Microsoft, not Apple, has long been the mainstay of business computing, but Apple is aiming to change that through its partnership with IBM, announced in July. This morning, the companies unveiled their first 10 industry-specific iOS apps, available through IBM’s technology consulting service.
For example, one of the new apps, Plan Flight, will help airline pilots to better anticipate their fuel needs. Another, called Advise & Grow, is designed to help bankers access customer information while on site with their clients. And another, called Incident Aware, offers police officer access to data, maps and enhanced communication.
Apple is hoping to give the iPad and iPhone new inroads in enterprise computing, leveraging IBM’s presence in business technology. IBM is aiming to win new consulting business, leveraging the popularity of iOs devices. IBM developed the core functionality of the apps, while Apple provided input on user experience and design, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Here’s a rundown of the 10 apps announced this morning, as outlined by IBM and Apple.
- 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, with secure authorization to access client profiles and competitive analyses, 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.
Last month, the companies announced a new AppleCare for Enterprise program, designed to provide companies with technical support for iPhones, iPads and Macs.
