Dejima Gives Mobile Workers Easy Access To Company Info

The company is working with solution providers to deploy a technology that lets mobile workers query and append back-end data using everyday language and an e-mail program.

The technology works by mapping frequently used terms to data calls, said Dejima President and CEO Antoine Blondeau. When a mobile worker sends an e-mail message such as, "Give me all the activity on XYZ account this month," the system breaks down the sentence into a query, fetches the information and then sends the results back in an e-mail, he said.

"It's really free-form," he said. "You enter shorthand, slang, what have you, on all types of wireless devices."

The e-mail will return the query requested as well as the results, so there is no miscommunication between the computerized system and its human counterpoints. For example, the results from the request mentioned earlier would return: "You asked for activity on the XYZ account for the month of October."

The e-mail is also given a reference number, so users can send an e-mail back to request more information, or they can append the record, the company said.

In cases when the system cannot understand a word used in the query, it will send an error message and request the user try again.

Dejima, which was founded in 1998 and released its first product in March, has been pitching this technology to carriers and service providers but is now developing a partner program for integrators.

For solution providers focusing on sales-force automation and CRM applications, Dejima is offering its Direct SFA application, which already has language and data calls mapped for every conceivable sales-force-type question, Blondeau said. Solution providers simply need to customize it for their customer's applications, he said.

Service provider Salesforce.com, for example, is offering the technology for its Web-based sales-force automation application at a $10 per-user premium, said Tien Tzuo, vice president of product management at the San Francisco-based company.

Dejima worked within the Salesforce.com Ready program, which provides an API to developers who want their application to hook into the company's CRM framework.

Salesforce.com was particularly impressed with Dejima's e-mail delivery format, which saved mobile workers from having to log onto a Web page through a slower wireless connection, he said.

"We found people weren't using the Web from wireless devices because the bandwidth wasn't really there," he said.

Currently available for use on Research In Motion's BlackBerry handhelds, Salesforce.com is also working on adding support for Palm and other wireless devices, he added.

Another company offering the Dejima technology to mobile customers is SAP Japan, Blondeau said. The company customized the technology to allow mobile workers to type in language-based queries from a Web page or via the client application.

Blondeau added that developers and solution providers in other industries can use Dejima's technology SDK and toolkit to customize the technology for specific applications.

Some wireless carriers, for example, are looking at using the technology to allow customers to make free-form queries via their mobile phones. Customers could get sports scores or stock quotes, for example, simply by typing a short e-mail from their wireless device, Blondeau said.

Unlike some natural language technologies, which can take years to adapt to real-world applications, Blondeau said most programs can be set up for the Dejima query system within four to eight weeks.

Dejima is hosting its technology for some applications and has a behind-the-firewall application in development for corporate customers.

The company was unable to provide pricing information for solution providers at press time.