“Colleagues and customers alike expect you to be up-to-date. In order to meet this demand, information must be accessible at any given time - on the mobile phone.”So says Bjørn Jarl, CEO of Symfoni Software, the largest IBM-based software company in the Nordic region. Symfoni is going to offer their customers collaboration applications directly on their mobile phones, with a simple and user-friendly solution that will not require the purchase of new phones. It will improve accessibility and enhance the workday, as well as saving time and resources - for employee and employer alike.
It will be easy to get in touch with colleagues via the mobile phone, view their calendars and invite them to meetings. You will also be able to review a letter or contemplate an offer on the mobile phone, simultaneously with a colleague or customer, and be able to chat in real-time.
It is mBricks - a Norwegian company - that is delivering the architecture and platform for Symfoni’s mobile solution, while Symfoni makes accessible the applications that the users have on their PCs.
“Symfoni is considered the market leader in collaboration solutions in the Nordic region, and among the top 10 in the world. The Nordic countries are highly advanced when it comes to technology, and we are taking advantage of that now,” says Jarl.
When Symfoni decided they were going to offer a mobile solution, three requirements had to be fulfilled:
- User-friendly for all. The mobile solution must be easy to use for all types of users, not just for users who have a special interest in new IT applications.
- Low cost. The mobile solution must have low implementation costs. Nobody wants to invest in SmartPhones for a whole company.
- For all types of phones. The mobile solution must work on all types of mobile phones, no matter who the manufacturer is.
Because the company network will be more exposed, security has been a major factor in Symfoni’s choice of subcontractor: “mBricks has a great reputation, and that was an important factor in our selection. They are extremely advanced, and they make things easy for us. They are also a highly motivated, aggressive group of people who want to make mBricks world leader,” says Bjørn Jarl, CEO of Symfoni.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Killing application?
After testing about half a year, there are rooms for making improvements. The application runs on Nokia N80/N95/E51/E61 and SonyEricsson P1. Sometimes the phones needs to be booted, because of hang. Not all parts of menues are running and the Websphere server service does not run properly on Linux (which we need).
Synchronizing runs fast, even om GPRS. Good “desktop” design on phone, nice to find group calendar and common contacts on phone, easy to call all numbers in register, allways uppdatet, because you use register on server.
Attachments should be readable (DOC, PDF), but it does not work.
No information on phone, after closing Symfoni Mobile. Security is taken care of.
Could be recommended when debugged.
March 27th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Symfoni has been in touch with us concerning the hangs in the application. We are working on debugging and fixing the ones that are caused by the platform. We also have a good technical collaboration with experts at Symfoni and together we discuss both the existing functionality and future enhancements.
When you test new versions of Symfoni Mobile I hope that you can recommend it.