One buzzword with legs is mobility. We hear the term everywhere these days. Moreover, it seems workforces are becoming more mobile by the day and knowledge workers are being created in segments previously not considered to be in this category. For example maintenance and housekeeping services in hotels are slowly becoming automated and have the latest mobile tools allowing their employers to be aware of their presence at all times.

 

Another buzzword we hear all the time is convergence. I had a recent conversation with Nokia executives about convergence and how it relates to their vision of mobility. Much of this discussion centered around the recently released Intellisync Mobile Suite 8.0 which is a set of full-featured mobility application solutions.

 

The company’s goal in this release is to allow an enterprise to take voice and data to mobile platforms

 

Release 8.0 addresses many of the challenges in any organization. For example it handles wireless e-mail such as push-based synchronization from OS vendors such as Novell and Microsoft and hosted e-mail platforms such as Hotmail and Yahoo as well as any IMAP server.

 

In addition the suite handles mobile device management which is decoupled from e-mail allowing a simple management interface to multiple mobile devices such as smart phones and laptops.

 

Furthermore you can use this solution to plug right into a systems management console such as Tivoli or HP OpenView. This allows MIS departments to see how mobile assets are connected with one another. In addition you can see the location of devices and set security policies. Another nice touch is the ability to install software remotely on devices. It also allows you to upgrade firmware and update security policies.

 

Perhaps one of the most useful features of this software family is the file synchronization capability allowing an army of devices to have the latest version of office documents. Files could be stored originally on an intranet or even on the internet.

 

End users can subscribe to the content most appropriate to them and the handheld computers will be kept up to date. Moreover, documents can be pushed to a salesforce. I am told sales documents are pushed to the Nokia salesforce in this manner.

 

While we are in the mood to synchronize, it should come as no surprise Nokia also allows application synchronization meaning a record can be updated on a mobile device and seamlessly updated in the corporate CRM system. The usual suspect standards are at work here – XML, SOAP and web services.

 

There is an FMC or fixed mobile convergence application as well allowing clients sitting on various devices to connect with the corporate PBX. You can also use WiFi telephony on a corporate campus or at Starbucks. Users can have business and personal personas allowing different call routing behavior.

 

The various modules in this bundle can be purchased together or individually. Be sure to contact Nokia directly for details or check out this page and by the way this suite of products works with or without Nokia devices.

 

I am told by company executives that many organizations are able to justify the expense of the entire software suite simply by purchasing the Call Connect product which offers the FMC solution. It is just another classic example of VoIP arbitrage being used to further MIS and telecom budgets.