Antenna Software, leading mobile specialists, announced that Eaton Corporation, a global diversified power management company, has won the 2012 Forrester Groundswell Award in the category of Business-to-Employee Mobile Application for its Eaton PowerSourceTM App -- an interactive, multi-media iPad catalog app that is powered by the award-winning Antenna Mobility PlatformTM (AMP).
The Forrester Groundswell Awards recognize excellence in achieving business and organizational goals with social technology applications. The awards program was developed to support and recognize the principles outlined in the Forrester Research booksGroundswell: Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies (Harvard Business Press, 2008) and Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business (Harvard Business Press, 2010). The sixth annual Forrester Groundswell Awards in the B2E division were announced last week at the Forrester CIO Forum in Orlando, where Eaton was recognized for its innovation in Business to Employee Mobile Applications.
The PowerSource App is a powerful tool for Eaton's sales team and distributors that provides instant access to the company's 200,000+ hydraulic products via a mobile application for the iPad. By digitizing its extensive and dynamic product catalog on the PowerSource App for iPad, Eaton has empowered its representatives with current and engaging content, such as 3-D parts modeling, promotional and training videos, pricing configurations, competitive and lead-time info to help them sell smarter – and gain a competitive edge. Built for content consumption, the app is different from a website in that it takes advantage of the iPad's unique strengths including easy portability, portrait and landscape viewing modes, and multi-paned touch navigation. The application was released in November 2011 and has provided significant benefits to the field since, such as increased sales due to the shortened sales cycle, and reduced customer service calls, and cost savings associated with fewer printed materials. However the biggest benefit has been increased convenience for sales reps and distributors, as the app has truly changed how they interact with customers and where they work.
"This year, for the Forrester Groundswell Awards, we received many outstanding examples of how companies are empowering employees with mobile, social, and innovation programs," said Forrester Research Vice President and Principal Analyst Ted Schadler. "The mobile entries showcase the productivity improvements that come from tablet and smartphone apps in the hands of mobile employees. The social business entries highlight a growing sophistication in how companies empower employees with social tools to solve customer and business problems. The innovation entries demonstrate the difference that an engaged workforce can make in setting the agenda for business improvement."
"We are honored to receive the Forrester Groundswell Award, and are excited about the success of this innovative mobile application," said Eric Stager, Product Manager – Web and Mobile for Eaton Corporation. "From the moment we embarked on this project we knew it would be a game-changer in the manufacturing sales space and this recognition from Forrester Research serves as validation of that. With the help of our many mobile technology and design partners, like Antenna, PowerSource has enabled us to reinvigorate our business and provide an example to the industry on how to successfully create a mobile application for the field that transforms how we sell."
The application was created in partnership with AT&T, Antenna Software, and Hanson Inc., and is among the leading-edge apps included in Apple's Volume Purchasing Program for business-to-business apps. Eaton's PowerSource App is hosted in Antenna's AMP Mobile Cloud, providing real-time updates to the application while saving money by eliminating the need for Eaton to invest in costly hardware and software, and ensuring the greatest level of data security.
More information about PowerSource App is available at www.eatonpowersource.com. More information about the Forrester Groundswell Awards is available at: http://www.forrester.com/empowered
