Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Neil McHugh, Part 1

Neil McHugh

Sky Technologies is an Australian based global software company that has been working in the SAP ecosystem and the Oracle ecosystem for nearly a decade.  The last time I checked they had over 100 SAP enterprise mobility customers.  Because of their experience and expertise, I contacted Neil McHugh about an interview and he was kind enough to agree.

Note:  Neil responded to these questions in writing, so these are Neil's words with minor editing.

Kevin:  What are your current roles and responsibilities? How long have you been in these roles?
Neil:  I am the Vice President for Sales & Business Development for Sky and have been working with them for almost three years.

Kevin:  Where are you located?
Neil:  I am located in Houston, but my offices are in Dallas and Palo Alto.

Kevin:  What mobile device(s) do you carry?
Neil:  I carry a iPhone, iPad and laptop when I travel.

Kevin:  What are some of your favorite mobile applications that you have on your mobile device?
Neil:  My favorite apps for my personal life are VectorVest for financial stock monitoring.  OpenTable to find good restaurants and Redbox for my DVD rentals.  From a work viewpoint an application that simplifies my life when I travel such as (Workflow – PO & Expense approval) CRM for accessing customer information.

Kevin:  Do you ever use your mobile device to buy things?
Neil:  I tend to use my iPad to buy things on Amazon, eBay and moving money around when I am buying stock.

Kevin:  How many computing devices do you have in your home?
Neil:  We have two laptops, two iPads, an iPhone and Android.  Six devices if I counted correctly.

Kevin:  How did you get involved in enterprise mobility?
Neil:  Networking with contacts brought me into the world of SAP and mobility.

Kevin:  What do you like most about working with enterprise mobility?
Neil:  I came from a background of mainframes with IBM which was very stable but bordering on stagnant.  Enterprise mobility is quite different, and it is the first time I have worked in a space where consumer and enterprise meet with the same technology.  So, it is a very dynamic space where hardware, software and communications will continue to improve and help us all to be more efficient.

Kevin:  What are some of the most surprising trends you saw in mobility in 2010?
Neil:  Probably the uptake of the iPad and follow-on tablets.  It was only 11 months ago that the first iPad was released and estimates suggest 10 million from Apple and 7 million from other suppliers.  Also, the adoption rate of iPads into the enterprise has been extremely quick.

Read Part 2 of this interview.
Read Part 3 of this interview.

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Networked Field Services
Mobile, The Next Big Thing for Business

Webinars of Note

Implementing SAP Enterprise Mobility - 10 Lessons Learned
Barcode Scanning in Mobile Apps
Five Ways to Optimize the ROI of your Mobile Solution

***************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin

Read The Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Read The Field Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Money News Weekly
Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Unified View of Mobile Field Operations

I read an article recently about how SAP's customer PG&E once had 67 different local offices dispatching field services crews.  These 67 offices managed 1,500 crews that consisted of approximately 5,000 specialists taking care of 50 million customers.  Each of these local offices only managed and had visibility to their own region's work and crew schedules.  As a result, some regions were very busy, some not.  This resulted in high administrative costs in the 67 offices, and an inefficient use of the field services crews.

PG&E ultimately consolidated all of their dispatching and field services management into two centers and standardized on a central scheduling solution.  This resulted in a unified view of the workforce's schedule. 

Today, the central dispatchers at PG&E have the visibility and management flexibility to schedule or reschedule work and crews to where they are most needed across regions.  This solution consisted of ClickSoftware's ServiceOptimization Suite of tools including ClickSchedule, ClickPlan, ClickAnalyze and ClickForecast integrated with SAP’s work order application.

PG&E is a great example of the implementation of a concept called "Network Centric Operations."  The ability to have a unified real-time view of all of your assets, work/missions, schedules and resources so that you can manage them to most efficiently accomplish the mission. 

I have been studying with keen interest recently how the military is incorporating these kinds of strategies to do more with less.  I believe this goal is equally important in the commercial sector.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin

Read The Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Read The Field Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Money News Weekly
Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Field Mobility News Weekly - Week of March 14, 2011

Kevin’s Field Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Mobile Money News Weekly
Also read Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

An Indiana man has developed a smartphone application that may make the war effort safer and more efficient.  Capt. Jonathan Springer created Tactical NAV last year with the help of his wife to provide soldiers with more precise logistics for delivering mortar strikes and artillery fire.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/9a3b94a4c9ea4da386e7bd3ae8ee02e6/IN--Soldier-Smartphone-App/

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The total market for finished barcode scanners (dedicated handheld and fixed position devices) reached an estimated $1.4 billion in 2010, with revenues of $1.5 billion projected for 2011, according to new research.

http://vsr.edgl.com/reseller-news/2D-Imagers-Set-to-Drive-Barcode-Scanner-Market-to-$1-5B-in-201171158?googleid=71158

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Trimble introduced the Trimble TSC3 handheld controller for construction, a powerful and rugged addition to the portfolio of controllers for heavy and highway contractors.

http://www.forconstructionpros.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=25&id=19652

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Telemetry has been used to remotely monitor equipment such as combine harvesters for some time, mainly for diagnostic and troubleshooting purposes.  Manufacturers are now looking to adopt such systems on tractors for enhanced fleet management and better security.

Mobile Solutions for Grocery Shopping and Allergens

I found out recently that I am allergic to wheat.  This fact has motivated me to adjust my diet, and to start reading closely the labels on products in the grocery store.  Last week I was reading the ingredients on a bottle of salad dressing and came across an unknown ingredient.  At first, I thought about using my iPhone 4 to look up the ingredient on the Internet, but then decided to try my free Red Laser app.

I turned the bottle around and snapped a photo of the UPC barcode with the Red Laser app and it instantly brought up a full description of the product and a section called Allergens.  There was a full description of each ingredient and a list of known allergens.

I was impressed!  A simple barcode image capture instantly provided me with all known allergen information for the product in question.  Now in my case the wheat allergy is simply an inconvenience, but with some people their allergies can be life threatening. 

Many mobile applications are simply clever apps looking for a problem to solve, but in this case the Red Laser app, or any other of the multitude of barcode image capturing apps, connected to a powerful database with valuable content can be a life saver.

This is a real life example of how a consumer can benefit from a free mobile iPhone application integrated with a product catalog that contains information important to the consumer.  I will certainly be using my iPhone bar code capturing technology, connected to the Internet and integrated with a database, much more often while grocery shopping.

I can image the CPG (consumer packaged goods) could add all kinds of other related services and information around this model.  If I capture the barcode, and then click on allergen information, that may be a good indicator that I have a special interest in particular ingredients.  The CPG company could then provide me with a list of other gluten-free products available from their company at my current location (GPS connection required).  They could certainly interest me in more gluten free products.  Making more sales should serve as a motivator for CPG companies to develop more kinds of mobile applications that are connected to more valuable consumer services.

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Networked Field Services
Mobile, The Next Big Thing for Business

Webinars of Note

Implementing SAP Enterprise Mobility - 10 Lessons Learned
Barcode Scanning in Mobile Apps
Five Ways to Optimize the ROI of your Mobile Solution

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin

Read The Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Read The Field Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Money News Weekly
Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Is Developing Your Own Mobile Solution a Good Idea?

There are a lot of challenges and complexities involved with developing an enterprise mobility solution.  You can choose to purchase a packaged application, where the vendor has already solved most of the challenges, or you can choose to take on the challenge yourself and develop your own mobile solution or outsource the custom development.  It is important, however, to recognize what difficulties and challenges are involved in custom development. The following list of questions and considerations is intended to help you understand what it takes to develop your own mobile solution:

1. Do you have the resources available to collect all business and technical requirements for the application? Do you know what questions need asking?
2. Do you have the time and resources available to design, develop, test, deploy and support a mobile software application for the long term?
3. Do you have the time and people available to review all the hardware requirements and operating system features that are needed by the end user?
4. Do you have experienced mobile application designers available that are familiar with the unique features of every operating system?
5. Mobility is here for the rest of your career.  Are you able to develop a mobility solution that can rapidly evolve as the mobility landscape evolves, or will your design require major work each time new mobile operating systems and devices are released?

Mobile Money News Weekly - Week of March 7, 2011

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

The $2 billion in mobile money transactions that occurred in 2009 is expected to grow ten fold to $22 billion by 2012.  Mobile remittances, or phone-to-phone transferring of funds, stood at $11 billion in 2009 and should reach $68 billion by 2012.

http://blogs.forbes.com/ciocentral/2011/02/18/mobile-phones-are-transforming-commerce-starting-in-africa/

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The number of mobile payment users has been rising fast with 351 million users in 2009, and is estimated to reach 1.06 billion by 2014 at a compound annual growth rate of 20.5 percent.  Global mobile payments transactions are expected to rise to $1.13 trillion in 2014 from $37.4 billion in 2009, at an annual growth rate of 98 percent.

https://www.trefis.com/modelDiff?id=11

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San Francisco based startup, Square, has reached a new milestone.  The company is now processing one million dollars in mobile payments per day.

http://www.zippycart.com/ecommerce-news/2140-square-racking-in-1million.html

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According to InsideRetailing.com, more retailers are expected to begin incorporating Apple’s iPad into store operations.  The shift seems to be retailers' response to consumers’ multi-channel shopping habits.

Mobility News Weekly - Week of March 7, 2011

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Money News Weekly
Also read Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

With the launch of the Motorola Xoom, and impending arrival of the BlackBerry PlayBook, HP TouchPad, and a plethora of other tablets, the competition is mounting for the Apple iPad. However, a survey from ChangeWave finds that the dominance of Apple's iPad is assured for the foreseeable future.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/221858/survey_paints_bleak_future_for_ipad_rivals.html

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One year after its formation, the operator led Wholesale Applications Community, has launched its commercial service.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/02/operators-launch-wac-wholesale-app-store.php

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that 65 percent of the Fortune 100 have either deployed or have pilots running with the iPad.  Meanwhile, Network World puts the number in the Fortune 100 as 80 percent.

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/14/enterprise-ipad-adoption-up-to-80-percent-in-fortune-100/

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SAP AG has announced a new road map of in memory applications that will help customers become real time businesses, transforming the way they think, plan and operate.

M2M and Mobile Devices are Changing the Economics of Energy



M2M and Smartphones

A good friend and fellow Boisean, Chris Volk, works for M2M Communications on a project called PEAR.  PEAR stands for Peak Energy Awards Program.  This is a very interesting program that combines M2M (machine to machine) devices with smartphones to provide a significant benefit for energy producers and their customers.

Here is how I understand it to work.  There are certain times of the season and day when energy usage peaks.  Energy utilities are required by law to support these peak times with enough energy.  The problem is that these peaks may only be for a few hours each day, or month or season.  As a result you have expensive infrastructure and assets not being used for much of the time.  This is an inefficient use of money.

Energy generators would rather find ways to reduce the peak usage times in order to reduce the need for  new power plants, transmission and distribution networks.  One way they are doing this is through project PEAR.  This project targets large agricultural irrigation systems and users.  It pays farmers to equip their irrigation pumps with M2M devices that allow them to be managed and controlled remotely and switched off at certain peak energy usage times.  They are switched off for one to four hours at a time.  The equipment is free to the farmer and they are paid a fee for participating.

One of the reasons the agricultural industry was targeted with this program is they have flexibility.  They can be flexible with their irrigation times.  A factory has less flexibility in that their employees start at 8:00 a.m. and leave at 5:00 p.m.  However, a farm has more flexibility to water at different non-peak usage times.

The farmer is given notice in advance, so they know when their pumps will be switched off and can choose to opt out if needed.  The pumps can be managed and controlled by smartphones, computers or via an internet connection to the energy providers systems.

To me, the smartphone component is what makes this story really interesting.  You have mobile devices (smartphones) being used as control panels for industrial and agricultural systems.  Oh My!  First our smartphones became TV remotes, now they can control the farm.  I love it!

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin
Read The Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Read The Field Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Money News Weekly
Read The M2M News Monthly
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

M2M News Monthly - March 2011

Welcome to Kevin's M2M News Monthly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices.  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.

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Money News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Preliminary data from Berg Insight show that the worldwide number of mobile network connections used for wireless M2M communication reached 81.4 million at the end of 2010, up 46 percent year-on-year.

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/47657.php

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A report released by ABI Research indicates more than three-quarters of a billion RFID tags will be used in global apparel markets in 2011.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/09/item-level-rfids-get-support-from-big-retailers-track-your-ever/

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A growing number of startups are applying the principles of social networking to home energy management, and bringing social media to the smart grid.  In the process, they are revolutionizing people’s understanding of their energy use, building successful companies and helping to lessen the impact of each individual on the environment.

http://mashable.com/2011/02/08/smart-grid-social-media/

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Defense contractor Comtech Telecommunications Corp., has revealed that its Maryland-based subsidiary, Comtech Mobile Datacom Corporation, received orders totaling $27.2 million under its MTS contract with the U.S. Army.

Sybase's New Enterprise Mobility Guide

Sybase's Eric Lai

Eric Lai, a friend of mine at Sybase, has just completed a monumental task.  He has organized the publication of a very interesting new guidebook called the Enterprise Mobility Guide.  This is a substantial guidebook with 123 pages, and it is absolutely free!  It contains many different sections:

• Transformation of the Enterprise
• The Mobility Effect
• Mobile Ecosystem @Work
• Mobile Enterprise Best Practices
• Market Data

The articles within the guidebook are written by folks like:

• Raj Nathan, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, Sybase, an SAP Company
• Oliver Bussman, Global CIO, SAP
• Greg Jenko, Partner, Global Lead for Mobile Systems Integrations, Accenture
• Philippe Winthrop, Managing Director, The Enterprise Mobility Foundation
• Eugene Signorini, Vice President, Yankee Group
• Many more... 

This is very good material and I would encourage you to download your copy.

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Networked Field Services
Mobile, The Next Big Thing for Business

Webinars of Note:
Implementing SAP Enterprise Mobility - 10 Lessons Learned
Barcode Scanning in Mobile Apps
Five Ways to Optimize the ROI of your Mobile Solution

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin
Read The Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Read The Field Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Money News Weekly
Read The M2M News Monthly

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