SAP and Sybase Press Release on Enterprise Mobility Roadmap - August 19, 2010

http://www.sap.com/about/newsroom/press.epx?pressID=13780

Highlight:  The companies will integrate the SAP NetWeaver® Mobile component and SAP® BusinessObjects™ Mobile software with Sybase Unwired Platform to deliver a single mobile development and deployment platform with integrated analytics.

BOSTON, Mass. and FRANKFURT, Germany - August 19, 2010 - At a co-located event today in Boston and Frankfurt, company leaders from SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Sybase came together for the first time to share the strategy and joint product direction for the newly combined companies. In a bold move that brings together established industry leaders and changes the game for enterprise mobility, SAP announced its intent to acquire Sybase on May 12, 2010. In the few months since that time, the two companies have moved quickly to create product road maps and innovations to transform the way people and businesses work. The combined companies now represent the market-leading position in enterprise applications, business analytics and mobile infrastructure.


Recognizing the strength of Sybase’s existing business model, SAP confirmed that Sybase will be run as a separate, independent unit – and that customer investments in Sybase products will be preserved and supported. Setting the stage for their vision of an unwired enterprise and embracing the evolution of mobile as the new desktop, SAP and Sybase today also unveiled strategic product directions and planned co-innovations in three key areas: enterprise mobility, business analytics and enterprise information management (EIM).

Combined Companies Retain Core Strengths While Leveraging Synergies for Innovation

Outlining the first milestones since the close of the acquisition, SAP and Sybase today announced:

Within the next nine months, the companies will bring together technologies to deliver a leading mobile platform for business that is based on open standards, runs on all major mobile operating systems, and manages and supports all major device types. With this platform, customers and partners can build new mobile experiences on top of existing applications, such as SAP® Business Suite software. In addition, SAP will showcase mobile experiences for all products, including both SAP Business Suite and SAP® Business ByDesign™, similar to what is available for mobile sales for customer relationship management (CRM) today.

SAP and Sybase will present the industry’s broadest solution portfolio for EIM by porting, certifying and optimizing SAP Business Suite and other solutions onto Sybase data management servers – bringing customers a greater choice of database platforms for their SAP applications.

The companies will offer customers a complete and optimized high-performance business analytics infrastructure tapping SAP® BusinessObjects™ business intelligence (BI) solutions on data management servers to deliver end-to-end functionality from discovery (enterprise information management) to storage (calculation and storage engines for transactions, data marts, data warehouse) to consumption (query reporting and analytics, scorecarding, dashboarding, OLAP tools, mobile BI).

The companies will incorporate SAP's in-memory computing technology across SAP and Sybase data management offerings, enabling customers to instantaneously access any type of data, anywhere, any place in real time.

SAP Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe shared their thoughts on today’s announcement: “The combination of SAP and Sybase is a significant game changer in the industry. Less than three months after this bold acquisition was announced, we are highlighting the first joint products that will transform the way people and businesses work. The product roadmap and go-forward strategy we are sharing today positions SAP to be the only company enabled to deliver a full suite of enterprise software and next-generation business intelligence on any device at any time. The coming together of SAP and Sybase is 100 percent a customer-focused move, delivering a value proposition for customers in mobility, analytics and information management that is unmatched and unique.”

“At Sybase, we have been successfully executing our ‘Unwired Enterprise’ strategy over the last eight years to become the market leader in enterprise mobility software,” said John Chen, CEO, Sybase. “Working alongside SAP, we will take mobility to the next level by extending analytics and bringing our technologies to new vertical markets. With SAP’s investment in Sybase’s technologies, we’ll be able to extend our existing solutions to an even broader audience, and more rapidly innovate as the market’s needs continue to evolve.”

Market-Leading Vendors Unwire the Enterprise With End-to-End Mobile Platform

Research firm Gartner predicts that by 2014, there will be a 90 percent mobile penetration rate and 6.5 billion mobile connections.1 This new generation of users demands immediate access to enterprise applications from any location, at any time. The Sybase acquisition allows SAP to bring customers a mobile platform that can support SAP applications and enable partners and customers to develop complementary applications to help them run their business better.

The extension of existing applications and the delivery of new applications will broaden the reach of SAP solutions across mobile platforms and devices and accelerate the pace of mobile innovation for enterprises. SAP and Sybase already have co-innovated and delivered Sybase Mobile Sales for the SAP® Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application and Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite.

The companies will integrate the SAP NetWeaver® Mobile component and SAP® BusinessObjects™ Mobile software with Sybase Unwired Platform to deliver a single mobile development and deployment platform with integrated analytics. New open standards-based technology from SAP that enables easy access to SAP Business Suite will accelerate the mobilization of SAP applications. SAP will also deliver industry-specific mobile applications built on this next-generation mobile platform.

Complementary Technologies Deliver a Complete Business Analytics Stack

With the combination of complementary technologies from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio and Sybase, the companies now offer a complete and optimized high-performance business analytics infrastructure. SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions are already certified on Sybase IQ 15.0 and Sybase ASE 15.0. Customers can take advantage of complete solutions – from business analytic applications; to reports, scorecards and dashboards; to data integration and data quality; to transactional storage, data marts and data warehousing. SAP and Sybase will also deliver business analytic applications that are optimized for industries such as financial services, consumer products, retail and manufacturing.

SAP in-memory computing technology is the driving force enabling business users to instantaneously access, explore, model and analyze transactional, analytical and Web-based data in real time in a single environment from anywhere, anytime, using any device. SAP and Sybase will incorporate SAP in-memory computing technology across SAP and Sybase data management offerings. SAP has already announced a high-performance analytic appliance as further innovation in the in-memory computing space.

SAP and Sybase Offer the Industry’s Broadest Portfolio for Enterprise Information Management

One of the highest priorities for organizations of any size and across any industry is managing the soaring quantity of data, and harnessing that information to improve their business. The combination of SAP and Sybase EIM offerings provides the industry’s broadest solution portfolio for enterprise information management, including data integration and data quality, master data management, complex event processing (CEP), real-time replication, modeling, application development and database capabilities. Sybase ASE is one of the leading database engines that support transactional and mixed workloads, and will be fully supported by the combined companies. SAP will port, certify and optimize SAP Business Suite, the SAP NetWeaver® Business Warehouse component, SAP® BusinessObjects™ Data Services software and SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions to Sybase ASE — giving customers a greater choice of database platforms for their SAP applications.

Vibrant Ecosystem Benefits From the Combination of Two IT Leaders

With this acquisition, new fields of opportunity are available for the SAP ecosystem. Across all partner types – services, ISVs, hardware and others – partners can participate in the new opportunities that come from the SAP and Sybase strategies around enterprise mobility, business analytics and EIM. SAP has also enabled its ecosystem partners to build and deliver new mobile applications on the mobility platform. Recently, announced on August 9, 2010, a series of Sybase partners launched innovative mobile applications for SAP solutions on the Sybase Unwired Platform. This growing ecosystem is significantly extending the reach of enterprise customers and applications, empowering millions of mobile workers worldwide. This ecosystem is further extended with the opportunity to engage and transact with four billion mobile subscribers, through Sybase’s messaging and mobile commerce services via reach to 900 mobile operators worldwide.


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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

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

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - August 19, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly 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 am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

You can read archived versions of the newsletter here - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html.

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Mobile devices are overtaking PCs. In a nutshell, what we are seeing in smartphones is bigger than anything that has come before it. Much bigger than the PC. And it is coming so fast that we don't realize what's happening.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/11/the-great-game-mobile-devices-overtaking-pcs/?hpt=Sbin

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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/.

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Spain added 269,371 mobile lines in June, bringing the total number to 52.83 million, up by 2.2 percent over the same month of 2009, according to the monthly report by Spanish regulator CMT.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2010/08/12/4953024.htm

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I was asked the other day to put together a list of questions to send to a management team in advance of my visit. They had asked me to help them develop an enterprise mobility strategy. This was an interesting task. I had little knowledge of the scope of their ambitions, so I approached this challenge by creating a list of open ended questions that were designed to uncover their interests and their range of possible needs. How would you prepare to discuss an infinite number of different mobility scenarios, business processes, IT infrastructures, ERPs and a plethora of mobile devices.

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-do-you-advise-enterprise-on.html

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The latest quarterly update to ABI Research's enterprise mobility regional market data sets shows that healthcare, retail and manufacturing, three sectors each with a double digit share, will command over 36 percent of all mobile business customer data revenues worldwide over the next five years.

http://www.embeddedinternetdesign.com/226700253?cid=RSSfeed_embeddedinternetdesign_adlRSS

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Google's Android platform now represents 17.2 percent of the global smartphone market, overtaking Apple's iOS as the world's third most popular smartphone OS and edging past Research In Motion's BlackBerry to emerge as the top selling OS in the U.S., according to new data published by research firm Gartner.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/android-overtakes-blackberry-top-selling-u-s-smartphone-os/2010-08-12?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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I have been invited to join popular mobility blogger Gil Bouhnick, the Director of Mobile Solutions at ClickSoftware, to speak at an upcoming webinar entitled, 10 Costly Mistakes to Avoid when Selecting and Implementing a Mobility Solution. I don't know where that title came from, as I have made at least a hundred costly mistakes all by myself.

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-happens-when-you-schedule-2.html

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A friend of mine here in Boise, Jon Young developed a very interesting mobile application on Android. The application is a great example of the concept of extending business processes. The application works much like the popular RedLaser iPhone application in that it can scan an ISBN barcode on a book cover and then automatically look it up.

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/08/extending-mobile-business-processes-in.html

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India's telecoms ministry has suggested a formula by which security agencies can get access to corporate email on Research In Motion's Blackberry devices, the Economic Times reported.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11433558

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The mobile commerce market is worth $2.5 billion today, and will grow four times that amount in the next couple of years, according to a panelist at the eTail 2010 Social Media & Mobile Commerce Summit.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mobile-commerce-market-worth-25b-and-growing-panelist/

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KeyBank is keeping on-the-go customers updated on their accounts via a new SMS mobile banking service.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/keybank-offers-mobile-banking-service-via-sms/

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Mobile operators' 3G networks carry 72 percent of video content viewed by Android smartphone users in the U.S. according to new data issued by mobile video ad network Rhythm NewMedia. By comparison, iPhone users rely on 3G for 56 percent of their mobile video consumption.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/study-3g-networks-carry-72-android-mobile-video-traffic/2010-08-17

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I have been pondering various enterprise mobility strategies this week. I asked myself the question, "Is it better to be an enterprise mobility generalist or a business process expert that mobilizes their solutions?" What do you think?

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/08/just-because-you-can-doesnt-mean-you.html

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The success of the iPhone and Google's Android platform spotlights the real "killer app" in the smartphone market: having apps. That's a reality likely to haunt Research In Motion as it tries to generate buyers and buzz for its new BlackBerry Torch, which hits stores next week. At Apple, there are about 250,000 apps for that. At BlackBerry's App World, there are just 8,000.

http://pyxismobile.com/News/NewsItem.aspx?id=298

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As Nokia seeks to turn around its smartphone lineup to try to compete with the BlackBerry and with Apple’s iPhone, the company is also trying to shore up its bulk cell phone business, which accounts for 84 percent of the 432 million devices Nokia sold last year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16iht-NOKIA16.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&src=busln&adxnnlx=1282172401-RkLT58YNWx3Aj4OmI/FB6Q

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Another analyst is reporting Android sales are on fire. Shipments of Android phones will grow by 561 percent in 2010 and take nearly 25 percent of the smartphone market. Additionally, Apple iPhone shipments will overtake RIM smartphones later this year, according to Digitimes Research.

http://www.cultofmac.com/apple-android-control-smartphone-market/55278

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• Read the latest Mobile Expert Interviews at: http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-interview-series.html


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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410 twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should in Enterprise Mobility

I have been pondering various enterprise mobility strategies this week.  I asked myself the question, "Is it better to be an enterprise mobility generalist or a business process expert that mobilizes their solutions?"  What do you think?

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. 

I believe that ultimately having deep vertical expertise makes your position more defensible.  If you have industry expertise, and it is reflected in your mobile solutions, you will provide greater value to your customer.

Let's use the example of SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization.  This is a specialized solution that addresses a specific category of problems.  SAP sought a partnership with industry expert Clicksoftware for this solution.  SAP sales teams now sell this solution globally and it is on the SAP pricelist as an SAP branded solution with the suffix "by Clicksoftware."  SAP sought industry expertise for this solution.  The mobile applications that are a part of it are valuable, but much of the value of this relationship is in the expertise built in the business applications themselves, not just the mobile client.  Without the industry expertise, it is highly unlikely that Clicksoftware would have been SAP's selection in this area.

 
Expertise matters.  With the advent of HTML5, mobile micro-apps and other lightweight mobile applications, the value of a particular mobile application is primarily in its ability to interact effectively with a specific "business application" that is somewhere else.  The mobile client has little or no value without the "business application."  As a result, the quality of the business application again becomes the focus.  This is how the mobility vendors within the SAP ecosystem will be weeded out.  Those without deep industry expertise will find it hard to compete with those that do.

I stood on my soapbox.  Now it is your turn.  Do you agree or disagree?  I look forward to your thoughts.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict

Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

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

http://www.clicksoftware.com/e86e075b-4fca-44c9-bfeb-4efcc978f416/knowledge-center-white-papers-delivery.htm

Kevin’s M2M News Weekly – August 18, 2010

Welcome to Kevin's M2M News Weekly. This is an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices that I read each week. I aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article. I also search for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around the M2M market.

You can read archived editions of Kevin's M2M News Weekly at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/m2m.html.

Also available are Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly and Kevin’s Enterprise Mobility Blog.

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Within the past 18 months Numerex has quietly positioned their business for strong growth in revenues and profits. Financially they are strong and getting stronger. Long term debt has been reduced to zero, cash is growing and stands at $7.5 million or about 50 cents per share, and non-GAAP net income (before legal expenses) was $1.8 million or about 12 cents per share.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/219979-numerex-s-ideal-business-model

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IMS Research has shared some findings indicating that the number of Internet connected devices is expected to pass the 5 billion milestone this month. Furthermore, the organization forecasts 22 billion connected devices by 2020.

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/08/16/market-research-firm-says-internet-connected-devices-will-surpass-5-billion-this-

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Some figures are already projecting that the market for M2M technology could boost U.S. wireless penetration from the current 90 percent to a staggering 500 percent over the next few years, with M2M connections far outpacing handset buyers in a huge growth spurt for the telecom industry.

http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20100812/INFRASTRUCTURE/100819978/m2m-to-stimulate-stagnating-cellular-penetration-potential

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The M2M sector in Spain went up by 20.9 percent over the same period last year, to over 1.94 million lines. The growth of the M2M sector brings the total number of mobile lines to over 54.77 million.

http://4g-wirelessevolution.tmcnet.com/news/2010/08/12/4953024.htm

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The emerging cellular M2M market has developed some sophisticated models on how to bill for mobile network use. As the consumer wireless industry looks beyond hard caps and unlimited data plans, can it emulate the business models of its M2M counterpart?

http://connectedplanetonline.com/4gparadox/feature/4g-paradox-does-m2m-hold-pricing-lessons-0816/index1.html

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Safefreight Technology, the official mobile security supplier for the IZOD IndyCar Series is partnering with KORE Telematic, to monitor the location and security status of each Indy car transport trailer and logistics support vehicle. Detailed information such as multi-zone temperature monitoring, door openings and aggressive driver acceleration, braking or turning can be transmitted by Smartfleet through the KORE network.

http://m2m.tmcnet.com/topics/m2mevolution/articles/95264-smartfleet-safefreights-easy-to-use-gps-fleet-tracking.htm

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Laird Technologies, Inc., a global leader in the design and supply of customized performance critical components and systems for advanced electronics and wireless products, today announced that they have entered into an agreement with Sprint to extend an M2M product line to a variety of businesses.

http://www.ttkn.com/technology/laird-technologies-partners-with-sprint-to-extend-m2m-product-line-to-a-variety-of-businesses-3405.html


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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410 twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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Extending Mobile Business Processes in Boise

A friend of mine here in Boise, Jon Young developed a very interesting mobile application on Android.  The application is a great example of the concept of extending business processes.

The application works much like the popular RedLaser iPhone application in that it can scan an ISBN barcode on a book cover and then automatically look it up.  The special part of the application is that it looks up the book in the local library system.  It will show the book's status and allow you to reserve the book if available.  You can read more about it on Jon's blog.

Think about this - you see a book that looks really interesting in a bookstore.  You can use Redlaser to look up the price at other locations or use Jon's mobile application to look it up in the Boise Library System, check the status, and reserve it. 

The Boise Library System also delivers the book free to the local library location of your choice and emails you when the book arrives.  This entire process can be completed on your mobile device.

This is a simple example of a very useful business process that was extended to mobile devices.  On Thursday, August 19, SAP and Sybase will hold a press conference to discuss their mobile enterprise strategies.  I will be listening in particular to how they will be extending ERP business processes out to mobile devices.

The SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization application by Clicksoftware is a great example of extending business processes out to the mobile workforce.  Here is how SAP describes it - it  helps your service organization run at optimal efficiency: from demand forecasting and workforce shift planning to real-time optimized scheduling, mobile workforce management, and business analytics. The solution helps ensure that your service organization meets objectives and commitments smoothly and efficiently.


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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict

Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

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