SAP Moves in Mobile

ORLANDO, Fla. (SAPPHIRE NOW) - SAP today announced that it has struck a deal with Amazon Web Services to offer customers a cloud-based option for mobile device and application management. The SAP Afaria mobile device management solution is now available in the AWS Marketplace.

Sanjay Poonen, president of product go-to-market and head of SAP's Mobile Division noted that SAP, and he in particular, is "very excited" about SAP's mobile business, calling it "the next wave of growth and investment for us."

But, he also said mobile device management is just one area of investment in the mobile space for SAP. Other areas include mobile application platform development, mobile applications themselves, and a mobile messaging infrastructure.

According to Poonen, the announcement "is just a sneak preview of what's coming from SAP as we lay the groundwork for long-term innovation around our comprehensive, unmatched B2B and B2C mobile platform, both on premises and in the cloud."

The company followed with the releases of a new wave of mobile apps designed to help people be more efficient whether at work, at home, or pursing leisure activities. These new mobile apps provide real-time mobile access to human resources, sustainability, finance, sales, and mobile commerce functions. This includes updated versions of existing SAP mobile apps available on more mobile platforms, including Android and RIM BlackBerry.

Among the mobile apps in the pipeline are SAP Travel Expense Reports, allowing mobile workers to create expense reports from a mobile device; SAP Learning Assistant, allowing workers to consume learning content from anywhere; SAP Customer Briefing, providing a real-time dashboard to help salespeople prepare for a customer meeting; and SAP EHS Safety Issue, allowing workers to log issues and submit them, with a photo, video, or audio recording, to safety managers for action.

"SAP is following through on its commitment to deliver innovative, engaging mobile apps for millions of people," said Sanjay Poonen, president of product go-to-market and head of SAP's Mobile Division, in a statemement "With mobile serving as a major part of daily life, it is a top priority for most businesses that seek to simplify daily tasks for employees and their customers. SAP is leading the charge for businesses to run better with stunning, easy-to-use mobile apps that can manage and analyze today's explosion of data-bringing business to people."

SAP is also capitalizing on its acquisition of Sybase with the release of several new Sybase 365 mobile apps for banking and finance. Other apps include the SAP In-Store Product Lookup for retailers and SAP Policyholder Lookup for insurance companies.

At its SAPPHIRE annual user conference, SAP and its partners are expecting to release more than 70 mobile apps. The company is also continuing to evolve and build the mobile app ecosystem with updated features and expanded platform availability to existing apps, including:

• SAP Customer Financial Fact Sheet, mobile app, allowing sales representatives or account executives to check the system financial status of their customers anywhere and anytime, is now available on iPad and Android 2.2 or later.
• SAP Payment Approvals mobile app, helping ensure the liquidity of a company by approving payments anywhere and anytime, is now available on Android 2.2 or later.
• SAP Electronic Medical Record mobile app, putting critical patient information in the hands of doctors, providing them with instant access to the electronic medical records at a patient's bedside, is now available on Android 3.2 and iPhone.
• SAP GRC Policy Survey mobile app, allowing employees to receive, complete and submit governance, risk and compliance (GRC) policy surveys, quizzes and acknowledgements, is now available on iPad.

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