'bada' for developing next-generation mobile applications."Bada, meaning 'ocean' in Korean, will be a driving force in accomplishing our vision of a smart phone for everyone," Samsung president JS Shin said in a statement in Bangalore on Wednesday.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Samsung-unveils-smartphone-platform-for-new-applications/Article1-558687.aspx

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The following links are interviews that I have conducted over the past few months with enterprise mobility experts and CEOs.

Mobile Expert Interview Series

Mobile Expert Video Series

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Kevin's winner for the best enterprise mobility video on YouTube - Leapfactor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBNFtIIZF6g

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I would invite everyone  that is interested in enterprise mobility to join the Linkedin Group called SAP Enterprise Mobility.


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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
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.
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ClickSoftware and Rugged Working Environments

It is easy to forget about the world beyond the pocket, but it remains out there.  There is a large market for mobile devices that must survive the rigors of rain, sand, mud and daily impacts.  In the field service automation space, these working environments are the norm.  SAP mobility partner ClickSoftware focuses on this area of enterprise mobility, and this means they add features to their mobility suite that others don't.

I had the opportunity to interview Gil Bouhnick from ClickSoftware a few months ago, and he shared that one of their recent projects included building union regulations and rules into the mobile application.  Before certain tasks could be requested or started the union rules were considered in the mobile application.  How many iPhone and BlackBerry applications have these requirements?

Because ClickSoftware focuses on rugged environments where the field service technician, lineman, or inspector may be working in solitary and remote locations, features have been added to their solutions that would alert the office in case of an emergency.  Again, not many BlackBerry or iPhone applications have that requirement.

I have worked on many mobile forms projects in my time, so I appreciate that ClickSoftware has the solution ClickMobile Forms Editor.  Mobile forms may seem like a rather simple applications these days, but they can be of enormous value.  Let me explain.  Mobile forms applications can have branching workflows in them.  If an inspection reveals a measurement is XYZ, then it automatically jumps to mobile form page 16 where additional questions are asked.  If the measurement was ABC, then it automatically continues to form page 2.  These types of automated mobile forms and their workflows can direct the mobile workforce to complete the field data collection task completely and accurately the first time.  Enterprise asset management, field services and inspection services all require extensive field inspection work that can benefit from mobile forms that wireless synchronize with the office. 

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
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.
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