SAP xApp Mobile Asset Management 3.0 is a Java based occasionally connected mobile application that assists field service and field maintenance technicians in performing their daily activities at customer sites and within plants with all the needed data synchronized onto their handheld devices. Also, field technicians have the ability to capture related data on their devices and then synchronize with the backend system.

SAP xMAM 3.0 eliminates or decreases the need for paper based orders. It increases productivity and efficiency by allowing easy and fast access to timely information like the latest stock information from everywhere, anytime. Therefore field technicians can resolve problems faster and better and their travel time is reduced, resulting in lower costs per work order.

By entering data directly on site data entry accuracy is improved, clerical time spent in the back office re-entering field information is reduced and the total cycle time from job completion to invoice submission, with associated cash flow benefits,is reduced.

Let's have a quick look at a traditional maintenance process:



As you can see orders are printed out first and then distributed to the technician. The technician is then going to work on his orders, before he sends them back to a data typist that has to enter the results of the technicians work. Needless to say that this process is slow and error prone ...

And now compare it to the xMAM optimized maintenance process:



As you can see the process is a lot more straightforward. The technician downloads his orders in the morning, works on the downloaded orders, enters all relevant data when doing so and synchronizes in the evening after finishing his work.

Looks a lot more efficient, doesn't it ? And it looks cheaper as well ... so you might want to start thinking of your possible ROI.

So how does this work technologically ? Well, xMAM 3.0 is SAP NetWeaver Usage Type Mobile based and runs on the SAP Mobile Infrastructure. The SAP MI provides the base technology for applications working in a disconnected environment.



SAP MI is composed of a client part that resides on the mobile device and a server part, technically embedded in SAP NetWeaver AS. Therefore a minimal MI landscape consists of one or more clients (mobile devices), a middleware server (NetWeaver AS) and one or more backend systems. Though client devices are offline most of the time, devices connect occasionally to facilitate the exchange of data between the client device and the backend system. xMAM uses SmartSync, a synchronization type the MI offers.

Smart Synchronization is a full-blown data replication and realignment middleware solution based on extracts of business objects (SyncBOs). Smart Sync intelligently transports data to the devices. The current state of each device in the field is tracked and SmartSync guarantees that only the changes since the last synchronization are sent from the server to the client and vice-versa.

A number of mobile applications including SAP xApp Mobile Asset Management 3.0 are based on a Java based common framework. This framework is called the Mobile Client Application Framework, or in short mCAF. It facilitates enhancing mobile applications in order to adjust them to customer specific needs. Adjusting in this case means enhancing the application’s look, changing the business processes to better fit a customer’s needs or adding new functionality. mCAF is based on the Model View Controller Concept (MVC). According to the Model View Controller design pattern, an application consists of a model layer, a view layer and a controller layer. Please check my blog on mCAF for details.

What about devices ? xMAM runs on both PDAs and Laptops. SAP actually offers two user interfaces that are optimized for the different devices - one for the relatively large laptop screens and one for the PDA screens that do not offer a lot of space to display information. If you ask me what devices to go for, I would usually recommend using laptops or tablet PCs but this heavily depends on the use case. Sometimes tablet PCs are just too heavy to carry around all day long and not "mobile" enough.

Find a screenshot of the xMAM 3.0 PDA UI below:



And a Laptop UI screenshot for comparison:



Fortunately the application offers a lot more functionality, so that there is no chance to even cover a part of it in a blog as short as this one. Therefore this blog can just be your starting point - you can find a lot more information on xMAM on both SDN and the SAP Service Marketplace ...