Mobile operator Vodafone has teamed up with Microsoft to offer a
mobile access to Outlook on corporate servers.
Vodafone OpenLive is the first service to use Microsoft's Mobile
Information Server 2001, which allows users to access e-mail, group
diaries and contact books from any WAP-enabled device connected to
its network.
The company has one launch customer, cable provider NTL, with
systems integrators Hewlett-Packard, ICL and KPMG offering the
service in the UK.
Vodafone said it would, initially, target large corporate customers
with "hundreds of users". The service starts from £5 per user per
month and will be available on both existing GSM and GPRS
platforms.
The service does not operate with Lotus Notes, Novell Groupwise or
other similar non-Microsoft systems. A Vodafone representative
said, "This is not an exclusive agreement and we will be looking at
other platforms in the future." However, the company would not
discuss a timetable.
Analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers rate mobile e-mail and diary
applications as one of the top three applications for GSM and GPRS
services.
Research organisation Gartner claims that providing mobile data to
a workforce boosts productivity by an average 30%. With rival
analysts group IDC predicting that 1.2 billion devices will be WAP
capable by 2004, vendors of mobile solutions are keen to develop
services to businesses.
Geoff Chaplin, business development manager, mobile, at ICL, one of
the main UK integrators, said, "We have been working with Vodafone
for some time. We have internally deployed this solution as part of
the beta program."
ICL will offer OfficeLive as either a custom-built solution or an
integrated managed service. "We expect to see companies piloting
the solution before a larger roll-out but at this point I can't
give you any indication of what the cost of either service would
be." Chaplin said.
The only UK Company offering a similar Outlook service is ASP
Netstore, which launched its MAX2000 service earlier this year.
Unlike the Vodafone service, Netstore MAX has no facility to link
into existing corporate Microsoft Exchange servers.
Nick Beck, director of product management for Netstore, said:
"Microsoft Mobile Information Server is very good infrastructure
but what has been released so far only gives you access to Exchange
5.5 and 2000. If you look to the future, you could, potentially,
offer more than just Outlook functions but the potential to
integrate with SQL, Lotus Notes and in theory Oracle databases."
Beck thought the cost of integration would be substantial. He also
pointed out that the Vodafone service only worked on the latest
versions of Exchange.
Netstore wants to offer a service that provides unified e-mail,
diary, contact and voice, irrespective of infrastructure, but could
not offer any details.
The Vodafone service will be launched first in the UK. Depending on
its success, a pan-European service, rumoured to be in conjunction
with Compaq, is planned for the future.
Will Garside