Channel Pro - February 2008

Experience Is
the Best Teacher
ANALYSTS AND APPLICATION VENDORS AGREE:

For remote workforce applications to fly in the marketplace, they must be easy to use and fit seamlessly into the workflow of their intended vertical industries.

For some ISVs, industry knowledge comes firsthand. Borran Software, a provider of real estate applications, was founded by real estate brokers. At Airtime-Manager, a provider of time tracking and billing applications for law and professional service firms, President and CEO Jerry Fenzel has degrees in both accounting and law. The top executives at Pyxis Mobile can apply their previous experience as IT consultants to financial services firms directly to developing new mobile financial services applications.

And at Coras Works Corp., a provider of Web-
based collaborative software built on Microsoft’s

SharePoint platform that is accessible on any browser-equipped device, the line between company and customer is indistinguishable. “We are located in Reston, Va., but the vast majority of employees don’t work there,” says Larry Roshfeld, vice president of marketing. “We have a good sense of what works and what doesn’t, because we use our software to run our business.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS
VERTICAL NICHE APPLICATIONS

are the focus of ISVs (independent software vendors) that provide remote workforce solutions.

REMOTE WORKFORCE SOFTWARE should be intuitive and support existing workflows.

ISVs SHOULD PARTNER WITH LARGER COMPANIES that have a vested interest in promoting mobile technology, and thereby increase their market reach.

FOR MORE
INFORMATION
www.ChannelProOnline.com/feb/berry.html
www.ChannelProOnline.com/feb/nokia.html
www.palm.com/us (click the developer’s link)

companies tend to have finely tuned products that address specific needs very well,” says Peter Rysavy, president of Rysavy Research, a consulting firm in Hood River, Ore., that specializes in wireless technologies. ISVs that proffer in remote workforce solutions should go beyond mere customization and instead deliver precisely tailored solutions. “You’re not going to generate $100 million by addressing a market niche, but you can be successful,” he says.

PURSUING NICHE MARKETS IN NEED

Borran Software is an example of an ISV that saw a niche for mobile applications and pursued it. Founded in 1986, the Bellingham, Wash.-based company began by offering accounting and transaction management software specifically for the real estate industry. In 2005, Borran entered the mobile market with its purchase of Pocket Real Estate, software for PDAs that wirelessly delivers multiple listing service data complete with photos, contact information, and mortgage calculators, and showing schedules to licensed real estate agents and brokers. (Pocket Real Estate is available for devices running Palm, Windows Pocket PC, Windows Mobile 5, as well as wireless smartphones.)

According to the company, Pocket Real Estate is used by 500,000 real estate agents. The software is available directly through Borran or through its various partners, including wireless carriers and hardware vendors.

Unlike Borran, which entered the remote workforce software business after first establishing its presence among the office-bound, Pyxis Mobile has always focused exclusively on providing wireless applications for financial services; the company’s software works on BlackBerry and Windows mobile devices. “We have a suite of mobile applications to support the workflow of the financial industry,” says CEO Hughes. The company’s mPlatform includes numerous applications targeting the unique needs of analysts, investment bankers, portfolio managers, hedge fund managers, financial advisers, and even IT professionals who work in financial services.

“In financial services, there are a lot of silos of data,” Hughes says. “Our applications give users a consolidated view of data on their devices that they’ve never had before.”

A portfolio manager can access data remotely that’s housed in the portfolio accounting system, for example, and combine it with portfolio performance information. The manager can also use a Pyxis Mobile application to model potential changes, run compliance checks, and drop information into an order management system. Or a wholesaler can roll up sales numbers across a territory and combine them with contact information—two snippets of data that reside in different systems.

To date, Pyxis Mobile has 65 employees and counts among its customers many of the top financial services companies in the country. Hughes says the company is looking to expand by offering its mPlatform to systems integrators who can build and deploy their own mobile applications.

To resonate with customers, Hughes says that mobile applications must precisely fit the needs of their intended audience. “We believe you have to demo applications that support a specific workflow, so you need to really understand the business.”

To that end, Pyxis Mobile’s customers serve as advisers by offering ideas for new functionality. Among the hot topics that interest current Pyxis Mobile customers: voice integration (to dictate notes into a mobile device), loca-tion-based services (such as mapping directions), and integration with expense management and literature delivery systems.

Snyder of Epocrates says ease of use, intuitive interfaces, and affordability are also key to remote applications. “The fact that our software is either free or low cost really gives us a low barrier to entry,” she says.

Another key to success for ISVs is partnering with larger companies that have a vested interest in seeing the mobile market grow. Among Airtime-Manager’s strategic partners are AT&T, Microsoft, Palm Inc., and Research in Motion Ltd. (maker of the BlackBerry). “As a 10-person company, we do a lot of business through partners who refer us,” Fackre says.

So as the number of companies deploying mobile devices continues to grow, more wireless business applications for their employees’ PDAs and smartphones will emerge—not to mention opportunities for solution providers.