Make Mine To Go – Mobile Software-as-a-ServiceBy Michelle V. Rafter The more people get comfortable with Web-based business software, the more they want to use it everywhere, including on the road. Software-as-a-service vendors are making their apps available on iPhones, Blackberry, and other devices.It was only a matter of time before two big trends in business computing collided, Web-based software and hand-held devices. Today, more software companies are putting their Web-based business applications, alsocalled software-as-a-service (SaaS) on a widening number of mobile devices, including the Blackberry, iPhone, and handhelds that use the Microsoft and Palm mobile operating systems.Some of the latest versions of SaaS applications look and work the same no matter whether users tap into them from a mobile device, desktop, or laptop. Other software vendors offer SaaS apps on hand-held devices with somewhat less than 100 percent of the functions that are available to users logging on through standard PCs or laptops.Vendor developmentsInitially, software vendors partnered with middleware or value-added suppliers who created special interfaces to put SaaS offering onto mobile devices. But during the past year, vendors have started designing their own solutions. Some examples:NetSuite -- When Apple unveiled the iPhone last summer, NetSuite simultaneously announced that its suiteof Web-based business apps was 100 percent compatible with the new hand-held, thanks mainly to the fact that the pocket-sized device uses the same Safari browser as the Mac. NetSuite also uses three partners -- iEnterprise, Antenna, and Explore Consulting -- to port its SaaS products to other handhelds, says Mini Peiris, NetSuite’s vice president of product management.Salesforce.com -- For years, Salesforce.com relied on middleware and other partners to create interfaces to put its customer relationship management (CRM) and other popular business software on customers’ Blackberry and Palm devices. In 2006, the SaaS pioneer acquired one of those vendors, Sendia, and has been actively marketing the technology, which works on Blackberry, Trio and Windows Mobile devices. According to Chuck Dietrich, vice president and general manager of Salesforce Mobile, the company’s SaaS apps also work on the iPhone. In November, the company began rolling out Salesforce Mobile, a technology that lets even non-technical mobile device users log on and, in a matter of minutes, set up and send applications to a sales team or other group. “In the mobile space that’s usually a Herculean effort that involves a lot of customization,” Dietrich says. “This takes the complexity out of mobile.”SAP -- SAP hasn’t officially announced plans to put its Business ByDesign SaaS applications for small andmid-sized businesses on mobile devices. However, at the product launch last September, the German-based enterprise computing giant demonstrated how the software could work on a hand-held scanner with a creditcard reader, similar to the kind that a field sales rep or service technician would use.Productivity boostPutting SaaS on mobile devices has been a boon to small business executives like Brian Kearne, chief financial officer of Circle of Friends, a Santa Monica, Calif., a children’s hair and skin care product maker. Initially, Kearne bought an iPhone for his own personal use. “To our happy surprise, we fired up the Web browser and we could access all of our business stuff on NetSuite,” Kearne says. Today, four of the company’s 12 employees access NetSuite via the iPhone, and No. 5 may be coming soon. “It’s definitely aproductivity saver and allows people to be in touch with their critical business data while they’re on the road,” he
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