New App Helps Bring the Power of iPhone to the Enterprise; Mobile Sales and Pharma Web Apps for Oracle Also Now Available
DALLAS, March 23 -- AT&T* has announced a new native application for business users that can help bring the power of iPhone to the enterprise. Using the AT&T WorkBench for iPhone solution, businesses can now easily provision, deploy and control enterprise web applications for work in a highly-secure, reliable and manageable fashion.
Available for download from the App Store, AT&T WorkBench helps extend existing enterprise application services to iPhone through secure web apps hosted in a managed environment. It enables companies to deploy enterprise applications in a highly-secure manner - even on mobile devices purchased by individuals.
Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive officer, will highlight the product today during his keynote at CTIA Spring 2010 in Las Vegas.
AT&T WorkBench, developed in cooperation with Antenna Software, a leader in mobile enterprise technologies and solutions, was specifically created to address the needs of businesses for deploying and helping to manage and protect mobile applications on iPhones. A significant enhancement to the AT&T Mobile Enterprise Applications Platform (AT&T MEAP), AT&T WorkBench provides:
-- Role-based deployment of web applications.
-- Enhanced IT controls for web applications such as policy management,
mobile VPN, over-the-air updates and remote data lock/wipe.
-- Certificate-based authentication using SCEP (Simple Certificate
Enrollment Protocol), which is aligned with iPhone's over-the-air
enrollment and configuration process. Ability to run multiple
enterprise web applications simultaneously and toggle instantly
between active web applications.
-- Enables employees to work with their critical data and applications
offline and automatically update when they reconnect to the network.
"AT&T WorkBench is a new solution for iPhone, which enables an organization to 'get down to business,'" said Ron Spears, President and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions. "We're seeing increased interest and demand for iPhone applications from our business customers across industries and applications. In addition, more customers are requesting to use their personal iPhones in the workplace. With AT&T WorkBench, we're able to bring an organization's key enterprise applications, such as ERP or CRM software, to iPhone users with advanced control and security features that corporate IT requires - including authentication and encryption - to enable more secure collaboration and productivity for businesses."
AT&T WorkBench: Managed iPhone Enterprise Service
"The fact AT&T WorkBench helps distribute and manage web applications for the iPhone will fuel its growth in the enterprise market," said Stephen Drake, program vice president for mobility and telecom research at IDC. "Such a solution enhances key security and control measures, without sacrificing any of the strong user experiences."
AT&T WorkBench is an integral part of AT&T MEAP, powered by Antenna Software, which offers hosted and managed mobile integration solutions and application consulting services for companies that want to extend their business-critical information to mobile employees. AT&T WorkBench enables IT organizations to provision, deploy and administer web applications and collaboration tools on the iPhone based on an employee's role and job requirements. By leveraging AT&T MEAP's hosted infrastructure, companies can easily create a highly-secure and private channel for deploying their own corporate mobile web applications with bi-directional, push messaging that helps increase transaction reliability and security.
AT&T MEAP: Mobile Sales and Pharma Apps for Oracle
Built to run on the AT&T WorkBench solution, AT&T has also announced two new mobile web applications for Oracle® CRM On Demand that are now available on iPhone:
-- AT&T MEAP Sales for Oracle CRM On Demand: enables field sales teams to
have access to their critical customer and sales information.
-- AT&T MEAP Pharma: specifically designed for sales teams in the
pharmaceutical and life sciences industries to provide real-time and
offline access to Oracle CRM On Demand for Life Sciences on the
iPhone. It also provides additional functionality that facilitates
physician detailing and drug sampling.
Both of these AT&T MEAP web applications empower sales representatives to receive and send data in real-time to easily access and quickly update contacts, users, accounts, new opportunities and leads. Additional applications focused on productivity and collaboration will soon be added to the same highly-secure and auditable environment, thereby improving collaboration while being enterprise-sanctioned.
"This innovative solution from AT&T gives Oracle customers a turn-key option to take advantage of the unique iPhone user experience that is easily governed and administered by the enterprise," said Anthony Lye, Oracle senior vice president of CRM. "Sales organizations and bio-pharma companies looking to improve sales effectiveness and customer care through mobility can quickly gain competitive advantage by leveraging this powerful combination of technologies and services."
Accessible through AT&T's leading smartphone devices, AT&T MEAP supports three primary web applications: sales force automation, which provides sales organizations with a complete view across all facets of a customer relationship; field force automation, which provides field service workers with access to real-time customer, inventory and other job-related information; and IT support, which empowers IT technicians with real-time, virtually anywhere access to time sensitive, incident and problem management information.
Businesses using AT&T MEAP can host their web application on premise or in an AT&T data center, providing on-demand access to applications and reducing overall support and overhead costs. Professional services for AT&T MEAP deployment can be performed by AT&T, by a customer's IT staff or by systems integrators.
*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.
About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates - AT&T operating companies - are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's fastest 3G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet and voice services. AT&T offers the best wireless coverage worldwide, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse(SM) and AT&T | DIRECTV(SM) brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T's Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations are known for their leadership in directory publishing and advertising sales. In 2009, AT&T again ranked No. 1 in the telecommunications industry on FORTUNE® magazine's list of the World's Most Admired Companies.
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