Several recent vendor technology initiatives may inject some much-needed momentum into the enterprise mobility market, according to a recent AMR Research report.
"Will this coming year finally be the year of enterprise mobility?" asks AMR analyst Chris Fletcher in the report. "The technology is certainly lining up, but it remains to be seen if business will follow."
SAP's recent partnership announcement with Research in Motion is one development that could spur investments in enterprise mobility, Fletcher writes. Under the agreement, SAP and RIM have said they will tightly integrate RIM's Blackberry mobile device with SAP's CRM application. The integration will give mobile Blackberry users access to customer records and order and lead information in SAP CRM.
Another key development, writes Fletcher, is Cisco Systems' recent announcement of its Cisco Motion initiative under which the company is promising an enterprise mobility platform that will tie into existing enterprise wireless and wired networks. The initiative will enable enterprises to more easily manage mobile infrastructure and provide features such as unified communication. To date, however, Fletcher notes, Cisco's initiative does not include enterprise application partners.