We Asked, They Told
For our RFI we brought back NWC Inc., this time masquerading as a midsize manufacturer of specialty widgets and sprockets. NWC Inc.'s mobile strategy thus far has been limited to voice services, with subsidized cell phone plans for executives, salespeople and critical on-call operations staff. But the company just opened a sales office in Dublin, Ireland, so we wanted the ability to distribute mobile e-mail services internationally. NWC Inc. is standardized on Microsoft Exchange for groupware but is interested in what other platforms are supported.
Our questions were designed to draw out details on architectures, client features, security, geographical scope, middleware requirements and more. For instance, would our European employees be able to use Symbian-based phones like the Nokia E61i, which have proved popular across the pond, or will they be forced into another OS? Would we be able to leverage our mobile e-mail partnership to develop more complex mobile applications? How about security—will confidential sales data e-mailed into the field stay safe?
We were surprised at the level of parity in responses. Once, RIM's BlackBerry was the only game in town for enterprise-class mobile e-mail. Today, all the vendors that participated presented what we believe are credible stories. RIM still has the lead when it comes to security, not surprising given its lengthy experience in the field and success in verticals like banking. For-cross platform compatibility, however, Nokia presented the most complete picture, obviously drawing on its experience working with carriers.
As for management, Microsoft has made strides with its ActiveSync protocol and is slated to beef up policy-enforcement features in an upcoming revision of ActiveSync and Exchange 2007. Meanwhile, Sybase recently introduced tighter integration between its mobile e-mail offering and its Afaria mobile device management suite, while Motorola Good has integrated its policy management product into Good Mobile Messaging.
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