SAP Enterprise Mobility is All About Reducing Options



Reducing Options

One of my criticisms of Sybase in the past was that they gave customers too many options for designing, developing and deploying enterprise mobility solutions.  What is wrong with a plethora of options?  It can lead to indecision and paralysis.  That does not benefit Sybase or the customer.

In my opinion, much of Apple's success can be attributed to their lack of options.  They tell developers how they should develop mobile applications, what devices they can use, they then review them for compliance to their standards, and tell them how they can be uploaded and sold on the one Apple App Store.  Limiting options may frustrate some, but it provides a very well defined path for their customers and development partners. 

Over the past 9 years I have spoken often to Sybase and iAnywhere staff about mobile development projects, and nearly always left these conversations with more questions than answers.  That was rarely useful.  I think that the faster customers and development partners can be directed to the appropriate path and have their options reduced, the better.  This reduction in options will enable decisions to be made and actions to occur.

Since there are literally thousands of different ways mobile solutions can be designed, developed and deployed, the best thing we can do is to learn from mobile experts who have tried many different models and methodologies and can help direct us down the right path or paths.

What do you think?  Is it better to be provided with a limited number of options based upon a quick decision tree, or to provide you with an unlimited number of options?  I would love to read your comments!

In an upcoming webinar on April 7th at 12:00 PM EDST, myself, mobile solutions guru Steffen Schwark and Sybase mobility consultant Sam Lakkundi will be sharing our experiences and advice to help you reduce your options :-).  The panel will explore current trends in enterprise mobility through analysis of the business processes and strategies used by successful companies to mobilize their workforce, with an emphasis on SAP environments and ecosystem. Kevin and Steffen will share their research on the future of enterprise mobility and outline customer best practices; Sam will elaborate on the specific role that SAP/Sybase plays in supporting mobility for the enterprise. The presentation will be followed by a real-time Q & A session.

Register Here!

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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.

Mobile Retailing News Weekly - Week of March 21, 2011

The Mobile Retailing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile retailing applications and mobile marketing applications 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 Money News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile NFC News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

The mobile retail market will exceed $12 billion by 2014 due to one-to-one marketing and smartphone adoption, Juniper Research reports.

http://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/the-diversification-of-mobile-media-into-product-media-019270

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Brands significantly increased their UK mobile marketing spend last year, as part of their efforts to capitalize on the growth of smartphone use.

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1061104/Brands-ramp-spend-mobile-ad-platforms/

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Mobile penetration in the Czech Republic is among the highest in Central European nations and is high even by western European levels.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110316005789/en/Research-Markets-Czech-Republic---Mobile-Market

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Advances in smart phone technology and accelerating consumer adoption of tablets and other mobile devices have spurred an opportunity for marketers looking to make good on the long sought promise of mobile marketing.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Australian Post's John Moy

John Moy works for the Australian Post, an SAP customer, and he is an enthusiastic student of mobility.  He was kind enough to grant me a video interview this week in Sydney.  The Australian Post currently has a handful of customer facing mobile applications, and they are looking to expand.  Here is a current list of what they have available on mobile applications:

• calculate postage costs via the postage assessment calculator tool
• search for a postcode
• view and track parcel items
• locate any Australia Post retail outlet
• find a nearby street posting box
• pay a variety of bills online.

I spoke to one of the mobility guys at SAP recently, and he shared that there are potentially thousands of valuable mobile applications that can and should be integrated with SAP systems.  I believe there are many uses for mobile applications, but I may want to argue about whether they all deserve stand alone mobile applications.  It seems to me that many of these mobile "apps" could really be one application with capabilities to support many business processes from the same mobile application or client.   

Here is my interview with John that I recorded in Sydney, Australia at the Mastering SAP Technologies conference.



I want to thank John for sharing both in person and on his tweets. You can follow his tweets on Twitter @jhmoy.

***************************************************
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.

Network Centric Operations, Syclo and ESRI

This week in Sydney, Australia I taught a class on Network Centric Operations.  I covered the convergence of enterprise mobility, GIS (global information systems), business intelligence and M2M (machine to machine) technologies in ways that helps field service managers have real-time visibility into their field service operations.  This convergence requires news ways of thinking, managing, process re-engineering and news ways of integrating these solutions into a unified view.

The recent announcement by Syclo about their integration and partnership with GIS software ESRI fits right into vision.

***************************************************
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.

Unwiring Your Enterprise with SAP Enterprise Mobility

Learn about the latest
in mobile innovations!

SAP has put together an enterprise mobility webinar series that I look forward to watching.  For the first webinar they have lined up an interesting line up consisting of SAP, Sybase, Aberdeen and SAP customer Tellabs:

• Praveen Gautam, Director, Enterprise Technical Services, Tellabs
• Kathy Murino, Director Information Technology SAP Applications, Tellabs
• Andrew Borg, Sr. Research Analyst, Wireless & Mobility, Aberdeen Group
• Dan Ortega, Sr. Director, Product Marketing, Sybase, an SAP Company

This is a joint effort by both SCN (SAP Community Network) and the SAP EcoHub.  I am anxious to learn about actual customer implementations, so am excited about the role Tellabs will play in this webinar.  I spent some time with the folks from Tellabs in Santa Clara, California at the SAP Influencer Summit in December.  Here are some of the notes I took at that time:

• Tellabs CIO thinks soon all apps will first be developed mobile, and then a subset converted to desktop.
• Tellabs says mobile apps will have a short lifecycle. Don't plan for longterm mobile apps, they change too fast.
• Tellabs has an ethics policy that mobile app users sign before they use personal devices for work. 
• Tellabs says the IT department was the biggest obstacle. They didn't want to give up command and control and give mobile access early on. 
• Tellabs promotes bring your own mobile device to work. Security is installed, a contract signed - personal devices are used.

In this upcoming webinar the topics will be:

• How best-in-class companies deal with the challenges of enterprise mobility management, including the tablet invasion, employee-liable devices, multiple platforms, and security and compliance issues.
• How SAP’s offerings can help you "unwire your enterprise" and accelerate your business.
• How Tellabs, an SAP customer, is using the Sybase Unwired Platform and SAP Mobile Workflow to deploy innovative enterprise applications on mobile devices, such as the iPad, to improve the productivity of its employees.
  
  
  

Join us for the first one-hour interactive webcast in the series on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. EDT/6:00 p.m. CET. Register Here!

 
***************************************************
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.

Mobility News Weekly - Week of March 21, 2011

The 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 Mobile NFC News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

Screens 4-inches and larger sell better that those 3.5-inches and smaller, according to research firm NPD Group, as consumers seek a richer media experience from their smartphones.

http://www.mobiledia.com/news/84782.html

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Amazon.com has opened its Amazon Appstore for Android, offering free and paid applications based on the open-source operating system, albeit with some features that differentiate it from Google's competing Android Market.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Amazon-Appstore-Opens-to-Challenge-Googles-Android-Market-176567/

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Nokia, whose presence in the U.S. smartphone market is already small, has announced it plans to move away from its Symbian operating system in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.  The company has high hopes of boosting its presence in the U.S., but its first Windows Phone devices won’t be ready until late this year, at the earliest.

http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/20110321/nokia-aims-to-reach-u-s-smartphone-market-ahead-of-windows-phone-7/

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A research report entitled, The Mobile Handset and Smartphone Market in India conducted by Frost and Sullivan puts forth that the mobile handset market's revenues is likely to soar from INR 255.91 billion in 2010 to INR 350.05 billion in 2016.

Mobile Money News Weekly - Week of March 21, 2011

The 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
Also read Mobility NFC News Weekly

The global value of mobile payments reached an estimated $170 billion last year and could grow to $630 billion by 2014 as new phones are designed to bypass the Internet to directly charge or debit an account.

http://money.canoe.ca/money/business/canada/archives/2011/03/20110322-174208.html

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Consumers are quickly turning to their mobile devices to comparison shop, seek product ratings, and search for coupons.  Forty-eight percent of consumers use their mobile devices to research or browse products and services.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/New-Report-Demonstrates-Mobiles-Growing-Influence-on-Consumer-Retail-Activity-NASDAQ-ORCL-1415259.htm

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Analysts estimate that as many as 70 million phones sold this year will have NFC capabilities baked into the hardware and software.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/near-field-communication-beyond-mobile-transactions/

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Mobile contactless payments, in which you pay by holding your phone near the payment reader at the register, are expected to increase by 1,077 percent by 2015.

Mobile Expert Video Series: ETSA Utilities' Jason Lante

Jason Lante is a hands on IT guy that has a great deal of experiences rolling out successful enterprise mobility projects that included implementing software from SAP mobility partner, ClickSoftware and integrating it with SAP in the outback of Australia.  This is a video interview that I recorded at the Mastering SAP Technologies conference with Jason.





***************************************************
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.

Mobile NFC News Weekly – Week of March 21, 2011

Welcome to the first edition of the Mobile NFC News Weekly.  In our daily research on the mobility market, we are finding more and more information on the subject of mobile NFC (near field communications).  Why is NFC interesting?  It is one of the key components of mobile money, which has the possibility of changing the way banking, business and consumer transactions are made globally.

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

In an example of the battles erupting as smartphones evolve into electronic wallets, Research In Motion Ltd. is locking horns with wireless carriers over control of mobile payment data.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704360404576206412989185134.html

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Google is reportedly testing a mobile payment trial at stores in New York and San Francisco.

http://hothardware.com/News/Google-Purportedly-Testing-NFC-Payment-Machines-In-NYSF-Stores-/

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MasterCard claims mobile touch and go payments through microSD cards are the future of mobile phones in Australia.  The company made the call following Visa's announcement earlier this week of a 50 employee trial with ANZ of iPhone cases embedded with NFC chips to test contactless payments like in PayPass and PayWave cards.

http://smarthouse.com.au/Phones/Mobile/Q2J4K6J2

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Research in Motion’s, managing director, Steven Bates, says that his company will make a push to integrate NFC into its smartphones and tablets.

How Many Mobility Platforms are Enough?



Kevin Benedict and Australian Post's
John Moy (on the right).

I spoke to John Moy from the Australian Post about his many mobility projects this week.  They have all kinds of interesting mobility applications that are customer facing apps.  I recorded a video interview with John that I will publish here as soon as I get a good high speed Internet connection.  The mobile applications he mentioned were the following:

• Postage calculator
• Package tracking
• Locations of post offices

During our discussions John asked a very good question.  He asked, "Does SAP/Sybase have a mobility platform for customer facing applications?"  I thought about this and said, "Good question!"  There are certainly ways to connect customer facing mobile applications with SAP data and processes, but is there a true platform for customer facing applications?  How would you have answered that question?


I would tell you if I knew.


Customer facing mobile applications need to be compelling in order to compete, and for customers to be motivated to use them.  They need to have incredible UIs (user interfaces) and great value.  John and I would have asked this question of the Sybase folks had they attended, but instead we were left to form our own conclusions.  That is a risky venture.

Another good question John asked was, "Will one mobile platform be able to support all of our needs?"  I believe large enterprises may need more than one.  Especially if they have mobile consumer apps.  In the retail and CPG space, there are marketing campaigns, loyalty programs, mobile money, coupons, rebates, specials, catalogs, location based services and social networking components to all of the above.  I have not seen anything in this area from SAP or Sybase yet.  This may be an area where companies may need to work with a specialty mobile platform.

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
SAP Mobilization - What You Need to Know

***************************************************
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.