MB Worksoft, part of the JSE-listed MB Technology Group, has announced it is to form a new business unit focusing on mobile business solutions. Using WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) as an enabling technology, this initiative will see the company partnering with best-of-breed solution providers to offer mobile components for broad-based business solutions.
The company is said to be in the advanced stages of negotiations with strategic partners, including service providers, content providers, banks and e-commerce specialists.
Richard Smuts-Steyn, who is to head of Strategic Services`s WAP initiative, confirmed that the new business unit is talking to a number of potential partners, adding that "formal announcements will be made in due course".
"There are major advantages that come with WAP as it has freed the traditional constraints faced by hand-held communications devices, such as screen, power and bandwidth limits. Our idea is to offer the marketplace additional value by not only facilitating the actual WAP communications, but by developing software solutions that will allow users access to information from literally any point. The real value of WAP will be realised through the development of powerful enterprise-level solutions and enterprise portals that both mobilise and empower the remote work force."
Leveraging off MB Technology group
Smuts-Steyn said the soon-to-be-launched WAP-focused company plans to leverage off the corporate audience of the MB Technology group.
"We will essentially be the groups` Mobile Solutions focused technology and services delivery unit," said Smuts-Steyn, "and, where opportune, we will be looking to sell our solutions into the group`s current client base, thereby gaining critical mass in the short term."
Commenting further, Smuts-Steyn said more and more companies - and their employees - are looking to harness the power of hand-held devices, such as cellular phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), to further boost productivity and to take advantage of the many benefits offered by the e-business age. WAP provides the intelligent protocols necessary, enabling mobile users to link straight into the company database or ERP system.
Smuts-Steyn believes this technology initiative is going to be one of the "hot spots" within the IT industry - and the economy at large - over the next decade.
"We intend getting into this market early," he said. "Some of the initial drivers of the whole WAP initiative, from an industry perspective, was to provide information. But we will be taking this one step further - we are looking to add considerable value to the business processes of our clients, enabling them not only to send and receive information, but to be assured of getting access to the right information, at the right time, fast and reliably - as well as allowing them to use this information to their business advantage, and to the advantage of the company concerned."
Smuts-Steyn said the company`s WAP solutions would be business driven and would integrate companies` back office systems to WAP gateways, allowing both business functionality and business-to-consumer transactions to be conducted via WAP enabled mobile devices.
"Through the MB Technology group we have a customer base that could make the technology work in a short period of time. We will be looking at a host of vertical markets, such as the retail market sector, where our WAP solutions could add value to the various interested parties. Just within the MB Technology group itself we can call upon a wide range of expertise.
"In the retail sector, for instance, we envisage a tie-up with POS, PDA and cell phone distributors who already have expertise in this sector.
But Smuts-Steyn said the company is also talking to "big, independent players" who will be necessary to give the company the suite of products, services and expertise it needs to provide it with "an industry-beating solution".
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