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Many enterprise firms are going full steam ahead with mobile ERP. Others say something like this:

"We're not going to invest effort in the iPad until we see it's a clear winner...and not going to be superseded by an equivalent tablet from Microsoft"

While I understand the caution, in this case, it's misplaced.

Sure, somebody else may come out with a highly competitive tablet that is similar to the iPad and sweeps away the market, in the same way that Microsoft Windows took over the graphical user interface market long ago.

But it doesn't matter. The iPad is the starting point; a very powerful starting point here and now, and it is well worth the investment of time to get a solid understanding of that class of device.

Whichever tablet takes the market, it will surely have the same approximate feature set as the iPad...the mobility, the sensors, the touchpad. The software vendors, who want to have a competitive advantage in the coming mobile-tablet-enabled market, and get the added boost of user participation for their product lines, need to start working now. This platform is a substantial change from the past and will take time to understand.

Prediction: At Least 1.2 Million iPads Sold to Enterprises. Here's Why.

In the past 80 days, 3 million iPads have been sold. Also we know that 40% of iPhone sales have been to enterprise users...so, let's make a prediction that those ratios hold and 40% of iPads are going to enterprise users, translating into 1.2 million units.

1.2 million iPads sold in first 80 days, currently in hands of executives and CIOs, who fully intend to use them to drive new efficiencies and solve real problems.

What efficiencies and what problems? Well as we’ve discussed in past posts, there have been gaps for many years, as large groups of users are not able to effectively use workstations and laptops to maintain enterprise data, causing trouble for both operations and IT departments. The iPad is an opportunity to fill those gaps, resolve those pain points, and get more users participating fully.

Here is a quote, from Tech Republic article from a few months ago. "CIOs say iPad and other slates have a place in business"

Donna Trivison, Director of IT for Ursuline College, said, “Yes, there is a business case which can be made for iPad or other convenient, easy to use tablet computers. The iPod Touch /iPad is instant on, instant off, and instant load. This aspect alone makes a compelling business case. Time is money. Though I’m not sure if that would be considered a function of tablet per se. It is more a function of iPhone operating system and multi-touch user interface, push one button, touch one icon. App loads and performs flawlessly. All apps (a.k.a., software) have a standardized look and feel… Elegant, functional, revolutionary.”

"Time is money." Also, time is an obstacle for millions of users, who don't have the time to constantly walk back to their desks to enter information into their enterprise software. The iPhone has been successfully removing that obstacle for many users, and the iPad is now doubling down on the concept.

ERP and iPad Part 3: $61 Billion in 2009

From AMR Research. Of course, this is per year, so the cumulative spending on ERP software over the past 20 years is many hundreds of billions.

Strategy 1: Mobilizing the Non-Mobile User

How to develop a mobile strategy for your organization, Part 1:
Choose the right target population for new iPad project to set the right course for future.

Most ERP tools on mobile devices are focused at “mobile” workers…which is assumed to be mobile maintenance, salespeople, mobile nurses, and others that drive or travel between worksites. Many vendors have built healthy product lines that sell just to these mobile workers.

While this is a great market, we think it’s the wrong place to focus ERP product development for the iPad. We believe that the focus for the next few years should be on:

• High value, professional workers who are on premises
• Work in the facility with have real-time access to Wi-Fi connections,
• Who are not depending on cell-phone connectivity
• Who walk around a lot to do their jobs every day
• Therefore cannot easily use laptops or workstations
• Not desk workers.

This is a big target group...for example:

• Healthcare: Physicians, nurses, technicians, administrators
• Retail: Store managers, supervisors, and employees
• Manufacturing: Workers, technicians, floor supervisors, job bosses, assemblers
• Municipal: Police, Fire, corrections; utilities, compliance, or inspection personnel
• High tech: Engineers, scientists, R&D workers, any manufacturing or prototyping
• Functional: any VP or C-level executives who spend a lot of time walking around the office buildings (in my experience, that means all managers and executives)

Again, we are talking about people who are working on-premises in their building, who are not generally classified as“mobile workers." This group:

• Comprises a significant portion of the user population for ERP/enterprise applications. Published numbers run anywhere from 40-80% of users. We say "approximately 50%."
• Are high-value, influential members of the organization. They are often the engineers, managers, and supervisors who “keep the operation running.”
• Historically have been the least likely to adopt and use enterprise applications software. This is because, again, they are often not at a desk and don't want to carry a laptop (too heavy, too short a battery life) so it's always been difficult for them to use the software properly.
• Are often unhappy with enterprise applications. Why? Because enterprise applications are designed for workstations and are primarily focused on character-based data entry. These high-value workers don’t have time to run back to their workstations during the day, and they don’t do a lot of high volume data entry. As a result they feel frustrated, don’t use the software regularly, and can become negative about the entire concept (which in turn is frustrating to IT managers).
• Are a fantastic opportunity for IT and vendors -- if they can be "converted" into supporters and enthusiasts, by providing them with well-designed iPad versions of the enterprise applications.

Design 2: Faster Without the Keyboard

Designing ERP software for the iPad, part 2:

Be relentless in eliminating keyboard use

Over time we're realized that, for our target user group, properly designed iPad applications don’t need much keyboard entry. In fact we have found that a tablet using "non keyboard” entry techniques is faster than a workstation using old-fashioned keyboard entry.

Our target group of users don't need the keyboard because they don't generally do data entry...they are more likely to be supervisors or managers "on the go" in their facility.

For example:

HR Data Entry Clerk

• Enters large volumes of employee data
• Sits at desk most of day
• Optimal system: Workstation/Keyboard

HR Department Manager

• Selects options from pull-down lists, reads emails
• Walks around most of day (to interview candidates or talk to managers)
• Optimal system: iPad

Finally it should be repeated that the lack of a keyboard on a tablet computer is not a flaw. Keyboards are essentially useless on the tablet form factor. This is why Apple computer chose, years ago, to bet on a touchscreen interface, and why most of the older, industrial tablets (used in healthcare, shipping, etc) are pen-based, and also why future tablet computers, we predict, will de-emphasize keyboard use, even if they include a physical keyboard to satisfy user demand.

Advantage of iPad: Immediacy

Another important quality of the iPad/iPhone system—which will make it a powerful change agent for the enterprise application market – is the immediacy of mobile devices.

Human beings in a fast-paced work are constantly prioritizing and building to-do lists, sometimes in their heads, sometimes on paper. As we mention in another blog post, there is a tendency in complex organizations (we use hospitals as an example) to carry clipboards with paper forms, because of the enormous quantity of complex information that organizations must process.

It’s not just “carrying” information, it’s also logging information. In hospitals for example, there are an enormous number of items that have to logged, tracked, checked, unchecked, underlined, added to care plans, to-do'd, and remembered. For the average doctor or nurse, this quantity of planning is enormous. To fight this tsunami of decisions, successful people learn to be immediate.
Immediacy is the foundation of personal efficiency. High performing professionals have this lesson pounded into their heads for years. This is part of doing the job. Anything you can do now, do now.

Why is immediacy so powerful? An action taken immediately is almost always more accurate and more effective. “Done while it is fresh in your mind”.

An action postponed till later is not done as accurately or as well, because by later you have forgotten much that you know about that issue, or you lose momentum, or you are tired or distracted.

If we can provide professional workers a system that allows them to instantly act on every problem they encounter, this increase their effectiveness significantly.

This is why physicians and other professionals are adopting the iPhone. Because it allows them to:

• Instantly see the latest data
• Not be required remember to pick up the right information and carry it to work, or walk back to the library
• Avoid writing notes and reminders
• Avoid the risk of forgetting something important
• Avoid the need to sit in the office at the end of the day, or on weekends, re-entering written notes
• Write emails, prescriptions, instrucdtions, designs, and other action items, immediately

The point of all this is…interface designers, time management pundits, and old-time time and motion engineers know, that simply making human work more direct, and more immediate, can have a potent and measurable effect on efficiency.

This is why mobile tools the iPhone and iPad are so popular. This is why we predict the iPad will be such a catalyst for revolution in the enterprise market.

The problem with the enterprise market is that most enterprise software is *not* in any way immediate. For most users, data entry or logging in enterprise terminals happens “later”. For many workers-- doctors nurses, maintenance workers, teachers, managers, store clerks, casino managers, truck drivers, floor supervisors, biotech scientists, etc, access to computers is something they can do only at the end of the shift.

It's the problem with enterprise software -- lack of immediacy. People hate to sit and enter “end of the day” data. They know it’s not accurate. They don’t have the mental bandwidth remember details at end of day, when they are tired and frustrated.

So if we can:

• give them a mobile tool which is fast, sleek, with an astoundingly easy and intuitive interface
• which is linked to the their enterprise applications
• that cuts out the junk they have to enter

then we are making their workday more productive.

ERP and iPad Part 2: User Dis-satisfaction

In Part 1 we talked about the general problems in the ERP industry. In our experience, the biggest of these problems is user dissatisfaction. Look at this graph from a presentation on ERP usage:





























Only 4 of the 27 categories listed showed user adoption rates above 50%. Half the categories listed had user adoption less than 10%.

After decades of effort and uncounted hundreds of billions of dollars spent on enterprise application software, that is not a great showing. These user adoption problems have many causes...just surf the available literature to see discussions of this.

The question important to us is: what is a solution? We believe that a great solution, and a way to heal the rift between IT and users, is to provide a friendly, more user-centric access point to ERP, via the iPad.