Mobile Commerce News Weekly - Week of December 8, 2013

The Mobile Commerce News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile commerce and marketing, mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking, mobile ads 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 News Weekly
Also read Mobile Cyber Security News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Looking for an enterprise mobility solution?  Read the Mobile Solution Directory Here!

Digital security firm Oberthur Technologies has partnered with mobile services specialists mBank in a project aimed at bringing together the m:Wallet solution from OT’s MoreMagic subsidiary and mBank’s experience in branchless banking, to provide mobile branchless banking including merchant payment, money transfer, loans, credit and insurance.  Read Original Content

Mobile app developer Bruce Arnold announced the availability of mCartXP, a multi-device HTML5 mobile web app developed jointly by his firm WebFL.US and their white label web development counterpart WLWeb.US.  The app can be used to buy and sell products and services using virtually any mobile browser - including Dolphin, Firefox, Mobile Safari and Opera - and any smartphone or tablet.  Read Original Content

Ovum has released a report concerning the caution that many consumers are exhibiting concerning mobile commerce. The report shows that some 68 percent of consumers said they would stick to traditional e-commerce due to the risks that exist in the mobile sector.  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.

Etisalat Group, the leading telecoms operator in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, announced the expansion of its award winning mobile phone-based commerce service "Flous" through its subsidiary Etisalat Moov in Benin.  Read Original Content

Early numbers from several retailers indicate a surge in mobile commerce for the first few banner sales days from Thanksgiving weekend through Cyber Monday. Forget double-digit growth. According to Internet Retailer Mobile 500, many retailers are posting triple-digit increases in several mobile metrics over the same holiday shopping days last year.  Read Original Content

From Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, both eBay and PayPal saw the highest holiday mobile commerce activity that they have ever had. The volume of purchases and payments made over smartphones and tablets was higher than any other equivalent five day period in previous years at 96 percent greater, year over year.  Read Original Content

Mobile commerce sales accounted for nearly 21 percent of total Black Friday digital sales in the United States, $314 million out of $1.512 billion, and nearly 17 percent of Cyber Monday sales, $350 million out of $2.085 billion, Internet research firm comScore Inc. reports.  Read Original Content

The latest study by mobile entertainment body MEF reveals only around 65 percent of mobile media users globally have used their device to purchase goods or services.  The research reveals a decline in the volume of purchases for the first time — from 54 percent of mobile media users in 2012 to 42 percent in 2013. Read Original Content

According to the report from IBM, online shoppers in the U.S. spent more than $2 billion on Cyber Monday.  Read Original Content

Spindle, Inc. announced its MeNetwork360SM application is now available to merchants and consumers. Combining location-based mobile marketing and payment processing on a single platform, the MeNetwork360 app is compatible with both iOS and Android devices.  Read Original Content

“Together, e-commerce and m-commerce only comprise seven percent of U.S. retail spending—the rest is offline in physical stores, especially for products that shoppers want to see before they buy,” says Michael Boland, VP of content and senior analyst at BIA/Kelsey.  Read Original Content

Email marketing was a big winner on Black Friday. And much of the credit belongs to mobile.  According to new industry data presented by Marketingland, email marketing was both plentiful and effective on Black Friday – even more than it was on Cyber Monday.  The data cited points to 38 percent more email opens occurring on Black Friday than Cyber Monday.  Read Original Content

A Global Online Shopper report from WorldPay revealed nearly 40 percent of mobile shoppers are concerned about the security of their payments.  Read Original Content

Payelp Global, an international payment and business development platform representing thousands of merchants and hundreds of payment gateways, announced a partnership with Onebip by Neomobile, a global mobile payment service. Onebip enables merchants to monetize digital goods and services to their users on a global scale using carrier-billing technology. Read Original Content

Visiongain has determined global mobile payments networks will carry over $251 billion in transactions during 2013.  Read Original Content

Recent Articles by Kevin Benedict

Reducing Conjecture with Enterprise Mobility and M2M
The Master Plan for Enterprise Mobility and the Role of Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence
The Mobile Strategy and Management Challenge
Where the Physical Meets the Digital - GIS and Enterprise Mobility
Enterprise Mobility is a Component of Digital Transformation
The Race for Sensors to Supply Big Data and Enterprise Mobility

Videos of Note

ROI Calculation for Optimizing the Mobile Workforce

Webinars of Note (Recorded)

Build an app in two minutes
Building Effective Mobile Business Screens
Mobile Apps For JD Edwards

Whitepapers of Note

4 Tips for Effective Mobile Screens
10 Tips To Design Effective Mobile Screens For Business
Don't Get SMACked - How Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud are Reshaping the Enterprise
Making BYOD Work for Your Organization

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile is Causing a Y2K Event in the Enterprise - Forrester Research

I had the privilege last week to present alongside Forrester Research's enterprise mobility expert John McCarthy in London.  I was able to write a full page of notes from his presentation that I share here with you.

• The Age of Cheap and Cheerful Mobile is Over!  It's now going to be complex and innovative which equals expensive.
• "Enterprise Mobility will be as transformative as the introduction of ERPs,” ~ John McCarthy.  Seems CIOs will use enterprise mobility as a driver for change to transform old systems that cannot support the real-time and speed requirements of a mobile era.
• Smart products (i.e. Internet of Things/M2M) are much cheaper today because of the evolution of mobile platforms and security.
• Mobile apps guide people in their physical world.  Merging physical context with virtual intelligence to take the next most likely action (context aware).
• IT Systems will become much more proactive, because they will be context aware and know your patterns and habits.  This will change business processes.
• New mobile apps and businesses like My Taxi, Hailo, Uber offer benefits to both customers and service providers (Taxi drivers), not just to the consumer.
• In markets where products and services are very similar and hard to differentiate, companies like Deutsche Bank, have developed mobile apps for iPads and other tablets to help with financial planning in ways their competition has not.
• Delta Airlines has developed "proactive" capabilities  in their mobile apps.  The apps will automatically show you alternative flights and options when a flight gets canceled, instead of making you do it all manually by standing in line and searching for options with a customer service person.
  
• In the near future - apps will change features and functions based upon context.
• Video cameras can now watch store shelves and alert for stocking issues.
• ERPs are about cost cutting.  The new Mobility and Internet of Things are about revenue generation.
• The dark side of mobility - we are automating huge numbers of people-intensive processes which are eliminating middle-class jobs.
• Lowering high IT costs is no longer the top priority of CIOs, rather meeting customer’s increasing expectations.
• Mobile apps drive 3x to 10x more traffic than the same app on a web/desktop apps.
• People expect the same treatment and functionality regardless of choice of device or platform.
• Companies are still budgeting for mobile apps out of silos, when the projects are really about enterprise-wide transformation.  This must change and be recognized as strategic.
• Old IT model, simple front-end, complex backend.  New model, complex front-end, simple backend so the business can be fast and agile.  This is a requirement of the future.
• The mobile app is the company brand.  Companies need to invest appropriately.  Mobile apps are how we interact many brands.
• Mobile is causing a Y2K event with backend systems.  Many backend systems cannot support the new mobile world and the clock is ticking.
• If the bank branch is in your pocket, why does it also need to be on the corner?
• The average smart TV has 25 software applications in them.
• People are fatter than ever, but they are not joining weight loss programs like Weight Watchers in the same numbers.  Instead, they are downloading mobile apps.
• Systems of records must give-up their maintenance budgets to systems of engagements.

We live in very interesting times!

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Reducing Conjecture with Enterprise Mobility and M2M

Mission critical enterprise mobility is all about removing blind spots from people and processes. ~Kevin Benedict

The competitive battlefield of 2014 will increasingly involve data.  It will be about collecting, transmitting, analyzing and reporting its meaning faster and more efficiently than competitors.  If you can digitally represent locations, events, activities, resources, job skills, assets, schedules, materials, job statuses, etc., in remote and mobile locations accurately, then you have the ability to introduce incredibly powerful algorithms and AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities that will greatly enhance your ability to optimize processes automatically within your software systems.  WOW!  That was a mouth full!  If you have hundreds of locations, projects and job sites and thousands of assets and remote workers, your future viability as a business is likely to depend on your ability to rapidly and efficiently introduce AI into this environment.

Let me introduce another term to our discussion - machine learning.  It is a branch of artificial intelligence relating to the development of systems that can learn from data and the results of past decisions and actions.  An example is a turn-by-turn navigation system that can re-route the driver based upon traffic conditions.  The system can re-route, analyze the efficiency of the new route, and then store the results for future re-routing considerations.  Another example would be a workforce scheduling system that can dynamically analyze thousands of service technicians schedules based upon SLAs, location, job status, skill levels, available equipment, materials and parts and can automatically adjust everyone's schedules throughout the day to optimize productivity and profits.

In order for AI and machine learning to work, there must be accurate data that digitally represents the situation and environment.  If this data is not available, you have a blind spot.  Blind spots lead management to make decisions based upon conjecture.  Conjecture is defined as a proposition that is unproven.  Conjecture is the enemy of AI and machine learning.  Conjecture means decisions are being made that are unsupported by data.  Often the cause of conjecture in a business is the lack of data due to a blind spot in a process.

If you don't know where an asset is located, you can't schedule its arrival at a job site.  If you don't know what skills or experience a service technician has, then it is hard to predict how long a job will take.  These two simple examples demonstrate a blind spot that is likely to lead to management conjecture.  How do you fix a blind spot?

Blind spots are the lack of visibility, so the answer is to provide visibility.  Technology answers can be in the form of mobile devices, mobile applications, GPS tracking, automated data collection, barcode scanners, wireless M2M sensors, video monitoring, etc.  All of these technology solutions can enhance visibility and situational awareness by providing accurate and timely data which eliminates conjecture from decision-making and supports the introduction of AI and machine learning.

Gartner has ranked ClickSoftware as the leader in the top right quadrant for field service management for the last three years.  This is in large part because of the automation, context aware capabilities and artificial intelligence they continue to enhance and expand in their systems.  You can read more about their AI features here - http://www.clicksoftware.com/982c4fab-524c-4d99-82f6-a033aa347ede/news-press-releases-detail.htm.

What is it going to take to eliminate blind spots and conjecture from your business?

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Master Plan for Enterprise Mobility and the Role of Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence

Enterprise mobility and digital transformations are ultimately about enabling AI (artificial intelligence) and human collaboration to provide better and faster data driven decision making. ~ Kevin Benedict

If you agree with the statement above (it's not mandatory), then what does it take to actually deliver on it?  I believe this is where digital transformation and artificial intelligence comes into play.  First, let's discuss digital transformation.  Wikipedia's (one of my most favorite sites) definition is, "Digital transformation refers to the changes associated with the application of digital technology (i.e. going paperless) in all aspects of human society."

Geography and locations can be digitized through digital maps, satellite images, overlays, GPS tracking and on-the-ground sensors (with embedded wireless chips)  that report on all kinds of measurements and activities to a central server.  The status of machines can even be monitored through wireless sensors.  Think of a train, truck or ship automatically and wirelessly reporting its location, speed and operational status every few seconds to a central server. Mobile workers can report on the status of their work and projects, their physical environment and other activities and events from remote location.  This data paints a picture or digital representation of an environment.  My colleagues at the Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant call this data, "Code Halos."

Having all kinds of real-time data from a location or business process effectively digitizes it.  It provides a digital representation of events and activities that enhances your situational awareness.  It removes the "blind spots" in your area of operation.  Removing these blind spots from business processes are where competitive advantages and ROIs will be found in 2014.

Enterprise mobility enables every mobile user to effectively be a remote sensor.  Each additional sensor increases the situational awareness and intelligence of the organization, and better intelligence wins. ~Kevin Benedict

Once you have an accurate digital representation of your operational area (i.e. activities, resources, assets, events, locations, schedules, times, statuses, etc.) algorithms can be developed to better manage and execute your business based upon the digital inputs.  Algorithms or digital rules can be developed and implemented so rapid and automatic adjustments can be made to schedules, assignments, business processes and workflows using artificial intelligence.  I define artificial intelligence in this context as, "the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks, take actions and make decisions based upon data inputs and developed digital rules.  The key is having the data to input.  Mobile and wireless technologies, sensors and the Internet of Things provides the platforms for remote data collection in support of these solutions.

You can see a real world implementation of artificial intelligence integrated with mobile solutions in action in ClickSoftware's solutions ClickButler here - http://blogs.clicksoftware.com/clickipedia-blog/bid/91748/Artificial-Intelligence-Goes-Mobile-with-ClickButler

On a related subject, here is a great new video on the concept of "Code Halos" from my colleagues at the Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant.


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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Mobile Strategy and Management Challenge

Believe it or not, a fair number of people like my workshops on mobile strategy.  The problem though is a fair number don't.  Why?  Sometimes developers come into my sessions, stay for 15 minutes and then leave.  They were expecting to learn how to develop mobile apps, or how to secure and integrate them with back-office systems.  They had no interest in learning about enterprise wide mobile strategies.

Enterprise wide mobile strategies are increasingly a business and IT leadership issue.  They involve brand, product and service strategies.  They involve plant operations, logistics and transportation.  They involve asset management, field operations and sales.  Enterprise wide mobile strategies touch every corner of the business.  Enterprise mobility is no longer an IT issue, or just a technical discussion.  Enterprise mobility is a C level discussion today.  Because of this mobile solution vendors must change their marketing strategies to address the needs of both business and IT decision makers rather than developers.

I had two people from different large oil companies come to a session I was leading in Orlando this month at the Enterprise Mobility 2013 conference.  They both had just suffered cyber-attacks that had caused major damage.  They only wanted to know about mobile security, not enterprise wide mobile strategies.  I understand.  That was the disaster on their plate that day.  They had no time to discuss strategy.  The challenge though is that without a strategy, it is hard to deliver mobile solutions that are strategic enough to matter.

I was reading an article from Forrester Research over the weekend.  Forrester Research is predicting the prices of mobile solutions will rise in 2014.  Why?  They will become more strategic.  They will offer significant competitive advantages.  They will support innovative products, services and business models.  They will make a difference.  The time for POCs (proof of concepts) is over.  It is time to execute with a strategy.

*I am in London speaking on mobile strategies and mobile led transformation with Forrester Research and Cognizant on Friday, December 6th.  Let me know if you would like to join us!  Email me here.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.