PeopleSoft delivers next-generation mobile synchronisation technology

Activ8, a member of the JSE-listed ERP.com Group, and the Southern African distributor for PeopleSoft, today announced the latter`s next generation mobile synchronisation technology. The pure Internet mobile solution allows PeopleSoft Customer Relationship Management (CRM) users to Synchronise data quickly and efficiently. Mobile professionals can synchronise up to one year of updates in just six minutes - a task that would literally break existing technologies.

"Cumbersome and time consuming data synchronisation practices have long been barriers to user adoption and have hindered mobile CRM deployments, especially to large, distributed field sales forces," said Steve Bonadio, senior program director at Meta Group. "To maximise chances for success, organisations must choose synchronisation technology that also offers flexible and granular control of rights, permissioning, and data management and distribution."

Unlike existing mobile solutions, PeopleSoft`s breakthrough mobile technology automatically determines what data each user needs to synchronise. PeopleSoft has embedded business application logic directly into its synchronisation technology enabling it to intelligently identify the relationships between customers, transactions, data and users. This increases the productivity of mobile professionals who no longer have to wait to synchronise irrelevant data. PeopleSoft`s innovative approach demonstrates the company`s continued commitment to embedding business process expertise into its technology.

PeopleSoft delivers its solution with the industry`s smallest device footprint by embedding DB2 Everyplace, the ultra lightweight mobile database from IBM. Users can receive the software over e-mail making it easy to distribute and share information with customers, suppliers, employees and partners. The application is installed in seconds by simply launching the e-mail attachment. By extending PeopleSoft`s mobile application across numerous customer channels, enterprises can expand the reach of the real-time enterprise.

"We are pleased PeopleSoft has adopted DB2 Everyplace as its preferred solution for applications targeted at mobile professionals," said Lauren Flaherty, vice president, marketing, IBM Data Management Solutions. "The functionality provided by DB2 Everyplace gives our customers the ability to seamlessly deploy functionally rich mobile applications by leveraging the scalability and performance of DB2 technology."

PeopleSoft conducted a benchmark simulating synchronisation of 12 months of PeopleSoft Mobile Sales updates from the server to the laptop. Using a local area network, the average synchronisation time was under six minutes, including communication time to send and receive changes and the time required to apply those changes to the mobile database. Using a 56k modem, the average synchronisation time was under 10 minutes. The benchmark was conducted with the Web server running on a two 1.2GHz CPU server, the application server running on a six 900MHz CPU server, and the database server running on a six 900MHz CPU server.

"In the past, synchronisation technology has dictated when and what data users must sync," said Adrian Oxborrow, PeopleSoft CRM product manager for activ8. "PeopleSoft is delivering a solution that specifically addresses the needs of mobile professionals; the ability to leverage their enterprise applications anywhere, anytime."