Mobile business software
From WikiCover
On June 19, 2007, SAP AG unveiled new mobile solutions and enhancements to existing mobile applications that help companies extend SAP business processes to information workers via mobile devices.
New capabilities for the existing suite of SAP mobile solutions, named "SAP xApps composite applications for mobile business," will help information workers be more productive and make better business decisions. The company also announced the latest version of SAP NetWeaver Mobile, a mobile infrastructure that provides the foundation for SAP mobile solutions and enables organizations to easily build customized applications by leveraging the flexibility of enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA).
The company also demonstrates continued momentum in the mobile market with more than 850 customers and a 50 percent increase in its mobile business year over year. Customers have embraced SAP mobile solutions because SAP continues to deliver an infrastructure and applications that are vertically specific and address the needs of information workers according to their role within an organization, from executives to sales staff to field service professionals. SAP mobile solutions can easily be customized and extended to adapt to new business conditions, another key benefit for customers. Because the solutions are seamlessly integrated with SAP Business Suite and can be combined with non-SAP solutions, developers can select the exact business processes and data their remote users need.
Recognizing that sales professionals are a critical group of information workers, SAP has extended its existing SAP xApp Mobile Sales composite application, which provides remote access to customer and product information. New capabilities allow sales staff to conduct trade promotion evaluations and access customer feedback instantly while on the road. Because SAP xApp Mobile Sales delivers market survey results to mobile devices, sales staff can more strategically plan their promotion campaigns and product allocation. Also, SAP is adding new industry-specific capabilities to SAP xApp Mobile Sales. Now sales representatives in consumer packaged goods industry will be able to use their mobile devices to more effectively audit sales and manage customer profiles.
An entirely new composite application, SAP Mobile In-Store Inventory Management, will extend SAP for Retail solutions to mobile devices. The new application provides retail clerks with mobile visibility into current inventory data so they can help customers locate the right product more quickly. With increased inventory accuracy, sales clerks can minimize out-of stock situations and improve customer satisfaction.
Service technicians, who perform on-site repairs and equipment maintenance, are another category of information worker that will benefit from the new mobile capabilities and solutions from SAP. Enhancements to SAP xApp Mobile Asset Management (SAP xMAM), a composite application that provides maintenance technicians with remote access to work orders and equipment information, now includes both geographic information system (GIS) and radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. These enhancements allow mobile service workers to more precisely plan travel routes and track time spent at each job, which improves customer service efficiency.
Field service engineers will also benefit from a new handheld version of the composite application, SAP xApp Mobile Service, planned for release in 2008. They will use this application to access work orders and additional information about customers' service history on their mobile devices, to better anticipate which equipment and parts are needed for each job -- and resolve customer issues the first visit.
For the past three years, SAP xApp Mobile Direct Store Delivery (SAP xMDSD) has connected delivery drivers to the enterprise so they can process invoices, capture orders and manage stock while on the road. New capabilities for SAP xMDSD provide delivery personnel with simpler payment processing and inventory control, which helps validate the cash and product flow from their vehicles, provide up-to-date inventory information and better serve their customers.
The new version of SAP NetWeaver Mobile includes a re-architected mobile infrastructure that harnesses the power of enterprise SOA and delivers an integrated solution -- from the platform up. The new mobile foundation enables customers and partners to use the SAP NetWeaver development capabilities to more easily build applications that scale and adapt to evolving business demands. Organizations can leverage the SAP NetWeaver platform to build applications that more quickly give mobile workers access to functionality and data from both SAP and non-SAP applications.