IBM-Apple MobileFirst Apps Bring Useful Tools to Diverse Industries

We highlight 10 apps developed through the IBM MobileFirst for iOS program. The industry- and role-specific apps are aimed at addressing challenges firms face.

Sales Proposal is a relatively simple app designed for sales professionals. The app stores client data and allows sales professionals to see their history, track trends and see in real time what products may be available to make quicker sales. The app also has a recommendations engine that lists other options to either cross-sell or up-sell potential customers.

Shift Track offers a single dashboard for managers to see what their work scheduling needs are for the day, determine who may be available to work and make shift-change approvals. The app also includes an analytics platform that tracks how well users do their jobs so the best person can be asked to perform a particular task during a shift. The app even communicates to staff members any changes that need to be made to their schedules.

Anyone going on a business trip should check out Travel Plan. The idea behind the app is simple: to make it easier to find the best rates and deals to take some hassle out of the business trip planning. Travel Plan lets users search for flights, hotels and car rentals while ensuring compliance with corporate policies on reservations and booking to stay within spending limits. Think of Travel Plan as a useful companion for business travelers before they head out on the road.

Once those business users finally get out on the road, Travel Track comes in. The app, which works with both iPhone and Apple Watch, delivers a summary of the person’s travel itinerary and provides location-based notifications about airports, hotels and meeting places. Users can also communicate with other travelers to let them know where they are and when they plan to meet up.

Hospital MD has a communications platform, allowing doctors to send orders to their care teams as well as access patient data stored on secure servers. Thanks to Apple’s iBeacon technology, it’s also possible for Hospital MD to bring up relevant information, including patent medical history, whenever they enter the patient’s room. The data is secured with help from Apple’s fingerprint sensor, Touch ID.

Case Manager, another health-related app, is designed to make it easier for users to manage patient relationships. Case Manager lets users document important patient details, including discharge instructions and medications. For health professionals who go to patients’ homes, Case Manager provides location services to map a route and find the quickest travel time. Case Manager also comes with an integrated calendar so users can see what consultations they have coming up to quickly schedule follow-ups from within the app.

Dynamic Buy is designed to take some of the guesswork out of deciding what retailers should buy and when. At the center of Dynamic Buy is an analytics feature that provides buyers recommendations on what to buy and in what quantity. The app also helps users analyze how certain retail departments are performing and what kind of margin they’re generating. The app even lets users see on a product-by-product basis their “top performers” and “bottom performers” so they can decide what to continue to carry in-store and what not to carry.

Digital flight planners are important tools for professional pilots. The Plan Flight app gives pilots quick access to “critical flight details,” including calibration settings and communication with air traffic control. The app also tells pilots how much fuel they may need based on historical data, taxi times, weather patterns and in-air patterns.

Incident Aware is designed for law-enforcement authorities to more effectively track and respond to developing public safety situations. The app uses GPS data to provide insight into where an incident is occurring and the availability of officers; it can also suggest appropriate responses based on the situation. According to IBM, Incident Aware will also give contextual information to officers, including a person’s crime history, risks of escalation and more. The app even includes a silent-backup-request feature that lets users ask for help by just tapping on the iPhone or Apple Watch screen.

If it’s trust that financial advisors are seeking, trying out Trusted Advice may be a good place to start. The app uses predictive analytics to analyze client portfolios and determine how they may perform based on different scenarios. In addition, Trusted Advice displays graphs to show clients their portfolio performance, and offers the ability to digitally capture signatures so users can more quickly get their cash into the market.