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Did you think the debate about iPhone in the enterprises was over? Not by a far cry! After dismissing iPhone as an enterprise tool in 2008, Forrester Research have had a change of heart. A case of join em if you cant lick em eh? In a recent report by Forrester indicates that iPhone can be a hit with enterprises for delivering corporate content and collaboration applications. Yay for collaboration application providers for the iPhone! Forrester conducted a survey of enterprises which highlighted the success of iPhone as a business tool. These were Kraft Foods, Oracle and a large pharma company (name disclosed). Almost half the mobile users in Kraft have adopted iPhones because of its business benefits and 4000 in Oracle. The benefits of the iPhone small businesses was never in doubt, but now enterprises seem to be going the same way. Seems like the big guys are learning lessons from the small guys. The same is on display with enterprises increasingly adopting SaaS collaboration applications originally intended for growing businesses. Andrew Nusca from Znet recently listed out 10 lessons of iPhone adoption in the enterprise. These are: 1.) It’s more than just another mobile device as its internet power puts it at par with desktops for web based applications which are a rage in business today. 2.) It gives employees freedom to choose their own tools
3.) It changes the support model to self-service as iPhone users tend to informal or formal build communities for helping each other with issues. 4.) It can save money as look at the data and voice plans sometimes reveals hidden savings. 5.) It helps IT stay out of the device & mobile plan business as employees who buy their own iPhones get hardware and accessories along with it. According to Andrew "you have, in effect, outsourced responsibility for the device, network, and plan to others, while retaining control over device policies and management." 6.) It allows IT to use policy profiles to implement security requirements
7.) It allows IT to adopt self-provisioning for apps and configuration because the ability to access application tools through a url on iPhone gives enterprises a scalable way to walk users through a self-provisioning and installation process. 8.) iPhone and ActiveSync is a work in progress for calendaring. This is one of the negative lessons. Enterprises could avoid this pitfall by going for alternative mobile compatible messaging applications like HyperOffice. 9.) A lack of management tools and full support for VPNs may be a deal-breaker. This might be fixed in the next version.
10.) Early-generation tech butterflies make for a frustrating user experience as elementry functionality like cut and paste, landscape mode for email; click-to-call and Flash support are missed.
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