IBM & Box collaborate on new MobileFirst app for iPhone and iPad

IBM on Thursday revealed its latest MobileFirst iOS app for enterprise, Expert Seller, which was developed in partnership with cloud storage service Box.

A new version of Expert Seller specifically uses Box's content management system, and can be deployed in less than five days after the initial contract and configuration, IBM claimed. Marketing, sales, and content teams can upload material to the app and have it appear instantly.

As with the existing version of the software, the new title — for iPhone and iPad — lets salespeople both prepare for pitches and offer up material to show to clients.

IBM and Box originally announced a partnership in June 2015. MobileFirst for iOS is itself a partnership with Apple dating back to 2014, with the two companies splitting duties on development, deployment, and support.

There are now over 100 MobileFirst iOS apps, spread across 14 different industries. Each is essentially a template that can be tailored to a business' special needs.

IBM recently promised to develop MobileFirst apps for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but these have yet to appear on the market.

3 Comments

dick applebaum 17 Years · 12525 comments

About 8 years ago

AppleInsider said:

A new version of Expert Seller specifically uses Box's content management system, and can be deployed in less than five days after the initial contract and configuration, IBM claimed. Marketing, sales, and content teams can upload material to the app and have it appear instantly.

"less than five days" -- way too long for cloud services in the year 2016!

Also, IBM needs to offer [non-time limited] free trials of its cloud services -- so developers/users can prototype ideas using IBM Cloud Services, then present them to management for approval!

Give a little -- Gain a lot!

mike1 10 Years · 3437 comments

dick applebaum said:

AppleInsider said:

A new version of Expert Seller specifically uses Box's content management system, and can be deployed in less than five days after the initial contract and configuration, IBM claimed. Marketing, sales, and content teams can upload material to the app and have it appear instantly.

"less than five days" -- way too long for cloud services in the year 2016!

Also, IBM needs to offer [non-time limited] free trials of its cloud services -- so developers/users can prototype ideas using IBM Cloud Services, then present them to management for approval!

Give a little -- Gain a lot!

A max of 5 days from contract to deployment is too slow?! Talk about unreasonable expectations.

mike1 said:

dick applebaum said:

AppleInsider said:

A new version of Expert Seller specifically uses Box's content management system, and can be deployed in less than five days after the initial contract and configuration, IBM claimed. Marketing, sales, and content teams can upload material to the app and have it appear instantly.

"less than five days" -- way too long for cloud services in the year 2016!

Also, IBM needs to offer [non-time limited] free trials of its cloud services -- so developers/users can prototype ideas using IBM Cloud Services, then present them to management for approval!

Give a little -- Gain a lot!

A max of 5 days from contract to deployment is too slow?! Talk about unreasonable expectations.

What I am suggesting is that you should be able to try before you buy -- and be able to setup and prototype solutions in minutes.FWIW, when I worked for IBM Distribution Software Development in Des Plaines (1969-1971) we were frustrated with the long approval cycle to get new apps approved. I was told to do a study to:

Document the approval process
Determine if/how it could be expedited

I used PERT/CPM to determine and document the steps and critical path of approval process.

With the assumption that the new app had:

One line of code
One sentence of documentation
Both were already complete and tested

It was determined that, if everything [in the approval process] met schedule -- you could get approval in 50 weeks.

As to expediting the process -- you could improve the timing of several steps on the critical path if you got pre-approval ...

Of course, the pre-approvals added to the critical path ...

This gave rise to the Des Plaines Dichotomy: Expediting takes a little longer!