SAP Launches Afaria

Laying the foundation for customers to successfully manage the influx of mobile devices, networks and applications in the enterprise, SAP AG (Walldorf, Germany) have unveiled a major new release of the industry-leading Afaria® mobile device management solution. With the 7.0 release of Afaria, SAP aims to allow enterprise IT to more effectively manage mobile applications and devices through a new user interface (UI) for simplified administration, improved workflow and enterprise integration capabilities. The announcement was made at Mobile World Congress 2012, being held February 27 – March 1 in Barcelona, Spain.

With enterprises mobilizing more key business functions and allowing employees to work at anytime and from anywhere via mobile devices, managing and securing these mobile environments has never been more critical. With the new release of Afaria, SAP intends to demonstrate notable innovation aimed at providing a consumer-like mobile experience in the enterprise while simplifying management and reducing IT costs.

“Afaria is a long-standing, mature solution that has evolved over the last decade into a comprehensive mobility management platform,” said Stacy Crook, senior analyst, Mobile Enterprise Research, IDC. “With the latest release, SAP has completely revamped and streamlined Afaria’s administrative console, speeding up and simplifying mobility management for end users, IT managers and managed mobility providers. These enhancements have the opportunity to significantly benefit customers as the number of mobile devices surpasses PCs in the enterprise and IT requires more simplified, cost-effective mobility management.”

Making Personally-Owned Devices Enterprise-Ready
As the number of personally-owned mobile devices in the enterprise continues to grow, SAP plans to provide IT managers with a simple, automated way to quickly configure and secure those devices with Afaria. These capabilities will include:

• End-user self-service portals to help significantly reduce IT workloads by allowing users to enroll and manage their devices.
• Application management to keep workforces productive through seamless app delivery, updates, security and integration with SAP® Store.
• Device security to protect sensitive corporate data while leaving personal data untouched.
• Telecom cost control to help reduce overall mobile total cost of ownership (TCO) through early alerts.

Simplifying, Streamlining Administration from a Single Console
The variety of mobile device types, networks and applications has increased scrutiny on IT. Through the new release of Afaira, SAP intends to address this problem by focusing on usability in a single mobility management console, including:

• New UI, requiring fewer clicks to perform functions, making it simple for users and administrators. Optimized for touchpad interaction, the new UI can be accessed via iPad and other tablets.
• New Web services application programming interface (API) layer, providing full access by customers and partners to help integrate with enterprise systems for automation between mobile device management (MDM) and the corporate systems.
• Integration with the SAP® BusinessObjects™ portfolio, bringing new business intelligence (BI) reporting with powerful, drill-down analysis capabilities.
• Simple, quick workflows, streamlining common tasks, maximizing IT productivity and help desk efficiency through an intuitive and consolidated UI.
• Administration on-the-go through access to the administration console from Web browsers Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari and Firefox.
• Telecommunication expense management (TEM), enabling administrators to better manage mobile costs such as voice and data roaming.

Sanjay Poonen, president, Global Solutions, SAP.

“The consumerization of IT is driving our innovation path and commitment to providing customers with the industry’s most comprehensive, robust and streamlined mobility management platform, including mobile device management,” said Sanjay Poonen, president, Global Solutions, SAP. “The new, delightful UI significantly enhances the end-user experience while helping reduce management costs for enterprise IT. From powering a ‘consumer-like’ mobile enterprise app store to providing ‘at-a-glance’ analytics for rapid business decisions, the new release of Afaria future-proofs customer investment by laying the groundwork for long-term innovation.”

About Afaria
For well over a decade, Sybase® Afaria® has transformed enterprises and managed mobility partners around the world by empowering the mobile workforce. It enables enterprise IT to fully manage and secure a wide range of mobile applications and personal and corporate devices, including Android, iOS, Windows Mobile and more, in both hosted and behind the firewall environments. Additionally, Afaria provides telecommunication expense management (TEM), business intelligence reporting with powerful drill-down analysis capabilities, on-device portal technology and seamless, secure over-the-air (OTA) delivery of in-house and publicly available apps.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 183,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Sybase) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably.

Source: SAP