iPhoneCTO Exclusive Oracle Interview; How Does an 80,000 Person Organization Use iPhones?

by Jeff Garbers on 27/07/09 at 10:20 pm

Jeff Garbers is a software design consultant with over 30 years in the technology industry. He is also the President of XLT Software, and Editor for iPhoneCTO.

oracle apps iPhoneCTO Exclusive Oracle Interview; How Does an 80,000 Person Organization Use iPhones? With six popular business applications in the App Store, Oracle, “The World’s Largest Business Software Company”, was the first company to introduce enterprise applications when the App Store launched in June 2008. A year later, Oracle continues to demonstrate their support of customers’ efforts integrating iPhones into enterprise systems.

To get Oracle’s perspective on the iPhone, iPhoneCTO caught up with Oracle’s Product Strategy Manager, Hody Crouch. Hody was one of the featured presenters at Apple’s iPhone 3.0 rollout in March 2009. He also recently addressed the Wireless Technology Forum in Atlanta Georgia on “Mobile Devices beyond their Original Markets: BlackBerry in the Consumer Space and iPhone in Enterprise”.

First, let’s talk about how iPhones are used within Oracle. Was your acceptance of iPhone an early “top-down” initiative , or did demand bubble up from iPhone users within the company?

iPhone usage within Oracle has been user-driven from the very beginning. Similar to the software we provide to our enterprise customers, most internal systems are based on open standards. Early adopters were able to self-provision their iPhone devices to access corporate information. Internal adoption of iPhone continued to grow when Oracle added iPhone as a supported mobile platform.

What made that grass-roots effort successful? Can you offer advice to others who are trying to get their companies to support iPhone for internal use?

Having a responsive, engaged, and capable IT organization certainly helps, but your readers may have little control over those factors. Early adopters are key to the success of user-driven initiatives. Enhanced productivity and greater employee satisfaction should be relevant to managers and executives. Finally, try to include some key executives in the early adopter pool, if possible. There’s nothing like first-hand experience to influence decision-making.

What 3rd party business-oriented applications are commonly used within Oracle?

As the world’s largest enterprise software company, we use many of our own products. Personal productivity and office suite products are quite commonly used as well.

Other than email and calendaring, what are the most heavily-used internal systems by Oracle’s iPhone users?

With over 80,000 worldwide employees, you might not be surprised to learn that corporate directory information is an almost constant companion. Oracle created an internal iPhone app to access directory information, place phone calls, send emails, and even copy directory information to the local iPhone contacts app. The Oracle “People” app on iPhone also integrates with internal social networking tools. Many other internal systems are accessed through the Safari browser on iPhone.

What’s your opinion of Apple’s current tools for enterprise iPhone deployment, especially as compared to BlackBerry Enterprise Server? Any notable strengths, weaknesses or “gotchas”?

Well, Oracle doesn’t run BlackBerry Enterprise Server either. Self-provisioning and self-service are the most common approaches to mobility within the company. Installing applications and configuring devices are similar between iPhone and BlackBerry. Users typically access internal web sites for instructions and downloads.

What unexpected benefits and drawbacks of iPhone enterprise support have you encountered? Any general tips or warnings for our readers?

I’ve been surprised by the impact of the device’s consumer-oriented features. While many early adopters moved to iPhone based primarily on business benefit, some are motivated by the desire to have music, photos, and podcasts on their phone. Now that these users are carrying a smartphone-class device, they are discovering the benefits of mobile email and corporate information access. Cachet is a nice carrot as users transition to smartphone-class devices.

Have you developed applications for in-house use, and if so, what has been your experience with internal iPhone development and deployment? Are your applications browser-based or native apps?

We use a combination of native and browser apps for our internal iPhone users. We also use our externally available iPhone apps like Oracle Business Indicators and Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant.

Your apps are free. Why did you make that choice?

Our enterprise customers typically centralize their software purchases. For our iPhone apps, we provide user licenses to access data from our server-based products. This approach allows for easy installation of iPhone apps to end user devices while preserving centralize management of software licenses.

Do you see any common characteristics among customers using your iPhone apps?

We’ve seen a number of customers supporting BlackBerry and iPhone devices in parallel. This multi-platform approach appears to pretty common in today’s environment.

What kinds of support do you offer customers who are doing custom iPhone development to interface to Oracle-based systems?

Oracle supports ISV partners through our Oracle PartnerNetwork. OPN is a comprehensive program that includes access to collaboration, education, development, support, marketing, and sales resources. Plus, Oracle’s complete, open, and integrated solutions provide many opportunities for third-party development of complimentary mobile applications.

Are your iPhone apps a “nice to have” for Oracle today, or do they provide a real competitive advantage? What were the primary motivations for you to offer those products?

Mobility in general has gone from “nice to have” to “need to have” status for many of our customers. At the same time, companies are under pressure to simplify and reduce cost wherever possible. Our iPhone apps provide ease of deployment, predictable costs, and enhanced user productivity. These apps, and the corresponding improvements in user satisfaction and efficiency, provide a meaningful advantage to our customers.

What are the biggest challenges faced by your customers who support other smartphones besides iPhone — most notably BlackBerries? What technologies do you recommend to address those challenges?

I think the biggest mobility challenge faced by our customers is the pace of innovation in the mobile space. The rapid evolution of not just devices but also entire platforms complicates decisions for our corporate customers. By offering simple, off-the-shelf, packaged mobile applications, we reduce the customer risk often associated with internal development of custom mobile solutions.

Among your customers who have not embraced iPhone as a supported platform, what do you think are the main reasons why they haven’t done so?

iPhone isn’t the perfect device for all situations. We see many customers with specific device requirements for things like rugged mobile devices, integrated auto-id (barcode, RFID, etc.), and special form factors. Many customers also want the centralized control provided by BlackBerry Enterprise Server, especially in markets with strict compliance requirements. There’s a certain amount of internal momentum for companies with large existing deployments.