Powell's Book Store, Confessions, and Mobile Strategies

Powell's City of Books

I am grateful that Powell's City of Books is located in the same general direction as my parent's home, or I must admit that my parents would not see me or my family as often.  I also confess to having returned with 16 additional books, when half of the books I got there on my last visit remain unread and stacked next to my bed.  Here is a sampling of the new titles:

• Community Geography
• The Future of War
• Maphead
• The Principles of War for the Information Age
• The Art of Maneuver
• The Army After Next

The book titled Community Geography is full of stories about how communities use GIS (geographical information systems) to improve their communities by doing things like crime fighting, identifying pollution sources, locating noxious weeds, tracking water quality and getting kids to school.  Much of this involves geo-tagging events and objects and then presenting geo-tags on a map to help visualize the environment so better decisions can be made.  Service organizations would be will served to understand these concepts and apply them in their mobile strategies and business plans.

The military themed books, The Future of War, The Principles of War for the Information Age, The Art of Maneuver and The Army After Next all provide insights into how to manage large numbers of people (mobile workforce), resources, assets, schedules and supplies using mobile technologies, real-time analytics, dashboards, GIS solutions and secure communications systems in the fog of war.

The aggregate of these books, if they deliver on their cover's promises, will provide additional insights as to how the commercial sector can better apply mobile technologies to their business strategies.

The remaining books are mostly on how to make better videos and how to use videos in business and educational environments.  I have a lot that needs to be improved in this area, but hopefully the nuggets of wisdom can still be gathered when you watch them.  If you missed any of my video interviews or video comments, you can view the archives here.

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy 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 Commerce News Weekly – Week of July 22, 2012

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

Kenya has more cell-phone subscriptions than adult citizens and more than 80 percent of those with a cell phone also use “mobile money”. Read Original Content

In 2012, developers using Google Play have pulled in more revenue from in-app purchases than from the sales of the apps themselves, a validation of the "freemium" model and digital purchases. Read Original Content

Revel Systems, the company that is selling iPad checkout services to retailers around the country, is coming out with a new version of their app for food trucks. The app includes features like employee tracking and employee scheduling and also Twitter integration Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

A new report from Juniper Research says NFC payments will evolve into a massive $180 billion global market by 2017. The growth represents a seven fold increase over 2012. Read Original Content

ABI Research predicts that globally $119 billion in goods and services will be purchased via a mobile phone in 2015, representing about 8 percent of the total e-commerce market. Read Original Content

Mobile commerce through mobile phones will represent 6.8 percent of all online sales across Europe by 2017, reaching €19.25 billion, a new Forrester study affirms. Read Original Content

Sage Pay has formed a partnership with leading mobile commerce provider, The MoBank Group, which will enable Sage Pay’s 40,000+ merchants to easily integrate onto the mobile channel via MoPowered, The Mobank Group’s secure Software-as-a-Service mCommerce solution. Read Original Content

Biggest Challenges Implementing Enterprise Mobility

I closed the 2012 Mid-Year Enterprise Mobility Survey today after excellent community participation!  I want to thank everyone for their time in completing it!  I will now start writing up the formal report, but in the mean time I will leak some of the results for you here.

One of the survey sections was titled, "What are your biggest challenges to implementing enterprise mobility today?"  Here are the some of the results:

Finding a budget (for enterprise mobility)?
23% said Not Challenging
53% said Somewhat Challenging
24% said Very Challenging

Developing an enterprise-wide mobile strategy?
8% said Not Challenging
43% said Somewhat Challenging
49% said Very Challenging

Selecting the right mobile platform?
29% said Not Challenging
43% said Somewhat Challenging
28% said Very Challenging

Finding qualified mobility experts to assist with implementations?
18% said Not Challenging
45% said Somewhat Challenging
37% said Very Challenging

Selecting the right mobile security platform?
29% said Not Challenging
46% said Somewhat Challenging
25% said Very Challenging

Choosing the right mobile app development strategy and tools?
21% said Not Challenging
44% said Somewhat Challenging
35% said Very Challenging

Choosing which mobile operating systems to support?
35% said Not Challenging
47% said Somewhat Challenging
18% said Very Challenging

Determining the right ERP integration strategy?
27% said Not Challenging
42% said Somewhat Challenging
22% said Very Challenging

Determining anticipated ROIs (from enterprise mobility implementations)?
16% said Not Challenging
45% said Somewhat Challenging
39% said Very Challenging

Educating stakeholders on the potential impact of enterprise mobility on the business?
13% said Not Challenging
50% said Somewhat Challenging
38% said Very Challenging

Stay tuned for more results....

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy 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 and the Fog of War

Fog of War

The term of "Fog of War" means "The uncertainty in situation awareness experienced during operations."  It is really hard to manage operations efficiently if you don't know where your people and resources are located.  How can you implement your strategy or fulfill your mission without this knowledge?  Gaining situational awareness is the key to improving productivity in the field.

In the preliminary results of my mid-year enterprise mobility survey, the participants have identified "improved productivity" as the #1 ROI that companies are seeking from enterprise mobility.  This would suggest a need for GPS tracking of your workforce, assets and resources and improved situational awareness.

I recently read that 90% of the challenges that military commanders have are finding the enemy, and finding their own forces.  Knowing the location of your resources enables you to make all kinds of data driven decisions such as:

• Estimated arrival times
• Determining what resources are closest to a job site
• Optimizing routes
• Optimizing schedules
• Identifying the nearest location of materials, supplies and other resources
• etc.

Although it is impossible to eliminate all fog, best in class services organizations are going to invest in the elimination of as much fog as possible.  This takes not only knowing GPS coordinates of your workforce and resources, but having an enterprise mobility solution and real-time analytics and forecasting applications that understand how to use this data to optimize your productivity.

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

Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy 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.

Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly – Week of July 22, 2012

The Field Mobility and M2M 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 Enterprise Mobility Asia 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

LightSpeed and Socket Mobile have formed a partnership to join Socket’s hand scanners with the LightSpeed for iPad app.  Read Original Content

Group Mobile has added three new rugged tablets to its product line: The Windows-based DRS ARMOR X7et, the Android DRS ARMOR X7ad, and a new DRS convertible tablet, the ARMOR™ X12kb.  Read Original Content

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles is using barcode technology with 45 stand-alone kiosks, enabling customers to use the kiosks to receive printed vehicle registration certificates, driver’s license renewals, driver history records and more.  Read Original Content

Since 1995, Syclo has enabled hundreds of companies in 37 countries and industries supercharge their businesses with mobility.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Syclo.

GeoSpatial Experts has released the Android version of its GeoJot app for mobile devices.  Part of an end-to-end system for geospatial data capture, mapping and reporting, GeoJot turns Apple iOS and Google Android mobile devices with integrated cameras into field data collection tools.  Read Original Content

TDIndustries implemented a field service automation solution and received payback in half the time anticipated.  Details are provided in a new article, “The Payback of Field Service Automation” in Field Technologies magazine. Read Original Content

As wireless broadband becomes more available and affordable, people are no longer confined to the traditional office environment.  “The future of mobile computers is rugged” according to Jerker Hellstrom, CEO of Handheld Group, in this article in Mobile World.  Read Original Content

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association predicts that telematics ‘black box’ auto insurance sales will reach 500,000 policies in the next two years.  Read Original Content