By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) - SAP said on Tuesday that new software for sales-force automation that it is hailing as one of the most user-friendly products to date would be compatible with Apple Inc’s iPhone. SAP, the world’s biggest maker of business management software, will include the program as part of new sales-force automation software that it is launching this month.
“The iPhone has become such a popular thing,” said Bob Stutz, a SAP senior vice president who is responsible for developing the company’s customer relationship management software. “Everybody wants the ease of use of the iPhone.” The first generation of the iPhone software will load business contacts, information on sales prospects and account data onto the device, Stutz said.
SAP is breaking with precedent by introducing versions of the new software that are compatible with the iPhone ahead of ones for mobile devices that businesses traditionally use. These include Research in Motion’s Blackberry, Palm Inc’s Treo and devices that run on software from Microsoft Corp. Stutz said that SAP had decided to introduce the iPhone software ahead of programs for those devices at the request of its salespeople, saying they prefer using iPhones to the other devices.
The iPhone software, part of a new sales-force automation suite from SAP, uses a Web-based interface with drag-and-drop tools similar to ones available on Google Inc.
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