Take the office with you: accessing company software with iPad (image: nextevolution)
iPad for Manager
Apple’s iPad is making touch technology a part of everyday business and bringing mobile SAP applications to the management level. Prototypes from nextevolution show how this can take place.
With laptops and smartphones having established the concept of working on the go, iPad has now arrived to take things to the next level. Reading e-mail and surfing the Internet from virtually anywhere have thus become commonplace for many managers, and the lines between work and leisure have noticeably blurred. But using SAP at the airport or the café around the corner? Surely the software is too complex to be an appealing option for managers on the move…
The demo apps nextPCM Contract Management and nextPCM Personnel File from nextevolution (site in German) are looking to change that common perception. Both enable iPad users to access SAP systems and prepare information, transforming the device into a mobile workstation for decision-makers.
Target group: managers
Since these apps are tailored to live operations and packed full of too much functionality to allow for rapid decision-making, adopting them for iPad in their original form would make little sense; they thus do not provide managers with data directly from SAP systems.
This is why nextevolution wants to adjust its usage concept to suit managers’ needs. Thanks to mobile enhancements, its apps will access data through servers and put optimized information right into users’ hands, no matter where they are. The company’s goal is to enable iPads to display only the information needed to render a particular decision in short order, which itself will require just a touch of the screen.