IBM Prepares WebSphere Wireless Bundle

Speaking with CRN at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association fall conference, Adel Al-Saleh, general manager of Global Wireless e-Business at IBM, said mobile wireless products are maturing to the point where it is feasible to push the technology to IBM's solution provider partners.

"In the past, [mobile wireless required a lot of custom integration, and so it wasn't the right time to put these kinds of products into the channel," he said.

IBM plans to release a new version of its WebSphere Everyplace Access (WEA) middleware application in the first quarter that will be easier to install and that will support more mobile devices, Al-Saleh said. The software will be teamed with Everyplace Wireless Gateway, which provides connectivity between 802.11 and wireless WAN networks. When it releases the bundle, IBM plans to provide its WebSphere partners with additional toolkits and training to help push wireless solutions, he said.

When it releases the bundle, IBM also plans to emphasize two hot vertical markets for mobile wireless: field-force automation and sales-force automation, Al-Saleh added. To help VARs sell WEA and Everyplace into that market, IBM intend to put together a solution set that includes products, specific technical support and other useful resources, he said.

At the show, IBM disclosed an expanded agreement with wireless service aggregator GoAmerica, Hackensack, N.J., to provide a platform that VARs can use to sell activation to their customers.

As part of the agreement, GoAmerica will integrate a wireless PIM and e-mail service with IBM's WEA product. This will provide solution providers with a platform that lets them create solutions that can push corporate data from the same applications to different wireless devices, based on the user's preference, the two companies said.

The technology allows business partners to service customers that use a variety of wireless devices in the field and lets solution providers customize the type of data that will be pushed to the different types of devices. Moreover, the service provides a disconnect mode that goes into effect if the signal is lost. The disconnect mode preserves any data that had not been transmitted when the signal was lost and then resends it once another signal can be found, GoAmerica executives said.