The Mobile Innovation Center (MIC) is a global team dedicated to working with SAP customers to identify and capitalize upon emerging trends in mobile technology. We are Android and iOS developers, SAP/HANA developers, mobile designers, and core business process experts. Once we identify a trend, and develop a use case with a customer, we pull together a game plan to showcase how these technologies can transform their business. We employ the latest devices, peripherals, sensors, and software to make SAP mobile solutions more intuitive and contextually-aware, allowing employees to do their jobs better, faster, and safer.
Over the past few years, we’ve worked to help create a suite of SAP Augmented Reality Apps that run on Android powered Smartglasses. Late last year, for example, SAP launched the SAP AR Warehouse Picker and SAP AR Service Technician for Smartglasses. Several customer pilots have taught us how to optimize the usability of the software, and helped us to determine the readiness of the hardware for productive use. With those insights, we have moved rapidly beyond pilots, and are now working to actually deploy the technology with customers around the world. Expectations for these solutions continues to be extremely high, but we know there is a lot at stake rolling out entirely new form factor solutions. Wearables are very personal devices, and end user acceptance is more important than ever.
As we work with our customers and partners to successfully deploy wearable solutions, we continue to look for inspiration in other areas of the business. For example, we looked at what SAP is doing together with Under Armour on HANA. We’re learning from SAP’s co-innovation with the German Football Association (DFB) to find and assess key situations in each match to improve player and team performance.
Our friends at Recon Instruments (designers of Android Smartglasses) also find inspiration in the sports industry. The Recon Snow is already a hit, and the Recon Jet promises to transform professional cycling. Wearables got their start in the Sports Industry with fitness trackers - but where will Smartglasses make the biggest impact? Will they transform Cycling? Or, is it more likely that they’ll give field service and warehouse technicians an unfair advantage?
We can’t yet predict which uses will truly make Smartglasses mainstream. For the time being, Dan Eisenhardt and I will agree to disagree. What we do know, is that all the “players” will have to work together, and learn from each other, to drive innovation and adoption in this space. It doesn’t matter who scores first. In the end, we all win.
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