IBM Introduces New Software And Services For Mobiles

IBM today announced new software and services for mobile devices that closely mimic desktop features formerly found only on the PC. The new software & services can help individuals make better business decisions faster, while connecting friends, work colleagues and teams above and beyond 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.

New Mobile Consulting Services
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 percent and cut real estate costs, the second largest corporate expense after salaries and benefits.

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 analyze and respond to minute market changes based on information being collected from millions of mobile devices.

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 new IBM mobile software products include:
IBM Rational Business Developer is software that helps developers create Web 2.0-style applications in IBM’s newest business language, Enterprise Generation Language (EGL), to run on a mainframe or mobile devices. EGL makes it easy for developers to build new applications, like mobile web applications, or extend existing applications without having to be familiar with the underlying middleware or platform technologies.

IBM Rational Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) is software that helps developers transform green screen applications into a mobile user interface and web services allowing end-users to access mainframe applications from a mobile phone, PDA or other remote mobile device in a highly secure manner. For example, an insurance adjuster can access claim details while on the road when, previously this data resided in a terminal-based application.

WebSphere Business Monitor is business activity monitoring software that allows users to measure business process performance, monitor ongoing and completed processes, and report on business operations. It provides real-time information on customizable business dashboards to identify business problems, correct exceptions and change processes to increase business competitiveness by improving process efficiencies. Business users can personalize their role-based, secure dashboards to view the key performance indicators, metrics and report that are important to their role – without involving IT. They can receive immediate notification alerts and take appropriate actions. Detailed reports are provided for more in-depth analysis. The ability to closely monitor key business performance metrics enables people to continuously drive improvement. WebSphere Business Monitor is now available on BlackBerry devices and will be available on iPhone in the fourth quarter of 2008.

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.

Providing this level of information on a mobile device, combined with external sources like weather, maps and stock market data is made possible through the use of IBM’s mashup technologies and service oriented architecture (SOA). Using SOA and open standards, businesses can obtain this simple, enterprise-wide view since systems, business processes and people are linked together.

According to a recent report from IBM’s Institute for Business Value, the number of mobile Internet users worldwide is projected to approach 1 billion, a 191 percent increase from 2006 and a compound annual growth rate of 24 percent. 67 percent of all workers today use mobile and wireless computing. You can expect more review of mobile software and srevices in this blog in the coming days. Stay tuned, mobile is the next dotcom like boom market in the offing. Are you ready?