OREANDA-NEWS. IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the expansion of the IBM MobileFirst for iOS portfolio to address key priorities for the Banking and Financial Services, Airline and Retail industries. These next IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions are available for business customization and deployment starting today. The full portfolio of made-for-business apps from Apple and IBM hold the potential to transform the job roles and effectiveness of hundreds of millions of professionals globally. (1) More than 50 foundational clients including Air Canada, American Eagle Outfitters, Banorte, Boots UK, Citi and Sprint have signed on for apps that deliver the complete expertise and capabilities of those companies to their employees wherever they interact with clients -- faster, easier and more securely than ever before.

“Delivering exceptional customer care is at the heart of the Boots customer experience, and mobile technology unlocks new levels of convenience and accessibility for our customers.  The pilot of the IBM MobileFirst for iOS Sales Assist app will seek to explore how we can further empower our colleagues to be able to turn each customer interaction into a unique and personal experience,” said Robin Phillips, Director of Multichannel, Boots UK. "Boots colleagues will have access to real-time data and insight from across the company in the palm of their hands, allowing them to offer shoppers even greater levels of service- including real time stock availability and easy in store ordering.”

New IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions include:

  • Passenger Care (Travel and Transportation): Travelers need assistance on the go, yet customer service agents remain tethered to their counters, leading to long lines and unresolved passenger issues.  Passenger Care empowers customer service agents to address traveler needs from anywhere -- offering passengers a smoother, more personalized experience while speeding check-in and easing airport congestion.
  • Dynamic Buy (Retail): Retail buyers have historically relied more on instinct and experience than factual insight when making buying decisions. With Dynamic Buy, retailers gain real-time perspective and data-driven recommendations on how products are performing and seasonal recommendations, for example, helping retailers realize better return on investments.
  • Advisor Alerts (Banking and Financial Services): Financial professionals typically juggle hundreds of clients, often lacking the time to properly address individual client needs. Advisor Alerts uses analytics to help financial professionals prioritize client-related tasks awhile on-the-go, empowering them to make well-informed, timely decisions. Backed by customized analytics, the app tells the advisor what’s most important via a personalized dashboard that displays recommended next steps, portfolio-impacting alerts, and provides a communications platform to quickly delegate tasks to teams back in the office.

“Apple and IBM are the only companies that could partner to develop a new category of made-for-business apps that is truly transforming how works gets done,” said Fred Balboni, IBM General Manager, IBM and Apple partnership.  “We set out to transform how millions of workers consume, process and use information when they are outside the four walls of the office.  Our goal is to boost the performance of every enterprise by making all its data and processes available to any employee with an iOS device – anytime, anywhere.”

Apple and IBM are blending their independent positions of strength, bringing the power of enterprise data, industry expertise, cloud services and analytics together with intuitive design and elegant user experiences. The result will fundamentally redefine the ways enterprises empower their professionals to interact, learn, connect and perform.

Built exclusively for iPhone and iPad, IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps are delivered in a secure environment, embedded with analytics and linked to core enterprise processes. The apps can be customized for any organization and easily deployed, managed and upgraded via cloud services from IBM specifically for iOS devices.

IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions are now available to enterprise customers in banking, retail, insurance, financial services, telecommunications, energy and utilities and for governments and airlines, thanks to the unprecedented collaboration between Apple and IBM.