Future Perfect; iPhone Could Rewrite Definition of “Business Smartphone”

by on 13/07/09 at 8:35 pm

Future Perfect; iPhone Could Rewrite Definition of “Business Smartphone”

Dan Cunningham is a developer, an IT infrastructure architect and Editor for iPhoneCTO.

There’s been a lot of talk about enterprise adoption of the iPhone the past couple years. With the release of the 3.0 OS firmware upgrade, support for Microsoft Exchange and beefed up enterprise security and deployment features, there is general agreement that iPhone might ‘just’ be ready for corporate use.

Most of the focus regarding iPhone’s enterprise chops has been about email, calendaring, contacts, and security – which are all key to the success for any smartphone. Since iPhone’s release in 2007, Apple has methodically addressed these enterprise ‘must haves’ with hardware and firmware updates. Even iPhone’s lack of a physical keyboard has become a red herring. As a result, most of the reasons as to why the iPhone shouldn’t be adopted are no longer an issue.

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iPhone’s extendibility through 3rd party applications, however, is where things start to get really interesting. Companies like Oracle and Salesforce have plenty of applications in the App Store to empower mobile workers. Applications like Quickoffice and Documents to Go also address important needs by providing the ability to read, edit and create Microsoft Office documents. But what about moving outside the customer, sales and project-centric areas? How can the iPhone be put to work to increase productivity in non-client facing areas?

I decided to take a look at some possible scenarios should Apple open up additional APIs to developers. As you see below, there are multitudes of interesting and innovative ways to make business users more productive.

• A travelling staff member needs to connect to the VPN. For additional security, the VPN requires 2-factor authentication. The staff member enters their username and password on their laptop. This triggers the VPN server to send a push notification to the iPhone. The staff member enters the required PIN number and a VPN connection is established.

• A conference room is booked by a staff member “A” from 2 – 3pm and staff member “B” from 3 – 4pm. At 2:55pm, staff member A gets a push notification that the meeting room is booked by someone else and they should start wrapping up their meeting. If there are no subsequent room bookings, no (push) alert is sent.

• A service engineer is on the 3rd floor fixing a computer problem. On the same floor, another staff member has a computer problem. The ticket tracking system discovers where the nearest service engineer is located (GPS and/or Wi-Fi) and assigns the ticket, sending a push notification. The service engineer accepts or declines. If there is no response within 10 minutes or the ticket is declined, the ticket is re-assigned to the next nearest available engineer.

• On leaving the office, your iPhone disconnects from the Wi-Fi network for a certain period of time. Since it’s outside of business hours, a message is sent to your computer to power it down. The following morning, you arrive into work. Your iPhone automatically connects to Wi-Fi as you enter the building and your computer is sent a Wake On LAN message. By the time you get to your desk, you’re computer is waiting for you to log in.

• New employees are given an iPhone with a building orientation application. The application uses the Wi-Fi networks to provide current floor diagrams, indicating services available such as printers, elevators, fire evacuation points etc. Focus rooms are also visible and display availability status using the room booking system information.

It’s entirely possible that vendors are already working on solutions like this. Given the possibilities, maybe this is the direction that all smartphones are headed.

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  • billfrench

    Dan:

    Great article. The Wake On Lan idea is very cool and very “green”. Imagine the energy savings each year that could be achieved by a green-centric iPhone strategy. iPhone could provide sensory indicators that change the dynamics of the office space. Something as simple as presence detection could alter how smart buildings behave, making it possible to adjust temperature, lighting, and even network server and bandwidth requirements. I currently live in a fully X10-enabled house and I control lighting and other living-space elements from iPhone whether I'm home or in Asia.

    Imagine an elastic network cloud that contracts and expands based on data collected from locally detected presence indicators. Imagine a corporate cafeteria that knows you're in the building and likely to order the pot roast special for lunch. Push notifications could be used to streamline your dining requirements as well as conference room services and perhaps many things that relate to ERP.

    None of these ideas are exclusive to iPhone, but I suspect iPhone will likely be the proving ground for these types of apps specificallyf because there's no keyboard. Context and role-specific apps will represent the biggest opportunity for enterprise adoption of iPhone. UI's that are compelling, fast, efficient, and focused on a specific task will provide the greatest ROI, yet another reason that developers will tilt toward the iPhone platform to build highly differentiated applications.

  • billfrench

    Dan:

    Great article. The Wake On Lan idea is very cool and very “green”. Imagine the energy savings each year that could be achieved by a green-centric iPhone strategy. iPhone could provide sensory indicators that change the dynamics of the office space. Something as simple as presence detection could alter how smart buildings behave, making it possible to adjust temperature, lighting, and even network server and bandwidth requirements. I currently live in a fully X10-enabled house and I control lighting and other living-space elements from iPhone whether I'm home or in Asia.

    Imagine an elastic network cloud that contracts and expands based on data collected from locally detected presence indicators. Imagine a corporate cafeteria that knows you're in the building and likely to order the pot roast special for lunch. Push notifications could be used to streamline your dining requirements as well as conference room services and perhaps many things that relate to ERP.

    None of these ideas are exclusive to iPhone, but I suspect iPhone will likely be the proving ground for these types of apps specificallyf because there's no keyboard. Context and role-specific apps will represent the biggest opportunity for enterprise adoption of iPhone. UI's that are compelling, fast, efficient, and focused on a specific task will provide the greatest ROI, yet another reason that developers will tilt toward the iPhone platform to build highly differentiated applications.

  • billfrench

    Dan:

    Great article. The Wake On Lan idea is very cool and very “green”. Imagine the energy savings each year that could be achieved by a green-centric iPhone strategy. iPhone could provide sensory indicators that change the dynamics of the office space. Something as simple as presence detection could alter how smart buildings behave, making it possible to adjust temperature, lighting, and even network server and bandwidth requirements. I currently live in a fully X10-enabled house and I control lighting and other living-space elements from iPhone whether I'm home or in Asia.

    Imagine an elastic network cloud that contracts and expands based on data collected from locally detected presence indicators. Imagine a corporate cafeteria that knows you're in the building and likely to order the pot roast special for lunch. Push notifications could be used to streamline your dining requirements as well as conference room services and perhaps many things that relate to ERP.

    None of these ideas are exclusive to iPhone, but I suspect iPhone will likely be the proving ground for these types of apps specificallyf because there's no keyboard. Context and role-specific apps will represent the biggest opportunity for enterprise adoption of iPhone. UI's that are compelling, fast, efficient, and focused on a specific task will provide the greatest ROI, yet another reason that developers will tilt toward the iPhone platform to build highly differentiated applications.