White Paper SAP Enterprise Mobility: Bringing A Cohesive Approach To A Complex Market
White Paper SAP Enterprise Mobility: Bringing A Cohesive Approach To A Complex Market
White Paper SAP Enterprise Mobility: Bringing A Cohesive Approach To A Complex Market
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Mobility and consumerization are creating complexity in the enterprise, but embracing the change can lead to more productive mobile workers as well as better communications with employees, partners, customers, and consumers. The trends in the enterprise mobility landscape drive a need for technology solutions to emerge. While many products on the market address pieces of the enterprise mobility puzzle, many companies are looking for a partner that will provide a comprehensive portfolio of solutions. When considering enterprise mobility solutions, companies should take into account the following key points: Solution diversity. One of the most daunting aspects of enterprise mobility is the sheer number of vendors participating in the space and the range of technology solutions that may be offered to solve any one customer problem. There is no one-size-fits-all solution; instead it requires significant research and thought to determine the right solution to fit an enterprise's needs. Mobile strategies. Mobile decisions need to be made to support all initiatives or companies will find themselves with a disjointed patchwork of point technologies instead of a cohesive solution framework. Companies must think about their business needs as one project across mobile development platforms, apps, and management and security of devices and applications. Choosing solutions and delivery models. As customers decide which mobility offerings their business needs, they investigate opportunities to purchase products la carte or fully integrated solutions. Service providers recognize the importance of flexibility not only in the availability of products but also in the delivery models, which range from full self-service to fully managed services. Businesses should adopt the products and service models that best match their needs and enable them to leverage existing internal resources as well.
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learn how various customers across the mobility ecosystem are leveraging SAP's mobile technology to meet their business objectives. Finally, we wrap up with essential guidance to help end users and partners develop a strategic plan.
SITUATION OVERVIEW
The information and communication technology (ICT) industry is in the midst of a shift that takes place once every 2025 years to a new technology platform for growth and innovation. IDC calls it the 3rd Platform, built on mobile devices and apps, cloud services, mobile broadband networks, big data analytics, and social technologies. These paradigm shifts are intertwined and rapidly impacting organizations around the world. In fact, from 2013 through 2020, IDC believes that 90% of IT industry growth will be driven by 3rd Platform technologies that, today, represent just 22% of ICT spending.
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point at which the costs between an on-premise and a cloud deployment may even out, typically, cloud models allow for faster time to deployment and the ability to scale over time two important factors for most mobility projects.
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Finally, enterprises need to determine how they want to manage and deliver these mobility solutions across the organization and whether that is something they want to take on in-house or engage with a third-party provider for. When making this decision, organizations must understand the capabilities of their IT departments. Does IT have the time, resources, and knowledge to deliver and manage a mobile solution? It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing proposition as service provider delivery models range from full self-service to fully managed services while also offering customers an option for partially managed hybrid solutions. Businesses adopt the service model that best matches their needs and can leverage existing internal resources as well. Interestingly, many companies migrate from one service model to another as they evolve their corporate mobile strategy. While some companies have only begun to explore the business benefits of mobile solutions and therefore may evaluate "best of breed" products that address their needs, companies further along the path likely need a comprehensive mobile solution spanning all these areas: mobile application platform, applications, mobile enterprise management, and mobile content management solutions. And a solution that is well integrated and provided by a single vendor can have the technical and business benefits preferred by these companies. For example, an MEAP platform tightly integrated with existing mobile applications allows easier and more sophisticated customization of these applications. In a similar way, mobile applications closely integrated with mobile enterprise management software often allow more robust mobile security features and analytic capabilities that may not be feasible through point solutions from an array of providers. In addition, customers frequently prefer a single vendor interaction for more practical reasons like effective customer support and quicker resolutions to cross-solution technical problems or needed enhancements.
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Protects devices and data with advanced security features and real-time analytics: SAP Afaria offers a client-side application portal from which to deliver apps quickly and securely; the ability to leverage advanced security features such as native lock and wipe, password enforcement and gated access, and securely containerizing enterprise email with Android-enabled NitroDesk TouchDown; the ability to secure devices with an enforced passcode policy and two-factor authentication; and provision policy compliance prior to device enrollment.
Enables BYOD strategies across multiple device types with confidence: SAP Afaria allows companies to selectively wipe and remove business apps and related data while leaving personal data intact, match BYOD device permissions with company-approved mobile apps, easily configure devices with role-based access to an administrative console, identify risk profiles for common security issues on personal devices, and monitor, enforce, and audit costs with applied metrics for BYOD analytics.
Deploying and operating: With the SAP Mobile Platform, companies can deploy, secure, operate, and manage apps using a single, scalable infrastructure. Key capabilities include the ability to automatically scale to changing workloads; ensuring high availability of mission-critical apps; maximizing visibility across all apps, including authentication and connectivity information; and seamlessly integrating with mobile device and application management to secure devices and content.
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CASE STUDIES
Severstal Resources PBS Coals
PBS Coals Inc. is the seventh-largest coal producer in Pennsylvania. PBS Coals produces high-quality metallurgical coal from both surface and deep mines. Although PBS Coals has domestic customers, the majority of its customers are international metal producers in Europe, Asia, and South America.
Mobile Profile
Because PBS Coals is a mining organization, the PBS Coals mobile worker population includes both mobile field workers and mobile knowledge workers. The company first decided to mobilize the business processes of its knowledge workers in 2012, and the next leg of its mobility journey will likely extend out to include the field workers. PBS Coals has a corporate-liable deployment of iPhones and iPads in place today, with seven apps deployed according to employee geography and role. The company is also evaluating Android, particularly as a potential platform on which to deploy mobile applications to field workers requiring a rugged form factor.
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Challenge
The key challenge for PBS Coals centered on an initial mobility deployment to provide real-time access to business-critical exploration, manufacturing, and sales information from anywhere at any time. In an industry where instability is the norm, executives need to make sure they have the most up-to-date information at any time to make the best decisions for the business. This inherent volatility of the mining industry also forces the company to look for ways to ensure costs stay under control.
Evaluation
When PBS Coals originally began considering its mobility strategy, the decision to evaluate SAP's offerings in the space was driven by a need to leverage as many back-end systems as possible. As the company went through the due diligence process, it found SAP already offered packaged iOS applications for many of the business processes it wanted to mobilize, and other apps PBS Coals needed were planned. In addition, the ability to leverage the SAP Mobile Platform for other custom needs was important as was being able to get a mobile device and application management solution from one provider.
Solution
Today, PBS Coals has deployed the SAP Mobile Platform, six packaged mobile apps from SAP, and one custom app that it built using the SAP Mobile Platform. The company has also deployed SAP Afaria to help with version management. The six packaged apps are Payments Approval (to approve outgoing payments via Bank Communication Management), Travel Receipt Capture, Travel Expense Approval, Timesheet, Quality Issue, and SAP BusinessObjects Mobile for iPad. The custom mobile application is a Purchase Order Approval app used by all top management.
Benefits
PBS Coals found partnering with SAP has saved it time and money in several ways: Saved significant development effort by leveraging several SAP mobile packaged apps Reduced integration time and complexity by leveraging the best practices of a trusted provider Helped the executives who use these apps in their day-to-day jobs feel that they are able to make better decisions faster Next, PBS Coals will be evaluating additional packaged mobile applications from SAP for field workers including mine inspectors. And PBS Coals will broaden out its use of SAP Afaria to add device management to the application management in place today.
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Mobile Profile
One of VeliQ's most successful customer stories to date is a leading European company in the airline industry. The organization is currently leveraging the mobile enterprise management capabilities of the platform (based on SAP Afaria technology) for a corporate-liable deployment of iPads. The main users are the airline agents at the gate. While all of the iPads are company owned, some are allowed to be taken home at night by the agents and others are used only in-airport as functional or group devices.
Challenge
The airline business is highly competitive and cost conscious; companies must always strive for the highest customer satisfaction or risk churn to another provider. Although some of the issues that cause customer frustration cannot always be avoided for instance, delays due to weather conditions anything an airline can do to reduce avoidable issues and keep customers informed is important. The airline viewed this mobility deployment as a competitive differentiator that would allow airline agents to provide customers with higher levels of service as a strategic imperative. While the airline was excited about the possibility of enabling its mobile workers with tools to improve both their jobs and the customer experience, there were also some very real concerns. The mobile applications that the agents would be using link to several of the airline's most important and sensitive systems including departure control, flight information, and passenger information. Concerns around unauthorized information access were extremely high for the company. While some of the potential negative outcomes could just be minor annoyances, the airline business holds the potential for very serious issues as well.
Solution
Before rolling out the mobility strategy, it was imperative that the airline found a way to manage and control the risk around the devices and apps containing this sensitive information. The airline knew that having an automated way to do so would be very important, having learned the inefficiencies of manual approaches to mobile device and application management from a past deployment. Because it was not yet ready to make major capital or staff investments in mobile management infrastructure, the
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company thought that a SaaS-based mobility solution provider such as SAP partner VeliQ offered a compelling way to dip its toe in the water and then scale up as needed. Today, the airline uses application management to update and manage the apps on the iPad and device management for asset/configuration management, remote wipe/lock, and policy management.
Benefits
Once the organization selected VeliQ, the full deployment was complete within a month. This fast time to market was a key benefit the airline was looking for as it wanted to start rolling out the new apps to its employees as quickly as possible. The deployment of mobile enterprise management software delivered all the positive outcomes achieved by the mobility project, as it was critical to manage the potential risk if the device was lost or stolen or landed in the wrong hands. This organization believes that its mobile application enablement project powered by mobile management and security software has provided better customer service and satisfaction, higher rates of customer retention, and increased revenue.
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businesses to quickly build and deploy both employee- and customer-facing mobile applications across a range of device platforms. Verizon recognizes that it is imperative to build out comprehensive and customizable solutions for its clients. Leveraging software from existing industry-leading business application vendors in the market will help ensure Verizon meets the needs to help clients seamlessly mobilize their businesses.
Choosing SAP
Verizon began offering managed mobility solutions in 2008. At the same time, Verizon strategically chose to incorporate SAP's software into its client solution. Verizon first partnered with SAP to use the SAP Afaria solution; since then, Verizon's solution has expanded to include SAP Mobile Platform for app development. Verizon initially chose SAP because of its experience and scalability. According to Verizon, SAP offers the software functionality and capabilities that make up the critical pieces of its mobility solution as well as the cloud-based infrastructure aspects that provide customers flexible deployment models. SAP's cloud-based approaches enable Verizon to deliver and manage solutions for customers with efficiency specifically related to deployment and solution updates. Verizon believes the experience and reach of SAP help strengthen its managed mobility solution, not only based on functionality but also by expanding its customer reach.
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CHALLENGES/OPPORTUNI TIES
The enterprise mobility ecosystem is a rapidly shifting space. While embracing mobility offers many potential business benefits, there are also several challenges customers will encounter along the way. One of the most daunting aspects of enterprise mobility is the sheer number of vendors participating in the space and the range of technology solutions that may be offered to solve any one customer problem. The BYOD phenomenon represents a perfect example of an issue where many enterprises are struggling to figure out what approach is the best fit for their organization. One vendor may approach the problem from a device-centric view, another from an application-centric view, and a third through a network-oriented lens. Given the particular customer need, any of these approaches, or a mix of all three, may be an appropriate approach, but since there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all companies, it does require research and thought. Beyond the vendor and market complexity, companies must also make difficult decisions around how they want to deploy new mobile technology and how much responsibility they want to take on in-house versus outsource to third parties. For instance, organizations will have to deliberate the pros and cons of cloud versus on-premise deployments of mobile enterprise management software and mobile development platforms, whether they want to build or buy mobile applications, and whether the burden of managing mobile devices and telecom expenses is something their own IT department can take on or whether a managed mobility provider is a better option. Cost, company culture, and existing IT infrastructure and IT resources must all be taken into consideration when making these decisions. Despite the many decisions companies need to work through in developing a mobile enterprise strategy, the benefits enterprises can realize from doing so are numerous. These include, but are certainly not limited to, the ability to make better informed decisions faster, enhanced customer relationships and retention, increased revenue generation opportunities, and time and ultimately money saved. Mobility also offers companies a perfect opportunity to reassess their current processes/workflows and align them to more efficient and profitable ways of doing business.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
IDC offers the following essential guidance for companies building an enterprise mobility strategy: Think strategically about mobile: Among other benefits, mobility represents an opportunity to build better internal business processes and stronger customer and partner relationships. However, proper mobile app and security infrastructure decisions need to be made to support those initiatives or companies will find themselves with a disjointed patchwork of point technologies instead of a cohesive solution framework. IDC suggests that whenever possible companies think about their business needs across mobile development platforms, apps, and the management and security of devices and applications as one project and then put leadership in place that can stretch across several different IT and LOB teams. Create a "mobile profile" of your organization: IDC always recommends organizations complete a thorough profiling of mobile worker types across the company. At a minimum, this profile should include all workers that will be accessing corporate information on a mobile laptop, tablet, or smartphone; whether the devices are corporately owned or BYOD; what applications, application types, and content the mobile worker will be accessing on that device and over what network types and in what kinds of situations (i.e., for some mobile workers, offline access is very important). It is difficult to ascertain what kind of application types, management, and security technologies need to be put in place to address the majority of apps, devices, operating systems, and machineto-machine (M2M) interactions. Leverage existing investments/talent: Although embarking upon a mobility project does require that folks across the organization learn some new skill sets, most companies will also have existing assets that can be leveraged for mobility projects. For example, if your company has a good base of Web developers, perhaps building hybrid applications and pure native apps when needed is a good approach. Or, if your employees are used to working in a certain back end, perhaps building a mobile application that has a similar (albeit pared down) workflow will help speed the learning curve and spur adoption. People are often resistant to new ways of doing things, so anything that assists with familiarity and offers a good or better user experience will be appreciated. Curtail implementation challenges: When choosing to embark on the implementation of mobile solutions, consider using a managed mobility partner instead of internally building it all. Third parties can help assess your current and future mobility needs. However, when choosing a managed mobility partner, consider how the provider aligns with the organization's internal environment. Assess the provider's flexibility offering fully managed and partially managed solutions which will give organizations the opportunity to grow their mobile strategy.
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CONCLUSION
Mobility is one of the most disruptive computing trends that the enterprise has had to deal with in a long time. From taking the time to build a comprehensive mobile profile to developing application and security requirements across the company, creating a mobile strategy is not a simple task. Despite the many decisions companies need to work through in developing a mobile enterprise strategy, the productivity improvements alone will quickly benefit enterprises. With the vast array of service providers and products in the market, enterprises must take the time to understand the full scope of their mobility needs first or risk making shortsighted niche product decisions. The products and solutions an enterprise chooses must evolve with its needs and complement internal competencies. SAP is one provider that integrates a broad array of enterprise mobility solutions including mobile enablement, app development, management, and security in a variety of deployment options, supported by an array of software and services partners. While each company must assess how its own requirements align to any one vendor's products and services, the ability to work with one provider across many of these needs will be seen by many customers as a compelling long-term approach.
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