Apple iPhone and the Enterprise: Happy Together? (
Page 1 of 2 )
Few disagree that, with the iPhone, Apple changed users’ expectations of
devices and how they interact with them—in short, mobility. Whether
the iPhone is a fit for the enterprise, however, is a topic that provokes
debate.
Forrester Research released a report on April 10, “Making iPhone Work in the Enterprise:
Early Lessons Learned,” in which report author Ted Schadler offers the experiences
of three enterprises—Kraft Foods, Oracle and a California-based pharmaceuticals
company—that have adopted iPhones.
Each example offers the pros and cons of the experience, but the report—which
points out challenges to avoid, as well as advice for properly planning
cultural, support and provisioning changes—is in favor of iPhone adoption
within enterprises.
Ultimately, Schadler suggests that the security concerns that prevented
adoption are no longer valid for some companies, particularly
with the iPhone 3.0 addressing many of the remaining concerns, such as
forcing a user to sign into the VPN each time, instead of automatically signing
her in.
The IT staff at Kraft Foods saw iPhone adoption as a way of proving to its work
force that it was serious about introducing new tools and technologies in support
of them, and in April 2008 it became a part of Apple’s
iPhone Enterprise Beta program.
“Every time Apple puts out a new release on the consumer side, they’re very
private about it,” explained Schadler. “On the software side they’ve been much
more open. The way companies work is, they want to know what’s going on and
want to be part of a vetting program.”
The Enterprise Beta program, Schadler said, is a way of addressing this.
“Enterprises want to see themselves as partners, they want to be involved,”
Schadler added. “IBM, Microsoft and Oracle,
for example, have become much more open about sharing the next version and what
it’s going to happen.”
Apple, he said, began to do this with the iPhone 2.0.
As of this past January, almost half of Kraft Foods’ mobile team were using
iPhones—a number Schadler pointed out is significant, given that mobile
adoption at that stage is generally 10 percent, with 20 percent being the
higher end—and about 400 new iPhones are being ordered each month.
Among the benefits Kraft is seeing is a change in the culture of the company to
take advantage of new technologies; among the challenges were problems with
calendar synchronization.
Enterprise Mobility News & Reviews 
