IAnywhere Tool Manages Mobile Devices

When you've got myriad wireless devices and notebooks spread across your enterprise running any number of software applications, managing those devices can be an awesome task. IAnywhere Solutions Inc., the mobile and wireless subsidiary of database provider Sybase Inc., says it can help.

This week, iAnywhere will introduce its Mobile Manager, which lets IT teams distribute applications to any Windows operating system, including Pocket PC, and Palm OS devices via a wired or wireless network.

Here's how Mobile Manager works: A software agent is sent to users via E-mail and then downloaded on the devices when users synchronize them through cradle or wireless connections, says Rob Veitch, director of business development for iAnywhere. Once each device has an agent, IT managers can distribute updates and new apps from a central location. IT managers also can interrupt downloads--if bandwidth is needed elsewhere, for instance--and then restart them at a later time.

Joe Cardinale, general manager of Web and wireless solutions for Teoco Corp. in Fairfax, Va., hopes iAnywhere Mobile Manager will cut administration costs for Teoco's 15 to 20 mobile devices by a third. Teoco spends about $1,200 each year to support a device that costs around $500. The company specializes in software and services for the telecom and health-care industries, and Web and wireless offerings. It plans to resell the iAnywhere product to its customers. "It will enable things to be automated so you don't have to take your device to someone and spend a lot of time mucking with it," Cardinale says.

The software should be attractive to IT managers who remember the chaos of managing personal computers in the 1980s, says Dwight Davis, VP of analyst firm Summit Strategies. "Having learned the lesson once," he says, "IT is more savvy this time around that they need to get a handle on what's going on in the mobile space."

But not everyone is convinced that a Sybase subsidiary is the place to go for application management and distribution systems. "It's not something they have a great foundation in," says Ken Dulaney, a Gartner analyst. "For a company to move out of the database industry to the management industry is quite a jump."

Available now, iAnywhere Mobile Manager starts at $10,000, plus an additional $85 per software agent.