Pressing ahead with an alliance it forged with Apple last year, IBM has just unveiled a fresh crop of enterprise-focused iPhone apps at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, targeting the banking, retail, and airline industries.

IBM’s partnership with Apple was initiated last summer, and has already resulted in ten industry-specific apps launched last December, aimed at a number of verticals including law enforcement, insurance and retail. So lets take a closer look at today’s offerings.

Passenger Care

As the name suggest, Passenger Care is specifically aimed at airline customer service agents. The app is designed to allow agents more freedom to move around the airport terminal, which means they can provide extra assistance to passengers by helping them change seats or rebook their flights from anywhere – rather than at the check-in desk. The app should help airlines to deliver a smoother, more personalized experience for passengers while speeding up check-in and easing airport congestion, said IBM.

Advisor Alerts

Next up is Advisor Alerts, an app for enterprises in the banking and financial services sectors. The app is once again designed with mobility in mind, and is said to help finance professionals prioritize client-related tasks while they’re away from the office. IBM says Advisor Alerts is powered by customized analytics, and comes with a personalized dashboard that displays alerts about portfolio-affecting events and recommends next steps to take. The app also serves as a platform for professionals to communicate with their colleagues.

IBM Advisor Alerts app

Dynamic Buy

Last but not least is Dynamic Buy, a retail-oriented app that helps managers decide which products they should carry in their store by offering them perspectives on what’s selling. These insights are derived from real-time sales and revenue data, inventory information and more. With Dynamic Buy, IBM is trying to help retailers easily access the huge piles of data they already gather from their supply chains.

IBM says all three apps are delivered in a secure environment and are tailor made for the iPhone and iPad platforms. Each app incorporates a wide array of data analytics and can be linked to core enterprise processes to ensure everything is up to date. In addition, each app can be customized and managed through IBM’s cloud services for iOS devices.

Although quite a few were skeptical of Apple and IBM’s partnership when it was first announced, it’s clear that both companies stand to gain a lot from the endeavor. For Apple, it gives the company much greater access into the enterprise, while IBM will be able to call on Apple’s mobile expertise to extend its footprint there.

“We set out to transform how millions of workers consume, process, and use information when they are outside the four walls of the office,” said Fred Balboni, IBM General Manager for the IBM and Apple partnership. “Our goal is to boost the performance of every enterprise by making all its data and processes available to any employee with an iOS device — anytime, anywhere.”

Image credit: kropekk_pl via Pixabay.com