CIOIN

Anil Khatri

Head (South Asia) global IT-client technology & field IT, SAP India

One must remember that every device in the market is in its raw form and you need to customize it to suit your business. Adopt a technology not the device.

Executive summary

While the experts debated whether the iPad was made for the enterprise, the world's largest ERP maker, SAP wasn't paying attention. It was busy deploying over 4,000 iPads in its organization. Lessons from an early adopter.

The Organization: The neat, clutter-free office of SAP India impresses you the minute you walk in. No bulky monitors stacked on the desks or ugly mess of wires scattered on the floor. That’s because Anil Khatri—the head (South Asia) of global IT-client technology and field IT, of SAP India—has ditched the traditional PC and adopted the much sleeker device: The iPad.

The Business Case: The push behind SAP’s decision to take the iPad route—one of the earliest of organizations to make the move—comes from its global CIO Oliver Bussmann. “He championed the possibilities of the iPad as a business tool. That’s because of the iPad’s capabilities to act as a digital assistant and store business and personal data on one platform, “says Khatri.
The adoption of the iPad also fell in line with the company’s enterprise mobility strategy: To shift focus from on-premise to ‘on-device’.

The Project: The main objective behind adopting the iPad, says Khatri, was to introduce innovation through hands-on experience. And to empower the sales and marketing workforce by providing data access everywhere.
Currently, the iPad is being used by a wide range of users. SAP’s developers use it to test and develop apps for the company and its customers. “Salespeople use it to look at their pipelines and pre-sales teams use it to design promos," says Khatri. The company has deployed about 19,000 Blackberry devices and more than 4,000 iPads globally.

The Challenges: The project's POC brought to light the drawbacks of the device as an enterprise tool. “The iPad was launched for the consumer market, and hence data security was an issue,” says Khatri.
To use the iPad in the enterprise, SAP had to tighten security policies. It collaborated with Apple to make that happen. “We have defined strict security standards for access to corporate systems like e-mail or VPN,” says Khatri.
Some of these security policies include: Encryption of data-in-transit and data-at-rest, enforced password policy on the device, data wipe after repeated instances of incorrect passwords, and remote lock by an administrator.
Currently, SAP uses its own security platform to enforce these regulations. This platform helps SAP streamline configurations for end users and automatically enable administrative settings to enforce the security policy.
Benefits: The iPad—its global CIO Bussmann believes over 30 percent of SAP's employees will use in a few years—has helped the company mobilize its workforce. It has allowed them remote access to BI tools, mobile and CRM apps.

And for those who want to replicate SAP's success, Khatri has a word of advice: “One must remember that every device in the market is in its raw form and you need to customize it to suit your business. Adopt a technology not the device."

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