Apple and IBM’s partnership that has the companies working together to produce enterprise-friendly apps has expanded yet again with the addition of eight more apps designed for iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad, bringing the total number of MobileFirst apps up to now 22. The new apps are focused on the healthcare and industrial products industries, following prior announcements that saw the release of apps specific to banking and finance, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, law enforcement, retail, insurance, and more.
IBM confirms there wasn’t a formal announcement about the new releases this time around as in the past, because it’s planning to go into more detail about a selection of the healthcare-related apps at the HiMSS conference taking place later this month.
Of the eight new apps, the healthcare ones are perhaps some of the more interesting ones to be revealed. For example, one app, the Hospital RN app for iPhone, is working to reduce the operational costs associated with managing patient information by connecting with a hospital’s own systems, while also allowing its users to manage patient info, including discharges, right from the iPhone. And it works with Apple’s iBeacon technology in order to identify patient rooms then display the relevant patient data based on proximity.
Meanwhile, other apps will focus on organizing and prioritizing task assignments, including with the Hospital Lead app for iPad and the Hospital Tech app for iPhone. A fourth app, the Home RN app for iPhone, is aimed at supporting nurses who work outside the hospital offering home care services.
Rounding out the new lineup is a Rapid Handover app for iPad (industrial products industry), which lets a foreman document and share info with shift workers related to the production goals and equipment maintenance among other things. Plus, there are new apps for the retail industry (Order Commit app for iPad) and the insurance industry (Risk Inspect), the latter which uses the camera on the iPad to help document inspections.
