Driving maximum value_from_mobile_technology_(en) for aerospace & defense industry

SAP White Paper
Aerospace and Defense

Driving Maximum Value from Mobile Technology
The Strategic Necessity of Enterprise Mobility
in Aerospace and Defense

Table of Contents

5 Executive Summary

6 Why a Mobility Strategy Matters
The Consumerization
of Technology
Expectations for
Increased Enterprise
Mobility and Productivity

8 The Challenges of Creating
a Mobile Enterprise

9 The Four Cs of
Enterprise Mobility
Connect
Consume
Control
Create

10 Enterprise Mobility with
Maximum Impact and Value
Enterprise Mobility
for Executives
Enterprise Mobility for
Program Managers
Enterprise Mobility for
Process Workers
The Bottom Line

13 Conclusion

Enterprise mobility is a must-have strategy for
aerospace and defense (A&D) firms. As part of a
global industry involving mission-critical products,
A&D companies must support a workforce that is on
the move. Right now, the technology exists – from
really smart smartphones to everywhere Wi-Fi access
– to support true enterprise mobility in A&D. But how
can you make sure that mobile technology brings the
greatest value to your firm?

Enterprise Mobility Is on the Rise

Executive Summary

Aerospace and defense is an inherently customers, and partners; and increased
mobile industry. Yet it’s plagued with access to these solutions. Across a range
inefficiencies introduced by very large of companies, enterprise mobility is no
production facilities, distributed work- longer a “nice to have” feature. It is quickly
forces, far-flung points of maintenance, becoming a strategic necessity.
and assets such as aircraft and ships But making a workforce mobile and
that themselves are mobile. In an envi- securely connecting business information
ronment in which mounting budget pres- with a vast array of mobile devices can be
sure demands “doing more with less,” a challenge. This paper details trends and
some A&D firms have looked to IT mobil- issues behind enterprise mobility and
ity solutions as a path towards overcom- then outlines a framework that can help
ing these challenges. guide A&D firms seeking to create a
Meanwhile, enterprise mobility contin- comprehensive and effective enterprise
ues to gain momentum. This is evidenced mobility strategy. Finally, the paper will
by increased corporate support for a conclude with how to identify business
broad array of smartphones and other processes that, once they become
mobile devices; expanding support of mobile, can drive the most value to
mobile applications for employees, the organization.

Across a range of companies, enterprise mobility is no
longer a “nice to have” feature. It is quickly becoming
a strategic necessity.

SAP White Paper – Driving Maximum Value from Mobile Technology 5

Mobile Technology Is the Next Desktop

Why a Mobility Strategy Matters

In a recent Oxford Economics survey, The Consumerization Furthermore, more than 55% of the
respondents were asked to identify four of Technology companies allow employees to bring their
digital megatrends that they believe will personal mobile devices into the office
have the greatest positive impact on the When it comes to mobile technology, and will provide some level of support to
business landscape. Mobile technology employees are driving how they want to these personal devices. “This is part of a
topped the list, as shown in Figure 1.1 interact with information – and expecting broader trend that we call the ‘consumer-
Respondents across all sectors, in firms IT departments to support a wide range of ization’ of IT in which employees solve
of all sizes, and in both the developed personal mobile devices and applications. customer and business problems using
and emerging worlds consistently rated According to a recent survey of nearly technology that they master first at home,
mobility technology as a game changer. 2,000 North American and European such as social media, mobile, and video
In fact, more than 50% of the respon- companies by Forrester Research Inc., services,” notes the Forrester report.4
dents within each sector indicated that more than 45% of the firms state that In short, employees want to interact
their firms will invest heavily in mobile they are focused on supporting more with business data as easily and as intui-
technologies over the next five years.2 mobile applications for employees who tively as they use Twitter or Facebook.
As smartphone penetration and adop- work outside of the office.3 In addition,
tion rates soar, handheld devices are 43% of the companies are planning to
poised to eclipse the desktop and laptop support more mobile devices or smart-
as must-have technologies. phones for their employees.

Figure 1: Importance of Mobile Technology in Driving Business Value

Which do you believe will have the greatest positive impact on your business over the next five years?

Mobile technology
Business intelligence
Cloud computing
Social media

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Source: Oxford Economics

Expectations for is more complex, placing a premium on
Increased Enterprise orchestration and the ability to instantly
Mobility and Productivity deliver information wherever it is needed.
The emergence of mobile solutions
Shrinking government budgets, increased means that IT can play a significant role in
low-cost competition, and performance- addressing A&D’s complex challenges by
based contracting are some of the key speeding critical business processes and
trends that have driven A&D firms to supporting rapid decision making. From
rethink how they operate. For example, the executive ranks, to program manag-
aerospace manufacturers – particularly ers, to production and service workers,
those in the commercial sector – have mobile solutions can enable employees to
turned to outsourcing production of complete complex tasks more efficiently
major assemblies and subcomponents to and to greater levels of quality and com-
reduce capital expenditures and labor pliance. According to Yankee Group
expenses. In the maintenance, repair, and Research Inc., “Despite initial fears that
overhaul (MRO) space, performance- the spread of mobile technologies would
based contracts increasingly dictate that spiral costs out of control and put sensi-
global firms deliver service locally and tive corporate data at risk, companies
efficiently. Moreover, overarching are increasingly looking to . . . mobile
demands in the A&D marketplace for applications to offer incremental business
safety, quality, and regulatory compliance benefits that together can have a trans-
have not lessened. This new reality in A&D formative impact.”5 (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2: Internal and Customer-Facing Benefits from Mobility Initiatives

Source: Yankee Group Research Inc., A Guide to Successfully Deploying Enterprise Mobile Applications, September 2011


Multiple Apps, Servers, and Storage Systems Add Complexity

The Challenges of Creating
a Mobile Enterprise

A comprehensive mobility strategy is a
Figure 3: The Complexity of Managing Organizational Mobility
top priority to leverage technology and
improve performance. While the need
to support such a powerful and flexible
mobility strategy is great, getting there
is complicated and difficult. Historically, BlackBerry Smartphone Windows Phone 7
many firms have pushed information –
e-mails, alerts, and static reports – out
to employees via a corporate-mandated Multiple platforms
mobile device. With today’s technology, iOS Windows
firms can move from the push environ-
ment to an interactive one – where Multiple systems
employees are connected and interactive
all the time, anywhere, on any device.
Making your enterprise mobile requires iPad OS Android Tablet
getting timely business information, irre-
spective of the source, to your employees
when and where they need it. For exam-
ple, a production supervisor who is out of Phone 7, just to name a few – quickly
the office can send out work orders using become complicated, as illustrated in
a smartphone. Workers who are already Figure 3. For example, do you have a pro-
on the shop floor can then access their cess to apply necessary and timely OS
assignment from a tablet device. Maybe patches? You need a platform that can
they drill down into details to review help you coordinate and manage data
instructions, technical drawings, or tool from multiple applications, servers, and
assignments. Now they can immediately storage systems – one that can securely
begin the operation and update the task filter large amounts of data and distribute
status without having to leave the point of it safely.
work. Information can be shared and deci- Given the rigorous security require-
sions can be made with fewer bottlenecks ments in A&D, all this must be done with
and less wasted effort. utter confidence that data is secure at all
While A&D firms have long desired this times, using a system that balances rig-
level of interconnectivity, the technology orous security with easy and trouble-free
is only now fully available to support it. employee access. Can you enforce secu-
Smartphones and tablets – such as the rity policies established in the provision-
iPad, Galaxy, and PlayBook – are quickly ing stage? Provide detailed logging and
becoming mainstream. Meanwhile, Wi-Fi reporting? Supply robust encryption
network connectivity and bandwidth is that satisfies government standards?
ubiquitous – not just in the office, but lit- Historically, these IT challenges have
erally everywhere. been addressed in an ad hoc fashion.
However, supporting and managing the Now, enterprise mobility platforms allow
collection and delivery of business infor- IT to better manage data flow and ensure
mation to a wide range of wireless devices rigorous mobile security features for the
and operating systems – BlackBerry, iOS, connectivity of critical information to all
iPad OS, Android, Windows, and Windows employees on any devices.

The Keys to an Effective Mobility Strategy

The Four Cs of Enterprise Mobility

Firms interested in secure mobile tech- Control Decommissioning
nology need to consider several major The final phase is decommissioning. Here
factors. We’ll call them the “four Cs”: Your IT department needs central control you can remotely disable or kill devices,
connect, consume, control, and create. of all devices, as well as the information reprovision and redeploy devices, and
pulled from the platform and pushed to enforce access violation locks. Decom-
Connect those devices. For example, an effective missioning is a critical step – as impor-
practice is to build a control feature once tant as provisioning, or perhaps even
As we’ve mentioned, any enterprise and use it to support multiple devices. more so. We’ve all heard stories about a
mobility strategy starts with a platform The goal is to manage and secure each device sold on eBay that is still loaded
for information management. Such a plat- mobile device through its entire lifecycle, with corporate data; that device was the
form must be able to pull all business from provisioning to production to victim of either theft or a poor decommis-
information from multiple data sources decommissioning. sioning process. To enforce the security of
and applications – including enterprise the business, you must be able to lock or
resource planning, customer relationship Provisioning kill a lost or stolen device and to wipe all
management, supply chain management, In the provisioning phase, you need to data from devices about to be removed
HR, and more – to data storage devices, configure, set up, and install devices; from inventory and repurposed. Finally,
servers, and data marts. A flexible and manage application deployment; and each reprovisioned device must receive a
open infrastructure needs to make the establish security policies. You can work new functional image as well as the
data easily accessible to users and also with both group and membership assign- appropriate applications and settings.
incorporate large and sometimes unex- ments to accomplish provisioning for a
pected changes down the road. large organization. Create

Consume Production Rapid-development tools make it easy to
In the production phase, you must create new mobile applications – for
A workable enterprise mobility system remotely manage, track, and maintain example, an expense report or sales and
must be able to deliver business informa- devices. This includes updating and development app. The value that mobile
tion to any mobile device for consumption repairing software as needed, as well technology delivers is directly related to
and use. As stated before, employees as distributing data and content to line- the effectiveness of the applications you
want to receive the information and ana- of-business applications. You need to are running. Developing mobile apps for
lyze it on the device of their choice – any- securely back up device data, enforce mission-critical processes – such as tal-
time and anywhere. Firms must address compliance and security policies, and ent management or business develop-
the complex challenges of managing a provide login reports. ment – can help carve out competitive
wide and ever-changing range of both differentiation. Remember also that new
employee-owned and company devices, applications should possess the best
with multiple operating systems and qualities of well-designed consumer
upgrade schedules. For example, a report apps – small, easy to download, and easy
formatted for viewing on a BlackBerry to understand, with rapid development,
may not display correctly on an iPhone. instant value, and fast ROI.


The Key Is to Identify the Right Processes

Enterprise Mobility with Maximum
Impact and Value

A number of areas within A&D are primed Area Mobile Application Examples
to use mobile technology to drive incre-
Aftermarket; maintenance, •• Work order access at the point of service
mental value, as shown in the table.
repair, and overhaul (MRO) •• Tool and part inventory tracking
With so many use-case possibilities,
•• Technical document reference
how do you narrow in on those that will
•• Service history and logging
drive the biggest impact and value? You
•• Task resolution and work sign-off
want to look for opportunities to turn
•• Technician scheduling and availability
unproductive time, such as downtime at
an airport, into productive time, such as Business capture •• Lead management
completing an expense report. You also •• Opportunity management
want to look for opportunities to increase •• Collateral access
productivity of already productive time. •• Product visualization and demonstration
At SAP we’ve developed some simple
,
Program management •• Time recording
guidelines for identifying processes ripe
•• Earned value and project status reporting
for improvement using mobile applica-
•• Dashboard of key performance indicators (KPIs)
tions. First, the workflow must be com-
for program management
plex; you won’t get the same level of ROI
•• Workflow approvals
on a simple process. Second, the pro-
•• Supplier audit
cess must be time sensitive; one of the
greatest strengths of mobile apps is Shop floor management •• Work order assignment and tracking for shop
speeding up the time it takes to make a floor supervisors
decision. Third, mobile applications can •• Production bulletin board
offer significant benefits to processes •• Work order access at the point of production
that multiple people touch. The net? •• Quality issue management
Enterprise mobility can speed decision
time and accelerate activities in a time- Analytics •• KPI monitoring
sensitive, complex process that requires •• Data exploration and visualization
information, analysis, or approval from
multiple employees. Taking the above
factors into account, let’s review three
high-impact use cases in more detail.

Enterprise Mobility Enterprise Mobility for Criteria for Applying Mobility
for Executives Process Workers
To optimize your ROI in mobile technology,
apply it to business processes that involve:
A&D executives always need to be on top A&D workers in engineering, production, •• Complex workflows
of their business to accelerate time to field support, and business operations •• Time-sensitive decisions
action. With mobile applications, they need rapid access to information, such •• Multiple people touching the process
can get instant insight – in the form of as tasks, schedules, and resource avail-
key performance indicators for all areas ability. For example, the ability of techni-
of their business. They can review sales, cians to access work order information
the business development pipeline, and – especially when they are on the go in
the status on program delivery. Mobile the field or in large production areas –
features give executives the ability to can speed delivery and maximize the
make more educated decisions based on value of contracts. Mobile applications
real-time data and analytic functionality, can also improve collaboration and visi-
which ultimately speeds response time. bility within the program ecosystem. For
example, productivity apps can allow
Enterprise Mobility for program stakeholders to easily capture
Program Managers and communicate time sheets, travel
expenses, and workflow requests and
With key information at their fingertips, approvals.
program managers can use mobile appli-
cations to orchestrate the activities of The Bottom Line
their teams and ultimately accelerate
program delivery. They need access Understanding where to apply mobile
to all necessary information – such as technology – to time-sensitive, complex
contract bids and proposals, system processes requiring input from multiple
engineering and requirement details, people – can help ensure maximum
and earned value management reports – impact and effectiveness and speed ROI
to help bring programs in on time and of enterprise mobility initiatives.
under budget.


You need a platform that can help you coordinate and manage
data from multiple applications, servers, and storage systems
– one that can filter and distribute large amounts of data safely,
balancing rigorous security with easy employee access.

Enterprise Mobility Can Drive Faster, Smarter Decisions

Conclusion

A&D firms are positioned to derive great consume, control, and create. The best Learn More
benefits from making their operations candidates are complex processes that
In the world of aerospace and defense
mobile enterprise-wide, from executives require rapid decisions based on informa-
(A&D), mobile technology is a strategic
to program managers to process workers. tion, analysis, or approval from multiple necessity that can boost productivity and
But to do so successfully, a firm must people. In such cases, successful applica- drive competitive advantage. For more
address the daunting task of supporting a tion of mobile technology can speed deci- information on how to maximize the value
wide-ranging ecosystem of operating sys- sion time and accelerate both processes of mobile technology in your A&D firm,
contact www.sap.com/industries
tems, devices, and applications required and ROI.
/aerospace-and-defense.epx.
to empower its mobile workers. To achieve To reap the benefits of enterprise
enterprise mobility with power and control mobility, find a process that is ripe for
in a way that helps its users get the most this strategy – and use the four Cs to
out of mobile technology, a firm should start making faster, better-informed
thoroughly address the four Cs – connect, decisions today.

FOOTNOTES

1. Digital Megatrends 2015: The Role of Technol-
ogy in the New Normal Market, Oxford Economics,
March 2011.
2. Ibid.
3. The Rise of Wannabe and Maverick Mobile
Workers, Forrester Research Inc., February 16, 2011.
4. Ibid.
5. A Guide to Successfully Deploying Enterprise
Mobile Applications, white paper commissioned
by SAP from Yankee Group Research Inc.,
September 2011.


Enterprise mobility can speed decision time and accelerate
activities in a time-sensitive, complex process that requires
information, analysis, or approval from multiple employees.

www.sap.com/contactsap

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Driving maximum value_from_mobile_technology_(en) for aerospace & defense industry

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