IBM, Apple release first wave of MobileFirst apps
Published December 11, 2014
NEWS BRIEF--IBM and Apple, two influential corporations that forged a partnership this summer, released the first wave of business-tailored apps this week and announced a slate of high-profile initial clients.
The release is the first installment in the IBM MobileFirst for iOS suite, a new set of solutions and supporting cloud services that bring IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities to iOS devices. The 10 apps released Wednesday, Dec. 10 were designed for transportation companies, insurers, bankers, retailers, telecommunications firms, and government entities.
“What we’re delivering aims directly at the new quest of business—smart technologies that unlock new value at the intersection of big data and individual engagement,” says Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services, in a press release. “Our collaboration combines IBM’s industry expertise and unmatched position in enterprise computing, with Apple’s legendary user experience and excellence in product design to lift the performance of a new generation of business professionals.”
IBM and Apple also announced the first class of clients to use the solutions, including Citi, Air Canada, Sprint, and Banorte.
MobileFirst aims to target key opportunities and priorities within industries and allows employees to access greater capabilities and make better decisions in real time, wherever they are interacting with a client.
“This is a big step for iPhone and iPad in the enterprise, and we can’t wait to see the exciting new ways organizations will put iOS devices to work,” says Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a press release. “The business world has gone mobile, and Apple and IBM are bringing together the world’s best technology with the smartest data and analytics to help businesses redefine how work gets done.”
Each of the apps released this week runs exclusively on iOS devices and can be customized to better suit an individual company’s needs. Here’s more information on each of them:
• Plan Flight (Travel and Transportation) addresses the major expense of all airlines—fuel—permitting pilots to view flight schedules, flight plans, and crew manifests ahead of time, report issues in-flight to ground crews, and make more informed decisions about discretionary fuel.
• Passenger+ (Travel and Transportation) empowers flight crews to offer an unmatched level of personalized services to passengers in-flight—including special offers, re-booking, and baggage information.
• Advise & Grow (Banking and Financial Markets) puts bankers on premise with their small business clients through a secure authorization to access client profiles and competitive analyses, the ability to gather analytics-driven insights to make personalized recommendations, and complete secure transactions.
• Trusted Advice (Banking and Financial Markets) allows advisors to access and manage client portfolios, gain insight from powerful predictive analytics—in the client's kitchen or at the local coffee shop, rather than the advisor's office—with full ability to test recommendations with sophisticated modeling tools all the way to complete, secure transactions.
• Retention (Insurance) empowers agents with access to customers’ profiles and history, including an analytics-driven retention risk score as well as smart alerts, reminders, and recommendations on next best steps and facilitation of key transactions like collection of e-signatures and premiums.
• Case Advice (Government) addresses the issue of workload and support among caseworkers who are making critical decisions, one family or situation at a time, on the go. The solution adjusts case priorities based on real-time analytics-driven insights and assesses risk based on predictive analysis.
• Incident Aware (Government) converts an iPhone into a vital crime prevention asset, presenting law enforcement officers with real-time access to maps and video-feeds of incident locations; information about victim status, escalation risk, and crime history; and improved ability to call for back-up and supporting services.
• Sales Assist (Retail) enables associates to connect with customer profiles, make suggestions based on previous purchases and current selections, check inventory, locate items in-store, and ship out-of-store items.
• Pick & Pack (Retail) combines proximity-based technology with back-end inventory systems for transformed order fulfillment.
• Expert Tech (Telecommunications) taps into native iOS capabilities including FaceTime for easy access to expertise and location services for route optimization to deliver superior on-site service, more effective issue resolution and productivity as well as improved customer satisfaction.