On Device Solutions takes SAP off the desk and onto the factory floor

The car factory already had SAP. It also had more than 800 paper maintenance forms. That awkward coexistence is the opening for On Device Solutions: a business built around the distance between an enterprise system and the person standing beside a machine with a job to finish.

In a case study published in May 2022, ODS described working with a car manufacturer’s South African team to digitise those forms. Technicians could complete them on Android devices, with the information flowing into SAP as structured data. More than 70 staff had received the solution. Supervisors could check maintenance status on tablets while staying near their teams.

The attraction is easy to understand. A maintenance system is only as useful as the record that reaches it. If the person doing the work must write everything down and enter it again later, the business has bought software while preserving a paperwork job. ODS sells a way to close that gap.

A mobile app with mud on its brief

ODS’s flagship application, myJobCard, connects mobile maintenance work to SAP ECC and S/4HANA. A technician can handle work orders, record time, add photographs and complete configurable forms. The product supports Android, iOS and Windows. Its promise begins with information available where the job happens, including places where connectivity does not cooperate.

Co-founder Navdeep Singla illustrated the problem in a 2018 interview by describing pipeline work in remote locations and service work in a factory basement. “How do they get access to the information they need to do their jobs?” he asked. The answer had to survive the loss of a signal.

That makes offline operation a practical requirement. ODS also offers maps, barcode scanning and voice interaction. Its current product page describes AI-assisted forms and wearable integration. Those are features to evaluate against actual tasks: a photograph of a fault, a completed inspection, an accurate record of the hours spent fixing it.

Three architects spot the missing screen

Singla, Murali Yeddula and Anup Rathi founded On Device Solutions in 2011, initially as a consultancy. All three were SAP mobile architects. The origin matters because this was a company starting with knowledge of the system behind the screen, then asking how workers should reach it.

The current leadership roles preserve that division of expertise. Singla is chief executive, Yeddula is chief technology officer, and Rathi leads products and the Indian operation. The company’s leadership page describes more than 100 colleagues supporting the business. Its LinkedIn profile places headquarters in Solihull.

Product development became a larger part of the story. The company launched myJobCard 2.0 near the end of 2017, with S/4HANA integration. In September 2018, it announced its first private investment, from one investor, alongside a plan to grow from 32 staff to 100 across the UK and India. That was an expansion target at the time.

The funding announcement also credited the Barclays Eagle Labs relationship with helping investor confidence. ODS had moved to Innovation Birmingham in 2017. For an enterprise supplier, an incubator’s usefulness can extend beyond desk space: credibility helps when buyers and investors are assessing a comparatively small firm.

The sale took a year. The test involved 100 people.

A 2021 oil-and-gas contract shows what winning that confidence could involve. ODS said an Asian Fortune 500 company selected it after a year-long competitive bidding process. The process included a proof of concept involving more than 100 end users.

The customer’s difficulty was familiar: an SAP interface that users found awkward and paper records that did not lend themselves to analysis. ODS described missing data and opportunities for error. The proposed myJobCard rollout covered upstream, midstream and downstream operations, spanning extraction, transport and finished-product production.

That account identifies what was going wrong before the purchase: the handoff between work and usable records. The pilot gave users something tangible to assess. It is also a reminder that an enterprise mobile app can involve a very substantial buying process before it reaches a worker’s pocket.

Another customer, an unnamed global food-packaging company quoted on ODS’s website, described a pilot in two factories followed by deployment to all 30 factories worldwide. These are company-published customer accounts. Their useful lesson is the sequence: start with operating sites, establish that the approach fits, then widen the deployment.

The warehouse gets its own version

Maintenance is one route into the business. Inventory is another. ODS’s myWarehouse connects mobile goods movements and stock tasks to SAP, including ECC, EWM and S/4HANA deployments. It covers receipts, issues, counts and put-away recording, with barcode or QR capture and mobile label printing.

The appeal is less walking information back to a workstation. A worker can record a stock event where it happens; offline support accommodates interrupted connections. The buying question is whether those transactions fit the warehouse’s SAP setup and daily routine, including how exceptions are resolved.

ODS’s product family also includes myPlanner for maintenance scheduling, myAsset for asset tagging and reconciliation, and myForms for digital forms. The names are unusually literal. Buyers get a fairly good clue about the intended job before opening a slide deck.

Sometimes the product is the architect

ODS occupies an interesting position in the SAP market. It sells its own applications and helps customers implement SAP’s own mobile and field-service products. SAP Service and Asset Manager is therefore both an alternative buyers can evaluate and part of ODS’s delivery practice. The company’s expertise can earn work even when its proprietary app is not the selection.

Its consulting portfolio extends to SAP Business Technology Platform, cloud ERP and enterprise asset management. The business model combines software with implementation, adaptation and support. It is a specialist supplier whose work depends on understanding the customer’s existing systems and operating requirements.

Architecture-as-a-Service makes that expertise available separately. ODS supplies architects to supplement internal teams and describes working independently of delivery-framework partners. One published example concerns a utility’s business separation and independent design assurance. Here, the deliverable is a sound technical decision and a workable design, rather than another app icon.

There is a practical distinction for procurement teams. A product demonstration tests the application. An architecture engagement tests whether the proposed collection of systems makes sense. ODS offers both, so the buyer should be explicit about which responsibility it is purchasing.

Smart glasses come with a starting price

Through TeamViewer and RealWear partnerships, ODS has extended into wearable workflows. TeamViewer Frontline can provide visual instructions, assisted picking and remote support. RealWear supplies wearable devices. The shared idea is to keep instructions or an expert’s help available while a technician’s hands remain occupied.

ODS advertises its Frontline Assist remote-assistance offering starting at £7,500. That is a useful concrete price, provided it stays attached to the specific offering. It should not become a proxy for a myJobCard licence or a complete SAP programme.

For a buyer, the sensible cost comparison includes software, implementation, devices, training and ongoing support. A cheaper initial quote is difficult to interpret without the same scope. Likewise, offline record capture and a live remote video call have different connectivity requirements. The former can continue disconnected; the latter needs a working connection.

“given our technicians a solution that works for them.”

Systems analyst, car-manufacturing client
Quoted by ODS, May 2022

From the service visit to the invoice

The newer Field-to-Finance Cloud offering broadens ODS’s pitch to growing and mid-sized service businesses. It packages SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition with SAP Field Service and Asset Management, using preconfigured processes and a fixed-price approach.

The intended flow follows the money as well as the technician: capture a request, plan the visit, perform the work, confirm labour and parts, then bill. That gives the office a reason to care about the quality of the mobile record. A finished job has commercial value only when the organisation can turn its completion into the next action.

Its fit is strongest where a service business wants those activities connected within SAP and can use the packaged processes. A company seeking only a standalone checklist should assess whether it needs such a broad system. The decision turns on the operating problem and the existing technology, rather than the length of the feature list.

The 2026 developments are in the plumbing

In April 2026, ODS announced SAP Supply Chain Management Advanced Competency Level 2 based on its field-service expertise. Later that month, it announced Clean Core integration certification for ODS ABAP Integration Suite V5.0.0, validated for S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition release 2025.

That precise scope matters. Integration certification concerns the named solution and environment. For buyers, the underlying issue is whether business-specific extensions can coexist with a maintainable SAP system. Mobile software must keep working as the systems behind it evolve.

In June, ODS announced SAP PE Sell Partner status, describing a closer commercial relationship across software licensing, delivery and support. Taken together, these announcements suggest a supplier taking responsibility for more of the buying and implementation journey.

The human side has its own history. ODS announced a second consecutive Great Place to Work certification in August 2023, emphasising employee development and collaboration. In a business that sells accumulated technical knowledge, the people doing the configuration and answering support questions are part of what customers purchase.

The most transferable lesson from ODS’s customer stories is to make the first test resemble the working day. Put the software on the floor, test the forms, check the record that reaches SAP and try the awkward connection. The company’s opportunity begins wherever a capable enterprise system still needs someone to carry a piece of paper to it.