Motorola, NewsGator To Extend Corporate Newsfeeds To Mobile Workers

Motorola has agreed to mobilize NewsGator Technologies' platform for aggregating newsfeeds, so corporations looking to push information to smartphone-equipped workers can use it.

Under the deal announced this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev., Motorola would deliver through its mobile services group content aggregated by NewsGator's Enterpriser Server, which is deployed by companies to push content to workers behind firewalls. Through Motorola, workers could access the content over a broad range of devices, including the Motorola Q, Samsung BlackJack and the Palm Treo.

NewsGator offers consumer and corporate software that aggregates and manages content pushed from Web sites using a standard format called RSS, really simple syndication.

Corporations often use RSS technology to push information to sales managers and staff. Such information could include customer activity, market information, order and invoice data, or promotion alerts. The Motorola-NewsGator deal would deliver the same content to mobile workers. In addition, corporations could send secured information from the public Web.

Motorola plans to implement the agreement through its Good Technology unit, which was formed late last year following the acquisition of a company by the same name. The Motorola group offers technology for wireless access to corporate e-mail, calendar and contact applications, and intranets.

Motorola and NewsGator launched their initial offering this week. The service enables corporations to access and read NewsGator-managed RSS feeds within the Good Technology mobile-phone client. The companies plan to enhance the service during the first half of the year through a joint development program.