AT&T, Antenna Team up for Mobile Oracle Siebel CRM

Antenna Software, a vendor of mobile enterprise technologies, has announced that it has aligned with AT&T (News - Alert) Inc. to sell mobile customer relationship management (CRM) products, based on AT&T's wireless data network, to the enterprise market.

This relationship gives AT&T customers access to Antenna's mobile products for Oracle (News - Alert) Siebel and Siebel CRM On Demand on a variety of wireless devices.

AT&T is also using AMP Studio, Antenna's mobile application development environment, part of the Antenna Mobility Platform, to enable Siebel CRM and deploy to its wireless business-to-business sales team on BlackBerry (News - Alert), Palm and Pocket PC devices.

"Our alliance with Antenna Software underscores how wireless data is exploding across the enterprise space," said Jeff Bradley, vice president, wireless business data services, for AT&T in explaining the move. "Companies are now moving beyond wireless e-mail and exploring other business processes that can be extended to a mobile environment using their existing wireless handheld."

Bradley characterized the offering from AT&T and Antenna Software as an example of "next-generation wireless data products."

Officials of both firms called the alliance between Antenna and AT&T a "significant next step" in the companies' five-year relationship, and an effort to make mobile CRM "truly enterprise-ready" using ATT's wireless data network and Antenna's mobile product. AT&T and Antenna will offer dedicated sales and marketing resources for enterprise CRM adoption.

"The next few years represent a transitional period when companies should begin optimizing their mobility initiatives," Michael King, Research Director at Gartner (News - Alert), Inc. has said, adding that enterprises should look to invest in strategic mobile products -- capable of supporting multiple applications, managing devices, and securing data and transport -- and limit tactical deployments that support only single applications.

A couple years ago Antenna Software announced availability of the Antenna A3 SmartClient for Siebel CRM OnDemand. The product had recently completed the Siebel Validation Program to assure integration with Siebel.

The Antenna A3 combined a device-side, always-on smart client with Antenna's on-demand mobile services platform, the Any2Any Control Center, "bringing Siebel CRM OnDemand to mobile users," company officials said at the time.

It promised guaranteed 100 percent secure access to CRM data (even without wireless coverage) from anywhere at anytime to any popular mobile device.

Combining the functionality of Siebel CRM OnDemand, with the mobile services of Antenna A3, company officials said, gave field sales teams real-time delivery and management of critical account data "while having complete visibility and control over the entire sales process."

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) Net.  For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]