Will IBM and Apple open doors for mobile PLM future?

Enterprise software and Apple wasn’t much a success story until now. Don’t take me wrong – you can enterprise execs and even IT folks are using iPhones and other Apple devices. In my view, they do it mostly for mobile email and other cools apps. However, until now, the traction of iOS in enterprise was  limited. I’ve been speculating about future of iPad for enterprise PLM in my previous writing PLM Downstream – Sent from my iPad?; iPad and Enterprise PLM; 3D/PLM and iPad: Future or Baloney?  At the same time, I haven’t see many Apple devices in manufacturing companies and especially shop floor, maintenance and service departments. In many situations, IT remained a strong gatekeeper.

Some good news for iOS mobile PLM developers just came yesterday. Apple and IBM announced global partnership to transform enterprise mobility. Navigate  here to read IBM press news . The amount of articles and reviews is skyrocketing. I picked few of them. PC World article – Why the Apple-IBM deal matters. My favorite passage speaks about “uniqu cloud services” for iOS.

Apple and IBM announced an “exclusive” deal on Tuesday in which IBM will build a new line of enterprise-specific apps from the ground up for Apple’s iOS, aimed at companies in retail, health care, transportation and other industries. IBM will create “unique cloud services” for iOS, including tools for security, analytics and device management. It will also resell iPhones and iPads to its corporate customers, and Apple will roll out new support services for businesses. In other words, Apple and IBM are putting a full-court press on the mobile business market. And they’re doing so in a tightly wedded fashion: The companies used the word “exclusive” four times in a statement announcing the deal.

Another article from Forbes Apple – IBM Partnership: Enough To Solve Enterprise iOS Fears? caught my attention speaking about Apple relying on enterprise partners to do heavy lifting needed to sell mobile solution to enterprise.

As enterprises increasingly look to make more use of business applications on mobile devices – for a competitive advantage in flexibility and productivity – manufacturers such as Apple will rely on enterprise partners, he notes, “to do the heavy lifting that will increasingly be required in areas such as mobile application development, lifecycle management and systems integration”. Apple is likely to seek other partners, similar to IBM, that can also provide enterprise capabilities and support.

Let’s go back to PLM vendors and mobile development. Until now, I had a mixed feeling about PLM mobile story. All PLM vendors did something for mobile and iOS. But, in my view, it was some sort of checkmark – “yes we have it”. In my view, one of the mission points was absence of specific apps to solve productivity problems. Most of mobile PLM apps did the same job as non-mobile software did, but on iPad. In addition to that, 3D viewer app was very popular. Most of these application came as an overlap to existing software. At the same time, key advantage of mobile app is to provide productivity apps for situation when users are off desks on the road, workshops, manufacturing and service facilities. Some of my thoughts about that are here – Mobile PLM gold rush: did vendors miss the point?

What is my conclusion? Apple and IBM agreement could be a big deal. IBM have a very good past record in enterprise PLM deployments. Even manufacturing industry was not specifically mentioned in the press release, I’m sure it will influence decisions of many IT managers. So, sounds like an opportunity. iOS developers can start looking for jobs in PLM companies. It is also a good opportunity for startups. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg