It’s been a deluge of Apple news so far this week since the company disclosed its second quarter earnings. The iPhone remained the tech giant’s all-star, but investor attention also weighed heavily on the Apple Watch, which became available last Friday (April 24).
While consumers have fueled much of the Apple Watch excitement – the company reported 1 million pre-orders in its first 24 hours available – the market is also keeping a close eye on how the gadget will be adopted in the workplace. Already, 3,500 apps are available for the Apple Watch, and since the device’s formal debut on store shelves, several enterprise-specific apps have also entered the market.
Even Apple rival Microsoft has embraced the wearable with the rollout of several enterprise apps for the Watch, including PowerPoint and OneDrive. But PYMNTS dove deeper to explore the enterprise-focused Apple Watch apps that go beyond meeting reminders, presentations and employee communication. Here are some of the most innovative apps released just for Apple Watch in the workplace so far.
SaaS cloud finance app maker Coupa Software announced Tuesday (April 28) that its Coupa for Apple Watch is now available in the Apple App Store. The app allows business users to submit e-invoices and expense reports for one-touch, real-time visibility into workplace expenses. According to the company, Coupa is the Apple Watch’s first cloud spend management tool. At present, the features of Coupa’s Apple Watch solution are straightforward, offering review, approve and reject options for requisition, invoices and expense reports.
New Zealand-based travel and expense management software service provider Serko announced the day of the Apple Watch release that its Serko Mobile app is now compatible with the wearable device. The SaaS company’s CEO, Darrin Grafton, announced the update with strong support of the Watch in the workplace. “I have no doubt that wearable tech will be quickly adopted, particularly amongst the corporate community,” he told Computer World. Serko’s Apple Watch app provides employees with travel notifications and itinerary information, as well as alert wearers of travel approval requests.
Zoho rolled out three new Apple Watch compatible enterprise apps last Friday, including solutions for time tracking (Zoho Books), task reminders (Taskz), and travel and expense management tool, Zoho Expense, which offers users to track, calculate, and submit travel data such as mileage direct to the cloud.
Security platform MicroStrategy Usher could jumpstart a new world of business security with its Apple Watch app, also released Tuesday. The tool detects physical entranceways and business systems, providing employees with secure access to both physical and digital aspects of the workplace. According to Microstrategy president Paul Zolfaghari, the app lets users login to existing enterprise solutions, such as Salesforce, Windows or Mac workstations, or cloud applications. As a method of replacing passwords or key cards, Usher could potentially provide an added layer of security for procurement officials and combat rogue and unauthorized business purchases.
Speaking of Salesforce, the software and cloud computing firm was one of the first to jump onto the Apple Watch train, having released Salesforce for Apple Watch back in early March. The company has made its Analytics Cloud data analytics service available for the Watch, as well as released the Salesforce1 customer relationship management tool.
Of course, one of the biggest potential benefactors of the Apple Watch is the health care industry, thanks in part to Apple’s new partnership with IBM. The collaboration aims to develop dozens of mobile apps for the workplace, but the most recent developments have focused on health care providers. The Apple Watch now has several new health care apps developed for these providers, such as AthenaText, which provides health records for workers in hospitals and clinics. But reports have emerged that Apple and IBM are collaborating on ways to adopt Apple Pay for the Apple Watch in the workforce, as well as deploy beacon technology that allows health care workers to obtain patient information on their Watch when in the proximity of a patient’s home or hospital room. Clearly, the market hasn’t yet seen the full potential for the Apple Watch in the workplace.
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