iPhone Winning Corporate Customers

[MacRumors]

A Reuters report indicates that Apple's iPhone has started making inroads with corporate customers despite initial criticisms about its suitability for that market.

Earlier this week, SAP announced that they would be introducing a version of their sales-force automation software for the iPhone before introducing mobile versions for more traditional corporate devices, such as the BlackBerry and Treo.

The reason? SAP's own salespeople were clamoring for it, saying the iPhone was easier to use, according to Bob Stutz, SAP senior vice president in charge of developing customer relationship management software.

A few other factors, however, still need to be addressed, according to analysts, before the iPhone can be fully adopted. This includes integration with push-email and Outlook/Exchange compatibility.

Article Link

[megfilmworks]

Bye Bye Blackberry.

[pedroistheman]

So are they going to have a "corporate mode?" I don't see the iPhone being a useful device for mass email. It gets the job done, but my mail app still doesn't scale for some emails.

[liberty4all]

Umm, another reason is that Apple is an SAP customer with over 200 users... Duh! I would guess Steve Jobs or other Apple folks were involved somehow... See:
http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/pro/ist/scenes.html

[erandall38]

Originally Posted by liberty4all

Umm, another reason is that Apple is an SAP customer with over 200 users... Duh! I would guess Steve Jobs or other Apple folks were involved somehow... See:
http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/pro/ist/scenes.html

You burst my bubble of excitement.

[jrober]

o2 in the Uk better get their finger out. I have a company phone with o2 and when I asked to be able to put my O2 sim into an iPhone they told me that iphones were not for corporate customers and it would not work.

Come on o2...I want an iPhone - Steve can you give them a nudge it is worth another sale isn't it?

John

[PCMacUser]

Until the iPhone is officially unlocked from being on a particular network in each country, it'll never get established in the corporate environment. Most major (and often the minor) companies have big contracts with mobile phone networks, so they're tied in and can't just switch to another one at the drop of a hat.

[whenpaulsparks]

yes to push email support, yes to exchange *calendaring* and *address book* support.

but i've been using my iphone with exchange mail for the past few months and it works flawlessly. and since it's IMAP, if a message is read on my computer at work, it's marked read when it gets to my phone. it works great.

the author needs to help kill the myth that the iphone doesn't work with exchange... it does, just only with mail currently, which is the most important feature of exchange. i will love to see calendar and address book support one day.

[PCMacUser]

Originally Posted by whenpaulsparks

the author needs to help kill the myth that the iphone doesn't work with exchange... it does, just only with mail currently, which is the most important feature of exchange. i will love to see calendar and address book support one day.

No calendar support? Oh, forget it then. I'll stick to my Treo for now.

[blilly]

Originally Posted by pedroistheman

So are they going to have a "corporate mode?" I don't see the iPhone being a useful device for mass email. It gets the job done, but my mail app still doesn't scale for some emails.

That is exactly why people find it effective: it keeps people from spamming a bunch of irrelevant sales BS and PPT decks around--if you want "corporate mode" stick to blackberry.

[cmcconkey]

Can the iPhone be linked into a Business AT&T account? I was just hired as an IT director for a company and they are with AT&T for their cell service. I would like to get the iPhone if possible, but not sure what the restrictions are on account type.


Thanks
Christopher

[kfordham281]

Until the iPhone can sync calendar, address books, and mail with exchange it will be a fringe corporate phone at best. Rumor a while back was that they would license active sync from Microsoft but I haven't heard anything in months. Jobs himself said something to Walt Mossberg about some testing with corporate customers but I can't find a link to the article right now (this was at least 4 months ago).

[emccus01]

Originally Posted by cmcconkey

Can the iPhone be linked into a Business AT&T account? I was just hired as an IT director for a company and they are with AT&T for their cell service. I would like to get the iPhone if possible, but not sure what the restrictions are on account type.


Thanks
Christopher

No corporate discount yet. I heard possibly February when the sdk comes out. Probably with support for office.

[lseven]

Originally Posted by whenpaulsparks

yes to push email support, yes to exchange *calendaring* and *address book* support.

the author needs to help kill the myth that the iphone doesn't work with exchange... it does, just only with mail currently, which is the most important feature of exchange. i will love to see calendar and address book support one day.

I'm able to sync my address book and calendar between Outlook/Exchange at work, Google Calendar and contacts, iCal and Address Book. All by using Plaxo. It runs an app on each box that synchronizes it with a central server. It isn't native support, but it gets the job done and it's free.

http://www.plaxo.com

I also have my interesting mail forwarded to a special Yahoo push email address. The push is not always reliable, but better than nothing.

I'd love to see native support for all of this, but at least these options help in the meantime.

[longofest]

Originally Posted by liberty4all

Umm, another reason is that Apple is an SAP customer with over 200 users... Duh! I would guess Steve Jobs or other Apple folks were involved somehow... See:
http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/pro/ist/scenes.html

Not exactly a "big" SAP user. There are corporations that use SAP for thousands of seats. But good find none-the-less

[operator207]

If your running a hacked iPhone, and want (almost) push email with a regular imap account, check out imapidle. Its works. Though it does not download the emails in the mail app. It just notifies you that you have new email. Its not quite push email, but the closest thing you can get at the moment.

It does crash without telling you sometimes, though I have not had that happen in ~2 weeks.

[The Monkey]

Originally Posted by megfilmworks

Bye Bye Blackberry.

Not so much.

[TurboSC]

Originally Posted by The Monkey

Not so much.

Yea not yet. They really need to build more groundwork on the professional level and offer more services / features.

I don't consider the iPhone a BlackBerry competitor, I seem them both in their own field.

[joshfoth]

Originally Posted by kfordham281

Until the iPhone can sync calendar, address books, and mail with exchange it will be a fringe corporate phone at best. Rumor a while back was that they would license active sync from Microsoft but I haven't heard anything in months. Jobs himself said something to Walt Mossberg about some testing with corporate customers but I can't find a link to the article right now (this was at least 4 months ago).

It was actually in the USA Today and here is the question and Jobs' response:

Q: What about corporate e-mail? I understand that's an issue for many consumers, who may not be able to hook up to their company networks?

Jobs: You'll be hearing more about this in the coming weeks. We have some pilots going with companies with names you'll recognize. This won't be a big issue.

Here is the entire article if you are interested: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinv...enson-qa_N.htm

That was a few days before the launch of the iPhone. The "coming weeks" comment doesn't hold much water anymore.

[The Monkey]

Originally Posted by joshfoth

That was a few days before the launch of the iPhone. The "coming weeks" comment doesn't hold much water anymore.

True. A pretty dumb (and misleading) statement by Jobs actually. He should not have put a timeframe on it.

[lekun]

The failure to even remotely live up to that promise has angered me more than anything else Apple has done.

[chicagostars]

Originally Posted by blilly

That is exactly why people find it effective: it keeps people from spamming a bunch of irrelevant sales BS and PPT decks around--if you want "corporate mode" stick to blackberry.

But hold on! I have a 40MB PPT deck with essential sales that has to get out to everyone!

[Sesshi]

Originally Posted by whenpaulsparks

yes to push email support, yes to exchange *calendaring* and *address book* support.

but i've been using my iphone with exchange mail for the past few months and it works flawlessly. and since it's IMAP, if a message is read on my computer at work, it's marked read when it gets to my phone. it works great.

the author needs to help kill the myth that the iphone doesn't work with exchange... it does, just only with mail currently, which is the most important feature of exchange. i will love to see calendar and address book support one day.

Yes, but Exchange isn't an IMAP server. It just happens to be one of the more useless-for-corporate-use stuff it does.

I wonder if Dataviz will / will be allowed to (if there are any restrictions in the licensing agreements with Microsoft - I doubt any such restrictions exist but who knows) develop Roadsync for iPhone. That would be interesting.

[Steven Ballmer]

Sap is one far from modern company. have you ever used that crap, zm42, zp17, rl55, zp22, .....

stupid beyond belief!

[Asar]

corporate people gotta be cool too