Wednesday, July 11, 2012

First Report - Mid-Year Enterprise Mobility Survey

11:58 AM Kenz

I have just scanned through the first 53 survey responses, and wanted to share an early result.  By the way, if you have not already taken the quick survey, please do so here!  You will receive the final survey report free if you take it.

The question: What are your biggest challenges to implementing enterprise mobility today?  The top four challenges identified so far in order are:
  1. Choosing which mobile operating systems to support
  2. Selecting the right mobile security platform
  3. Determining the right ERP integration strategy
  4. Selecting the right mobile platform
Please invite all of your contacts to also take this survey so we can get the most accurate information possible to base our strategies on.  Here is the survey link, http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e64mo7lmh4g6ur76/start.  Remember, anyone that takes the survey gets the final report free!

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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.

Guest Blog: Mobile DSD - A Requirement

11:22 AM Kenz

Mobility Expert Alok Pant, CEO of Unvired, shares his insights on mobile DSD (direct store delivery) in this guest blog.

In a world of fast changing tastes and instant gratification, my can of favorite beverage had better be on the shelf. If not, the retailer and supplier will have lost a loyal customer.  Direct Store Delivery (DSD) is a vital process that brings foods and beverages to the shelf. Mobilizing the DSD process makes the supply chain much more efficient, and ensures that the shopping experience is a pleasant one. In the world of enterprise mobility, mobile DSD is not a luxury—it is a must have.

While SAP and other companies have solutions for DSD, the Mobile DSD (MDSD) area remains ripe for innovation.  During our implementations of DSD and MDSD Solutions, customers have shared with us valuable feedback.  The usability of MDSD solutions can be improved to enhance sales and productivity of the delivery drivers.  The User Interface can be simplified for data entry and screen navigation. In many cases, there is a need to re-engineer the process flow to meet our clients' needs. 

One area to improve is in Sales Order creation.  Immediate Sales Order replication to SAP can trigger the follow up leading to faster order fulfillment. Another area to improve is Customer Surveys. During the store visit, the supplier personnel collect customer data via surveys. This survey data can be integrated with CRM systems like SAP CRM, which can be fed into BW and analytics can be utilized to make better decisions. 

Another insight from our customers is that it would be good to integrate the MDSD application with Asset Maintenance/Plant Maintenance systems to create and access Notifications.    Many times, the drivers are doing multiple things —taking orders, merchandising as well as conducting maintenance and repairs on a variety of assets the supplier has deployed at the retailers - think refrigerators as an example. 

Some customers have unique requirements for mobilizing DSD, and only a custom MDSD solution will work.  In these cases, we utilize our domain expertise and deliver a custom MDSD solution.   We also give our customers the option of either an on-premise or in the cloud solution.

Mobile DSD in conjunction with DSD has benefits for both the CP (consumer products) manufacturer and the retailer.  The supplier can better monitor demand on the shelf, be more responsive, and better control merchandising and promotions. New products can be introduced better and innovations increase. The retailer in turn benefits from lower capital outlays and always having fast moving items in stock. 

So the next time you grab that beverage, thank the process that enables you to quench your thirst - Mobile DSD. 

Alok Pant
CEO
Unvired, Inc.
www.unvired.com
Houston, Texas
M: 7135602760

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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 Marketing News Weekly – Week of July 8, 2012

4:00 AM Kenz

The Mobile Marketing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile marketing 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 Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

According to a new report from Juniper Research, in-app advertising spend across all mobile devices will reach $7.1 billion by 2015. Read Original Content

Budgets for mobile marketing will get bigger next year, according to a new study conducted by Strongmail and presented by eMarketer. The study suggests that 70 percent of marketers will ramp up their mobile budgets in 2013. Read Original Content

Registration is open for the third annual Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus 2012 New York conference Thursday, September 13 featuring speakers from Kraft Foods, Groupon, Barnes & Noble, HSN, Bloomberg, NBC News Digital, Millennial Media, ForeSee and Vibes Media. 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

Mobile advertising, and not in-app purchases, will be the main monetization model for game developers targeting the Southeast Asian market because of the lack of convenient carrier payment methods in the region currently, according to one executive at Gree Ventures. Read Original Content


Launched in February 2012 internationally, Facebook mobile advertising is now available in South Africa through its sub-Saharan representative, Habari Media. Read Original Content

According to Lookout Security, five percent of free mobile applications include “aggressive” ads that invade privacy, change settings or deliver ads outside the context of the app, affecting 80 million downloads. Read Original Content

Radish Systems and Mobile Ticket App have joined forces to offer the Show Me capability that changes mobile ticket sales for StubNut.com and potentially hundreds of other ticket brokers. Read Original Content

Mobile Web Up, a mobile website design agency, is launching a weekly series of educational webinars on mobile topics, offered free to the business community. Read Original Content

Mobile security firm Lookout published its first Mobile App Advertising Guidelines in an attempt to provide a framework of best practices in a still unregulated industry when it comes to ad insertion, and collecting data on those ads. Read Original Content

Facebook shares got a boost on Friday afternoon after a report the social network is preparing to launch a new mobile advertising product. The newest service would target ads to users formed on the apps used on their mobile gadgets, according to the Wall Street Journal report. Read Original Content

Hipcricket – the mobile marketing and advertising subsidiary of Augme Technologies –has reached a new milestone. The company has now surpassed the 200,000 mark for mobile marketing and mobile advertising campaigns. Read Original Content

After persuading the U.S.'s second-largest movie theatre chain to join them, Fandango now represents about 70 percent of the online and mobile movie ticketing space in the U.S. Read Original Content

New research "Mobile Bar Code Marketing: Challenges, Opportunities, Global Outlook 2012-2017” developed by Mind Commerce has been recently published by Market Publishers Ltd. The research finds that the mobile bar code redemption value is forecast to exceed $50 billion globally by 2017. Read Original Content

Whitepapers of Note


You can follow me on Twitter @krbenedict and read my blog, Enterprise Mobility Strategies.

I have added a feature to my blog site that supports email subscriptions.  You can now receive all blog articles directly via email.  If you are interested, click here.



*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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.

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