Mobility vendor Webalo has created a solution that lets business users quickly and securely access enterprise applications from their mobile devices and, through the launch of a new partner program, is enlisting the help of the channel to bring it to the masses.

The Bring-your-own-Device (BYOD) trend, according to Webalo Founder and CEO Peter Price, is in full swing. And while mobile device management (MDM) solutions arm IT teams with the device-level security they need for users' smartphones and tablets, many of these tools lack support for enterprise apps.

Cognizant of this gap, Los Angeles-based Webalo has developed a cloud-based solution that allows users to access enterprise apps from mobile devices, without requiring IT to write code, program, or engage with the complex software development tools that are often required for this sort of on-the-go-access to corporate resources.

[Related: How To Avoid the Five Biggest BYOD Mistakes]

"You have to secure your devices, obviously. Security is critical from an enterprise perspective," Price told CRN. "But you don’t do that so that at the end of the project you can go 'yay, we've got secure devices.' You do it because users want to use those devices to access enterprise applications."

Traditionally, granting users access to enterprise apps and reports on mobile devices could be a headache, requiring extensive programming and coding that ate into both IT budget and time. But with Webalo's cloud-hosted solution, Price said, the need for this work is eliminated. IT teams, or channel partners, can instead leverage Webalo's online portal to deliver these enterprise apps, including those that are custom-built and those provided by enterprise software vendors, such as SAP, Salesforce.com and Oracle.

"Webalo, as the app for enterprise, is about providing a self-service, enterprise mobile platform that, from an IT perspective, is designed to be simple," Price said. "[IT teams] have a lot to do in the context of back-end enterprise applications and data. They have invested a lot of time and effort in that infrastructure. Webalo just makes it easy for them to go into that infrastructure, pull out the data the users want, and deliver it to their mobile device."

Webalo end users can access enterprise apps and workflow documents ranging from business intelligence reports, to expense approvals, to database items on any mobile device running BlackBerry, Android, iOS or Windows. The tool automatically adjusts these apps and documents to fit within the specific smartphone or tablet screen through which it's being accessed.

Webalo's solution comes in three different flavors: Webalo Cloud is a free, cloud-hosted service that supports up to three users, while the second model, Webalo Pro Cloud, offers the same cloud-hosted service for unlimited users and costs $99 per user, on an annual basis. Webalo Pro Appliance offers these services through a virtualized appliance that sits behind users' firewalls, and is priced at $150 a year, per user.

NEXT: Webalo's Partner Program

Webalo's partner program, according to Price, offers solution providers a number of benefits. For starters, because both Webalo's cloud- and appliance-based solutions are offered on a subscription-based basis, they offer recurring revenue streams for partners.

"From a partner perspective, what we have done is we've enabled a very simple process for the channel to become Webalo partners. They can sign up right online to be a partner … all the terms are there," Price said. "This partner program gives them a unique partner code that enables them then to apply to that code to their customers and receive their revenue share whenever their customers order, or they order, on behalf of their customers."

What’s more, partners have an opportunity to wrap their own services and training offerings around the Webalo products to reel in additional revenue.

"They can do the Webalo configurations, they can do the Webalo implementation and training… they can host the Webalo appliance service in a managed services-type of setting for their customers," Price said. "There are a lot of other things they can wrap around it to generate revenue."

Lastly, Price emphasized one other benefit for partners: growing demand for Webalo's products. As the BYOD trend continues to pick up pace, Price is confident that customers are seeking out tools like Webalo's that can transform a smartphone or tablet into a truly enterprise-ready device.

"Typically -- we know this from our interactions with the channel -- if you are in the top 2, 3, 4 percent of companies, you've got those operational mobility applications, and maybe you're going to put together a large-scale IT project to build them," Price told CRN. "But beneath that, both in those large companies and across all other types of companies that simply don't have those resources, there's a demand for something a lot simpler."

Webalo's partner program is still in its infancy, with six solution providers on board, but Price said he is looking to grow that number moving forward. Webalo customers today include Volkswagen, Wells Fargo and the U.K.'s National Health Services organization.

PUBLISHED NOV. 1, 2012