SAP Unveils Windows Phone 8 Apps & New Enterprise Security App For Windows 8 #SAPTechEd

Enterprise software and software-related services company, SAP, has released changes to the SAP Mobile Platform, security features for SAP Afaria and a new product: SAP 360 Customer Solution.

Over the last year, SAP has introduced new employee collaboration and social enterprise tools, such as the social collaboration strategy "Project Robus" and Jam, a product that aims to improve how enterprise social software works. 

Apps and Windows 8

This week at the SAPPHIRE NOW + SAP TechEd event, SAP unveiled new products and mobile updates. One of the updated features includes advanced security and authentication features for the SAP Mobile Platform. With these updates, the product will not only be more secure, but have user/device/app provisioning, and push notification.

The company has also announced six new mobile apps for Windows 8 users. These apps are are based around enterprise functions and aim to help companies with their training, recruiting and sales departments. The apps are expected to be released as both full and trial versions available from the  Windows Store and SAP Store. They include:

• SAP WorkDeck: This apps gives employees the chance to be more interactive with their managers as they will be able to initiate requests, oversee events and monitor event progress. For managers, they have the tools to look over and process workflows when they are away from the office.
• SAP Manager Insight: SAP Manager Insight is an employee profile app that gives managers and HR departments access to relevant data such as employee profiles, diversity in departments and employee talent by location.
• SAP Learning Assistant: Learning Assistant is a training app that gives workers access to online classes.
• SAP Interview Assistant: With Interview Assistant, managers will be able to easily manage and prepare for interviews, while having access to relevant candidate information.
• SAP Customer Financial Fact Sheet:  This is a ‘customer profile’ app geared toward account executives, as it provides financial data, invoices and important sales orders.
• SAP GRC Policy Survey: Policy Survey gives employees to access to changes in company policies and respond with any questions they may have.

A More Secure SAP Afaria

The Mobile Platform isn't the only product from SAP that is becoming more secure. It has been announced that SAP Afaria, an enterprise security product, is now available for Windows 8 and is able to support intel-based tablets with the new operating system.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Mobile App of the Week: Staying up to Date with your Business Contacts on Linkedin

For this week’s Mobile App of the Week our focus is on the LinkedIn iPhone app. This app version of the business social networking site gives users the ability to connect with their LinkedIn contacts and manage their profile on the go.

When users first click on the app and have signed on, they’re directed to the app’s home page where they can choose to go to their LinkedIn profile, groups, inbox or see updates. From there, users can browse their contacts, make new connections, update their status, edit their profile and see what they’re contacts are up to through the news feed.

Requirements

The LinkedIn app is a free download from iTunes. It's compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and has been optimized for iPhone 5. Users must have iOS of 4.5 or higher.

If you aren’t an iPhone user, there is also an Android and Windows Phone version. The Android version is available in the Google Play store for users with versions 2.1 or higher, while the Windows Phone version is available for those who have Windows Phone 7.5 or higher.

Pros

As was mentioned, users have access to all of the features they have on the web version of LinkedIn, as well as a few mobile only options. Some of these features include:

• Being able to view and recommend jobs.
• Updating and editing your profile.
• Read suggested industry news of the day.
• Users can search based on a job title or keyword to see all their contacts that relate to that search.
• Receive suggestions on who should be part of your LinkedIn network.
• Ability to enable and receive push notifications.

Users, upon their initial sign in with the app are promoted to sync their calendar with their account. If a user chooses this option, LinkedIn says that the information isn't stored within their server and notes that users have the ability to opt-out or eventually sync their calendar by changing their settings. 

Final Thoughts

As a basic app, the LinkedIn app is merely a mobile version of the LinkedIn website. With this in mind, there isn't much that sets it apart from the site, besides being more compact.

This app would be useful for those who need to have their LinkedIn profile and contacts on hand in meetings or when they’re away from the office. If you’re not someone who spends a lot of time away from the office or uses their LinkedIn profile as a essential business tool, than you shouldn't bother with it.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Perceptive Software Releases Perceptive Mobile for Windows 8 and Windows RT

Lexmark Company, Perceptive Software today released Perceptive Mobile for Windows, making its enterprise content management software accessible through the Windows 8 and Windows RT operating system.

Busy Year for Perceptive

Perceptive Software integrates ECM and BPM solutions primarily to the education, government and financial sectors.The company was bought by Lexmark in 2010. Following the merger, Perceptive introduced two new products: Interact, an Embedded Solutions Framework and ImageNow, a document management, document imaging and workflow solution, while in April, the company introduced mobile apps for the iPhone and Android devices.

What Does this Release Bring to the Table?

In addition to being able to access information and business processes from Perceptive Software, there are a variety of features that go along with this release. Perceptive Software wants to ensure that their products are not only compatible with the most recent operating systems, but also keep in line with the needs of today's information worker:

Perceptive Mobile for Windows is the latest example of Perceptive Software’s commitment to developing the most user-focused products in the industry,” said Brian Anderson, Chief Technology Officer at Perceptive Software. “It is another step in our vision to deliver the most relevant information in whatever context users work, regardless of location or platform.”

The  Perceptive Mobile Windows version is a compliment to the previous iPad and Android mobile offerings, and gives users the full range of Perceptive software capabilities to allow workers information and document access from wherever they are.

The announcement follows the Windows 8 release earlier this week. Other companies have also started releasing new products for Windows 8 that include NewsGator's Social Sites App and Box's Mobile App for the Windows 8 Phone.

Perceptive Mobile for Windows is available for Perceptive Software customers through the Windows Store.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Mobile App of the Week: Organizing your Files with Box.net

It's time for the Mobile App of the Week and this week our focus is on Box.net's Android app. Box's cloud-based file sharing and document collaboration platform allows users to view, share and collaborate on files from wherever they are.

After signing up for a Box.net account (which only takes a few seconds and is free), users have access to both the app and Box website. With the Android app, users are able to add folders and files (which include photo, video, audio, documents, spreadsheets and PowerPoints) directly from their phone. Users also have the ability to view, edit and download files to your Android device for offline access.

The app also links users to Box OneCloud, which is a mobile framework that helps connect content to a number of apps. Box OneCloud has a variety of other apps that could be useful for those in need of a collaboration tool set. Document collaboration capabilities already exist within the app, with the ability to share documents and files with colleagues, to give and receive feedback on shared files and the ability to track changes made by installing an update tab widget. 

Requirements

Box is available from the Google Play store for Android users who have a version 2.1 or higher. It currently has a user rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars.

Note that if you aren't an Android user, Box also offers an iPhone and an iPad app and an app for Windows Phone.

Box Android App - Open Document Options 

The Pros of Box on Android

Making the claim that over 120,000 companies use Box, the app promises to provide enterprise-grade solutions for users. Some of these features include:

• A way for files to be encrypted and password protected.
• Compatibility with other OneCloud apps.
• Files can be saved to your phone or tablet’s SD card.
• Users can leave notes and comments on work for colleagues.
• Up to 5GB of data.
• The ability to add a widget or shortcut to the device that will allow the user to receive notifications of files that are updated.
• The option to open documents, spreadsheets and similar files with a variety of other apps that include iAnnoate, Annotate with qPDF, ThinkFree, Breezy or with another app installed on your phone.

Issues with Box on the Android

Box isn't a very complex document collaboration app, so there aren’t many flaws, but one is:

• When creating a document, the app directs you to download the ThinkOffice app — even if you already have this app or another word processing app installed on your device.

Final Thoughts

This is a very easy to navigate app for those who need to manage their files when away from the office. If you are someone who simply wants to store a few items there might be simpler apps to use (like DropBox), as Box seems to be directed at those who need multi-platform document collaboration capabilities.
 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Why HBO, NBC, and Comcast Are Betting On A Startup To Power Their Second Screens

Mobile devices are moving audiences and advertisers away from the television set. But can they also help bring them back? Zeebox's second screen solution makes live programming more fun and potentially more profitable.

Let’s say you’re the television industry. A Nielsen study says that says 88% of tablet owners and 86% of smartphone owners are using mobile devices while they watch your shows. Some of them are playing Angry Birds, but some of them are Shazaming to get more information, checking into content with GetGlue and tweeting about plots in real-time.

This is the point that likely stands out to you: Bad Piggies, Shazam, GetGlue and Twitter are all making money by capturing your viewers attention on mobile devices. You, the television industry titan, are likely not. At least not directly.

So what are you going to do about it? You might try to make apps that provide a second-screen environment for each show. But those are expensive to develop, and they don’t deliver a great experience for channel surfers who don’t want to app surf simultaneously. You might promote the existing social media conversation around your shows, but that won’t directly promote increases to your bottom line.

Anthony Rose and Ernesto Schmitt

Perhaps it’s time to partner up.

That's what NBCUniversal, Comcast (which owns a controlling interest in NBCUniversal) and HBO have decided. On Thursday, the companies announced partnerships with Zeebox, a startup app designed to play sidekick to any television show. NBC and Comcast have invested an undisclosed amount in the startup. British Sky Broadcasting has previously taken a 10% stake.

Launched in the UK last January, Zeebox has been downloaded by 1.5 million people there. It launches in the U.S. Thursday.

The app isn't an alternative venue for shows the way Hulu and Netflix are. Instead, it aims to enhance programs as they're watched on a television set. The free app not only acts as a program guide--telling users, for instance, which shows are being most discussed or watched by their friends--but also as a remote. Meanwhile, it allows any broadcaster to add additional content like videos, games and polls to their shows' digital hub. Even if a show’s producers don’t participate, users will find a dedicated page for it with relevant twitter chatter, additional information and a chatroom on Zeebox.

Zeebox has no specific killer feature. Its biggest advantage is an appeal to broadcasters.

Like Shazam, it will extend its second-screen experience to advertisements. Unlike Shazam, it will share revenue from enhanced commercials with all broadcasters (Shazam says it does share revenue with some broadcasters, but declined to provide information about the circumstances in which it does so). Adding a mobile component to a commercial can nudge consumers toward action (think “buy this now” buttons) in a way that television ads can’t. You don't have to be an advertising executive to realize the potential for profit. Zeebox has also invented television’s first form of keyword advertisingby pulling important terms from shows' closed captioning data as they air. Users can click on each term within the app to see more information about it. Zeebox plans to sell sponsored versions of the terms the same way Google sells promoted links in your search results.

For HBO, which relies on subscriptions rather than advertising, Zeebox could provide an incentive for watching programming on cable rather than through iTunes or your parent’s HBO Go account.

If you’re still pretending to be the television industry, this probably all sounds awesome. But if you’ve lapsed back into average viewer mode, you might be feeling left out. What does Zeebox give you that you don’t already have? Short answer: Everything. At once.

Want to tweet about the show you're watching? Zeebox has a chatroom for group discussion with strangers. Want to share what you watch with friends? You won’t need GetGlue when you have Zeebox. Looking for what to watch next? There's a guide built in. More info on that celebrity the host just mentioned? Use Zeetags instead of Google. Games? Got those, too. Put your Bad Piggies away.

None of Zeebox's many features is the most likely source of new users. That would be HBO, Comcast and NBC, which will all help promote the app. NBCUniversal EVP of Strategic Integration Page Thompson declined to comment on the scale of the network's planned marketing effort, but Zeebox co-founder and CTO Anthony Rose said it “will be hard to watch NBC without noticing Zeebox.”

Source : fastcompany[dot]com

ForeSee Study Ranks Retail Mobile Experiences, No Surprises on the Best

Retail mobile experiences are rated in a ForSee Study. Bet you don't know who made the top of the list. Okay, maybe you do.

According to the Mobile Satisfaction Index: Retail Edition, released Thursday by customer experience analysis firm ForeSee, Net retailer Amazon took top place for customer satisfaction with the retail mobile experience. Avon and Apple took the next two top spots. The report utilized 4500 customer surveys conducted last month. About three-quarters of those surveyed used phones, and the rest used tablets.

The Mobile Experience Is Different

ForeSee President and CEO Larry Freed said in a statement that “customers experience the web differently on mobile devices, and companies that do not measure the mobile experience miss an opportunity to solidify customer loyalty and risk losing customers to companies that do so.” (Editor's note: Check out: Adobe 2012 Mobile Survey Highlights the Rise of Mobile and the Demise of the User Experience).

On the Index’s 100 point scale, scores ranged from 84 to 76. ForeSee said that it considered a score of 80 or above to be a “benchmark of excellence,” and half of the measured retailers did so. Amazon scored 84, Avon 83 and Apple 82, but overall, satisfaction with the top retailers was only 79.

Following Apple were, in order, Victoria’s Secret, Barnes and Noble, eBay, Netflix, Staples, Walgreens, Best Buy, Groupon, J.C. Penney, Dell, Home Depot, Living Social, Macy’s, Walmart, Sears and Target.

The mobile retail experience is still a work in progress. ForeSee found that mobile retail experience lags behind the web-based retail experience, which, by now, is fairly uniform across desktops and laptops.

Mobile Matters

But mobile devices have to contend with a variety of screen sizes, OSs, hardware specs and transmission speeds, all of which make a consistent experience across devices difficult to achieve.

Comparing mobile satisfaction scores to web satisfaction — based on ForeSee’s Spring 2012 Online Satisfaction Index — the research firm said that “nearly all of the top retailers perform better on traditional websites.”

All of this matters, ForeSee said. Satisfied customers are 69 percent more likely to make a purchase on their mobile device, 72 percent more likely to suggest a retailer to someone else, and 58 percent more likely to come back.

Even with the challenges presented by mobile, retailers are increasing their bets — bigtime. According to a new report by Shop.org (available for its members), retailers will spend an average investment of US$ 207,000 on mobile this year. Last year, it was US$ 55,000.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Adobe 2012 Mobile Survey Highlights the Rise of Mobile and the Demise of the User Experience

Results from Adobe’s recent 2012 Mobile Consumer Survey show that consumers are using their smartphones and tablet devices to connect with brands in a variety of ways. However, many companies aren’t yet providing optimized experiences that leverage these different devices. And while it seems fairly obvious that businesses should not approach their mobile strategy in an identical manner as the desktop, many still are.

An Uneven Mobile Landscape

Adobe surveyed more than 1,200 mobile users in the United States in an effort to learn what mobile devices they use, how they interact with websites and applications, and what they want most out of their mobile experiences. What they found out highlights the inevitable rise of mobile devices, with smartphones becoming the preferred form of web access for consumers. However, the overall mobile landscape is not as well developed and hardly in tune to how, when and where consumers are using their mobile devices.

So what exactly did they find?

Mobile Usage

• For consumers who own both a smartphone and tablet, the primary device is still the smartphone (88%).

• Android devices lead the way in overall popularity at 51%, followed by iPhones at 38%.
• The numbers for Android devices skewed even higher for the young age group at 58%.
• Tablet users are more likely to be home-based (70%), while 24% use tablets on the go. Consumers devote a significant amount of time to their tablets, with 31% using them daily between 1 to 4 hours.
• Tablets are more likely to be shared devices, with a majority of tablet users (56%) stating that they allow other members of the family, such as children, to use their tablet.
• iPad users (62%) and Android tablet users (56%) reported spending more than $250 on consumer products via their devices over the past 12 months, compared to 58% of iPhone users and 53% of Android smartphone users.

User Experiences

• Consumers who shop via mobile applications on Android tablets report the highest percentage levels of satisfaction at 88% versus iPad users at 71%, and Android smartphone users at 69% versus iPhone users at 66%.

• When it comes to shopping for consumer products via mobile websites, iPad users reported the highest satisfaction levels at 75%, followed by Amazon Kindle at 73%, iPhone at 66%, Android tablet at 66%, and Android smartphone at 60%.
• When asked why they prefer a regular website when shopping on your mobile device, a majority of respondents indicated convenience (39%), followed by access to more features (21%).

Social Media Engagement

• Facebook is the dominant social network accessed by mobile (85%), followed by Twitter (35%), and then Google+ (21%).
• While users’ most popular activity is to read status updates (85%), consumers are also using their mobile devices to view Facebook fan pages of their favorite brands.
• While 53% of consumers who view a Facebook fan page receive an offer or promotion, one in five consumers report that they do not have a mobile-optimized experience when linking from Facebook to a brand’s site.
• Location services are on the rise and are being driven by consumer incentives to check in. Younger demographics are more likely to check in (35%) versus senior at 18%.

Mobilize & Optimize

Put together, these results indicate that different devices deserve different experiences. Regardless of the device they use, consumers expect to visit optimized websites. As a result, brands are behooved to offer an engaging and dynamic mobile user experience design that corresponds with the experience users expect to receive. To do this, however, is more complicated. To help organization design better user experiences Adobe shares a few tips to incorporate into their mobile strategy: 

• Reduce touch events to conversion.
• Design for mobile interactions.
• Optimize for speed.
• Make content “findability” easy.
• Don’t launch mobile channels without analytics.
• Plan and prioritize optimization efforts for tablet experiences that are unique and different from smartphones, given the larger screen size.
• Don’t launch a social mobile presence that is not mobile optimized.
• Don’t run mobile advertising campaigns that link to a desktop site.

They say knowing is half the battle. The more important part is putting that knowledge into action. As mobile devices continue to infiltrate the customer experience, companies must make a concerted effort to keep up or suffer the consequences.
 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com