iPhones in the Enterprise: Four CIOs Weigh In

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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A conference call organized by Morgan Stanley with 4 chief information officers talked with them about Apple’s iPhone and its use in the enterprise. Only one of the four actively supports the use of the iPhone in their network (for the “creatives”) and the other three dismiss the handset with “varying degrees of curiosity and contempt.” How does your enterprise support the iPhone?

“Apple is way behind BlackBerry in terms of centralized management of these devices,” he said. “They’re starting to catch up, but in terms of being able to control and manage what is on the device, to configure the device, to do remote provisioning of the device, to make sure the device works — we can do that for the BlackBerry; we can’t do that for the iPhone.”
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Apple needs to get on the ball and give us a enterprise friendly environment solution for the iPhone otherwise they will never infiltrate enterprises like the Blackberry has.
 
What Apple needs to do is move away from AT&T. They are their biggest anchor at the moment. Apple should have developed the iPhone without any help from anyone else and made it a dual GSM/CDMA phone and it would really have become a defacto player. Just saying.
 
I can def see where they are coming from on the setup/access issues and whatnot. Our IT dept is currently at 6,000 peeps, they have the blackberry's set up perfectly for business usage.

Apple needs to get a hard keyboard, configuration for the enterprise, and develop a custom app store that can be set up internally to the company. I would love to be able to make apps that specifically integrate into our IT infrastructure.
 
Funny, I've said that same exact damned thing on here and some Apple fanboys still tried to reason their way around that the iPhone is somehow already "Enterprise-Ready".

The summary up there pretty much sums it up well.

I'm also not holding my breath for Apple to create anything Enterprise-size anytime soon. Their Mac OS Server sucks balls, their best bet would be to create something like a BES server, that runs on Windows. I simply don't see businesses rolling out an additional platform just to get a phone to sync up with their systems. RIM already figured this out, hence what we have today as far as BES.

Methadras said:
What Apple needs to do is move away from AT&T. They are their biggest anchor at the moment. Apple should have developed the iPhone without any help from anyone else and made it a dual GSM/CDMA phone and it would really have become a defacto player. Just saying.
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That wouldn't have helped them in what this article is talking about though. Regardless of what network they run on, if they don't have the enterprise-side tools to hook into their phone, they don't have it.



As far as comments on the article, I'd agree.
I've got policies in place that require particular levels of encryption (just one example, but lots of mobile policies that I can enforce with BES), that I simply cannot enforce on iPhones. Your device cannot adhere to company policy? Tough luck. I'm not sacrificing data security just so you can use your touchscreen phone.
 
Actually this quote is really good, too:
It’s a solvable problem, but there’s no business case — at least in our industry — for solving that problem. And so do we don’t do it.
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Said very well. The iPhone really brings nothing to the table for the business user. Yes, it's a solvable problem (Apple can create some enterprise-side server), but there's no business case for it.
 
I hate to triple post, but another thought: companies do not change for change.

In case anyone missed the fact: people hate change. People hated Vista because it was change. And companies especially don't like change.

Thus, you have to have a VERY DAMNED GOOD argument for switching procedures or platforms. It better offer some damn good advantages for it to even be considered.
 
Methadras said:
What Apple needs to do is move away from AT&T. They are their biggest anchor at the moment. Apple should have developed the iPhone without any help from anyone else and made it a dual GSM/CDMA phone and it would really have become a defacto player. Just saying.
Click to expand...

AT&T isn't limiting Apple's ability in the corporate world. :rolleyes:
 
99% of the hardware guys that work for corporations are idiots who can't learn or support anything that doesn't have a course at ITT tech. I'm a software engineer, and hardware is just a hobby of mine but I know more than any sys admin or system architect I have worked with. Mostly because I frequently visit sites like this :) Granted, there are smart talented hardware guys but they get snatched up and work contracting gigs instead of bunkering in at a corp... at least that's the situation here.

My point is that without serious hand holding from Apple, the iPhone won't be supported by big corps anytime soon. Especially my idiot corp.
 
bubbakja said:
Apple needs to get a hard keyboard
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Have you actually sat down and USED the touch screen keyboard? I can type 2-3x faster on that than any mini keyboard out there due to it requiring a MUCH lighter touch and its adaptive spell checker doesn't care if you missed a key 99% of the type it figures out what you meant.

The LAST thing the iPhone needs is a hard keyboard.
 
-Dragon- said:
Have you actually sat down and USED the touch screen keyboard? I can type 2-3x faster on that than any mini keyboard out there due to it requiring a MUCH lighter touch and its adaptive spell checker doesn't care if you missed a key 99% of the type it figures out what you meant.
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Obviously it's personal preference. HOWEVER, I will say that there's a difference between pecking out corporate emails (where accuracy does matter) and just flying through texts.

And FWIW, most all phones nowadays have spell checkers that auto-adjust mis-spellings. It's not as if Apple invented it :rolleyes:
 
docmal said:
99% of the hardware guys that work for corporations are idiots who can't learn or support anything that doesn't have a course at ITT tech. I'm a software engineer, and hardware is just a hobby of mine but I know more than any sys admin or system architect I have worked with. Mostly because I frequently visit sites like this :) Granted, there are smart talented hardware guys but they get snatched up and work contracting gigs instead of bunkering in at a corp... at least that's the situation here.

My point is that without serious hand holding from Apple, the iPhone won't be supported by big corps anytime soon. Especially my idiot corp.
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LOL.

If these corporations you work(ed) for need certs, then the corporation is a joke. Certs are only good for the HR department.

Your ITT comment is fairly gay. No one goes to ITT, you just study for whatever cert you are looking to get then take the exam.

Last but not least, IT is software, not hardware.
 
CryingGod said:
Dumbest post I've read today.
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I agree that people hate change, won't agree with the vista part. (People hated Vista cause the media/internet told them to)

Users simply do not accept change well. If you change someones daily routine, you should just go ahead and find a new employee cause you will hear so much complaining your want to fire them.

BES is simply amazing there are so many options and its solid (BES on Domino can be flakey at times)

Apple in my eyes, simply won't make the move to integrate into a centerally managed corp environment, i don't think their business model will handle that. How would you feel getting Apple enterprise server emails weekly from Steve Jobs? He would email you a newsletter if they changed the spelling of a function.
 
Ok a few thoughts.

On BB/IPhone/WM/Android

As an IT Manager, and responsible for our BES server, it works for the most part. But I have to say, I would much rather have our policies pushed down via AD, and have remote communication w/ our end point done via OWA rather than Blackberry, it leaves more things to go wrong and time to fix takes longer.

Windows Mobile, my experience with it is that it locks up more than any of the other smart phones out there, but the synchronization with Exchange is pretty slick. If OWA is up, and your clients have internet access, you can pretty much bet they have access. (until they change their password).

iPhone. While iPhone seems to be great for the masses, there is no reason to go to it for our business because there are no killer apps that we HAVE to have on the phone. Actually I have yet to see any tailor made applications for small/medium businesses that are must haves that dictate one platform over another. Also the issue of control etc. etc.

Android. While I really like android, and the number of phones, this has the same issues as the iPhone.

As far as a comment about iPhone being tied to a carrier. Unless your carrier is going to support an unlocked iPhone, I would not want to be responsible for the staff to support 1000 iPhones or more. Our company uses ATT as our carrier from the sole reason of international coverage and roaming. My last employer choose a mix of Sprint/Nextel (PTT) for voice, and Verizon (Aircards) because of the available bandwidth in the coverage area thta we operated (we did tests w/ Sprint/Verizon/ATT to determine, speed, latency, and dropped packets).

Anyway, There are reasons for phones, right now some corporate users (outside IT) are still trying to figure out word/excel. A blackberry offers a very easy way to check email that is almost fool proof. But when the next big 'have to have' app comes out, I could see a switch to iPhone/Android.
 
-Dragon- said:
Have you actually sat down and USED the touch screen keyboard? I can type 2-3x faster on that than any mini keyboard out there due to it requiring a MUCH lighter touch and its adaptive spell checker doesn't care if you missed a key 99% of the type it figures out what you meant.

The LAST thing the iPhone needs is a hard keyboard.
Click to expand...

Tactile response > no response. It's like typing on a solid surface, not that comfortable and definitely not that akin to speed.
 
Perhaps I'm wrong, maybe not, but I've personally always had a better time with a regular type of keyboard.
 
the keyboard thing is really a personal issue. those that started typing on phones with hardware keyboard will swear by them and those that started with onscreen keyboard will swear by them. not a lot of people switch sides in that department.

personally i am used to hardware keyboard cause my first phone with keyboard was the treo 650 and i typed great with it. i went with palm pre and personally the keys should've been raised more.

it's not so much hardware vs software keyboard but really which phone implements either type well.

imo iphone is going to have to not only support as much enterprise software as blackberry but do it better than blackberry for people to switch.
 
docmal said:
99% of the hardware guys that work for corporations are idiots who can't learn or support anything that doesn't have a course at ITT tech. I'm a software engineer, and hardware is just a hobby of mine but I know more than any sys admin or system architect I have worked with. Mostly because I frequently visit sites like this :) Granted, there are smart talented hardware guys but they get snatched up and work contracting gigs instead of bunkering in at a corp... at least that's the situation here.

My point is that without serious hand holding from Apple, the iPhone won't be supported by big corps anytime soon. Especially my idiot corp.
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if this was intended to make you look like you're smart, you failed so please go put your dunce cap back on and sit in the corner where you belong ......
 
chrispix said:
it leaves more things to go wrong and time to fix takes longer.
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I'd agree. But I've yet to have any major issues with it though.
My main thing is that it sometimes sticks a sent item into my inbox on my phone. Which sucks...
I haven't cared enough to call RIM about it though.

chrispix said:
Windows Mobile, my experience with it is that it locks up more than any of the other smart phones out there, but the synchronization with Exchange is pretty slick. If OWA is up, and your clients have internet access, you can pretty much bet they have access. (until they change their password).
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I'd agree. But 90% of users don't realize that the passwords are one in the same. You change a password with BES- and the user doesn't have to screw with it.
WinMo just needs a more simple overhaul. Need a prompt that says "Your password has changed- please update it!" or something.



chrispix said:
Anyway, There are reasons for phones, right now some corporate users (outside IT) are still trying to figure out word/excel. A blackberry offers a very easy way to check email that is almost fool proof.
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Documents To Go :)
My only issue w/ it is that they don't support the 2007 formats yet.

Emission said:
Tactile response > no response. It's like typing on a solid surface, not that comfortable and definitely not that akin to speed.
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Exactly.
It's why we haven't switched to using those projected laser keyboards yet. It's just not comfortable when doing any "real" work.
Of course, phones are more debatable because they really aren't comfortable for compiling any major documents or anything anyway.

Hyperian said:
imo iphone is going to have to not only support as much enterprise software as blackberry but do it better than blackberry for people to switch.
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Those are the keywords.
Apple, IMO, will have to do two things to topple RIM:
1) Offer their Server-Side app for FREE (Otherwise they have no advantage over RIM in this area).
2) Like you said: Not only have features that do what RIM does, but have it done BETTER. I personally don't see how they'll accomplish that, but we shall see.
 
Its true, Apple will have to roll out with something special in order to take on Blackberry and BES. Its great to be able to control everyone's phone from a central location, send out updates, email, contacts, and remote wipe of devices.

I have the 3GS, love it, but I can see where a business needs more as I worked with a company that faced the same questions when the 3G rolled out. They stuck with RIM
 
With the variety of push email capabilities on the iPhone, there's no real stopping it from using it in the enterprise. My two bosses have iPhones and it's connected to my Exchange server using the iPhone's Exchange push email capability whether I like it or not.

I *could* change the port and just not tell them what it is, but hey, they're my bosses. lol
 
Azhar said:
With the variety of push email capabilities on the iPhone, there's no real stopping it from using it in the enterprise.
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Push email is just the tip of the iceburg. The iPhone simply DOES NOT do what you can accomplish with Blackberry and BES.
 
TechieSooner said:
Push email is just the tip of the iceburg. The iPhone simply DOES NOT do what you can accomplish with Blackberry and BES.
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Providing the IT department has BES, yeah I know. If Blackberry users use BIS, then it works the same way as an iPhone - push email integration.

BES is what makes Blackberries the best enterprise phone due to the ability to control and create policies.

My company doesn't use BES on any of my servers. It cost too much and only a handful of us have Blackberries and a couple uses iPhones. Everyone else use a regular Nokia flip phone and voice plans.
 
Well, the entire discussion is about Enterprise (Blackberry ENTERPRISE Server ????)

Not sure why BIS is even being considered here...
 
TechieSooner said:
Well, the entire discussion is about Enterprise (Blackberry ENTERPRISE Server ????)

Not sure why BIS is even being considered here...
Click to expand...

I'm just saying that Blackberries by themselves are no better than the iPhone unless a company has BES. I'm not knocking the Blackberry. I'm a Blackberry user, remember?
 
Azhar said:
I'm just saying that Blackberries by themselves are no better than the iPhone unless a company has BES. I'm not knocking the Blackberry. I'm a Blackberry user, remember?
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Blackberries by themselves are still better than the iPhone, you just don't have all the centralized management that makes it simple. You've just got to manually configure all the options.
 
Point being- The Blackberry features still exist.
The iPhone features aren't even there.
 
Azhar said:
Providing the IT department has BES, yeah I know. If Blackberry users use BIS, then it works the same way as an iPhone - push email integration.

BES is what makes Blackberries the best enterprise phone due to the ability to control and create policies.

My company doesn't use BES on any of my servers. It cost too much and only a handful of us have Blackberries and a couple uses iPhones. Everyone else use a regular Nokia flip phone and voice plans.
Click to expand...

You can get the Blackberry professional software with 1 CAL for free. Additional CAL's are $100 bucks. Its a very affordable option. I honestly don't think Apple has a very large chance of taking business from RIM at this point
 
Since when are iPhones marketed as business devices?

"Want to run a Fortune 500?"

"There's an app for that."

lol
 
bonsai said:
Since when are iPhones marketed as business devices?

"Want to run a Fortune 500?"

"There's an app for that."

lol
Click to expand...

Hey, thats kinda catchy, i would google that,

cause there's an app for that
 
k1pp3r said:
You can get the Blackberry professional software with 1 CAL for free. Additional CAL's are $100 bucks. Its a very affordable option. I honestly don't think Apple has a very large chance of taking business from RIM at this point
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Useful information. I'll keep that in mind when we need a solution. Right now it's not that big of a deal. Our employees use laptops and Sprint broadband cards in the field, not Blackberrys. Just a selected handful of people use them.
 
k1pp3r said:
You can get the Blackberry professional software with 1 CAL for free. Additional CAL's are $100 bucks. Its a very affordable option. I honestly don't think Apple has a very large chance of taking business from RIM at this point
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Well, IMO RIM has been "discretely smart" this time. I mean, they pushed a shit-ton of Curves into the market. What with the multiple-Curve promotions they had going on (I know a family that got like 4 for free on a new contract), RIM was able to get a ton of them out there. The Curve is the #1 device out there right now, even head of the iPhone.

Curves used to be business-only, but I'm seeing more and more kids and stuff with them now.
 
I have 25 managers all using the iPhone and they love it. Several new hires were on the blackberry and they like the iPhone much better for email. Not sure what the fuss about the enterprise function of the iPhone is.

If your organization is running exchange 2003 SP2 or up, you have push technology built in, and it's 'Free" Password changes are a pain, but takes 30 seconds to change your password on the iPhone.

From a management side of it, there is nothing to manage, I like it for that.
 
Flyingcrazy said:
I have 25 managers all using the iPhone and they love it. Several new hires were on the blackberry and they like the iPhone much better for email. Not sure what the fuss about the enterprise function of the iPhone is.
Click to expand...

See...

TechieSooner said:
Push email is just the tip of the iceburg. The iPhone simply DOES NOT do what you can accomplish with Blackberry and BES.
Click to expand...
 
Flyingcrazy said:
I have 25 managers all using the iPhone and they love it. Several new hires were on the blackberry and they like the iPhone much better for email. Not sure what the fuss about the enterprise function of the iPhone is.

If your organization is running exchange 2003 SP2 or up, you have push technology built in, and it's 'Free" Password changes are a pain, but takes 30 seconds to change your password on the iPhone.

From a management side of it, there is nothing to manage, I like it for that.
Click to expand...

So you can't manage what employees do with company property at all .. . . . . Bad idea. You need to have control over what people do, is bob is in brazil taking pictures of hookers, i'll disable the camera on his blackberry.

IT managers should be able to have total control over their IT equipment, including phones. Apple simply does not offer that.

If Bob looses his iphone, can you wipe and lock the device from a centerally managed server. I don't think so
 
k1pp3r said:
If Bob looses his iphone, can you wipe and lock the device from a centerally managed server. I don't think so
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It does sync to Exchange, which integrates with Exchange's remote wiping... But again, still just the tip of the iceburg.
 
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