South Africa was in the spotlight as one of the pioneering countries for mobile and wireless applications at last week`s Oracle Open World event in San Francisco.
Oracle partners and customers from around the world heard how SA has embraced the possibilities of mobile text messaging, particularly in the banking sector with SMS-based banking and transaction notification.
"By coming to the mobile market later, SA managed to leapfrog other markets in terms of technology and is consequently far more aware of the potential of SMS than the US and Europe," said Tony Forbes, iFactory CEO.
Forbes and partner Kedibone Mangena have formed mobileObsession, a subsidiary of iFactory, to mobilise Oracle`s enterprise e-business suite. They were in San Francisco to promote their m-business suite, due for release early in 2006.
In a live demonstration that was clearly a revelation to many in the international audience, the South African duo connected to a server in Johannesburg to show how payments and approvals could be made wirelessly using a mobile phone or PDA.
"As one of the first Oracle partners to embrace the possibilities of wireless technology, we have been demonstrating how our software can add value to customers` investment in the e-business suite," said Forbes.
Mangena added: "Beyond what Oracle has done to mobilise some CRM elements, our application has shown the potential of mobilising the rest of the e-business suite using the built-in wireless functionality."
Forbes and Mangena hope the support from Oracle will lead to formal endorsement, and that interest from other Oracle partners shown at Open World will translate into future distribution agreements.
"Our m-business application can help other partners add value to their customers and help differentiate their offerings, so we are working on creating a distribution agreement they will find attractive," said Forbes.
With the release of mobileObsession`s m-business suite scheduled for February next year, Forbes and Mangena are looking for organisations that are willing to set up pilot sites and participate in real-world trials.
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