Mobile Business Apps Flourish at IBM, Google

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Apple (AAPL) has also taken steps to make it easier to create iPhone and iPad apps for employees. Its iOS enterprise developer program gives programmers access to resources for $299 a year that will help them develop proprietary, in-house applications.

Smaller companies, including Apperian, Mobile Iron, JackBe and Ondeego, specialize in software or services to help companies open mobile app stores. About 50 companies have signed up for an Apperian program called EASE, for enterprise application services environment, and they're working on as few as two to as many as 20 apps apiece, says Cimarron Buser, vice-president for marketing at Apperian.

IT Headaches

Useful as workplace apps may be, they also pose challenges for company information technology staffs. In the past, IT departments controlled worker mobile devices, which were mostly limited to BlackBerrys. Now they need to accommodate a broader range of mobile operating systems, including Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows 7, sold by a range of wireless network operators. "There's not a single operator that can handle all the devices," says Paul Nerger, vice-president for marketing at Ondeego. "What makes a company think they can do it?" Ondeego sells a product called Appcentral that lets companies distribute apps to employees and another product called Appguard that lets the IT manager secure the application. If an employee leaves the company, the IT manager can wipe the corporate apps on that device, one by one. PepsiCo is an Ondeego customer.

IBM and Google take different approaches to corporate policies for using mobile devices. IBM now only lets BlackBerry apps on Whirlwind, though it's testing other mobile devices, including iPhones and Android handsets, and engineers are writing apps for iPhone and Android devices. The apps will probably be added to Whirlwind once the company approves other devices, Bodin says. Google, on the other hand, lets employees pick from an array of smartphones, says Google's Girourard. Most employees work outside the corporate network, and systems that house secret proprietary information, such as source code, are strictly guarded.

Another way IBM encourages use of Whirlwind is by letting employees write their own apps and upload them to the store. The process is so easy, Bodin says, that he was able to add an app to Whirlwind in October while he was waiting for a doctor's appointment to begin.

King is a writer for Bloomberg Businessweek in San Francisco.

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