IBM expands mobile-led transformation for enterprises

ARMONK, N.Y. - 15 Jun 2017: IBM (NYSE: IBM ) today announced an expansion of its mobile portfolio for enterprises as it continues to create analytics-driven and cognitive enabled enterprise iOS apps that enable organizations to accelerate digital reinvention and transform how businesses engage across industries.

Three years ago, IBM escalated its focus on mobile by partnering with Apple to deliver enterprise iOS apps that change the nature of work. Today, the partnership continues to expand, achieving several billion dollars in signings with more than 3,800 client engagements supported by market-ready and custom iOS apps designed for professions across all industries, including store associates, flight attendants, and field technicians.

In order to offer clients greater access to its mobile capabilities, IBM is introducing new Garages dedicated to the quick design, integration and deployment of MobileFirst for iOS apps, adding to its growing network of global studios and labs where clients work with more than 10,000 experts in mobile and cognitive.

“Four years ago, we made enterprise mobility a reality, and we’ve seen how transformative mobile can be,” said Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Industry Platforms. “Today, companies are now reigning in mobile faster than ever, creating a critical need for powerful innovations that will reinvent how they do business. We’re combining the power of mobile with cognitive and analytics to continue to push the market forward.”

In addition, new mobile client initiatives are underway to empower employees at Lufthansa Group, City Furniture, Singapore Airlines, and Japan Airlines that are equipping employees, in multiple roles, with data and analytics to provide an improved experience for their customers.

New innovations, expanded capabilities offer a more integrated approach

IBM continues to expand its mobile solutions portfolio, providing the essential elements needed to address the growing demand for mobile innovation among enterprises:

• **New Studios and Garages ** –IBM is expanding its network of design and development studios and Garages across the world, which currently include Atlanta, Cupertino, Toronto, Chicago and the MobileFirst for iOS Garage in Bangalore, to add global hubs in Shanghai and Bucharest dedicated to the creation and delivery of apps across mobile platforms.
• **Deeper cognitive capabilities ** –Mobile apps designed by IBM can be embedded with the cognitive capabilities of IBM Watson to deliver experiences that learn and adapt, and drive better, faster decision-making.

Mobile is an accelerator of digital transformation

The speed of innovation demands that organizations act fast and big, transforming key aspects of technology and business operations to be radically more efficient. At the same time, as customer and employee engagement become the most salient indicators of business success, enterprise will be defined by the experiences they create.

IBM is using the new studios and garage development labs to accelerate access to its Mobile at Scale capabilities and help enterprises fast track their transformations. Mobile at Scale provides exceptional experiences through the continuous delivering of new apps while managing the complexity of keeping existing apps current. A recent report from Forrester shows that by using Mobile at Scale, an airline deploying a suite of iOS enterprise apps anticipates a 48% return on investment over a three-year period, with a 30% reduction in mobile app development costs and a 10% reduction in operating costs. The study is based on a comparison of Mobile at Scale to current enterprise wide approaches to mobile.

Enterprises including United Airlines, Banco Santander and Finnair are using Mobile at Scale to build entire app ecosystems –transforming multiple roles within their enterprises -- with speed and scale.