Good Technology gets better with new enterprise platform

Wireless messaging services provider Good Technology moved beyond e-mail last week with the launch of GoodAccess, a new software platform designed to expedite the development and deployment of applications for the growing mobile enterprise sector.

Leveraging the same infrastructure as Good's GoodLink mobile messaging software and service, GoodAccess wirelessly extends popular enterprise applications from Oracle, Siebel, salesforce.com and other Good partners across a range of devices enabled by Microsoft's Pocket PC and PalmOne's Palm operating systems (OSs). In addition, Good's service will soon be compatible with hand-helds made by Symbol Technologies as well as Nokia handsets based on the Symbian OS.

“Our assertion is that you have to provide information access to users wherever and whenever they need it,” said Terry Austin, Good Technology's president of field operations, during a Webcast to premiere the GoodAccess platform. “The message we heard from our clients was ‘Do the same thing for mission-critical enterprise applications.’”

The GoodAccess platform not only connects mobile workers to back-end systems like customer relationship management (CRM), supply-chain management and business intelligence applications but can also push information like new product data and order forms to hand-helds, all in real-time.

Perhaps the most intriguing element of the GoodAccess platform is that it enables customers to assemble composite applications specifically tailored to their particular business needs. The software is packaged with partner Above All Software's Above All Studio, which allows subscribers to cherry-pick data and functionality from multiple systems to create their own integrated applications in a matter of minutes, significantly reducing the cost and time of creating and deploying applications from scratch.

“We knew we had to make a very customizable system that did not involve hundreds of thousands of dollars in integration costs,” said Good's vice president of marketing Sue Forbes. “Now our customers can take information from a variety of back-end systems and drag and drop and create a new screen in minutes. And because it all runs on the same GoodLink transport layer, with over-the-air provisioning, once an application is deployed to the GoodAccess server, it's immediately available to anyone with a device with a GoodAccess client on it.”

Good's extension past messaging should also benefit its partners as they, too, attempt to establish an identity in the wireless workplace.

“Good is showing that enterprises can be mobile,” said Antoine Blondeau, vice president of wireless products at CRM services provider salesforce.com. “2005 is going to be the year when enterprises leverage their investment in mobility. The key is that there are so many functions you can extend to your device. One-size-fits-all doesn't work.”

Good Technology's evolution comes at a time of considerable upheaval in the mobile messaging space — for weeks, the rumors have floated that rival Research In Motion, developer of the BlackBerry messaging device and the longtime leader in the sector, would be acquired by either Nokia or Motorola. Last week, Standard & Poor's Equity Research said a buyout of RIM is “unlikely” given the company's $14 billion market capitalization and its “rich valuation relative to peers.” Unlike Good, which is hardware-agnostic, RIM derives more than 70% of its revenue from hardware sales, but growing competition has forced the company to license its software to rival device-makers.