SAP, RIM usher in new enterprise mobility era

NEW YORK, USA: SAP AG and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced a co-innovation partnership to usher in a new era in enterprise mobility.

SAP, the leader in enterprise software, and RIM, the leader in mobile connectivity for the enterprise, have joined forces to change the way people work, by enabling anytime, anywhere mobile access to SAP enterprise applications through the widely adopted BlackBerry platform.

SAP and RIM will bring the power and productivity of SAP enterprise applications to the BlackBerry platform in a similarly robust and user-friendly manner. Mobile users will soon be able to work freely on SAP, no longer tethered to their desktops or offices in order to perform their jobs. By tearing down the walls between enterprise computing and mobile connectivity, SAP and RIM are enhancing employee productivity.

The first output expected from this new partnership is a native BlackBerry smartphone client that will merge the power of the SAP CRM application with core BlackBerry smartphone applications, including the BlackBerry Email, Address Book and Calendar applications, to deliver an indispensable tool for sales people.

The mobile SAP CRM application will leverage the inherent security, management capabilities and efficiency of the BlackBerry platform and the intuitive user experience of BlackBerry smartphones. Organizations that already have the SAP CRM and the BlackBerry solutions deployed will require only basic user training and minimal incremental IT infrastructure investments.

According to IDC, the mobile user population is set to increase from about 800 million in 2007, accounting for 25.7 percent of the worldwide workforce, to one billion in 2011, accounting for 30.4 percent of the workforce.

As part of the work delivered through the partnership, RIM will enhance its framework for building intuitive, workflow-enabled mobile applications for the BlackBerry platform. The framework will serve as the basis for developing mobile applications for other solutions in the SAP Business Suite.

SAP and RIM will also be previewing the mobile CRM application at the annual SAPPHIRE conferences to be held in Orlando, May 4-7, and Berlin, May 19-21, as well as at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) 2008, May 13-15 in Orlando.