Stay Connected With IBM's New Software, Mobile Devices

IBM has introduced new software and services for mobile devices that closely mimic desktop features formerly found only on the PC. Designed for both business users and consumers, the new offerings can help individuals make better business decisions faster, while connecting friends, work colleagues and teams beyond what has been available in the PC era.

The new software includes products with business intelligence, collaboration, social networking and business performance capabilities. In addition, IBM is providing developers with new tools to make existing software applications run on mobile devices. IBM's software is built on open standards so it can be used with most mobile platforms including BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian.

IBM is announcing new business consulting services to help companies manage a mobile work environment. Called Mobility@Work, the consulting and implementation services can help employers increase productivity by as much as 30 per cent and cut real estate costs, the second largest corporate expense after salaries and benefits. Mobility@Work helps increase the flexibility, efficiency, resiliency and employee satisfaction of companies by providing a mobile work environment that allows employees to collaborate across business and geographic boundaries while providing secure access to applications and connections to colleagues.

Automating services capabilities is a critical part of IBM’s strategy. The strategy includes analytical software developed in IBM Research coupled with high-value consulting services to help organisations in different industries get up and running faster with tested methods to more quickly align resources to market conditions.

Using a combination of the new software and services, employees and executives on the go can have an instant view of how their business is performing, either at a company-wide or a very detailed business process level, depending on the person’s role within the enterprise. Using collaboration software, that information can then be shared across a team and action can be taken, all using a mobile device.

Combined with business event processing software from IBM, companies can identify patterns and establish connections between events and then initiate a trigger when a trend emerges. A business event represents a slice of time, down to the millisecond and could be something like a stock trade or online purchase. The role of event processing is becoming increasingly important because it enables companies of all sizes and industries to analyse and respond to minute market changes based on information being collected from millions of mobile devices.

To keep up with this exploding demand for new and more powerful mobile applications, IBM is taking advantage of recent advances in cloud computing, a paradigm in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services accessed over a network. Using any type of device like an iPhone, BlackBerry or laptop, users can reach into the cloud for resources as they need them. Cloud computing allows users and companies to pay for and use the services and storage that they need, when they need them and, as wireless broadband connection options grow, where they need them.

“The mobile Web presents one of the largest emerging market opportunities we've seen in a decade as billions of people look to access a wide range of services both for business and personal use,” said Drew Clark, director, strategy, IBM Venture Capital Group. "Utilising software assets from IBM Research combined with our services offerings provides unique opportunities to help companies quickly adapt to the mobile environment.”

The new IBM mobile software products include: IBM Rational Business Developer, IBM Rational Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) and WebSphere Business Monitor. These new products build on IBM's existing mobile software offerings including IBM Cognos 8 Go! Mobile which provides users with access to timely, secure and personalised information on their mobile devices and operating systems, including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 wireless. The software let users view and interact with business intelligence (BI) content on these devices to increase their productivity and improve their decision-making when working remotely by accessing operational and strategic information about customer orders, product performance, and more.

Tivoli provides the service management software that is a key foundational element for managing the delivery of mobile-based business services. This includes the full range of capabilities that allow for the management of the entire mobile network backbone, including the mobile network, mobile devices, as well as mobile-based services.

A combination of Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus, Tivoli Monitoring, Tivoli Network Assure and Tivoli Storage Manager with the capabilities of Cognos Go! Mobile, for example, provides the ability to create a mobile 'executive dashboard' reporting on key management data about a mobile-based service, providing responsible executives the data and backbone alerts, where and when they want them and on any device they want to receive them on.