Published on the 14/05/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
India’s Mindtree has announced that it will deliver access to SAP mobile systems on a pay-as-you-go basis for Australian companies, hosting the service in Amazon Web Services’ local data centre…
Almost exactly one year after New Zealand’s Gen-i announced its mobility-as-a-service solution – the first such deal in Asia Pacific signed by SAP – a similar agreement has been announced by the Australian operations of Mindtree.
While SAP has a number of mobile partners – including global giants such as Accenture and CapGemini, Anoop George, Mindtree country manager, said that he did not believe other companies would be able to replicate Mindtree’s SAP managed mobility offering in Australia for at least 12 months.
He said that Mindtree would be hosting the service on the local Amazon Web Services cloud, and that it should be possible to roll out mobile SAP deployments in “eight weeks or less” on a pay-as-you-go basis. While the company has yet to sign up a client for the service, George said that he expected to close a couple of deals by the end of the month.
He forecast two main application scenarios: first, B2C deployments where the SAP mobile service could be used to facilitate mobile online payments, distribute and redeem consumer offers and second, B2E situations where a business sent out information to employees on their mobile devices.
“One of our prospects wants to enable managers with an app that can be used to schedule workers for maintenance activities,” said George, adding that the business model suggested that application would pay for itself in nine months through enhanced productivity.
Mindtree has already invested significantly in SAP mobility, last year winning the mobile SAP app of the year competition in both the retail and the transport and logistics categories.
The mobile-as-a-service arrangement that Mindtree has struck with SAP allows it to offer the service internationally, but initially George said it would focus first on the Australian market.
According to Greg Miller, chief operating officer for SAP A/NZ there is local appetite for a cloud-enabled SAP mobile solution. “The Mindtree partnership delivers a consumption-based pricing model that allows customers to scale their mobile solutions over time, and enables ongoing mobile innovation. Importantly, it alleviates significant up-front capital expenditure, which is critical for many clients.”
