Demand Generator: Stephen Pirolli, ASK Technologies
THE PROJECT
The technology is a new services platform from SCO called Me Inc. that provides content and collaboration applications that can be accessed by wireless handhelds, smartphones and desktop systems. The platform includes several distinct offerings such as Shout, for capturing and distributing multimedia messages, and Action, a collaborative resource and schedule tracker for projects.
A beta edition of Me Inc. is at the heart of a solution that SCO partner ASK Technologies has developed for Musco Food, a family-owned Italian food distributor in Maspeth, N.Y., with more than $25 million in annual revenue.
"This is a solution that was literally made to order," said John Fox, vice president of technical services at ASK, a SCO Premier Partner based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
The ASK team was exposed to the new service during a SCO launch for another product and immediately envisioned the possibilities for its longstanding client Musco, which was baffled as to how to keep its hefty product catalog updated while making it more readily accessible to the company's sales team. That team spends most of its time out in delicatessens and restaurants in the New York metropolitan area, environments that aren't exactly conducive to laptop use.
"For many, many years, we've been trying to look for solutions where we could put the device into the salesperson's hand. We've been hungry for this," said Joe Chiavetta, CFO of Musco.
Stephen Pirolli, principal of ASK, said the solution provider has been having a mobility dialogue with Musco since it first started working with the distributor three years ago on a database application and then later on the customer's e-mail and VPN installations. Its latest solution for Musco sits at the heart of the client's order-entry process, passing information from its internal databases out to Palm Treo handhelds via Verizon Wireless service.
"We were looking for something that was much more portable than a notebook," Pirolli said.
Since Me Inc. was still in beta at the time, SCO worked closely with ASK in building a custom interface for the Musco application, which is used on 15 Treos to provide access to a catalog containing thousands of different items. The technology alerts the salespeople about pricing changes, information about specials and new additions to the inventory. The application took about a month to build based on evolving user requirements.
SCO CEO Darl McBride said Me Inc. will be available primarily as a hosted play for perhaps $50 to $60 per user per month, although pricing hadn't been set when he spoke to CRN.
"The view going forward is that the new desktop is going to be in your hand, and that's what we're looking at enabling here," McBride said.
Chiavetta said the solution will increase the number of customers that Musco's salespeople can visit on a daily basis and help those salespeople negotiate pricing and orders on the spot.
For SCO, the implementation provides evidence that channel partners can be instrumental in evangelizing new technologies.
And for ASK, the emergence of the Me Inc. platform early this year could signal a whole new line of mobility solutions.
THE CUSTOMER VIEW >> The Me Inc. solution enables Musco to keep its product catalog up to date while making it more accessible to the distributor's sales team through the use of Treo handheld devices.
VENDORS REPRESENTED >> Since Me. Inc. was in beta, SCO worked closely with ASK to build a custom interface for the Musco application, which is used on 15 Palm Treo smartphones with Verizon service.
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