July 06, 2006

Motorola Q Users Get CRM Access From Windows Mobile 5.0

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Apresta, vendors of wireless access products, have announced support for the Motorola (News - Alert) Q, the latest cellular smart phone that runs handheld applications on Microsoft's (News - Alert) Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system.

With Apresta, company officials claim, Motorola Q users can now "gain seamless, real-time access to data from any back-end enterprise database system, including CRM, ERP, financials, and more."

The phone is designed to give users real-time access to enterprise data formatted specifically for handheld devices, such as the Motorola Q, BlackBerry, or Treo.

What Apresta's selling is a way to connect multiple back end systems, access and organize data fields from those systems, and then publish the data to the handset. It provides real-time, two-way access to customer and account information at the point of need, when a salesperson is calling on a customer, or a service representative is on site.

And Apresta officials say their product accommodates data access security, supports changing business rules, and lets you build custom reports and displays without any programming.

Last November industry observer Tony Dennis  noted that Apresta launched software made to "help enterprises access business data on existing wireless devices like the RIM Blackberry."

"It's exactly the sort of application which RIM has been talking about," Guy Tweedale, md for Northern Europe with Saratoga Systems, Apresta's parent company, told Dennis. "That's why the e-mail envelope has disappeared from the RIM logo."

Apresta claimed at the time it had the only software that provides access to enterprise applications, like CRM, without any programming. Its parent company, Saratoga, has a "long history of taping into enterprise data through selling CRM systems," Dennis noted.

Rich Koch, vice president of marketing for Apresta says part of the marketing strategy is that with Apresta, "we can increase the value of the Motorola Q for mobile workers, giving users access to information when they need it. Now customers can access sales reports, financial data, ERP and CRM information, inventory, pricing or delivery data, and more from their Motorola Q."

The Apresta data delivery model is similar to iTunes for music delivery: Rather than having to download an application, Apresta delivers selected data when and where you want it.

Apresta is a division of CRM software vendor Saratoga Systems.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims’ columnist page.

(source: http://news.tmcnet.com/news/-crm-apresta-/2006/07/06/1705336.htm)