SAP's Mobility Vision - Any Way You Want It

When you first look at the list of mobility vendors that are attending SAPPHIRENOW 2012, it may seem like most of them compete with SAP mobility, but that would be to forget that SAP sells ERP software.  Look at where SAP makes their money.  They make their money selling and maintaining large enterprise software implementations that run companies.  Mobility is an enabler.  Mobility extends and adds value to these large SAP users.  Those are important points to understand.

In a way, I think SAP's mobile strategy can be defined as, "I don't care."  I don't care what mobile software you use as long as it adds users and value.  If more users can access SAP through a third-party mobile solution, and SAP receives more user fees, then all is well.  Yes, they have spent billions of dollars on mobile middleware, tools, infrastructure and mobile applications (e.g. Sybase and Syclo), but that was, I believe, to ignite a now explosive enterprise mobility marketplace.  They needed to kick-start the market and they have succeeded.  There are now many mobility vendors supporting SAP users.

This week I read a story, written I believe, by Eric Lai about how fast SAP's internal developers could develop mobile applications using Adobe's PhoneGap mobile development environment.  Why might you ask would SAP be promoting the virtues of developing in another vendors solution?  Again, I think the answer is, "They don't care!"  SAP will provide everything needed to mobilize SAP environments, but if you want to use another vendor's solution - go for it!!!  SAP will get their user licenses, more value will be added to the SAP environment and everyone is happy.

I think the most important thing SAP has done for mobility in the past three years is to be aggressive and to promote that mobility is essential for large enterprises.  The folks at SAP invited me in late 2009 to join their SAP Mentor program.  This is a voluntary position, and I taught dozens of sessions over the past three years on mobile strategy at their events.  Today, everyone seems to believe in the value of enterprise mobility.  I read this morning that there are now eighty-one mobile applications on the SAP app store.  Very nice!

I think SAP's new partnerships with Adobe PhoneGap, Appcelerator and Sencha, plus the continued partnerships with appsFreedom, ClickSoftware and Sky Technologies prove my point.  There is room for many mobility vendors as long as they support SAP's middleware strategy and add value to the SAP user community. 

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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 Retail Apps Equal Sales

If companies have hesitated to develop a mobile strategy or mobile retail apps over concerns as to their value, this article on a report from ABI Research should send them straight to the phone calling the next available mobile developer.  Here is an excerpt from the article, "The results are promising for retailers, with 45.8% of respondents saying the app caused them to visit the store more, buy more of the store/brand’s products and services (40.4%), spread the word about their store shopping experience (35.8%), and even encourage friends to visit the store (30.8%)."

Once a company decides (the sooner the better) to invest in mobile retail applications it is important to recognize this is a permanent project.  Just as things change by season and holiday in retail, so to will the mobile application needs and designs.  Many companies choose to work with their ad agency or other third party developers on mobile retail and marketing apps because of the campaign nature of these applications.

IT organizations are rarely equipped to manage application projects that change as rapidly as mobile commerce and marketing applications.  Most often, the IT organization will create web services and other APIs that expose certain business processes like "order entry" and "track shipments" that are used by these mobile applications, but out-source the design, development, deployment and support of them.

SAP already seems to recognize the value in mobile commerce, for their customers and for themselves.  Here is an excerpt from an article I read last week, "Luis Cesar Verdi, President of SAP Brazil, told Computerworld UK, “Our strategy is to first help our clients understand how to use our mobile technology internally within their organisations,” he explained.  “However, we intend to extend this and get them to offer our mobile applications and infrastructure to their customers,” he added.  Verdi said that this is likely to be specifically within the services sector, for example, in retail, financial services and utilities.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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.

Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of May 13, 2012

Welcome to the Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility in Asia.  Asia is predicted to be the fastest area of growth for enterprise mobility between now and 2016.

Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Citing a commitment to the Asia Pacific region as an important market for cellular communications, Celcite Management Solutions has opened a new office in Singapore. Read Original Content

The results of a survey by Frost & Sullivan reveal that 25 percent of Australian businesses rate mobility to be either their top priority or a very important priority in 2012. Read Original Content

Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase Inc. has been working with The Philippines’ Globe Telecom to run live commercial voice traffic across multiple Asian operators, allowing Globe Telecom to exchange international calls directly with other mobile operators rather than routing calls through traditional wholesale voice carriers. Read Original Content

Indian e-commerce firm Snapdeal has launched a mobile app for Android devices, reaching out to the millions of Android users in India. Read Original Content

To increase the options for mobile banking in India, banks have begun offering mobile services through a new method, USSD, which works on a menu-based banking model on mobile devices allowing users to perform services by recalling the menu and simply dialing a number. Read Original Content

The number of citizens in Taiwan accessing the Internet via mobile devices is currently more than 4.9 million, according to the Institute for Information Industry in Taipei. Read Original Content

Subscriptions for 3G last year grew 172 percent in China and a staggering 1,050 percent in India.  It is predicted that China will have 230-250 million 3G subscribers by the end of 2012. Read Original Content

SAP Enterprise Mobility and Multilevel Marketing

In an article I read this morning, "Luis Cesar Verdi, President of SAP Brazil, told Computerworld UK that Brazil currently has 1.5 million end users for its mobile applications, but plans to increase this rapidly to 20 million by 2015.  To achieve this, Verdi plans to target the general public by going through enterprise customers that currently use its ERP systems and mobile applications."

I wrote about this multilevel enterprise mobility strategy last year and believe it will be effective.  B2C mobility is and will continue to be a fast growing market for mobility vendors, and SAP has the opportunity to touch billions of mobile users through B2C mobility.  Let's think about it.  SAP is big in utilities, consumer packaged goods and other industries with large customer bases.  Providing mobile IDEs (integrated development environments) through SDKs through partnerships and acquisitions will make it easier for mobile vendors to extend SAP out to these users.

Mobility is going to touch every industry, supplier ecosystem and customer base.  Companies need to start developing their strategy for supporting these groups sooner rather than later.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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 Health News Weekly – Week of May 6, 2012

The Mobile Health News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to mobile health that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Rogers Communications will enable wireless infant pajamas in Canada later this year as part of its M2M mobile health portfolio. Read Original Content

Telit Wireless Solutions announced its CC864-DUAL cellular module will connect the next generation Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry from CardioNet, Inc., a wireless medical technology company with a current focus on the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac arrhythmias. Read Original Content

The Department of Defense released a mobile app to help service members adjust to life at home after returning from combat deployments. Positive Activity Jackpot, developed by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, uses augmented reality with a smart phone’s GPS to help find nearby activities and diversions for someone used to the high tempo of combat life. 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.

Mobiquity, a professional services firm creating mobile solutions, announced Dr. Stephen Ferzoco has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Ferzoco will help Mobiquity tap the vast potential of the mHealth industry, estimated by analysts to top $4.6 billion by 2014. Read Original Content

The future of the mHealth space is, in a word, "growth," which is exemplified at this week's International CTIA Wireless 2012 trade show in New Orleans. The mHealth market is expected to grow from just $500 million in 2010 to $8 billion by 2018, according to a report from Global Data. Read Original Content

Float Mobile Learning’s most recent quarterly report on mobile applications for wellness, home care, emergencies and hospital management reveals a trend toward “do-it-yourself” medicine. Key findings show a movement toward patient-centered healthcare, with mobile devices placing medical knowledge in the hands of patients. Read Original Content