Do you work in a company with iPhone on corporate plan?

uvox

Just interested to know what's going on in the corporate space with the iPhone 4. Please don't mention your company's name or give details of plans, etc, but I work (allegedly) in a multinational company in Ireland.

There is no iPhone on the corporate phone plan for employees. There is in the US parent company but not outside the US. We're stuck with Blackberries and Nakias. Ridiculous as the corporate provider of mobile services in Europe has them available. So employees buy corporate SIMs and stick them in their personal ipHones. No plans in the offing as far as I can see.

Anyone in a similar situation? Is there some issue with enterprise procurement of iphones? Security? Cost v other models? Or just being reactionary.

jamesd

Yes we have 16 iphones on our corp plan.
Each phone costs €25 per month for unlimited national and unlimited mobile calls to any network.
€10 for unlimited texts to any network in ireland
€10 for 1GB per month data

eeloe

What????

45euro for unlimited calls txts and a gb of data?

JDxtra

uvox wrote: »

We're stuck with Blackberries and Nakias. Ridiculous as the corporate provider of mobile services in Europe has them available.

You make it sound as if it's your right to be issued with an iPhone!

Enterprises have invested heavily in the now tried and tested Blackerry infrastructure solution. Any employee that doesn't need email on the move can be issued with a standard business Nokia handset. For many organisations, there is no business justification to deviate from this - especially in this more cost conscious world we now find ourselves in.

We have 1000+ handsets globally. We looked at the iPhone and we dismissed it.

uvox

that logic might apply if one part of the company wasn't able to procure them as a default option and everyone else was already able to use them via a workaround (since our infrastructure already supports the device). on user experience grounds, it's already clear the iphone is superior.

Kiith

If someone in my company asked for an iPhone for business reasons, i'd pretty much laugh in their face. There's absolutly no reason from a corporate point of view.

The Big Gig

Kiith wrote: »

If someone in my company asked for an iPhone for business reasons, i'd pretty much laugh in their face. There's absolutly no reason from a corporate point of view.

instant access to email, internet etc isn't a business solution?. A phone in itself is a business solution. (Business) people have preferences too and a happy employee is a good thing.

BrookieD

Kiith wrote: »

If someone in my company asked for an iPhone for business reasons, i'd pretty much laugh in their face. There's absolutly no reason from a corporate point of view.

From out point of view i think we maybe in the market for 8 iPhone4's, We tested a number of phones this year and the iPhone ticks all the boxs's.

You point above does not make any sense what so ever.
We can access exchange email, Calendar, Contacts, Instant Global Address List lookup, VPN back into corp intranet sites when on the road, secure CISCO/ipsec connection in seconds. Full HTML email, Full web browsing, Docx document viewing.

forgot to mention that using the iPhone profile tool we can lock all phones off from being able to access the App stores and from uploading music onto it. So one person can carefully control all devices very easily with not effort at all.

kjl

JDxtra wrote: »

You make it sound as if it's your right to be issued with an iPhone!

Enterprises have invested heavily in the now tried and tested Blackerry infrastructure solution. Any employee that doesn't need email on the move can be issued with a standard business Nokia handset. For many organisations, there is no business justification to deviate from this - especially in this more cost conscious world we now find ourselves in.

We have 1000+ handsets globally. We looked at the iPhone and we dismissed it.

No offence but this is utter rubbish, there is no difference having an iPhone or a blackberry when connecting to the company's network.

JDxtra

kjl wrote: »

No offence but this is utter rubbish, there is no difference having an iPhone or a blackberry when connecting to the company's network.

What about the handset cost? A standard Blackberry < €300. Basic iPhone > €700. Obviously carriers will give you discounts based on volume and contract - but these are the base rates you would be paying for replacement handsets.

What about your Exchange infrastructure? Many have invested in BES servers tied into this. Complicating this with the extra infrastructure to securely support iPhones as well doesn't sound appealing to budget constrained IT managers.

Remember many large companies only want to offer their staff email on the move. Cost is everything. Keeping their employees pimped out with the latest phone means nothing to these companies.

I'm sure iPhones appeal to small businesses (where the the person siging off the invoices would also like a new phone!) but it's going to be much harder for Apple to penetrate the large corporate market.

bigjohnny80

The Big Gig wrote: »

instant access to email, internet etc isn't a business solution?. A phone in itself is a business solution. (Business) people have preferences too and a happy employee is a good thing.

Because only iPhone has access to email/internet of course.

The Big Gig

bigjohnny80 wrote: »

Because only iPhone has access to email/internet of course.

Think you have misunderstood. My post was a response to the thought that the iPhone is not a business solution. How can an iPhone not be a business solution with all it's functionality. I didn't by any means say it is the only business solution.

Quyxat

What good would an Iphone do for you if corporate security policies dictates disabeling many of the features you'd bought it for in the first place.

cornbb

Yes, my company issue iPhones on a corporate plan. Its not difficult to create security policies, access policies etc via provisioning profiles (which are retrieved over the air). Multiple Exchange accounts are now supported. The Developer Program/App Store support enterprise deployment of apps (i.e. apps only available within a company, not via the app store).

OP, there is some good info online, both qualitative and quantitative, about corporate uptake of the iPhone. Read this for a start: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/apples-ipad-iphone-and-an-enterprise-halo-effect/36991

Apple products have never had a strong presence in the business world. I think it's likely that traditional aversion to Apple and dominance of Blackberry in business means that some companies are still resisting.

What good would an Iphone do for you if corporate security policies dictates disabeling many of the features you'd bought it for in the first place.

Security policies can be used merely to ensure that a passcode lock is set, etc. That's the only "restriction" that my company has implemented.

I'm sure iPhones appeal to small businesses (where the the person siging off the invoices would also like a new phone!) but it's going to be much harder for Apple to penetrate the large corporate market.

They have already made a massive impact in the large corporate market:

Cook said following Apple’s earnings that “more than 80 percent of the Fortune 100″ are planning or evaluating the iPhone and Apple is seeing good momentum in the Fortune 500. That momentum is transcending into education institutions, said Cook.

kjl

JDxtra wrote: »

What about the handset cost? A standard Blackberry < €300. Basic iPhone > €700. Obviously carriers will give you discounts based on volume and contract - but these are the base rates you would be paying for replacement handsets.

What about your Exchange infrastructure? Many have invested in BES servers tied into this. Complicating this with the extra infrastructure to securely support iPhones as well doesn't sound appealing to budget constrained IT managers.

Remember many large companies only want to offer their staff email on the move. Cost is everything. Keeping their employees pimped out with the latest phone means nothing to these companies.

I'm sure iPhones appeal to small businesses (where the the person siging off the invoices would also like a new phone!) but it's going to be much harder for Apple to penetrate the large corporate market.

Handset cost is relevant to connectivity

Not true, Ive seen a lot of companies take on the iPhone platform, salesforce for example.

And as for the exchange stuff, come on, don't be stupid.

JDxtra

kjl wrote: »

Handset cost is relevant to connectivity

Not true, Ive seen a lot of companies take on the iPhone platform, salesforce for example.

And as for the exchange stuff, come on, don't be stupid.

Please explain oh knowledgeable one?

hmmm

kjl wrote: »

No offence but this is utter rubbish, there is no difference having an iPhone or a blackberry when connecting to the company's network.

Blackberry & iPhone network connectivity is completely different, this is not a case of the IT department flicking a switch to move to iPhones. Not to mention the security implications of using iPhones.

displaced dub

i work with a seriously big Dutch company headquartered in Amsterdam and they only have Balckberry servers and will not entertain the iPhone.

Why i asked one of the it guys?

Because the CFO loves his blackberry so if you want mail on the move get one.
As an agent of the company im outside all this and my iphone will only be prised from my cold dead hand.

cros13

My company has 3 iphones left on the corporate plan. We moved to Google Apps last year so I've pushed as many users off iphones as possible. I've also got rid of all the Nokias and all blackberries bar the CEO's (Who got a Google Nexus One to try out for a week and promptly bought another blackberry).

The iphones we did deploy (under orders from the CTO) were given out before we realized that they would not be covered under the corporate plan. Which meant our roaming cost went through the roof. One handset had €2000 in roaming data the month the iphones were issued.

kjl

JDxtra wrote: »

Please explain oh knowledgeable one?

hmmm wrote: »

Blackberry & iPhone network connectivity is completely different, this is not a case of the IT department flicking a switch to move to iPhones. Not to mention the security implications of using iPhones.

http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/07/10/how-to-set-up-iphone-exchange-activesync/

Exchange server is a standard, connecting to mail, callender and contacts would be exactly the same.

As for security, having the phone connect to the server via VPN would be as secure as any other platform.

And as for the set up in the IT department excuse, setting up the iphone would take the same time it would to set up any other phone.

Can either of you give me a specific example of security leak or connectivity issue the iPhone would have a problem dealing with?

hmmm

kjl wrote: »

http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/07/10/how-to-set-up-iphone-exchange-activesync/

Exchange server is a standard, connecting to mail, callender and contacts would be exactly the same.

I realise from your previous posts you think all this techie stuff is easy, but I'll give it a go anyway even though it may be futile.

Blackberry uses a BES server which sits in front of Exchange and pushes email, calendar etc from Exchange, through the BES, through RIMs servers in their data centre and then back through the mobile network to the Blackberry. This means that no inbound firewall ports need to be opened and all the work is done by the BES server, including pushing emails to your Blackberry.

Apple uses Microsoft Activesync which is required to be enabled on the Exchange server and is somewhat notorious for reliability (ymmv). You then have to figure out how you are going to get your iPhones to connect back to your network, which may mean opening ports on the firewall or setting up a VPN connection. Of course, if you use a VPN connection you have now got a half arsed push email functionality so you'll probably want to come up with a better plan won't you? You could do port 443 access over the Internet as long as you don't mind putting your corporate email server on the Internet - what could possibly go wrong? Finally you have Apple showing their lack of commitment to corporate testing by releasing iOS4 which has been crashing Exchange servers and only releasing a fix a couple of weeks later.

http://www.fiercecio.com/techwatch/story/bug-ios4-exchange-activesync-hammers-servers/2010-07-02

As for security, having the phone connect to the server via VPN would be as secure as any other platform.

Can either of you give me a specific example of security leak or connectivity issue the iPhone would have a problem dealing with?

How about the iPhone history? Encryption pre-iOS4 was a joke, easily circumvented (iOS4 encryption hasn't been around long enough to tell whether the changes have fixed the problem). Also pre-3GS iPhones reporting back to the Exchange server that they were encrypted, even though they never had encryption functionality? Security is about more than just the security of the connection. What happens if a corporate user loses an iPhone where they have disabled the PIN? Or if sensitive information is stored on a pre-IOS4 iPhone where the encryption is little short of useless? What happens if the iPhone is lost - the Blackberry can be remotely wiped easily, not so easy on the iPhone.

How do you push policies out to users, and ensure these policies are applied? Not so easy. You can use certain Activesync policies to enable functionality which will address many of the security problems, but this all requires the IT department figuring out a morass of Apple bumf which is more marketing than technical, plus having to deal with the idiosyncracies of Activesync and iPhone interaction.

The cost as was mentioned earlier is also a huge deal. Potentially massive data bills and the costs to replace lost of damaged iPhones.

So in short, yes of course businesses can support iPhones, but only with a lot of effort and cost that may be better spent elsewhere. You see little penetration of iPhone usage at major firms who have the ability to look into the technical detail, they have seen through the hype.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/chetw/g/2010/05/20/iphone-encryption/
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/07/iphone_encrypti.html
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=515690
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/other-iphone-lie-vpn-policy-support-865
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/apple-betrays-iphones-business-hopes-723

In saying all that, there is better alternatives for iPhone which provide both supportability and security. E.g. Good Technology, Sophos. If you want your IT department to provision iPhones, this may be the direction they should be looking at.

Fat_Fingers

Same here as "hmmm" expained above. We have about 2000+ corporate phones. User experience (for accessing emails) and IT support cost can not support Iphone in large corporate environment, at least not in ours. Cost/benefits analysis doesn’t support roll out of Iphones. Blackberry is used for users who need access to corporate emails and Nokia’s for everyone else.
I use my own Iphone.

Rew

I have them here, no big deal. Far easier then installing then installing BES (+ the costs of that). ActicveSync works by default over 443 and if your using Outlook Web Access your have pretty much done all the setup already.

Exchange can (and is recommended to) be deployed with a front end server in the DMZ and the backend servers talk to that. I think its laughable that people think that your email traversing your network, the internet, RIM's DC, your operators servers and network is in some way more secure and reliable.

The public Internet has its risks, so does crossing the road but we all get on with it.

Fat_Fingers

Rew wrote: »

I have them here, no big deal. Far easier then installing then installing BES (+ the costs of that). ActicveSync works by default over 443 and if your using Outlook Web Access your have pretty much done all the setup already.

Exchange can (and is recommended to) be deployed with a front end server in the DMZ and the backend servers talk to that. I think its laughable that people think that your email traversing your network, the internet, RIM's DC, your operators servers and network is in some way more secure and reliable.

The public Internet has its risks, so does crossing the road but we all get on with it.

I think you work for small to medium size company where cost is not prohibitive and security standards are not SOX. We have 6 main hub Exchange farms. North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Chine (separate to rest of the Asia), Africa. Cost vs benefits doesn’t work in Iphone favour at the moment.
Would i like to have Iphone on corporate plan - Sure i would!
Would i like to support it ? – absolutely not!