SAP interview reveals a company in “accelerated evolution” led by a walk the walk mobile first enterprise focus

During yesterday’s interview with JP Finnell (Head of Mobile Strategies, SAP America Service) and Vishy Gopalakrishnan (Vice President, Global Center of Excellence – Mobility, SAP), JP indicated that the company, which is celebrating it 40th year in business has, in the past three years, undergone more change than in the previous 37 years combined.

At the heart of this change or accelerated evolution as JP called it, is a focus on mobility first in which “unwiring your business” is a key tenet.  Quite a transformation for an ERP company . . . or is it.

What the discussion with these two key members of the SAP mobility team reveals is that there is a great deal more to this exciting story.  Especially taking into account the indigenous origins of mobile enterprise thinking that in hindsight represents a clearly defined proactive strategy, as opposed to a reactive measure to a changing market reality.

Tune in to the on-demand version of the broadcast “The Mobile Supply Chain Series: We’ve Got An App For That!” and let me know what you think.

JP Finnell, Head of Mobile Strategy, SAP America Services

JP Finnell is Head of Mobile Strategy, SAP America Services. Previously, JP consulted to enterprise, technology, and carrier clients as Managing Partner of Mobility Partners and as General Manager of Mobility Professional Services at Nokia. Residing in Philadelphia, JP played a founding role in Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic, one of 100+ chapters in the world’s leading mobile community. JP’s research on collaboration and enterprise mobility has been published by GigaOM Pro including a pioneering series on The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility. He is a conference speaker at Mobilize, Net:Work, Mobile Enterprise Summit, CTIA, Gartner, Society for Information Management (SIM), Mobile Monday, RCR Wireless, and BizTech@Wharton. JP was a Fellow at the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies, where he received an MA from the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a BS from the Georgetown University.

Vishy Gopalakrishnan –  Vice President, Global Center of Excellence – Mobility, SAP

Vishy is responsible for supporting strategic customers opportunities and market development initiatives across the mobility portfolio at SAP.

Prior to SAP, Vishy was with AT&T Business Solutions where he launched and scaled a nationwide specialist sales force focused on mobile application platforms, mobile device management, and location based services.  He has held prior roles spanning technology and IT consulting, solution development, portfolio management, and alliances at Nokia, Capgemini, and Motorola. Vishy is also the co-author of “Work Goes Mobile” (Wiley, 2006).

Follow SAP Mobile on Twitter: @SAPRDS, @vishyg

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