XcelleNet, Inc. stated that customer demand has redefined the traditional mobile management market. As enterprises expanded their initial mobile projects, they learned that stand-alone management solutions are insufficient.

When businesses deploy applications to handheld computing devices they face two significant challenges: managing the mobile infrastructure (hardware, software, and networking assets) and synchronizing mobile data in the field with corporate systems that control the business process. Until now, if an organization needed a comprehensive management technology and a means to synchronize distributed data, these challenges could only be met by deploying two distinct solutions: one to manage the mobile infrastructure and one to manage data synchronization. The end result was a costly, complex endeavor.

XcelleNet sought to change this problem when it added data synchronization to its Afaria mobile management suite. The company=92s Afaria Sync Manager includes email and PIM synchronization with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino Groupware servers, and synchronization with enterprise databases such as Oracle, Sybase and SQL. In addition, the company also introduced Afaria Document Manager for Handhelds, assuring that workers in the field have instant access to the most up to date documents to do their jobs and keep overall corporate operations on track.

XcelleNet CEO Joan Herbig explains the importance of uniting data synchronization with traditional mobile management in a recent paper, “Taming the Mobile Beast.”