iPad in the enterprise

Can the iPad make the leap from consumer must-have to enterprise essential? Many think not, viewing Apple's tablet as little more than an executive toy. Others expect it to rapidly oust the notebook PC to become the de facto platform for business on the move.

A dearth of suitable software seems to be the biggest stumbling block. Search for enterprise apps in Apple's app store, for example, and there seems to be a lot of choice — but most are simple utilities of dubious pedigree. Interesting perhaps and useful, possibly, but few enterprises are going to trust what's on offer here to run their business.

No, for enterprise buyers to wake up and smell the iPad, it needs software support from the big ERP developers. Companies such as SAP and Oracle who — surprise, surprise — have both now thrown their hats into the iPad ring.

SAP was the first to jump earlier this year when it supplemented existing iPhone support with iPad apps to work with its Business One and cloud-based Business ByDesign ERP solutions. SAP BusinessObjects Explorer has also been ported along with a number of other tools, all available for download using iTunes.

And now Oracle has entered the fray with the announcement that it is making its entire J D Edwards EnterpriseOne suite available on the iPad. Delivered as part of the regular tools update, it's only available for release 9.0 of the product, but the company claims to be the first to offer its entire suite on the iPad rather than just "a handful of speciality mobile apps".

That's a claim SAP might want to argue with, and Oracle has yet to embrace the tablet wholeheartedly with support on the iPad for its other ERP suites — Oracle E-Business and PeopleSoft Enterprise. But there's a definite trend developing towards porting ERP apps to the Apple tablet, and others are likely to follow.

And it's a trend we'll be keeping a close eye on, looking at and reviewing the products involved in more depth as the market develops.

Alan Stevens