Adding mobility to business applications has been elevated to the top of the priority list for companies managing global operations, a traveling sales force, and aftermarket field service requirements. To date, however, making that back-office application - be it ERP, SFA, or CRM - portable, has been more problematic than practical.
That's because it meant engaging the IT department in a complex integration exercise that typically included a central database to consolidate and replicate all of the data, which then needed to be synchronized across all kinds of devices, such as the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile PDA, or the iPhone.
"It was a big job. In fact, an almost insurmountable job, which explains why adoption of applications in the business mobile space has been limited," said Benjamin Wesson, vice president of product management at Dexterra Inc., a provider of middleware and applications used to manage mobile workforces.
In an effort to make mobility simple, Dexterra has developed what it claims is an innovative data abstraction layer. In August, the company was issued U.S. patent number 7,366,460 for its work on the abstraction technology. Although Dexterra has been using the technology in its Concert platform for a few years, the patent award, Wesson said, validates what Dexterra set out to do when it started as a company eight years ago. The mission: Accelerate the adoption of mobile applications through a seamless integration framework.