Infowave Integrates Telispark

Infowave Software Inc. is set to unveil the next version of its mobile application software suite, which includes new customer relationship management and calendar modules.

The suite, to be announced this week, integrates Infowave software with assets the company acquired when it bought the majority share of Telispark Inc. in January.

Telispark Mobile Enterprise 2.5 includes two new modules, mCustomer and mOffice.

The mCustomer module is aimed at field workers who need to view and edit customer information remotely. The module allows users to perform customer searches on- and offline, update customer hierarchies, and navigate work orders. The software communicates not only with major CRM server software but also with the four other Telispark application modules in the suite, officials said. It is available on Microsoft Corp.s Pocket PC and Win32 operating systems.

mOffice, meanwhile, integrates calendar features from other Infowave products into the Telispark suite. Previously Telispark focused on vertical applications, with the assumption that buyers would use another vendors offering for calendar information. "I want that integration not to be onerous," said Jerry Meerkatz, president and CEO of Infowave, in Vancouver, British Columbia. "The quicker you are with off-the-shelf, the quicker you get the revenue."

mOffice offers two-way calendar synchronization with Microsofts Exchange platform and automatic background syncing of appointments and meeting requests. These features let users perform other tasks while the server is updating the information.

The module is available on most major mobile operating systems, including PalmSource Inc.s Palm OS; Microsofts Pocket PC, Windows Mobile and Win32 systems; Research In Motion Ltd.s BlackBerry platform; and Symbian Ltd.s Symbian OS. Of these, Palm OS was the only one supported by Telispark before its acquisition by Infowave.

"The best way to get to the enterprise is through vertical applications," Meerkatz said. Still, he said he hopes that Telisparks vertical applications will be attractive to carrier customers. On the carrier side, Infowave competes mainly with RIM.

Before Infowaves acquisition, Telispark was a wholly owned subsidiary of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. The financial services company was forced to give up its majority share in Telispark because of Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance regulations prohibiting a company from providing both Sarbanes-Oxley services and audits.

"They can now breathe easy that their application is no longer in jeopardy and neither is their auditor," said Meerkatz, who joined Infowave in November and orchestrated the Telispark acquisition. Deloitte still owns 20 percent of the Telispark assets.