Oracles Tests Sales Assistant For iPhone With The Body Shop, Free App Available Next Week

Tapping into the growing use of the Apple iPhone, Oracle created new applications that enable sales associates to access enhanced CRM tasks and information. The Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant and Oracle Mobile Sales Forecast for iPhone will be available as free downloads from the Apple App store in November 2008. To introduce the new applications, Oracle worked with The Body Shop to create the first prototype. “The prototype we have built with the Body Shop highlights the power of Oracle CRM and the Apple iPhone," said Anthony Lye, SVP of Oracle CRM. "We see the iPhone as a new and significant channel for companies to extend and enhance the relationships they have with their customers. Complete CRM is a combination of transactions, analytics and conversations.” The Body Shop prototype allowed consumers to use their iPhone in place of their loyalty card and also added social networking applications so that consumers could share wish lists and new product information with their contacts. The networking features of the Mobile Sales Assistant are part of Oracle’s strategy around “Social CRM,” whichenables users to become more effective and productive in their jobs through collaborative applications that become 'smarter' by leveraging the collective intelligence of social networks and work both within and outside the barriers of companies. The Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant embraces Social CRM by providing immediate access to critical information - virtually anytime, anywhere - removing barriers to productivity and collaboration, and ultimately resulting in better customer insight that helps improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and increase sales. The Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant uses Web services to exchange information with Oracle CRM On Demand, as well as traditional on-premises versions of Oracle’s Siebel CRM applications, including Siebel CRM Marketing, Siebel Loyalty, Siebel E-Commerce, Social CRM and Real-Time Decisions. “Enabling ‘anywhere’ access to corporate business applications is a top IT strategy for enterprises as smart phone adoption and mobile corporate email use increase,” says Sheryl Kingstone, Director of Enterprise Research, Yankee Group, in a recent press statement. “With 45% of companies stating mobile access through wireless technologies is the most strategic decision impacting their business application decisions for the future, Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant and Oracle Mobile Forecast for the iPhone are meeting crucial needs of sales people and businesses.” To address security and privacy issues, Oracle built in access to the system using secure user names and passwords. Once accessed, the Sales Assistant connects the user to the enterprise CRM applications, Microsoft Outlook contacts and calendars, and social networking sites on the Internet. Oracle leverages iPhone with BI tools Oracle initiated its relationship with the Apple iPhone via the Oracle Business Indicators, which allow users to view and interact with Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Applications. These apps include financial, human resources, supply chain, and customer relationship management analytics, as well as analytical alerts generated by Oracle Delivers, an integrated component of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus (OBIEE). Taking full advantage of the Apple iPhone mobile platform, Oracle Business Indicators is built as a native application to offer highly intuitive and flexible features including browse, search, and favorites for a superior overall end user experience, according to Oracle. By expanding the ways mobile workers can view and act on performance data, Oracle Business Indicators can help bring business intelligence to a broader range of users, adds Lenley Hensarling, Oracle Group VP for Applications Development, in a press statement. "Oracle Business Indicators offers a way for managers to perform tasks specific to their daily jobs without requiring them to navigate through a full function application ported to a smartphone," he explains.