Snapshots Across Time

Questions SMBs should ask when going mobile

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (July 28, 2011; page B5) had an article by Joe Mullich entitled “5 questions SMBs should ask when going mobile.” The article identifies 5 questions:

How can you ensure your information always stays safe?

Can your device match your workforce’s stamina?

can the device accommodate changing needs

Can workers perform tasks on the go as easily as in the office?

Should you rethink what tasks mobile workers can perform?

It ends with a thought-provoking statement that “mobility is about reenvisioning — a reimagining of workers roles, technology needs, and the basic manner in which business is conducted.”

Since the article was sponsored by Dell, the questions (and the associated answers) are device-focused. I am therefore going to take the liberty to extend this great set of questions to explore the business dimension that Joe flags.

Does the mobile system provide access to accurate, rich, and timely business information and processes for executives and workers anywhere, anytime, and on any device?

Mobile apps, clearly, need to enhance employee productivity, decision making, and customer relationship management across key industries including manufacturing, professional services, consumer products, retail, and high tech. For example, sales representatives can access customer information, product availability, and promotions in real time while managers can respond to business processes such as workflows, alerts, and purchases with all of the context required to respond also in the palm of their hands! For this to be a reality, the mobile system you choose needs to have the ability to connect with the sources of the core data. Otherwise, its like carrying around a gleaming iPad2 that doesnt connect to the web… you can use what’s already there — but you cant use it interactively while on the go.

Does it manage mobile devices and applications at the same time?

When hackers starting attacking PC’s first, the raging question was “Do you protect the PC or the apps in backend or both?” Seems to me, you need to do both…but with a tool that can do this programatically, rather than on a one-off basis. Your admin should be able to set “rules,” so the (back-end) apps accessible to your mobile device, the data on your mobile device, and the mobile device’s functioning can be remotely controlled. With large savings to boot!

Do you need to rapidly build mobile applications for a variety of mobile devices and platforms? Or, can you get them off-of the shelf?

The perennial “build vs buy?” debate persists. The decision, more often than not, is based on your IT dept’s beliefs and on what is available out there… SaaS models clearly show that using remotely managed apps with generally acceptable functionality is the way to go. So, unless you really believe that you need special apps, you are better off using pre-built/pre-configured solutions that fit 90% of your needs. And, when that isn’t feasible, look for a good tool with the required IDE capabilities so you quickly code once and use (natively) multiple times!

I am hoping that your IT folks will like you (and, me!) for asking the right questions before making the buying decision… All the best!

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Update: Aug 3rd, 2011: Mobility seems to be on my team’s mind… Here are Kosin Huang’s thoughts on “Why Mobility in ERP matters to SMBs”

I’ll also add a pointer to the webinar that Steve Drake of IDC and I did recently on this topic.

How SMBs Are Democratizing Access to Their Data

John Wilkinson, SAP’s VP of Business Analytics for Global Ecosystem and Channels, joins me in my latest quarterly SAPInsider “SME Insights” column to explore how small businesses and midsize companies are overcoming three important challenges that they have traditionally facedin making good, data-driven decisions: ensuring the integrity of information, democratizing the availability of information, and controlling the cost of ownership.

Read the article to see how our customers are benefiting from sharing data internally.

Sneak preview — next up, an interesting interview that delves into how corporate headquarters can integrate with subsidiaries of different kinds (sales offices, manufacturing plants, warehouses,…) and drive efficiency up.

America re-discovers Intelligent Assist Devices and cobots! (Or, Obama professes a love for robots!)

About two decades ago, General Motors dangled an intriguing problem in front of me — “Can you help us get robots to work with humans? We need to do this; otherwise OSHA is going to fine us!”

I turned down academic offers and decided to spend “a few years in industry” working on this problem (the rest, as they say, is history… I still dream of the day I can go back and teach!). Working with colleagues from Northwestern (Ed Colgate and Michael Peshkin) and Berkeley (Hami Kazerooni) as well as colleagues within GM (Nagesh Nidamaluri, Jim Wells, Steve Holland), we created a new category of devices called “Intelligent Assist Devices” (that included “cobots”). Working together, we created a consortium by bringing in diverse companies like Ford and US Postal Service to launch a little revolution in the material handling business. I certainly had a blast taking a vague problem statement all the way to companies building product [Gorbel, Stanley Tools] Click here for a simple explanation of what we did.

I was reading the IEEE Spectrum earlier today when I was surprised to come across an article in which President Obama announced the $500M Advanced Manufacturing Partnership that will, in part, focus on the “next generation of robots.” Reading further, I discovered that the goal of this effort is to design and create robots that “work alongside human workers the robots need to be smarter and safer.”

As I read the article, my mind went back to our pioneering work (see picture above). And I must say that I am very pleased to see the United States Government funding such a fascinating and critical area.

I conclude by quoting Autelio, a line worker in the Fort Wayne truck plant who was responsible for installing the HVAC core into every truck that was passing by his station, one a minute: “Thanks for working on this for us. I hope to retire to my farm in Arizona — healthy and safe.” His comment still rings in my ears so many years later — it certainly helped frame what was arguably the most satisfying experience of my career. I join Autelio in thanking President Obama for making this significant investment in robotics.