There are many, many uses of an iPad in business. InfoWorld.com has selected the productivity suite that every business iPad should have, but individual employees have plenty of work needs that require specialty apps.
To help companies direct their employees to the apps that can help fulfill those niche needs, InfoWorld.com offers the following categorized list of business apps.
[ InfoWorld reveals the best office apps for your business iPad users. | Learn how to manage iPads, iPhones, Androids, BlackBerrys, and other smartphones in InfoWorld's 20-page Mobile Management Deep Dive PDF special report. ]
The categories are:
- Email and calendar
- To-do and task management
- Databases
- Mind-mapping and whiteboarding
- Diagramming and charting
- Conferencing
- Kiosk and display usage
- File management and printing
- Cloud storage and FTP
- Remote access
- SharePoint access
- ERP and CRM access
- Analytics
- Business travel
- Business miscellany
In this article, you'll find links to the apps' download pages at the U.S. iTunes Store; note that prices are subject to change and were current when this article was originally published.
Email and calendar
If your company uses Lotus Notes, you'll need IBM's free Lotus Notes Traveler app, which can connect to version 8.5.1 or later of the Lotus Notes server and act as the client for email, calendaring, and contacts management.
If your company runs Novell's GroupWise and WebAccess is enabled, use the $6 GW Mail app from Ghost Pattern software to connect to GroupWise Server versions 6 through 8 for email access. Ghost Pattern has the free GW Lite app to test compatibility. (You can use Apple's Mail app instead if your IT group installs the recently released Data Synchronizer Mobility Pack add-on to its GroupWise 8 server.) Ghost Pattern has the $4 GW Calendar app to let you manage your GroupWise calendar; it too requires enabling WebAccess on the GroupWise server.
If you want to create form letters, consider Christian Fries' $4 Mailer. It lets you create email templates you can then fill in. You can also attach various kinds of files directly to your messages.
EuroSmartz's $7 CalPrint for iPad lets you print your calendars, as well as organize them and their tasks. It pulls in appointments from the iPad's Calendar app, so you don't have to maintain a separate calendar.