Research in Motion has given its Blackberry Enterprise
Server (BES) support for web services to enable wireless access to
enterprise systems such as SAP.
The company's aim with the 4.1 release of BES is to move
Blackberry beyond push e-mail. It has introduced a development tool
called MDS 4.1 to help businesses create links between BES and an
enterprise system using web services developed either with
Microsoft .net or Java Enterprise Edition.
The MDS tool can be used to create a mobile application enabling
a Blackberry user to access an enterprise system like SAP.
While such applications can be accessed through a web browser
over a wireless connection, David Wilmering, director of product
marketing at RIM, said the browser user interface did not always
suit handheld wireless access if the screen space is limited.
Instead, MDS allows a developer to create a custom user
interface for SAP, or other enterprise systems that run a client
application on the Blackberry.
Access to the enterprise system is via an MDS application that
runs on the Blackberry which communicates directly with BES.
Tony Cripps, service manager for wireless software at analyst
Ovum, said although mobile devices have been able to connect to
enterprise systems over a wireless connection for some time, "It is
important that the [mobile] application can run when it is not
connected to the network."
