Innovation is a key company priority … but it’s not just for customers. eBay Inc. recently launched a beta test of an iPhone app that provides access to the most frequently referenced information on eBay's intranet and ebayinc.com, the company’s corporate site – without the need for an RSA token.
“Innovation extends to how we communicate to and with our employees … and engagement is one of our primary aims,” said Alan Marks, SVP of Global Communications and the executive sponsor of the corporate app. “What better way to engage and reach employees than through devices they carry with them constantly? Going forward, we’re going to enable employees to connect –with each other and with the company – in more useful, intuitive ways.”
Led jointly by Corporate Communications, IT and the eBay mobile team, the app will launch late this year to all employees. Included in the beta feature set are:
- Feed of stories, news from eBay's intranet
- Latest global messages from John Donahoe
- Stock feed
- People look-up
- Conference room directory (includes both polycom and phone number for the room)
- Global events
- Quick info (guest wireless pass, bldg addresses, etc.)
- Videos (feed from video channel on ebayinc.com)
Elizabeth Woyke, Forbes.com’s expert on mobile technology, who previously covered eBay’s “smorgasbord of mobile applications that make it faster, easier or simply more fun” to use its services, has provided her take on the company’s corporate iPhone application. “The app functions like a mobile, interactive version of the company’s Intranet,” she wrote.
Woyke noted that Steve Yankovich, eBay’s Vice President of Mobile, has cited increased employee productivity as a goal for the internal application, and early beta testers have high praise for it.