Enterprise Mobility for Midsize business

[Former Member]

Hello experts.

My organization is checking alternatives for Enterprise mobility solutions.

It is a Midsize business that implements SAP (ECC, BW, PI, ...)

I have done a little bit of reading and saw that in order to manage mobiles properly, one needs the following products:

Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) - for developing applications

mobile device management and security solution - for managing the mobile devices (security, distribution, ...)

I know that SAP provides applications for the above

Sybase unwired platform - MEAP solution

Afaria - mobile device management solution

However, if I got it right, they are intended for large sized enterprises.

Is there any solution that SAP provides or SAP's partner provides that is intended for a small-mid sized enterprise?

Should self development be considered?

I am trying to find definitive recommendations but there is too much info out there...

Thanks in advance to any one trying to lend a hand,

Imanuel Rahamim.

[sujith_prathap · Accepted solution]

Hi Imanuel,

                  SUP is not necessarily for large sized businesses. It can be used in a Mid-Sized business context as well. It supports hybrid web containers as well. If you are thinking of self-development as apps, then the use of the ODP(Online Data Proxy), would be beneficial to the development and management of users and apps that you develop.

Afaria is solely used for device security and management. You can use it to provide an additional level of security. It can be used in conjunction with ODP(Online Data Proxy).

If you take self-development in the sense of development of the entire user management software from the ground up, then i would personally advise against it, as there is already a  solution in place that is optimized to do so. To quote a popular analogy, why re-invent the wheel when it is already present.

Seasons Greetings and Best Regards,

Sujith

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

First  - thanks for your reply.

What about using SAP Gateway only?

What kind of applications can be implemented when using SAP Gateway? what are the costs using it (comparing to using an infrastructure with SUP in it)? will it be easy to convert applications and services to a SUP based infrastructure if we decide to use it later on?

In general - what are the advantages and disadvantages of using SAP Gateway vs. SUP?

[sujith_prathap · Accepted solution]

Hi Imanuel,

Glad i could be of help . Now to answer your questions.

What about using SAP Gateway only?

     You can try to develop apps using the Gateway only. Its is just that in this case the onus of developing a mechanism of tracking all the users also, has to be developed by the programmer itself. The costs will ofcourse be less, but at a considerable overhead. The use of the Gateway is anyways required in case of the SUP as well.

What kind of applications can be implemented when using SAP Gateway?

      The gateway generally supports all kinds of backends. So in most cases whatever you can design with SAP backends will be supported.

What are the costs using it (comparing to using an infrastructure with SUP in it)?

     The cost will be less but with the overheads of reduced security, scalability and adaptability.

Will it be easy to convert applications and services to a SUP based infrastructure if we decide to use it later on?

     It is really easy to convert an app developed for the gateway, into one using SUP. As the SUP also makes use of the gateway internally.

Advantages of using Gateway:

1) Direct Backend Access.

2) Comparatively faster.

3) Reduced Cost.

Advantages of SUP:

1) Ability to dynamically change the backend without making changes in the app by making use of the app endpoint concept.

2) User Management.

3) Pre-created, easy-to-use API's for development.

Best Regards,

Sujith

[Former Member]

HI....I Appreciate Detailed explanation from sujith.

few points from my side too.....:)

For MidSize business that implements SAP(ECC,BW,PI)

SAP bakcend and Netweaver is necessary,to expose the services of either Business warehouse, ECC(SCM),or Process Integration.

coming to SUP, the beauty of SUP, that is says is  monitoring and administration of afaria.

still we can go ahead other local implementation for security and device management.

But its time consuming and duplicate effort as the SUP is already providing this features.

Regards

GI.

[sujith_prathap]

Here is a document to help you get to know more how sup works.

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-23532

Best Regards,

Sujith