Mobile software maker AvantGo Inc. recently conducted a survey of personal digital assistant (PDA) users and determined that 92 percent of those polled would access a corporate portal or Intranet from a mobile device at least once a day if they had the technology. More than 74 percent of the respondents said that accessing their company corporate information via a PDA would be more or equally useful to them than from a desktop PC.
The overall sentiment of the poll was that mobile access to company data such as corporate and personnel directories, training and education materials, company news and press releases, and corporate policies and guidelines would significantly increase productivity when away from the office.
With this supporting data in mind, AvantGo Wednesday began shipping the M-Business Server 5.0 Web Edition, a mobile infrastructure alternative to its more costly AvantGo M-Business Server 5.0 Application Edition that was released last month for supporting mobile enterprise applications, XML web services, and the Internet on mobile and wireless devices.
The 5.0 Web Edition is targeted at businesses that want to provide wireless, Web-based access to business information stored on corporate portals and Intranets for employees in the field at a third of the price per user than that of the Application Edition.
Using Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage, Vignette, or Interwoven, corporate IT managers can create customized content channels and then remotely subscribe individual end users to these channels from a centrally accessible, web-based console. Channels can be delivered wirelessly or via cradle synchronization to mobile devices.
The 5.0 supports HTML 3.2, graphics, tables, and pull down menus, in addition to online and offline form collection and submission, and can function on a variety of mobile operating systems based on Palm OS, Pocket PC, and RIM BlackBerry, and wireless devices manufactured by HP/Compaq, Symbol, Palm, Sony, and Handspring.
“AvantGo M-Business Server 5.0 Web Edition is a straightforward solution for organizations to quickly, effectively and inexpensively mobilize their corporate portal or intranet,” said Richard Owen, AvantGo’s CEO. “AvantGo M-Business Server 5.0 Web Edition is a completely complementary product to our high-end development platform for mobile enterprise applications, Application Edition, which enables web services, XML, a database API, JavaScript and more for those developing rich, interactive enterprise applications.”
Customized versions of the 5.0 Web Edition have been successfully adapted by the U.S. Senate, Alcatel, petroleum conglomerate BP, and Harvard Medical School, which uses the mobile solution so that medical students can interact with course calendars, class notes, and syllabi on handheld devices.
The release of the M-Business Server 5.0 Application was warmly received by industry heavyweights McKesson Corporation, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Microsoft, Palm, Onyx Software, E.piphany, Plumtree Software, and Arcadia, Telispark, and AvantGo is reportedly in talks with several companies, including Microsoft and Palm, to integrate AvantGo solutions with other mobile offerings.
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