Latest News from Kevin Benedict

Scrutinizing SAP’s Mobile Strategy from Managing Automation

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:20:00 EDT

On the website Managing Automation, http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/ they have an article this week by Stephanie Neil called read more

SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 7

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:51:00 EST

SAP has much to gain from mobile enterprise applications. They can expand their user base beyond the current white collar workers in the office to the mobile workforce in the field. This has the opportunity to exponentially expand the number of people directly connected to SAP's applications and benefiting from them. SAP is also seeking ways to expand connections to consumers in a B2C (business-to-consumer) model. This could expand the numbers of mobile users even more. Examples may include consumers requesting product orders, shipment tracking and customer support via mobile devices. The challenge SAP needs to solve now is how to make money from these additional connected users on mobile devices. I believe it is fair for SAP to be paid for providing value to more users. Is extending SAP functionality to the mobile workforce worth the price of a full SAP user license, one half of a user license, one quarter? What do you think? That is the SAP challenge.

SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 6

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:43:00 EST

Would you use Linkedin if you had to make a phone call and ask each person individually if they were using Linkedin before connecting to them? What if you had to manually program each connection yourself according to the mobile operating system and version each friend or contact was using? What if the programming was different for every mobile device? What if you had to re-program the connection every time a friend changed smartphones or upgraded their OS? The system would quickly cease to be a benefit and start being a big burden wouldn't it? The value of Linkedin is that it automates and standardizes most processes and connection related issues. Everyone connects in standardized ways and uses pre-built processes to manage all of their connections, security, settings, etc. It is easy to view all of your contacts and manage these contacts from one screen. Enterprise mobility and the support of mobile devices needs these same kinds of concepts in place. Enterprise mobility, like most IT systems, need standards that include defined methodologies and processes in order to manage it effectively and efficiently. If your company or client has hundreds or thousands of smartphones, handheld computers or other mobile devices using mobile applications, thick and thin clients, MEAPs and micro-applications, there is an absolute requirement for mobile device management. If they don't, it will be a big challenge now that will only get bigger.

Interesting SAP Mobility Discussion Highlight

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:33:00 EST

In the comment section of the article SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 4 there is an interesting discussion that I wanted to highlight for those that may have missed it. I agree about the small custom mobile solutions for small number of users. Usually such projects have high ROIs based on the urgent business needs. However, this is what happened in the past 10 years in the absence of a successful SAP mobility strategy and solutions. Currently, companies look for company wide mobility strategy which covers most of the departments, or at least covers the main mobility requirements of the main business areas, which need it and prove to deliver high ROI. Based on different market researches and my own daily experiences, the trend is MEAP-based mobility solutions for mid and large size companies. Small companies still have the choice to continue using non-MEAP solutions like Sky Technologies.

SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 5

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:28:00 EST

I have heard much discussion lately on the subject of mobile micro applications in the SAP ecosystem. These are described as light weight mobile applications that do simple things. There are literally hundreds of these micro-apps possible. The challenge is how does a SAP customer manage them? Does the mobile user really want 17 different little SAP micro-apps on their smartphone? I see these mobile micro-apps as short term innovations that will quickly consolidate into a mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP). The SAP user ultimately wants one icon on their mobile dashboard not 17. This icon launches a menu system that can include 17 menu options with mobilized business processes. More options can be added through an opt-in function. The MEAP vendors will rapidly create micro-apps and then quickly consolidate them on to their platforms. The big challenge for MEAP vendors is how to quickly create good MEAPs and get enough market exposure and success to be sustainable in the long run.

SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 4

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:02:00 EST

I have been involved in managing enterprise mobility projects for many years and have noticed some trends. The largest number of mobility projects within a company are not large enterprise wide projects but smaller departmental and

Extracting More Value from SAP Solutions via Mobility

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:15:00 EST

I was speaking to one of my friends at SAP this week who mentioned that only 5% of a typical SAP customers' workforce is "white collar." What is the significance? That same 5% also happens to be the SAP users in a company. SAP is looking for mobility partners to address the mobility needs of the 5%, but also to reach beyond to the 95% that are not currently SAP users. I also spoke with the former CEO of SAP North America, Greg Tomb last week about his new mobility focus. His new venture, Vivido Labs has a mobility offering called the Mowego Suite that will target both the 5% and the 95%.

SAP Mobility Challenge - Part 3

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST

Systems Integrators represent a significant sales channel for SAP. Systems Integrators often have resources assigned to various SAP upgrades, integrations, customization and development projects onsite at a SAP customer's location. Often it is the systems integrators who first hear of upcoming sales opportunities and business requirements. SIs are very interested in SAP enterprise mobility (there is even a new Linkedin Group called SAP Enterprise Mobility) as it is seen as a major growth area. Here in lies the challenge.

New SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:12:00 EST

SAP’s Mobility Challenge, Part 1

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:45:00 EST

I am very interested in watching SAP's emerging mobility strategy as it matures, evolves and morphs yet again. I am not critical; this is how all of mobility is these days. Four years ago we were all using the term Palm, Pocket PC and PDA. Now we are speaking of iPhone, Android, RIM and iPads. Within these different technologies are literally hundreds of different mobile applications and mobile extensions that can add value to SAP's ecosystem. I have been seeing a lot of activity in this space. I have seen SAP partnership announcements with RIM (Blackberry folks), Sybase, Sky Technologies, Syclo and ClickSoftware. I have seen SAP comments from many different industry and solution groups within SAP related to mobility.

SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 2

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:52:00 EST

This article continues the discussion started in SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 1.

In the following excerpts from press

SAP Makes Decisive Move in EDI

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST

It is not every day that BIG news comes out of the world of EDI and B2B. I think GXS acquiring Inovis was BIG and Tibco acquiring Foresight was interesting, but today SAP and Crossgate announced that SAP will be reselling and private labeling Crossgate's EDI, B2B and e-Invoicing services. In the world of SAP this is huge! Some of you may know that SAP is already a co-owner of Crossgate, and that Crossgate's EDI/B2B exchange is tightly integrated with SAP, but it was always sold as a separate service on Crossgate's paper. Now SAP's field sales teams can sell it directly from SAP's price list. I have a lot of experience working with SAP's sales teams and can tell you that making it to the SAP price list makes a BIG difference. The solution will be called the SAP Information Interchange. This appears to be a definitive move by SAP to compete directly against GXS, Sterling Commerce and WebMethods. Why would SAP want to compete with these companies? Because each of these legacy EDI vendors has chosen to enter direct competition with SAP. They have been adding more and more business processes to their cloud computing services and threatening to take business away from SAP. SAP is making a bold move now to eliminate the need for third party EDI and B2B service providers in favor of a simplified SAP supported environment.

Advice for Mobile Start-ups: Working with SAP, Part 5

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:53:00 EST

Part 4 of this series may have demoralized some mobile start-ups hoping to work closely with SAP, but Part 5 in this series provides solutions to many of the challenges identified in Part 4. Let's now take a closer look at some of the

Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Working with SAP, Part 4

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:18:00 EST

SAP can be like a giant aircraft carrier moving powerfully across the ocean. It is huge and heavy and if you are a swimmer in the ocean trying to make it change directions to suite your purposes, good luck. A more successful approach is to understand the direction the ship is going and jump on board. Sign on, offer them a hand and help them get there. Perhaps as you gain their confidence they will let you into the wheelhouse where you can learn about their intended strategies and influence future directions. Mobile software companies and their entrepreneurs often feel their mobile technology and strategy is better than all others. They often feel driven by a messianic mission to carry their mobile technology message to the world, and then scream in frustration when others don't seem to "get it." I understand. I have screamed.

Mobile SAP CRM

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:00:00 EST

In a recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan called, European Mobile Sales Force Automation (CRM/SFA) Markets, it is stated that mobile SFA is the largest application segment after wireless email, and this segment will grow close to 300% between now and 2013. SAP seems to be making a big push in this area with mobile CRM partnerships, either reseller or co-innovation announced with Sky Technologies, Sybase and RIM in this area. What are the key areas covered by mobile CRM?

Body Weight, Twitter, M2M and Mobile Applications

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:04:00 EST

In the past I have written articles about M2M and mobile applications. These have been in the context of machines sending wireless data to other machines. I believe the value of these applications have not been fully realized, and am excited about seeing more of them. If readers of this blog have interesting M2M solutions please share them with me. My wife sent me an article on one of the most interesting (read disturbing) examples of M2M. Seems there is a home scale, for $159, that is wirelessly enabled and sends Twitter messages with your weight to anyone following you. Let me ask by a show of hands how many of you want to see my daily weight tweeted to you? All of you with hands up will be deleted.

Street Parking and Mobile Data Solutions

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:42:00 EST

I had several very interesting calls yesterday with various mobile industry dignitaries. We shared ideas, concepts and experiences around mobility. One of the mobile use cases that really stands out to me is the use of wireless parking sensors used in 25

SAP Mobility – Is Change Coming?

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:45:00 EST

I read a very interesting article in BusinessWeek (February 9, 2010 edition) today called "What SAP Needs After Apotheker" by Aaron Ricadela. Last week Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe were announced as Co-CEOs at SAP replacing Leo Apotheker. In this article SAP mobility is raised again and again as an area where improvements are needed. Here is an excerpt, "In order to fix SAP, former North American sales boss McDermott and Snabe, head of product development, need to stock its pipeline with products that companies are more interested in buying… SAP must develop versions of its complicated software that can be delivered over the Internet and run on new classes of mobile computing devices.

Workforce Mobility and MEAPs

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST

I had an interesting call with a company today that is involved in real workforce mobility. They have a solution called Total Employee Mobility. Here is a brief description from their website. "Now more than ever, companies rely on the mobility of their employees to realize new opportunities and growth. Employee travel, relocation, international assignments, and virtual office

Movitas to Provide Mobile Marketing and Communication Services to TravelCom 2010

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:39:00 EST

Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms, SAP and Marketing

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:30:00 EST

Yesterday I was reading Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms. It was interesting to me that one of the points Gartner considers before including a MEAP vendor in their report is marketing. Gartner understands what many smart engineers have not yet learned. A better mouse trap does not sell itself or pay the expenses - sales do. Unless a comprehensive marketing plan is designed, developed and successfully implemented you will not gain sufficient mind share and market share quick enough to remain viable in this fast changing market.

AT&T FamilyMap App Treating Your Kids Like a Truck

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:16:00 EST

Mobile Strategy Seminar - Sky Technologies

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:22:00 EST

I came across this announcement today and it is likely to be of interest to many of you. With more than 10

iPhones, Satellites, DVRs and Home Break-Ins

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:30:00 EST

One month ago: We were half way across town driving to a friend's house to watch the Boise State football team take on TCU in the Fiesta Bowl when I remembered that I had not programmed our DVR to record the game for posterity. I reluctantly confessed this to my wife. She pondered which of our neighbors we could call to break into our house and schedule our DVR to record it. We ultimately decided to just buy the DVD of the game, since teaching our neighbors to breakin to our home did not seem prudent.

Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Working with SAP, Part 3

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:42:00 EST

Micro-apps seems to be the hot topic nowadays at SAP. These are small mobile applications for iPhones, Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile. These applications can be limited and provide

The Quiet Mobility Company - Sybase

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:04:00 EST

Last March SAP and Sybase(the quiet company) announced a co-innovation partnership to deliver mobility to iPhones, read more

Advice for Mobile Startups: Working with SAP, Part 2

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST

There are several different categories of mobile applications that work with or integrate with SAP.

Those that provide real-time mobile views of complete SAP applications
Those that provide mobile queries and reports on SAP data

In Remembrance of the Term PDA

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:33:00 EST

How long has it been since you stopped using the term PDA? It occurred to me the other day that the PDA has played an important part in my career and I should not let it pass away without a ceremony of some sort. Let's all stop what we are doing for 4 minutes and hold our breath while we ponder the passing of the Personal Digital Assistant. OK... how about 30 seconds as we need to keep Moore's law in mind.

New and Unique Mobile Applications and Business Processes

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:25:00 EST

It seems like everybody can now build a mobile client. I remember when that was a very big deal. Now it is quickly becoming a commodity feature. The value of mobile applications is quickly shifting from the mobile client to the business process that is

Advice to Mobile Start-ups: Working with SAP, Part 1

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:04:00 EST

Advice for Mobile Start-Ups: Find Your Market Aggregation Points

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:42:00 EST

Mobile start-ups often struggle with how to get their message, product and company brand in front of their target markets. They quickly realize that the expense of marketing their solutions directly to each end user is cost prohibitive. How then can they effectively market their solutions in a cost effective manner? Mobile start-ups need to first identify their target market, and second identify the "market aggregation" points. In the image above, look at the red dots. Those are the market aggregation points. Those are the points where the mobile start-up needs to be marketing. Why? That is where their audience can be found. The eyes and ears of their target market are tuned to that location.

$21 Million Raised by Pressing the Keys on a Mobile Device

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:18:00 EST

The Red Cross was "texted" $21 million dollars in donations for Haiti disaster relief efforts according to this read more

Advice to Mobile Start-Ups: You are a Publishing Company Like it or Not!

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:06:00 EST

iPhone Mobile Audio Guides Created on the Street

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:52:00 EST

Last week I was sitting in a soft leather chair in the corner of the Eagle, Idaho Starbucks Coffee Shop. Not so unusual, but this time I was recording the event on my iPhone using a free application called <

SAP ERP on iPhones

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST

I met with a team of mobile software developers this week that have developed a fascinating mobile technology that enables the user to access ALL of SAP's ERP and other SAP components on an iPhone. I am particularly intrigued because I have never seen a mobile application that can quickly enable an entire ERP with only a 25 MB download and a 15 minute set-up. The use case would be any SAP user or expert that needs to access any page or component of SAP while out of the office. It is all there on the iPhone. I was very impressed. Most often only traveling sales or service people are prioritized for enterprise mobile applications, but this technology will enable anyone in the company that needs access to the SAP system to simply login with their iPhone and go to work.

The Downside of Mobile Applications

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST

I had the fortunate opportunity to meet a classmate for coffee this week. I had not seen him for over a decade. He serves as a traffic cop and uses a TDS Recon mobile handheld computer in the course of his work writing tickets. During our conversation we discussed the rugged laptop he had mounted in his unmarked police cruiser. He said it had many of their police forms and documents on it, but that the mobile software was not able to keep up with the required edits and changes needed on the forms. As a result, they had stopped using it for much of their documentation.

Advice to Mobile Start-Ups

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST

The mobile and wireless industries have changed dramatically in the past year and this has significantly changed the market for mobile application start-ups. Many of the missing application development tools and features that forced programmers to

Mobile Applications, Location Based Services and Lifestyle Preferences

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:28:00 EST

I love hiking. I enjoy gardening. I love mobile gadgets. I crave Thai food. I love drinking coffee in a comfortable chair and reading the New York Times. I would appreciate and use a mobile application that would connect my lifestyle preferences to a map

Location Based Services and Mobile Device Customization

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:03:00 EST

Many SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) that use smartphones such as read more

Mobility Visions of Christmas Present

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:03:00 EST

I visited the same bookstore twice this Christmas season, and both times I was confronted by mobility and the transformation that mobility is bringing to the world. On the first visit a sales person greeted me at the front door and handed me an electronic book reader. The sales person said this mobile device, with free Internet connectivity through AT&T, would enable me to receive all of my books and many newspapers remotely, so there was no need to come into the store.

New Analyst Report by Mobile Market Development

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:01:00 EST

Mobile Market Development and Wireless Profits has just published a report, that I authored, called Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions which is now available read more

Postage Stamps, Units of Time and the Mobile Internet

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:05:00 EST

Yesterday my wife sent me to the post office to purchase stamps. I grumbled that the line would be long due to people shipping gifts. Haven't they heard of Amazon.com's direct shipping? After completing my

Google and Mobile Phones - Analysis

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:16:00 EST

"It is understandable that Google wants to be a serious player in mobile communications," writes Martin Peers in an article on December 15th, 2009 in the Wall Street Journal. However, he follows by saying, "It is unclear why it (Google) needs to sell mobile phones to dominate mobile search." Lets discuss: Google Goggle allows you to take a picture of a landmark or building and then automatically combine the photo with the integrated GPS coordinates to conduct an automatic query that displays information about it. This convergence of technology, GPS radio, digital camera and wireless radio to connect to the Internet are all hardware components in the phone.

Geospatially Aware Mobile Inspection Apps for Military and Commercial Use

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:45:00 EST

I have spent many years working with mobile application development tools. Each of the vendors I have known speak about the simplicity and speed of using their tools to develop and implement mobile applications. It is, for the most part, marketing speak. Developing a mobile application is as simple as the database schema of the business application in which it will be integrated. If it is a simple data collection form that can be integrated with a simple spreadsheet or database, then it is fairly easy and will usually take days or a few weeks to develop.

Analysis - SAP's Emerging Mobility Strategy - Not for the Faint of Heart

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:45:00 EST

SAP has announced this week that one of their strategic focuses for the next 5 years is mobile computing and mobile software applications according to SAP chief technology officer Vishal Sikka said. The pervasiveness of mobile computing and social networking also have SAP developing applications and extensions, which will allow wireless users to collaborate and utilize SAP and non-SAP related data for on the fly computing.

Mobile Applications for Fighting Crime, Reporting Potholes and Birdwatching

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:43:00 EST

Several years ago I consulted with a company in The Netherlands on a city government project to enable all city works to instantly become the eyes and ears of the police during emergencies. It worked like this - an alert would be sent to all city workers

Smartphone Market Trends and Analysis

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:15:00 EST

Wall Street Journal reported in Monday's Edition (November 30, 2009) that Dell, Acer, Asustek Computer and HP have all launched handsets to diversify their product offerings. What is my analysis? Lenovo sold their handset unit in 2008. Less than 2 years later they buy it back as they believe it represents a key growth area, and they buy it back just as the other large PC makers are launching their own new mobile handsets (smartphones) products to attack the growing mobile Internet market. This signals that PC manufacturers see smartphones as both a competitor to PCs and the future of mobile computing.

Microsoft's Ray Ozzie on Mobile Applications and the iPhone

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:15:00 EST

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect, recently commented in an interview with CNET, "Yes, iPhone has a lot of momentum, unquestionably. But I think the phenomenon we're in right now is the app phone. And if you look at the depth of apps that are on these phones, they're not very deep. It's not like Office or AutoCAD, where there are just thousands of man years that have gone into developing these apps. They're relatively thin apps that are companions to some service."

Barcode Scanners on Every Smartphone

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:15:00 EST

This is an interesting develop for smartphones. Sophisticated barcode scanning software built into the digital cameras so a quick photo of a barcode takes you immediately to a mobile website rich in content, coupons, rebates and other product information related to the scanned product. Read below: NeoMedia Technologies, Inc. announced that Sony Ericsson has selected NeoMedia as its strategic 2D barcode partner. Sony Ericsson will begin shipping phones pre-loaded with NeoMedia's NeoReader barcode scanning application globally in the 1st half of 2010. The NeoReader will be pre-installed across all Sony Ericsson platforms. "Sony Ericsson is very happy to work with NeoMedia as our global provider of barcode scanning solutions. We see great potential in the 2D barcode market and support NeoMedia's strategy to promote and drive the open 2D barcode standards. We are looking forward to working with NeoMedia to explore all the potential the technology enables," stated Robert Westin, Business Development Manager, with Sony Ericsson.

ClickSoftware Enters the MEAP (Mobile Enterprise Application Platform) Market

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:57:00 EST

I have wondered for some time how companies like ClickSoftware deal with all the requests for customization from their clients. Inspections, asset management, custom database applications all require custom mobile applictions. This announcement last