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AT&T has finally released the Apple iPhone to business and enterprise customers, according to TidBITs. Previously, US customers had to provide a Social Security Number to open an iPhone account. This rule made early adopters use their own credit to get an iPhone, although it didn’t stop sales to corporate and small business customers.

This new change should help AT&T unload its inventory of first-generation iPhones before a second-generation iPhone with 3G data services and stereo Bluetooth audio is announced in the next few months.

Software vendors like Salesforce.com needed this change to spur corporate adoption of iPhone CRM software, as I discussed on 30 October 2007. On 31 January 2008, I mentioned that iPhone applications are in the pipeline. I’d guess that availability may be tied to the second-generation iPhone release.

I discussed some business and enterprise issues related to the iPhone on 4 September 2007 and 6 July 2007.

The New York Times reported on 17 January 2008 that Sun is acquiring MySQL for US$1 billion. Sun will use MySQL’s technology and customer list to facilitate an entry into the US$15 billion database market.

I use MySQL to run billso.com. I am hoping that Sun will not change the company’s open source business model. Jeff Gould of Interop News asks an important question – did Sun pay too much? MySQL reported revenues of US$70 million last year. By Gould’s estimate, Sun needs to grow MySQL to US$500 million in sales revenue for this acquisition to work.

Regardless, Sun CEO Jon Schwartz claims his company is the largest OSS firm in the world. Sun now has an important piece of the LAMP stack – that’s the Linux kernel, the Apache web server, MySQL and the Perl, Python and PHP programming languages. This InfoWorld article has some additional background on the acquisition, and why LAMP is a very important piece of the Web, e-commerce and enterprise information systems.

See my article from 25 October 2007 for information about MySQL’s software development pact with Google.

I was rereading a student paper from last fall and came across a citation for this excellent comparison of the BlackBerry 8800 and the first generation iPhone. The reviewer compares the two devices from an enterprise user’s perspective. The BlackBerry carried the day with better syncing, real-time push email and WiFi connectivity, but the reviewer admits that the iPhone is a nicer looking product.

Rumors persist of a touchscreen BlackBerry model, possibly called the 9000 or the 9100. The keyboard is on the screen, similar to the iPhone. Executives would leap on these models, just for the “shiny new toy” factor alone. Mobile carriers would have a fresh weapon against iPhone carriers. An on-screen keyboard would certainly solve some interface problems for international BlackBerry users. Looks like the virtual keyboard is becoming a new key success factor for mobile devices.

I have several articles about the BlackBerry available. Just type “blackberry” in the search box or use this link.

I mentioned on 4 September and 6 July that Apple will explore business uses for the iPhone. It’s inevitable. Today, MacRumors, iPhone Alley and CNN.com, Apple and Salesforce.com are working on modified, CRM-capable iPhones. Mobile customer relationship management has become an important source of competitive advantage as companies face the rising expectations of their customers for fast, accurate, reliable assistance and support. Salesforce.com relies on BlackBerrys and Palm devices to meet these needs. Expanding their hardware support to the iPhone should help SalesForce.com retain existing enterprise customers.

From LA Weekly: the Los Angeles Unified School District attempted to roll all of its employees to a single payroll calendar. The conversion has been a disaster, as LAUSD managers failed to follow a basic tenet of information systems migration – parallel conversion. Keep running the old system running until the new system works!

It was January when the district’s new, $95 million payroll system started spewing out erroneous checks, underpaying some people, overpaying others, and creating such chaos that administrators now pay special counselors to deal with the psychological trauma.

The blunders persist despite $37.5 million in fix-it cash, and teachers are ratcheting up the pressure by boycotting faculty meetings and holding rallies. They marched on September 25 outside the LAUSD offices — “We won’t take it no more!” hundreds chanted…

Wikipedia’s article on parallel adoption is actually helpful, with a decent reference list of supporting articles. This concept is discussed in the IS 6100 textbook in chapter 12 on page 476. Both terms have similar meanings.

At the end of the day, employees expect an accurate paycheck

Parallel testing is all but required when a company moves large amounts of data processing to a new system. Developers rarely anticipate every possible exception that might affect a new information system.