International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) Addressing Enterprise Needs With Location Sensitive Apps

Enterprise Apps developed by International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM)’s MobileFirst management are to be more aware of the surroundings than in the past, according to PC world. The location awareness capability will be of importance in giving users more information about their surroundings while also allowing enterprise users to tailor them gradually according to their needs.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM)’s MobileFirst platform vice president, Mike Gilfix, affirms that focus is on developing apps that directly tie into data and business logic for backend IT systems. The software upgrades will seek to be of help to organizations that don’t have sufficient in-house IT or development staff for building and supporting apps. According to a survey commissioned by IBM, nearly 75% of organizations have up to 20 mobile apps that they would wish to build but have not yet, due to a lack of expertise.

MobileFirst will seek to address some of the challenges synonymous with enterprises especially in the building of mobile applications such as setting up of security controls and analyzing of apps.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM)’s new model called Presence Insights will provide a set of location services which can be used to track user’s location within a building. The feature can be used to aggregate data from multiple users while showing traffic flows through retail stores or a conference site.

Such information could be vital in analyzing where most shoppers end once they enter a store thus be of benefit in the placement of products within the stores. Cloudant Data Layer is another program that should be used to provide a synchronization mechanism for ensuring mobile units have the same information similar to the one that resides in back-end databases. The software came to be, in the wake of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) acquiring Cloudant and includes locational functionalities.

Cloudant Data layer can synchronize to the nearest database allowing for globe-trotting workers who may need information quickly. Shiseido, a global cosmetics manufacturer, is already using MobileFirst to build a software that will be used by customers to choose the most appropriate products.