Wireless Messaging Vendor Launches Channel Program

Sue Forbes, vice president of product marketing at Good Technology, Sunnyvale, Calif., said the company is offering a more open-standards approach to the market than established competitors such as RIM, Waterloo, Ontario.

"They [RIM] are using a proprietary solution with their own hardware and software," said Forbes. "We provide the software and service, but we don't mind what you choose as your hardware platform."

At the moment, said Forbes, the hot handheld device Good Technology is working with is PalmOne's Treo 600. "But as these [handheld] devices evolve," said Forbes, "it doesn't really matter which customers want to use."

GoodLink is Good Technology's standards-based wireless messaging and application access system. It gives mobile enterprise workers with a two-way wirelessly synchronized connection access to Microsoft Exchange Server's e-mail contacts and calendars as well as other enterprise applications such as CRM and ERP.

Good Technology's Good Business Partner Program is a traditional two-tiered partner model that features incentives, tools, training, marketing and sales support, Forbes said. Good Technology sells service from carriers on a subscription basis of $330 per subscriber, per year, she added.

Jose Fernandez, CFO of Client Profiles, an Atlanta-based solution provider serving the legal market, said clients have shown a great deal of interest in Good Technology's products.

Client Profiles implemented Good Technology's software and service for its mobile professionals about six months ago to gain mobile access to appointments, e-mails and contact information, he said.

"So we're walking around with these devices and pulling up all of this information, and [clients] all want to know what it is and how they can get the same thing," said Fernandez. "Basically, it's been a windfall for us."

Fernandez said Client Profiles' developers are working to integrate the GoodLink solution with its own Client Profiles Practice and Financial Management System software. About 700 of Client Profiles' 1,000 law firm customers across the country are already using Client Profiles' software, said Fernandez.

The GoodLink system includes synchronizing server software, security and application software for managing multiple networks, platforms and handheld devices. Its architecture incorporates VeriSign triple-DES end-to-end encryption of all e-mail, data and attachments in Microsoft Office, WordPerfect, HTML, PDF and RTF file formats, said Forbes.