By Emeka Aginam, in Las Vegas
At the ongoing Impact 2012 , the premier conference for business and IT leadership holding in Las Vegas, United States of Aamerica,  IBM  unveiled its first ever Mobile Foundation, a comprehensive portfolio of software and services designed to help organizations capitalize on the proliferation of mobile environments  — including laptops, smartphones and tablets.

The Mobile Foundation, according to IBM  is targeting $22B market opportunity that is expected to grow to $36B in 2015.

However, in an IBM survey of  more than 700 CIOs, three quarters said they are embracing a mobile strategy because a flexible workplace delivers a 20 percent improvement in employee productivity.

The solution helps clients embrace growing mobile and cloud computing business opportunities

Building on its recent acquisition of Worklight, the new foundation further expands  IBM strategy, to provide clients with a mobile platform that spans application development, integration, security and management.

This year’s Impact  conference is featuring  more than 8,500 attendees and hundreds of client testimonials, presentations, workshops and product demos.

The CIOs said they are significantly reducing the cost of doing business by decreasing dependence on email, improving social collaboration and adopting cloud technologies to reach mobile workers.

“It’s no secret that throughout the last decade, the most successful organizations have been quick to leverage new technology for business advantage,”  Marie Wieck, General Manager, IBM Application and Integration Middleware told newsmen during a press conference on monday to introduce the company’s prodcts portfollio.

Accordin to her,   “Over this time, we have evolved our market-leading portfolio to meet our client’s needs to extend their reach through new channels like mobile and cloud computing.  Our latest offerings are yet another step in this direction and will provide customers with everything they need to support mobile devices in their business and use them to transform the way they interact with customers, partners and employees”

She disclosed that IBM has been steadily investing in the mobile  space for more than a decade, adding that both organically and through acquisitions: building a complete portfolio of software and services that delivers enterprise-ready mobility for clients.

” Increasingly, enterprises are reaching beyond their traditional IT boundaries by consuming new Cloud services and creating new mobile applications for employees and customers for broad consumption by customers, partners and developers”  she said.

The  new IBM Mobile Foundation  are expected to offer organizations the following core capabilities:

Connect Cloud & Mobile Environments:  As the adoption of mobile computing continues to create increased demands for cloud services, IBM WebSphere Cast Iron is a crucial element of the new foundation. Now, clients will be able to easily connect mobile applications to a variety of Cloud and back-end systems.

From left. Steve Mills, senior Vice President and group Executive of IBM software Systems Group, Marie Wieck, General Manager, Group Websphere, Rob Thomas, senior Vice President of Global RRD, and John Capriotti,, Vice President, Web and Ecommerce for TBC addressing journalists at the ongoing IBM Impact conference 2012 holding in Las Vegas, United States. photo by Emeka Aginam.

Build and connect mobile applications:  A new set of development and integration tools from IBM Worklight will enable clients for the first time to develop mobile applications and their supporting infrastructures for a variety of platforms just once and run them on any mobile platform – including Apple iOS and Google Android, and RIM Blackberry. Through new resources provided on developerWorks at no charge, IBM is also providing the technical skill building information developers need to start building secure mobile solutions ranging from simple applications to integrated web-based and native architectures.

Manage and Secure Mobile Environments: In an effort to help organizations manage the Bring Your Own Device or “BYOD” trend, the foundation includes new software from IBM Endpoint Manager to help  customers deliver a single solution that effectively manages and secures all endpoints. For example, this allows organizations to wipe enterprise data and applications from endpoints when needed.

These unified capabilities extend from servers and laptops, to smartphones and tablets.

Extend Existing capabilities A new set of services, such as the IBM Quick Win Pilot, can assist clients with their mobile strategy and deployment. At the end of the 10 week pilot, clients are able to implement a defined use case with IBM Mobile technology and achieve tangible results. Additionally, new capabilities in the IBM DataPower appliances can now help IT organizations quickly and securely expose their enterprise data and services to mobile devices.

The Senior Vice President and Group Executive of IBM software systems Group, Steve Mills who also spoke on the company;s roadmap on the mobile era disclosed that IBM has come to stay in the cutting edge solutions in mobile computing.

He said that many compnies includinmg TBC Corporation uses IBM mobile capabilities to create a new customer experience for the authomotive after market.

TBC Corporation, he said will use mobile computing as a major strategy to accelerate the company’s already rapid expansion into auto services.

The nation’s largest reseller of tires for the automotive replacement market, TBC is also a major force in retail automotive services for cars and trucks with more than 3,000 service outlets across the USA.

Using IBM Worklight, TBC is kicking off a major mobile initiative starting with a store locator much requested by customers.

Soon to follow will be applications that provide automatic service status updates, allowing customers to approve repairs by text, and give customers anytime/anywhere access to service records for their car or truck.
The goal is to supply customers with a completely transparent and easy auto service experience, John  Capriotti, Vice President, Web and Ecommerce for TBC, said.

“We are happy to partner with IBM. Their solutions are not only good but will help many organizations to leverage on mobile capabilities” he added.