Conjecture, Field Services and Enterprise Mobility

In this Video Comments segment I discuss the word "conjecture" and how it relates to field services and enterprise mobility, plus mobile strategies and decision making tools.  I hope you find it useful.







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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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 Medical News Weekly - Week of December 12, 2011


The Mobile Medical News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to medical 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 M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has granted a total of $30 million for 100 telemedicine projects in 34 states and one territory, according to a USDA news release. Read Original Content

Mercy Health System in Philadelphia created a highly targeted app three months ago for its bariatrics program. The app allows users to upload a photo of themselves and change their body image with a stroke of a finger to view what they might look like after weight-loss surgery. Since the app went live it has been downloaded nearly 1,300 times and used by consumers nearly 4,000 times. Read Original Content

The American Telemedicine Association projects an exponential growth in the adoption of telemedicine and mHealth technologies as a record number of consumers are entering fee-capped managed care insurance plans. Currently 73 million Americans are being monitored using telehealth solutions. Read Original Content

Webalo technology eliminates the need for traditional mobile application development tools and custom programming to provide in hours, instead of weeks or months, mobile access to the specific enterprise data and functions that smartphone and tablet users rely on to do their jobs.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Webalo, www.webalo.com.

Mobility News Weekly - Week of December 12, 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 M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Medical News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

Android Market, Facebook, as well as Google apps such as Search, Gmail and Google Maps, are roughly the top most popular smartphone applications for the Android platform, according to Nielsen.  Read Original Content

Already big in Japan, Panasonic has announced that it plans to take on the world’s smartphone manufacturers and make the leap into the European market.  Read Original Content

Apple is learning to compromise.  Facing challenges winning over customers for its iAd mobile advertising service, Apple is softening its approach as it loses ground to Google in the fast-growing mobile-ad market.  Read Original Content

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/.

Google has removed a slew of apps from the official Android Market after security researchers found that they contained hidden SMS-message-sending capabilities, allowing criminals to rack up profits at the expense of the smartphone user.  Read Original Content

Mobility and 4D Field Services

GPS Coordinates and Time
I have been researching and pondering the concept of the 4th dimension this week, and how it relates to enterprise mobility and field services. First I looked up the meaning of 3D or 3 dimensional.  Three dimensional is made up of length, width and height.  These are basically GPS coordinates.  With GPS coordinates you can find and identify a location on the earth or map.  If you have GPS coordinates for your mobile workforce or mobile resources you will know where they are located, right?  WRONG!!!  The only thing that you know is that at a specific time (when the GPS coordinates were captured), they were located at those locations.  Time is a very important component.  If your GPS coordinates were captured last week, they are not likely to be accurate today?

As I hinted above, the 4th dimension is time, and it is critical to managing real-time field services.  You must add time to length, width and height to make 4D.  When you have the added value of time, you can do many things.  For example:
  1. Monitor travel times by capturing departure and arrival times.
  2. Monitor work start and stop times at a particular location.
  3. Monitor job status at a particular location.
  4. Analyse the best schedules based on locations, travel times, job statuses etc.
  5. Capture KPIs and analyze them.
4D field services is the goal to achieve service optimization.  However, it is only possible when your mobile workforce and PIVs (Performance Impact Variables) are connected and using mobile technologies.  I will write more about PIVs in my next article.

As many of you know my mantra is, "Mobile technologies without mobile strategies is wasted."  There are a lot of interesting things that can be done with mobile technologies to provide a company with competitive advantages if they have a good strategy.



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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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.

HTML5 – What’s New - December 14, 2011


Kony Adds HTML5 to App Building platform

Mobile platform provider Kony Solutions launched the KonyOne platform this week.  The new platform allows developers to define an app once and deploy it across multiple devices, operating systems, and channels.  It allows delivery of both native applications and mobile web – HTML5 and non-HTML5, across phones, tablets, and desktops.

Raj Koneru, CEO of Kony said, “We believe the future includes native, mobile web, and HTML5 hybrid or 'mixed mode' applications.  Using the KonyOne platform, developers can use a single code base to create optimized applications for any device, operating system or browser. They can create native, mobile web or HTML5 applications or any combination to achieve the best individual user experience."
Original Content 

HTML5-enabled Smartphones to Hit 1 Billion Worldwide in 2013

Research firm Strategy Analytics says that HTML5-compatible mobile phone sales will reach 1 billion in 2013, up from 336 million in 2011.  What is the definition of an HTML5-compatible phone?  An HTML5-compatible phone is defined as “A mobile handset with partial or full support for HTML5 technology in the browser, such as the Apple iPhone 4S”.

The Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, Neil Mawston, states “HTML5 has quickly become a high-growth technology that will help smartphones, feature phones, tablets, notebooks, desktop PCs, televisions and vehicles to converge in the future.”

Original Content

HTML5 is Featured in “Small Business Software Trends for 2012”

In the article, "Small Business Software Trends for 2012," the author writes, 
“HTML5 is shifting how we look at apps and software. Right now, the browser is central to how we use SaaS solutions (software as a service), but as more users operate remotely and via mobile devices, there is solid evidence that the browser could go away, or at least become dramatically different from what we experience today."  [Kevin Benedict Comment: It seems to me that browsers would become more important with HTML5, not less.]

The author goes on to say, "HTML5 makes it possible to add functionality to the browsing experience. If Adobe’s recent decision is any indication of the trend, they terminated their mobile Flash development work to migrate to HTML5."


HTML5 is also featured in the blog article, 
“7 Mobile Trends for 2012: NFC, Nokia, Apps and HTML5” from Josh Smith at, Gotta Be Mobile.  “HTML5 will become a bigger force in the mobile space, powering single page apps and offering a snappier mobile web experience.”

Featured Article: NFC - What is the Hype all About?

Featured Webinar:  Insider's Insight into NFC (Near Field Communications)

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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.

Interviews with Kevin Benedict