Mobile End Points Not Just Mobile Device or Mobile App Management

Mobile Data End Points

I was researching consumer mobility trends this morning.  It turns out that for the first time people are accessing their mobile devices for news more often than television, radio, magazines and newspapers.  They expect mobile devices to be their trusted source of information.  What does this new development mean for businesses?  I believe it means that customers will begin, if they don't already, to expect businesses to supply more account and products information on mobile devices because that is where they turn to for information.

I believe that in many cases the information that customers want to access on a mobile device is nearly the same information that the field service engineer needs.  The customer wants to know when the field service engineer will arrive on location.  They want to know their account, product and service history.  They want to know the status of their service ticket and the invoice amount.

As more of these kinds of mobile applications are developed, it will become increasingly important for IT departments to keep track of what data they are sharing with employees, customers and the general public via mobile apps. 

It is not sufficient for companies to monitor and manage the mobile devices and mobile apps of their employees.  It is the corporate data that must be managed.  The data that leaves the enterprise database must be managed and tracked to the end point.  The end point is any device that may access and store your corporate data.

I realize that I may be stating the obvious, but all of us in enterprise mobility like to talk about MDM (mobile device management) and security as being important, but it is more than that.  It is really about managing the data correctly in mobile environments.

Do you agree?

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Networked Field Services

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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 April 4, 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 M2M News Monthly

Mobile marketing is expected to continue to grow in the U.S. this year, with brands expected to invest more than $1 billion on mobile marketing in the U.S. alone in 2011.

http://moconews.net/article/419-dont-shoot-the-messenger-users-warm-up-a-bit-to-mobile-marketing/

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A recent report from Forrester Research predicted that by 2014 over 40 percent of consumers will be accessing the web via a mobile device.

http://www.utalkmarketing.com/pages/Article.aspx?ArticleID=20782&Title=Why_the_mobile_ad_industry_must_show_greater_transparency

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By 2015 digital strategies, such as social and mobile marketing, will influence at least 80 percent of consumers' discretionary spending.

http://www.echannelline.com/usa/story.cfm?item=26701

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Mobile advertising networks delivered 340 billion filled and billed impressions across the globe in 2010, generating $794 million in media spend and earning $254.3 million in net platform and media services-related revenue.

Gartner Awards Vivint with Enterprise Efficiency Award for Enterprise Mobility Solution

I read an interesting article today that documented significant efficiencies gained through field service automation, scheduling and the addition of an enterprise mobility solution.  The company is Vivint, a company that helps with residential home security and automated home management.  Here are some of the improvements they experienced with their solutions:

• 33 percent engineer utilization improvement (one additional work order daily per technician)
• 60 percent decrease in inbound call traffic to scheduling department
• ROI of $20.13 per ticket
• Total estimated ROI engineer utilization of $2,831,009.70
• 32 percent increase in fuel efficiency (equal to 1.2 gallon decrease per average on work orders completed)

Gartner presented the Gold Level Gartner and 1‐to‐1 Media CRM Excellence Award to Vivint last week at the Gartner Customer 360 Summit in Los Angeles.  The criteria they were using to judge this award were:

• Reducing operational and interaction costs
• Improving sales
• Improving service
• Improving marketing
• Improving customer service
• Improving customer value - such as revenue growth, wallet share, products per person and frequency of purchase

Vivint created a real‐time mobile enterprise, that links every stakeholder in the service chain.  They created this real-time enterprise using an automated scheduling and dispatch solution, enterprise mobility and customer interaction management solutions to give its team of dispatchers and 400 field service technicians real‐time information and dynamic routing ability. As a result, technicians are able to field nearly 50 percent more service calls every day while customers consistently report outstanding service quality and responsiveness.

The solutions used were from ClickSoftware, an SAP mobility partner, the developer of the SAP Workforce Optimization and Scheduling 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.

Field Mobility News Weekly - Week of April 4, 2011

The 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

The Austin Police Department is now using handheld devices to scan fingerprints and instantly connect to police databases and reveal true identities.

http://www.kvue.com/news/APD-fingerprint-scanner-proving-sucessful-database-expanding-118802024.html

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Rugged mobile handhelds and notebooks increase efficiency and competitiveness.
Consumers are having a heyday enjoying the benefits of mobile computing through a host of handheld devices such as netbooks, slates and smartphones.

http://technology.inquirer.net/infotech/infotech/view/20110403-329212/Rugged-mobile-PCs-for-business-use

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As mobile penetration rates level off, the wireless industry is setting its sights on vertical markets such as M2M and mobile healthcare products for the next wave of growth.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/ctia-2011-preview-what-expect-show/m2m-wireless-healthcare-tap-ctia-2011-preview

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DAILY RFID has released the palm-sized portable RFID scanner DL710 for transportation, especially in airports.  This PDA-based portable RFID scanner enables passengers and drivers to check-in and identify themselves by simply waving their contact less RFID embedded card.

M2M News Monthly - April 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

Analysys Mason research projects that there will be 2.1 billion M2M devices by 2020, up from 62 million last year.

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=206045&f_src=lightreading_gnews

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Cellular M2M connections are forecast to more than double from their 2011 level of 19.6 million to 50.2 million in 2015.

http://urgentcomm.com/networks_and_systems/commentary/m2m-cellular-interest-20110330/

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Forecasts shows mobile data services, including messaging, Internet, apps, entertainment services, and M2M, will generate $500 billion in global revenues for mobile carriers in 2015.

http://www.prlog.org/11362636-mobile-data-services-will-generate-500-billion-in-global-revenues-for-mobile-carriers-in-2015.html

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Sprint has further expanded its M2M ecosystem with solution partner relationships that bring specialized expertise in connected transportation, fixed and portable solutions, SmartGrid and utilities and health care.