99CENTSPROJECT

An Enterprise Mobility endeavor

99centsproject
Neeraj K Mishra

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Contents
Executive Summary: .............................................................................................................................................. 2
99centsproject Vision Statement ................................................................................................................. 2
THE PARADIGM SHIFT IN MOBILITY-TRANSACTIONAL TO
MONITORING/COLLABORATION .................................................................................................................... 2
TRANSACTIONAL VS MONITORING-BUSINESS PRIORITIES OF TOMMOROW: ............................ 3
THE FUTURE............................................................................................................................................................. 3
DEFINING THE NEXT GENERATION MOBILE APPLICATION FOR SAP: ........................................... 4
MARKET ANALYSIS: .............................................................................................................................................. 4










99centsproject
Executive Summary:


99centsproject is a unique service offering aimed at defining the capabilities, Architecture,
Disposition and the Consolidation of IT-Systems for the realization of Mobility in key business
processes. The founders of the group comprises a group of highly motivated individuals who
have been a part of executing multiple projects on large scale SAP Implementation, Mobility
Strategy, IT-Systems consolidation, and Mobile Applications development for the last 10
years. The group has been involved in implementation in various Industries including High-
Tech, Oil & Gas, Power and Utilities and Waste Management and Recycling, and Chemical
Distribution and has a combined experience of over 30 years in implementing ERP based
applications.

99centsproject Vision Statement
THE PARADIGM SHIFT IN MOBILITY-TRANSACTIONAL TO MONITORING/COLLABORATION

Over the last two years there has been a flurry of SAP based Enterprise Mobile applications
in the market. The majority of these applications are primarily focus on delivering capabilities
for performing Operational tasks through a form factor that utilizes a touch based input. The
primary target of these applications have been the Sales, Logistics and Transportation
business functions. There is an ancillary market that has developed over the past years which
focusses on the SAP BI/BW based mobile applications focused on delivering on demand
reporting to the enterprise users. However none of these applications cover the broad
multitude of business scenarios within a single configurable framework that could be
customized based on the specific client scenarios. The focus on configurability and
customization is the key to unlock the enterprise mobility market and provide an edge
to any enterprise wide solution provider leading to a Quantum leap in the terms of
differentiation and competitive advantage.
Due to the above factors a typical SAP based Mobile Application may cost millions of dollars
to implement. This approach results in a system landscape where execution of business
through Mobility is limited to Ad-Hoc Apps rather than through a Decision Model that takes
into consideration Scalability, Responsiveness, Load/Volume, Development Complexity of the
IT-systems and business processes.
TRANSACTIONAL VS MONITORING-BUSINESS PRIORITIES OF TOMMOROW:

A Typical business process (Sales, Material procurement, Transportation) involves one or
multiple tasks that may be classified as Transactional, Workflow, Monitoring, Reporting, or
Collaboration. An SAP system help users perform the above tasks within an ecosystem
thereby eliminating the need of manual, undocumented tasks that may result in redundancies
or delays in the execution of business process leading to efficiencies and productivity across
the business functions.
With the focus on automation one of the key priorities of clients are to find ways of
automating transactional processing with no or very little human intervention. However, SAP
today does not run through a validation of scenarios based on transaction history and prompt
the user to confirm and provide resolution steps. The exception based execution leads to
increased efficiency rather than a step by step approach where users run through all the
validations whether or not they may be applicable. When an exception does occur, SAP is not
capable of intuitively informing the user of what could have gone wrong with this transaction
based on historical context. Rather it relies on generic error logs that are hard to decipher and
require expert IT Professionals to intervene.
The key focus of an automated transactional system is Exception Discovery and Exception
handling
THE FUTURE
The business of tomorrow will be purely rely on based on Exception based monitoring where
SAP (or any other ERP) is capable of providing real time validation of exception that may
occur during an execution of transaction and the resolution steps based on historical context
delivered on a tablet or a Mobile device. The user should have the ability to assign the
exception to an owner automatically with minimum touch based gestures. Though
transactional reporting would still be a major driving force in the Business Intelligence
domain, there would be new productivity based reporting that inform managers on which
processes or stakeholders responsiveness to exceptions have been the best. There would be
increased focus on monitoring through mobile devices and collaboration to resolve
exceptions rather than Mobile apps that are focused on execution of operational tasks
through a Mobile device.
DEFINING THE NEXT GENERATION MOBILE APPLICATION FOR SAP:
An Intuitive, Role Centric, User Driven, Dynamic and Configurable Enterprise Ecosystem
integrated with SAP ERP, aimed for Business Process Monitoring and Exception Handling
via Real Time Collaborative Execution
99centsproject aims to build the first mobile application framework that would
incorporate the above principles and will deliver:
A Suite of tightly integrated platform independent mobile applications supporting the
BYOD strategy
An Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled Application that Enhances the User Experience,
Exception discovery and handling through an underlying set of unique algorithms
An Ecosystem that incorporates key tenets of Social Networking and Collaborative
tools of the Consumer Ecosystem to Business Operations.
A Quantum leap in the way transactional exceptions are handled in SAP in the post PC
World.
MARKET ANALYSIS:

The Market for Mobile based application for SAP today is largely fragmented and
transactional based. The market is largely cannibalized by inconsistent implementations
across the globe that rely on execution of business process rather than focus on an automated
environment where the key use of a Mobile device is to help users collaborate to discover and
handle Exceptions. According to Mobile Enterprise research IDC, Driven by major
technology trends in consumer and enterprise markets, the Enterprise Mobile
Application Development Platform software market is in a period of rapid growth. In
2012, IDC believed the total market reached a size of $938.5 million dollars. By 2017,
the market will experience a 38.7 percent CAGR to reach $4.8 billion.


Currently the only configurable SAP based mobile product is SAP FIORI (released on
June 2013) which delivers a collection of apps that support the most broadly and frequently
used SAP software functions. The primary Applications that SAP FIORI delivers can be
classified as Follows:


0
5
10
15
20
25
Workflow
TRANSACTIONAL
REPORTING
Monitoring
The approach adopted by SAP is to deliver a host of applications that help users execute
transactions that are more frequently used on the go'. Hence we see a large number of
applications typically focused on the Workflow and transactional domain. Workflow and
transactional application comprises over 70% of the Mobile based applications. Monitoring
tools only comprise 5% of the apps delivered through SAP FIORI. None of these applications
are capable of delivering capabilities that the 99centsproject team has identified as the
key for the business in the future, namely-Exception handling and Exception Discovery.
Based on our analysis we found the following drawbacks of the approach adopted by SAP:
1. These apps are ad-hoc Mobile based applications that can be used by enterprise users.
Rather than relying on a Unified architecture that allows users to perform multiple
tasks from an app. Example-Creation of a sales order is an application and tracking a
shipment based on the sales order is a different application. This leads to a flawed
user experience where a user may have to open multiple applications rather than a
single application that could help you monitor and control business operations
2. None of the applications provide exception discovery and exception handling. The
approach is leaning more toward empowering users with the capability to execute the
transactions.
3. The approach may be adopted by the market as a standard. However there would still
be a void in the space of monitoring tools that could be an opportunity for other
vendors to contribute.
4. The reliance on Marketing to push these applications may lead to a market share that
is sizable, however, there would still be a demand for exception handling and
exception monitoring tools which SAP does not provide in its Non-Mobile ERP as of
now.
5. The cost of an app for a one time use is $150/User. The cost is way too high compared
to consumer based applications for business which normally range from $0.99-$19.00.
This excludes the cost of implementation that can run to million dollars.
6. There is no evidence of a unified architecture that relies on a basic set of algorithms
that could help you create applications irrespective of business process.
7. The fundamental approach of task centric application is too operational in nature
rather than a Business process centric that could help users perform multiple tasks.
The adoption of SAP FIORI is low among enterprises. Based on the sources of the
99centsproject team there are very few(less than 5%) companies who have adopted SAP
FIORI so far. With a market of over 5 Billion dollars (SAP Market Share) waiting to adopt a
Mobile based application it is a right time for entry.

In conclusion the following factors can be highlighted as the key reason the team feels
that the entry to this market is a great opportunity for any player as of now:
1. Growth rate of over 30% in the coming few years.
2. Virgin market with only one competitor that has less than 5% market share
3. An approach that is not in direct conflict with the competitor. The adoption of SAP FIORI
or any other applications would not be a substitute to our product. Rather it will be a
complement to the product that we deliver. The focus of 99centsproject is Monitoring
and exception handling rather than transactional. Rather partnership with SAP is one of
the key growth strategy for building the product.
4. Price-The price charged for the product by SAP is $150/App/User for One Time use only.
The 99centsproject aims to provide apps at close to consumer application prices of $0.99-
5.99 range. This price point would be very difficult to achieve for any competitor that
may pursue the path of developing application for Mobility with SAP backend
5. Configurability and User Experience that maximizes the efficiency and productivity of
enterprise users and reduces the implementation time by at least 30% for mobile
applications.

TARGET MARKET:

The product is targeted for high volume and high turnover industry that primarily have a
large scale automation across System landscape. The applications would be a primary mode
of exception discovery and handling across industries with high amount of collaboration and
complex distribution models. The primary consumers of these applications would be
businesses who have a specific need for monitoring real time information and which are less
reliant on snapshot reporting. The point in time status of a transaction and troubleshooting
an exception associated with it would be the highest priority of these customers.

The 99censtproject team feels that in a high transaction volume industry with high
complexity in business processes (Example-Services, Software and Telecom) industries the
product adoption will be very high. Industries that have complex business processes yet a
very low volume