Wrist-based wearable devices have captured headlines recently as Samsung has rolled out an array of smartwatches; Apple (News - Alert) has detailed plans for a smartwatch to become available next year; and Fitbit, Garmin, Jawbone, Nike, Pebble, and array of other companies join the increasingly crowded fitness band and smartwatch fray. For the most part, these efforts are consumer plays. But Samsung (News - Alert), already a leader in the smartwatch space, is working to bring the benefits of the smartwatch and other wearables to business environments as well.

Leveraging CRM and other enterprise-based systems for smartwatch applications could, for example, enable field workers to enter and receive dispatches and tasks more easily; allow employees in the financial vertical to receive alerts on their smartwatches when certain stocks hit a threshold; and let doctors and nurses more quickly and easily get important patient updates, Marc Brandenburg, Director, Technical Solutions - Business Innovations Group, told M2M Evolution. These are the kind of things you could use a smartphone for, but for which response time is critical, so leveraging smartwatches like Samsung’s new Gear S makes perfect sense, Brandenburg indicated.

Samsung’s enterprise wearable play is not specifically focused on the Gear S or smartwatches, however; the company also is planning to introduce a virtual reality headset called Gear VR that will work with the Galaxy Note 4 phablet and could be used to address business applications. The pair could, for example, be used to enable a real estate professional to virtually view a property, Brandenburg said.

The Samsung enterprise wearables sales team has been in place for about three years, so although the company’s business-focused efforts on the wearables front may not be as widely understood as its consumer play in this space, they are not brand new. But with the launch of Samsung 360 Services for Business, which the company unveiled just last month, the company is adding staff on the enterprise front, Brandenburg said.

Samsung 360 is a suite of services that includes enterprise mobility management, mobility support, and value-added services for applications, deployment, device care, and security. Previous to Samsung 360, the company has been offering KNOX and SAFE, the former of which is the company’s mobility management and security solution, and the latter of which has been around since 2011 and offers horizontal application hooks to MDM, application security, and VPN providers; IT compliance with various partners; horizontal solutions in partnership with others; and vertical solutions aimed at mobile professionals, entertainment/gaming, point of sale, field services, mobile learning, and health management applications. Samsung discussed SAFE during a 2012 ITEXPO keynote.