iPhone gets Oracle Applications business supoprt

According to Ed Abbo, Oracle senior vice president of application development, the new releases are all about fitting in with how busy execs and managers work today – providing them with targeted, intelligent and task-focused information while on the move. With Oracle Business Indicators, CFOs, for example, will be able to view the latest company financial trends, while sales managers are alerted to sales performance and customer satisfaction KPIs, and commodity managers assess the viability of a supplier – all via the their iPhone. The applications are based on Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus (OBIEE) and Oracle Business Intelligence Applications, Fusion Edition. They’re native applications for the iPhone and also harness these applications’ service-oriented architecture (SOA) capabilities. They also have support of SSL encryption protocol, enabling secure mobile performance. Abbo says that Oracle plans to follow this initial release with support for key ERP business approval processes, including analytics. For example, while en route to meetings, an exec would be able to review and respond to pending approvals, with supporting analytics. Following that will be CRM (customer relationship management) solutions for the iPhone, he says, with applications that help users to be productive on the move – sharing information with colleagues and customers, and managing leads, accounts, opportunities and forecasts, all through the iPhone.