Published on the 26/09/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
SAP’s mobile strategy expert says businesses need to go mobile now…
Speaking to iStart while in New Zealand supporting the SAP A/NZ region’s efforts around mobility, Nick Brown, SAP’s senior VP of mobile strategy and solution management, said that businesses are getting more comfortable with mobile and now they need to turn that comfort into results.
“They need to react, they need to do something,” he says, referring to the multitude of ways that mobile can enhance a business and create new marketplaces.
For example, he demonstrates an app by Canadian transport company STM, which began as a way for it to provide route information and journey planning for its customers. The company soon realised that it had a wealth of information about its customers – where they were, when and how often – which it could use to offer new location-based services, such as discount vouchers and other special offers for events and retailers near by. From there it could even use data on users’ daily commutes to push a morning coffee special to them 10 minutes before their stop inviting them to order by their mobile. Suddenly, STM transport has a new revenue stream.
The pressure on the CIO to “do something mobile” is coming from all sides, from the CEO to the guys once shop floor. If you are going to do so successfully, however, Brown warns that organisations need to make sure they are creating something that their users really want (“don’t assume you know,” he says) and then leverage it from there. Platforms, like the recently announced partnership between SAP and Gen-i can help CIOs and IT departments to get quick wins in the fast-changing mobile world, because the infrastructure is already there.
The proliferation of apps and the incitement that we must have a mobile offering of some description are, however, putting users in real danger of becoming overwhelmed with the sheer volume of app possibilities. “It shouldn’t be the customer’s problem to work out where to go or which app to use,” he says, referring as an example to the Governments 10 specific results desired in public services as outlined in the Budget 2012, the last of which was improving interaction with government.
“The Government should start getting centralised apps, operating them on behalf of public sector and some relevant private sector organisations,” Brown says.
SAP’s Fiori and its SNAP app are two other examples of centralised apps. The first offers an app-style experience for SAP’s business software, and the other makes assembling flat pack products easier thanks to fully manipulatable 3D CAD diagrams, improved instructions and a live-chat option. And with offerings like these the centralised app is likely to be a winner.
