IAnywhere Solutions Inc. released an upgrade to M-Business Anywhere on Monday with features designed to make the mobile application software more attractive to corporate users.
Customers use M-Business Anywhere to create Web-based applications that can be accessed by users from devices such as a PDA. The new version, available Monday, adds support for laptops, desktops and tablet PCs, said Diana Ungersma, an iAnywhere senior product manager.
The product lets enterprises develop a Web-based application once for use on multiple devices, rather than having to develop different versions. It includes a client component for accessing data and submitting forms offline, so a salesperson, for example, could do paperwork on the road and synch up the data when they get back to the office.
The upgrade also new tracking capabilities. M-Business Anywhere has always stored such information as the type of device being used and the frequency with which users synchronize their data, but that information was buried in log files. IAnywhere has added graphical reporting functions that make it easier for IT departments to keep track of how the software is being used in the field, Ungersma said.
IAnywhere also added support for new languages: In addition to English, the client interface for M-Business Anywhere is now available in French, German, Italian and Spanish, Ungersma said. The new release of the software, version 5.5, is priced from US$68 to US$299 per end user, depending on the required capabilities.
IAnywhere, a subsidiary of Dublin, Calif.-based Sybase Inc., acquired M-Business Anywhere when it bought AvantGo Inc. about a year ago. The software drives the AvantGo consumer Internet service, which lets subscribers view Web pages on handheld devices. IAnywhere has been revving the software to make it more appealing to enterprise customers.
In February it said it had integrated the product with SQL Studio Anywhere, allowing developers to create Web-based applications that sit on top of iAnywhere’s database for client devices. Separately last month, Sybase said it planned to acquire XcelleNet Inc. for about US$95 million, bringing it a set of software products for managing devices and applications.