by Rebecca Burn-Callander - Thursday, 4th September 2008 -

Apple’s online application store has been flooded with clever (and not so clever) programmes to soup up your iPhone and transform it into a portable office. Here are the pick of the bunch from the lovely people at Silicon.com.

1. Oracle Business Indicators

This app provides real-time, secure access to business performance information. You can download the tool for free, but you must already have a licensed copy of Oracle's BI software running on your company's servers.

The iPhone application hooks up to your on-premise software and pulls up reports and analytics on your phone. It’s business intelligence at its cleverest. According to Oracle, the software has seen 23,055 downloads since it became available.

2. Sybase iAnywhere Mobile Office

Sybase describes this app as “the mobile inbox of the future”. It’s a nifty programme, based on the Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange platforms, that piggy-backs your company email server.

The software provides secure access to email and contacts without messing with your company’s messaging infrastructure. And have no fear that the software will become incompatible as new models of iPhone hit the market - Sybase has said it plans to update the app accordingly.

3. SAP

The king of  business management software has released its iPhone version of a sales force automation suite. The app loads sales contacts and other customer-account information onto your phone for easy analysis on the move.

SAP has released the software for the iPhone ahead of platforms such as the BlackBerry or Treo. Why? Its own salespeople told the firm that they preferred the iPhone to other handsets.

4. Salesforce.com Mobile

This software connects users to their CRM records, so that contacts, accounts, tasks and other information is easily accessible. The free version is fine for viewing the data, but you have to sign up for the paid version to edit or amend information.

5. Web-based apps: Netsuite, SugarCRM, Zoho

These are not native iPhone apps but are launched via the phone's web browser. Some of the big names offering non-native apps include CRM vendors NetSuite and SugarCRM. They have released web-based versions of their product offerings.

Online office suite Zoho has also launched a mobile version of its productivity suite for the iPhone. This includes word editor, spreadsheet and e-mail programmes. You can view existing documents fine, but you can’t edit or create new ones.

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