Mobilizing SAP: Business Processes, ROI and Best Practices

by Ravi Kalakota

Despite successive waves of enterprise software applications, one frontier remains untouched by automation — processes on the front lines of business, such as field service, sales, and asset management. Emerging mobile solutions that extend SAP enterprise applications to employees outside the office promise that these processes won’t remain untouched for much longer. This book reveals how TransAlta, Volkswagen, TÜV Nord, METRO Group, Frito-Lay, and numerous other companies are successfully mobilizing SAP solutions to transform processes. The core drivers motivating these companies include cost reduction, productivity improvement, and operational efficiency. Mobilizing Business Processes, ROI and Best Practices guides readers through the real-world mobilization of business processes. Authors Ravi Kalakota and Paul Kurchina analyze the mobile business landscape. They discuss what is behind this trend, how it is paying off, and, most important, provide you with a step-by-step guide on how you can create and implement your own mobile strategy. The purpose of this book is to help readers achieve and sustain superior performance in their organizations by avoiding mobile strategies that have not been tried and tested and by recognizing and capitalizing on the lasting opportunities for renovating pen, paper, and clipboard processes with mobile solutions. Based on extensive research, Mobilizing SAP offers insight into how managers of leading firms are leveraging mobile technology to extract more value out of their SAP investments. Readers will find plenty of practical tips and tools to apply mobile technology in a wide variety of business process scenarios.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 8, 2004