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The new report places IBM in the Leaders Quadrant, as measured by completeness of vision and execution ability of IBM Worklight, IBM’s mobile application development platform. Acquired by IBM in February 2012, IBM Worklight is a member of the IBM MobileFirst family of solutions. In just one year, IBM has advanced from the Niche Quadrant to the Leaders Quadrant.

Today’s announcement follows a string of strong showings for IBM MobileFirst services and software capabilities, including IBM Worklight, in Gartner Magic Quadrants this summer. In July, IBM was named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Security Testing. IBM is also named a visionary in Magic Quadrants for Managed Mobility Services and Mobile Device Management.

According to the report, as this market reaches early mainstream status, Gartner expects Leaders to be profitable, and to present lower risk and consistently high project results as the market begins to consolidate and competition grows. Leaders must not only be good at cross-platform development and deployment, but also have a good vision of the multichannel enterprise, support for standards, a solid understanding of IT requirements, and scalable channels and partnerships to market. Leaders must provide platforms that are easy to purchase, program, deploy and upgrade. Leaders can focus primarily on either business-to-consumer or business-to-enterprise, but vision and execution scores are higher for vendors that can cover both use cases today.

“IBM MobileFirst represents the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of services and software to help clients benefit from the emerging mobile economy,” said Phil Buckellew, vice president, IBM Mobile Enterprise. “Today, with 90 percent of mobile users keeping their device within arm’s reach 100 percent of the time, businesses need assurance that mobile apps can be deployed instantly and across a range of mobile devices including iOS and Android phones and tablets. This is where IBM MobileFirst portfolio excels.”

Colmobil drives greater customer service and improved efficiency with new mobile app

As part of this news, IBM is announcing that Colmobil, a leading automotive company in Israel, sole representative of Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Mitsubishi, is using IBM MobileFirst solutions to boost efficiency and improve customer service. From garages to waiting rooms, Colmobil’s new mobile app unlocks the data stored in its systems and makes it accessible for employees and customers from any mobile device, including smartphones, tablets, display screens and kiosks. Using the new app, mechanics, team leaders and department managers can easily view progress of every vehicle the company is servicing and make better informed decisions to improve workflow. In addition, customers are provided real-time information regarding status of vehicle treatment from LCD screens in the waiting room or on the go via mobile devices.

“By teaming with IBM MobileFirst, we are now able to bring meaningful data to the right people, anytime, anywhere and in an easy to navigate format,” said Gil Katz, vice president of business technology, Colmobil. “With this mobile initiative, we have succeeded in our goal to revamp both the customer and employee experience. Not only have we increased the ratio of vehicles that are ready at the time promised to customers, we’ve also been able to improve mechanics on the workshop floor.”

Using IBM Worklight, Colmobil was able to build a single mobile computing platform that eliminated the complexity of various business processes, devices and operating systems. The mobile solution also provides Colmobil with a highly integrated and secure platform that allows for flexibility in a fast moving technology market.

To download a copy of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms, click here: http://ibm.co/13TU2Dm