Carrier Verizon and ERP giant SAP’s mobile division, Sybase, are looking to channel partners for help with integration and application development for a new managed mobile services offering from Verizon based on the Sybase mobile platform.
The companies announced the delivery of new managed mobile services this week. Verizon will now offer mobile applications, support, development, billing, and management through its Verizon Managed Mobility Solutions unit, as well as professional services to support their deployments.
The new services build on Verizon’s existing offerings for mobile device management (MDM) and mobile security services, also based on Sybase’s platform, and include the following:
- Application development through professional services or through the Sybase development platform.
- Pre-packaged custom app templates.
- Out-of-the-box APIs from SAP’s Business Objects suite, including SAP, Remedy, Oracle, and Siebel.
- Pre-packaged applications for Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM and Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite.
Cliff Cibelli, group manager product marketing and development for Verizon Business, said the primary targets for the new services are enterprises in need of employee-facing enterprise applications such as sales force automation and human resources. Although, he noted, the platform can be used for any business-to-business or business-to-consumer application.
“[Customers] don’t have to build anything on their premises to develop and build applications,” said Cibelli. He said Verizon is focused on “helping customers transform the way they think about mobile applications.”
Verizon will also offer professional services as part of its upgraded MSP solution set, but both Sybase and Verizon are counting on existing channel and integration partners to deliver robust mobile applications to companies of all sizes.
“In addition to VARs that already work with Sybase, SAP and Sybase are working very hard to develop a very broad channel program,” said Rob Veitch, senior director, Business Development for Sybase. “We are entirely open to working with an enterprise or a VAR that has an existing third-party application.”
AT&T already offers a similar managed services offering through its MEAP managed services solution, https://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/built-for-business/AMEAP.jsp through a variety of partnerships with mobile application companies such as TeleNav, Antenna Software, Xora and Trimble, but Cibelli says Verizon is different because it is more cloud-based and delivered as a standard product.
Sybase believes Verizon is well-positioned to take advantage of a market set to grow and explode.
“Smartphone penetration is only 20 percent in most places. People are just getting their heads around it, and penetration within the enterprise is very small,” said Rob Veitch, senior director, Business Development for Sybase. “What people want to do is connect, extend and transform their business with what they are already running, and 65 percent of the enterprises are running on SAP.”