A White Paper
About, Inc. is the global leader in providing independent enterprise software support services. The company has redefined enterprise support services since 2005 with an innovative, award-winning program that enables Oracle and SAP licensees to save up to 90 percent on total support costs. Clients can remain on their current software release without any required upgrades for at least 15 years. Over 1000 global, Fortune 500, midmarket, and public sector organizations from a broad range of industries have selected as their trusted, independent support provider. and the logo are trademarks of, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Descriptions of mobile products and services (pages 4-7) are from vendor-supplied information sources. Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. www.riministreet.com LT-US-081315
Contents Executive Summary...2 Mobility Extends ERP...2 Enterprise Mobility Solutions... 3 Mobility Integrators... 3 Social Apps Integration... 5 Mobile Supply Chain... 5 Pre-Built Mobile Solutions... 5 1
Executive Summary ERP mobility is the set of people, processes and technology focused on managing the increasing array of mobile devices, wireless networks, and related services to enable broad use of mobile computing in business. This is an increasingly important discipline within the enterprise as more and more workers use smartphone and tablet devices in the workplace. But to be truly useful, these new mobile devices need access to business information in ERP systems. It is IT s challenge to build a solid mobility platform by determining the best ERP/CRM enterprise strategy for integrating mobile devices with business processes. Mobility Extends ERP Mobile devices are becoming an important extension to ERP. The goal is to unlock workforce productivity with two distinct benefits of mobility devices. The first benefit is the mobile devices enhanced user interface which features portability, high screen resolution and finger-swipe functionality that promote productivity. The second benefit is extending the reach of ERP systems to emploees, partners and even customers, when they need it, where they need. The combination of mobile devices and ERP business systems empowers workers and makes it possible for them to engage more fully with their peers and customers. With the rapid adoption of mobile devices in the workplace, the ERP vendors have realized that they cannot keep up with the needs of the ever-growing mobile workforce with their existing functionality. As a result, the vendors have had to acquire rather than build the new mobile apps, creating hybrid ERP systems -- a combination of on-premise, cloud services, and mobile apps. While this brings mobile functionality to a wider market, it results in features being released as part of the regular vendor software lifecycle, forcing major upgrades at major costs just to implement mobile access. Many companies are reevaluating the wisdom of paying hefty fees for maintenance services that deliver little in way of innovation, and in particular, mobile functionality. By using independent support to free up significant operating budget, organizations are using the savings to more quickly add mobile functionality from third-party mobility vendors, while extending the life of their ERP systems for 10 15 years. provides its clients with technology roadmaps that help future-proof their stable ERP systems against changes in the technology stack, while adding new technologies to the core business systems as needed. Gartner on Mobility According to Gartner Group, the proliferation of mobile devices represents a real opportunity to increase the penetration of ERP for all types of workers -- in healthcare, manufacturing, finance, even charity organizations -- and overcome some of the resistance to ERP usability. However, deploying ERP on mobile devices presents many challenges, due to the rapidly evolving mobility device and app landscape. High user expectations -- keep it clean, simple and fast -- and the proliferation of mobile devices with different platforms means that, so far, most ERP vendors have done little more than provide generic mobile gateways to enterprise data with technologies such as HTML5, ios and Android. This does little more than poorly present the standard ERP on mobile devices, which only reinforces the complexity and frustration for users. Mobility does not come free from the ERP vendors. It requires expensive upgrades to their newest technology platforms and constant patching as the vendors deliver functionality a little bit at a time. The best long-term strategy is to do what the vendors are doing themselves: acquire additional software mobility products and use a hybrid of loosely coupled and on-premises applications to best serve the needs of the workforce. This way the ERP system remains on-premise but becomes augmented by mobile applications from vendors such as Appcelerator, Kony or IBM. Kony, for example, is well-suited for projects in which large, diverse populations must be supported and development needs to be outsourced. Kony has a strong integration with both SAP and Oracle back ends such as JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel. 2
Key Takeaways The ERP vendors are acquiring technology for mobility and not building it from scratch, which means their mobility enhancements will require expensive and time-consuming upgrades and additional software licenses by their customers. The ERP vendors have all adopted a Software Development Life Cycle approach for adding enhancements, which means that you have to continuously apply their updates as functionally is slowly and incrementally released. You don t need to undergo complex and costly ERP upgrades to add mobility applications to your technology stack. With the move to postmodern ERP, within five years hybrid ERP environments -- loosely coupled onpremise applications and cloud-based services -- will become the norm. Increased delivery options, mobile engagement, and greatly enhanced user experience have created a new competitive market place for hybrid applications that connect to traditional on-premise ERP applications. To keep up with workforce and customer expectations, organizations need to offer great apps that run on a range of mobile devices and connect to an ever-growing set of back-end data. provides technology roadmap advisory services to help its clients evaluate mobile technologies -- among others -- and choose solutions that enable them to incorporate mobile devices into their technology stack without risking an expensive ERP upgrade. Enterprise Mobility Solutions Based on a client s requirements Technology Support Services can recommend an appropriate mobility toolset and vendor. Mobility vendors range from companies that provide Mobile Application Development Platforms (MADP) that enable IT to build custom mobile applications that interact with ERP systems; pre-built mobile applications that integrate with specific ERP systems; and social network integration platforms. This white paper lists a few of the mobility leaders according to Gartner Group that recommends or works with to enhance our clients mobile access to their ERP systems. Mobility Integrators Appcelerator Appcelerator solves the issue of mobile integration by delivering native cross-platform apps at Internet speed, mobilizing any data source, and driving success with real-time analytics all from an open, cloud-based platform. Deliver a real-time view of your mobile app portfolio for business and project stakeholders alike. Create amazing app experiences across multiple operating systems and devices from a single JavaScript code base. Mobilize any data source public or enterprise. Test apps faster with improved quality and control. Gain end-to-end visibility into test coverage, API usage, user experience, app adoption and performance. 3
Kony Kony understands how to harness mobile technology so your brand can pursue its full mobile potential without risks or boundaries. Let Kony worry about new hardware requirements, operating system updates and rich user experiences while keeping your costs and resources low. You focus on delivering new mobile experiences that empower your customers and employees. Kony apps power the mobile experiences of the largest airlines, the biggest banks, the largest insurance companies and hotels, manufacturing giants, utilities providers and dozens of other global industries. ienterprises ienterprises brings you Swift MEAP, the award-winning mobile enterprise application platform. Swift MEAP works with virtually any existing application/datasource and smart phone or tablet including iphone, ipad, Android and BlackBerry to mobilize the critical information your field workforce needs to drive success for your business and increase customer satisfaction. Whether you are using Siebel CRM, Salesforce.com, SAP, JD Edwards or a custom mainframe solution, ienterprise s mobile platform provides enhanced access and thereby helps you deliver the corporate goals of increasing productivity, revenues, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Infosys Infosys offers comprehensive and innovative enterprise mobility solutions, giving you the right platform to embark on your mobility journey. Infosys solutions have been designed to cover varied industries and business functions, so you can empower your teams with on-the-go services. Enterprise-on-the-go: Provides anytime/anywhere access to core ERP and CRM enterprise functions. Your employees can access essential functions on their smartphones and tablets on-the-go, act on critical business needs, and make better decisions. Approvals-on-the-go: Helps your managers act on pending business approvals/transactions. Sales-on-the-go: Enables your sales teams to focus on revenue generation, improve sales productivity, and maintain and grow existing accounts by accessing and managing real-time customer and pipeline information. Service-on-the-go: Helps your managers in real-time dispatching and workforce optimization; helps your technicians in effectively servicing customers and preventing breakdowns through real-time information availability. Expense reports-on-the-go: Gives your employees an easily accessible platform to submit, update, withdraw and duplicate their expenses. Projects-on-the-go: Enables your managers to view and update overall project status, and assign resources to a particular activity. Resources can also update their activity completion status. Verivo Software The Verivo Software team is committed to accelerating its customers business results via enterprise mobility. For more than a decade, Verivo s enterprise mobility experts have been helping companies meet the demands of the emerging market and contributing to the transformation of the mobile enterprise with their insight and innovation. Unique enterprise mobile app platform designed to radically simplify the complexities of building, securing and controlling custom enterprise apps. Verivo has dramatically transformed its go-to-market strategy to meet today s market demands. 4
Social Apps Integration IBM IBM Connections is a leading social software platform that can help your organization engage the right people, accelerate innovation and deliver results. This integrated, security-rich platform helps people engage with networks of experts in the context of critical business processes. Now everyone can act with confidence, anticipating and responding to emerging opportunities. IBM Connections deployment options include on-premises, hybrid and inthe-cloud. Eliminate guesswork by providing full-featured social analytics and metrics to foster vital networks and communities. Unlocks creativity everywhere with a social platform that is ready to be delivered to virtually any mobile device including tablets. Provides a flexible and security-rich foundation for a comprehensive bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy. Integrates with IBM software and third-party applications to extend your enterprise social business platform. Mobile Supply Chain WaveMark is the market leader in real-time healthcare supply chain innovation. WaveMark solutions drive innovation from point-of-manufacture to point-of-care, enhancing patient safety and regulatory compliance while improving the economics of healthcare. WaveMark provides actionable, real-time information on the movement and usage of healthcare supplies and implantable devices. WaveMark s Mobility Software uses the latest in mobile computing technology for tracking healthcare supplies in procedural areas, distribution areas and storerooms. WaveMark is the only healthcare supply chain technology company to offer this level of supply chain mobility for both RFID and non-rfid tracked supplies. Pre-Built Mobile Solutions MobileFrame MobileFrame is a complete enterprise mobility solution that lets you gain a competitive advantage by replacing inefficient and error-prone paper forms with automated mobile solutions that boost productivity and increase revenue. MobileFrame s code-free enterprise mobility platform enables businesses to easily create, deploy and administer sophisticated custom mobile applications. MobileFrame eliminates time-consuming and expensive custom coding and includes the management tools necessary for a successful mobility project. amind Solutions With deep roots in the Siebel CRM world, amind Solutions is the leading provider of technology and implementation and consulting services for Oracle s Siebel CRM solutions. By complementing and extending Siebel CRM, amind Solutions helps companies deliver a seamless customer experience across all touch points web, partner portal, contact center, and more. amind Solution s patent-pending software framework provides high-performance, efficient extensions of enterprise systems to your mobile users. For more information, ask for the Technology Solution Brief: Mobile Devices 5