August 23rd is "ROLL OUT NEW POINTSYNC WEBSITE DAY"..!!!

Today is a great day around the office as we launch the new PointSync.com website. For years, our flagship product line needed proper representation online, and now that day has come. Here are some of the highlights of the new site:

General Design:

First, we wanted to have a super clean design that's easy on the eyes, easy to read and easy to navigate. The Home Page is a special place on any site. For ours, we wanted to take a highly technical topic and make it clear what our core value is to a potential customer. A combination of static and carousal style graphics keeps the eyes focused on the important content.

Product Pages:
There is a LOT to talk about with the PointSync Professional product and our developer plugin's & libraries. We wanted to find a place between overwhelming and not enough information, which is tough with such robust products. Take a look at the PointSync product pages for a good balance of screens shots, FAQ, technical info and other information.

Sync "U":
We also talk about synchronizing data a lot around here. Fact is, bullet-proof data synchronization is the core competency built into PointSync Professional . To explain the importance of our synchronization technology and how it fits into the enterprise, we made a whole page dedicated to the topic called Sync "U".

Case Studies:

We're proud to have some well known customers using PointSync Pro. Companies like Craig Hospital, Audi, Inspection Processing Services, FieldSync Assisted Care and others on board as PointSync Customers.

There is plenty more to look at on the site. Please take a few minutes and see what we're doing in the enterprise mobility space. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. See our Contact page for email addresses, phone numbers, etc.

Thanks for reading and visiting our new site!  The URL is: http://www.pointsync.com

PointSync Mobile Technologies

3 Reasons We Need Rugged Android Devices

For many of our customers who have incorporated a mobile solution into their business operations, robust and rugged handheld devices are an absolute must.  They need devices that can be drop-kicked across a warehouse floor, resist water sprayed directly on them or are completely sealed from dust, oil and other contaminants.  Companies like PSION | Teklogix, Intermec, Motorola (formerly Symbol) and DataLogic are industry leaders in this technology field and have such devices available if you're willing to shell out $1000 or more per unit.

While these devices are stellar in their ability to take a licking, they all continue to run on the aging Windows Mobile operating system. As a partner with some of these manufactures, we know they're considering releasing Android-base devices. We'd like to see them move quickly and get them to market...and here are three reasons why:

Soon Please...

1. The writing is on the wall!  The industry has changed at a frighteningly fast pace.  In the last three years, Android and iPhone devices have overtaken the market by reinventing how mobile devices work.  Windows Mobile remains entrenched in a usage model that was valid in the middle of the last decade.  In 2011, the stylus is no longer an option...devices are finger-driven.
2. Windows Mobile smartphones have all but vanished.  If a mobile app is designed for a person doing deliveries on a rugged device running Windows Mobile, an account manager who also uses the app for account and inventory lookups will need a Windows Mobile device as well.  Finding a small, inexpensive Windows Mobile smartphone is now very difficult, making it hard to build the app once and have it transition easily between different types of mobile workers and devices.
3. Deploy now, fill the holes later.  While Windows Mobile may be a more enterprise-ready operating system due to a longer history in the market, that has not stopped executives, managers and other employees from using their Android and iPhone devices for business purposes.  The cycle has always been to push the technology into the enterprise, figure out where the holes are, then build ways to fix those issues.  How about this?  Let's push to get Android into enterprise scenarios now, then resolve the sync and management issues with products like PointSync Professional!

As software developers, we hedge our bets on the most widely accepted platforms. Right now, Android owns the biggest share of the mobile platform war. According to industry studies, Android will grow to own 50% of the market by 2012!  In the near future, we'd like to see the same app we write for an account executive packing a Droid Pro also work on a high-end rugged device. Who will step to the plate first?  Whoever it is, we hope it happens soon.

Tim Cerami

Information Architect @ MobileDataForce

PointSync Professional 2.6 Ready - Adds Android Support

We are pleased to announce the release of PointSync Professional 2.6. 2.6 was created with one thing in mind, to offer our customers and partners the ability to support Android devices.  This rounds out our existing support for iOS (iPhone/iPad), BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices.

In case you missed the 2.5 release in February 2011, there were a handful of fixes, device support (iOS and BlackBerry), and features which includes support for 64-bit Windows servers.

Want to know more about where PointSync fits into your organization or as a partner possibility? Visit our website or call us at 208.384.1200.

“So You Want to Use Your iPhone for Work? Uh-oh.”

Just the kind of issues we affordably resolve today for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile. The key differences from some of the approaches mentioned are that we focus on the field worker, not an office worker in the field. Honestly, who needs 100% access from the field.  For that, give someone a laptop and Citrix for remote desktop access.

We aren’t focused on email or mobile web either. There are major players doing those things well.  Rather, we provide multi-platform support for access to enterprise systems through a mobile app layer on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile. Your developers – our middleware, PointSync Professional. We do it securely with some of the features and designs discussed in the article, including unique login to company app(s), encrypting info on device and in transit, leaving no sensitive data on the device, and centralized control through PointSync Manager of access and apps on a user and device basis. All the tools an IT manager might need to take advantage of mobile solutions in the field today, all major platforms, all through a *single* management interface.

The reality is that email and internet access rarely are the business solution. There is a real cost to losing data, having to repeat tasks, or partial syncs as a result of connectivity issues. There is a real cost to using email or paper forms as the first step in data collection, requiring further data input, calculations, and effort. There is a real cost to the delays of business processes that don’t have a real-time or near real-time impact on the organization.

Will simplicity, lower cost, and greater capabilities emerge and evolve overtime? Absolutely! But can you afford to try it on the cheap today and fail? Or ignore mobility, the ROI, and the other advantages mobile solutions offer until everyone is doing it? Most of our customers experience ROI of less than 6 months, with some recovering the costs of Enterprising their App™ on a mobile platform in less than 3 months.

Not sure about AT&T being consulted for a MEAP. Here is the Gartner Magic Quadrant in the space.  No AT&T to be found and some pretty big names struggling. Our system is based on Sybase, in its 6^th generation, very stable, and installed at some of biggest names in business, so we are feeling pretty good about our capabilities to support the enterprise in this space.

The reality today is that businesses, government, and other organizations need enterprise class technology to stay competitive, manage costs, and mitigate risks. We bring those capabilities to small- and medium-sized businesses, enterprise divisions, government projects, and SaaS mobility providers. They need to support mobile operating systems other than BlackBerry, provide the security and integration necessary to truly extend the existing systems and computing infrastructure, and to resolve the still very prevalent issues of mobility – enterprise sync challenges, working in and out of connectivity, performance, storage, and centralized management.

Check out the article by clicking on the title above and let us know if you’d like more information to Enterprise Your App™!