What is Mobile Computing and SAP all about?
Remember the last time you returned a rental car? The agent scanned you back in, and printed your invoice on the spot. That is Mobile Computing. This ability to interact with a system remotely has now been extended to include SAP.
Where might a company use it?
Warehouses are a great example … use it to track the flow of parts/product – and do your next stock-take using a hand-held bar-code scanner. Airline companies can use it to track luggage, Shipping companies can use it to track parcels, Oil and Gas and Utility companies can use it for field equipment maintenance.
How does it work?
You need a hand-held device (preferably with a bar-code scanner), a RF (Radio Frequency) LAN, some middleware, and of course your SAP system. The RF Network has a limited reach (for example 2,000 ft in open space, and 250 ft in a typical office/retail store) … but is expandable by installing additional RF LAN hardware. The middleware, in any event, is able to retain data should the mobile device go out of range – and resume the connection correctly once the mobile device returns into range.
What is the value proposition?
The value proposition is that the cost (of the hand-held devices, the RF LAN and the middleware) is less than the benefits accrued due to the additional accuracy, speed, flexibility and freedom that mobile computing delivers. In our view most companies could probably find some parts of their business where mobile computing would pay handsome dividends.
Do you have to write additional code?
Yes. Additional code is required on the hand-held device for the input and output screens. Whether this can always be ABAP is unclear, but it seems to be what the some of the vendors are suggesting.
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