Tablets Attract Early Adopters in Commercial Applications

The evolution of new devices, and the adoption of those devices in the workplace, sometimes hinges on a single application. Mercator continues its on-going analysis of the use of mobile technology in corporate payments and corporate financial management, and the role of the tablet versus the smartphone is a pressing question for developers. In treasury applications, the additional “real estate” of the tablet interface has proven itself to be attractive to users.

Are there additional reasons why a treasury manager might desire a tablet? We recently noticed the startup called MeLLmo, which brings business analytics and data envisioning to mobile devices. Initially conceived for the iPhone, MeLLmo’s Roambi was one of the earliest commercial applications for the iPad.

MeLLmo describes the problem they set out to solve:

“How do you quickly access and conveniently navigate company reports and data that were designed for the desktop, on a screen the size of your palm?”

Clearly, extending their remit to the tablet environment adds substantial power to the application. Venture capitalists agree; last September MeLLmo received $30 million in funding from Sequoia Capital. The application has already been launched globally, and according to the company, “integrates seamlessly with existing systems from IBM Cognos, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP BusinessObjects, Salesforce Sales Cloud, and Google Docs.”

Would a treasury manager want a tablet strictly for payments and cash management? Possibly not. Would a treasury manager want a tablet if they could also use it to access and visualize data from multiple internal and external reporting sources? You bet! Banks and vendors in the domain of mobile corporate banking absolutely must consider tablet-based and tablet-optimized functionality.

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