News/Rumors

The iPad is heading towards the Enterprise area as a videoconferencing tool

The idea of having an iPad as a videoconferencing machine got shaped when three IT joined their iPads and their minds in a conference room to test the new Cisco Jabber app. So they set the app on their tablets and invited in their conversation an employee situated in India.

And the result was surprising: “We went from 10 business days of communication down to an hour,” says Mike Fitzgerald, who was also in the conference room, managing director and head of information systems at Eagle Investment Systems.

Apple’s iPad has all the reasons to be introduced to large enterprises: it’s sleek and its presence offers a particular image to a company and is functional, due to the 4G LTE connection and to the third party apps from Cisco, IBM and Microsoft. The Retina Display and the iPad’s 2 display resolution brings extra advantaged to a video conference via the iPad, and Fitzgerald agrees: “High-definition video on the iPad 3 is vivid.”

Eagle Investment Systems, a global technology solutions provider serving the financial services industry, is one of the companies that offer Apple gadgets to their employees in order to improve the positive results. In present, it has around 200 employees that own an iPad with Jabber, Cisco’s app for IM and video conference, and plans to expand this number to 600 worldwide employees.

Apple also has a VPP program for businesses that turn iPads and iPhones in productive devices.

Source: Macworld

Apple, iPhone, News/Rumors

NOAA will replace BlackBerrys with iPhones

Lately, more and more companies choose to improve the IT area and are leaving their phone provider for Apple. NOAA, United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is planning too to switch from RIM’s BlackBerry to Apple’s iPhone and iPads.

According to The Loop, a memo sent on February 3 by NOAA’s CIO, Joseph F. Klimavicz, claimed that BlackBerry was removed from the list of supported mobile devices on May 12, this year. The workers of the U.S. government will then beneficiate of new iPhones and iPads.

There’s no wonder that big enterprises are choosing Apple devices more and more. Apple’s cutting-edge and efficient resources are attracting enterprises like honey attracts bees. The VPP program for businesses has been recently released, iPads are useful and productive devices in a company indoors and the third party accessories ease the employment of these devices. It seems that each time Apple came with initiatives it didn’t take long until they become successful.

Source: 9to5 Mac

Apple, iOS, iPhone, Mac, News/Rumors

Business directors more likely to use Apple products at work

A recent study conducted by Forrester Research and published by New York Times, shows that “business directors” are the most likely to own Apple products and use them at work. The respondents of the survey are 10,000 workers from 17 countries, so, the study does have a global relevance.

Let’s watch the survey results by level of revenue:

  • 43% of people earning $150,000 or more per year (87 of 200 respondents)
  • 27% of people earning $100,000 – $149,999
  • 23% of people earning $50,000 – $99,999
  • 19% of people earning $49,999 or less  (1300 of 6800 respondents)

Overall, 21% of 9912 people said they used one or more Apple devices at work. This increasing penetration was conducted by workers bringing and using their personal devices at the workplace. The study also reveals that only 30% of respondents said their supports the use of iOS devices.  But, as we said in a previous article, Apple is now offering the Volume Purchase Program for Business (VPP) to allow businesses to purchase iOS apps in a large quantity and B2B apps developed to fit the specific needs of the organization. This means we are likely to see deeper integration of Apple products in the working environment as we’ve also seen in the educational one. Even if Microsoft’s share of the enterprise domain decreased, they are still succeeding to keep the majority of users in their court.

Will Apple succeed to catch it up?

Apple, News/Rumors

Apple redefines the businesses workflow with VPP

Recently, Apple introduced on the market iBooks Textbooks for iPad, an Educational Initiative and already a growing industry developed to improve students’ learning system. Now the Company launches Volume Purchase Program for Business (VPP), a new program that is not just an App Store.

The Apple App Store is fully loaded with business apps and the solution that the App Store Volume Purchase Program wants to throw out is to allow your business to purchase iOS apps for iPhone and iPad in a large quantity and B2B apps developed to fit the specific needs of your organization.

In order to start buying apps in volume first you need to get through an enrollment process and create a purchasing account with Apple. Then you can freely search for all the apps that could turn your company into a more productive one.  You can find out more detailed information about the enrollment and the purchasing process on Apple’s official site.

The custom B2B apps are built by third-party developers. This makes the App Store Volume Purchase Program profitable both for companies and developers. The apps that are built exclusively for your business will not be available for public purchase. “Exclusively for your business” means that a certain application can be customized with your company logo can have its limits established for a well-chosen audience and unique features to improve the workflow. The price for a B2B program starts from $9.99.

With the Apps Store Volume Purchase Program for Business, iPhones and iPads are turned into productive devices. Both the program and the devices could represent a strong foundation for your business. Judging after the large number of iPhones and iPads sold lately and after the success of its last initiative, iBooks 2, I can fearlessly guess that the Volume Purchase Program will be successful too.

Source: Apple.com