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Amidst all leading service providers enticing enterprises with innovative applications, Reliance Infocomm recently stole a march by commercially commencing its first enterprise offering for corporate houses on its Reliance Application Platform. Called Mobile Office, this application enables employees to access their office e-mail and office directory on their Reliance IndiaMobile (RIM) handsets.

The application currently offers three components to the enterprises-office mail, office directory and group communication. OfficeMail is a messaging solution targeted to meet the emailing needs of enterprise users when they are away from their offices. Using the solution, an enterprise can access emails from their enterprise mail servers using POP3 and IMAP4 protocols.

Mobile Office n Email access on RIM using PoP3 and IMAP4 n Anytime anywhere access to organizations telephone book using RIM for SMS, calling etc. n Group messaging facilities

The Office DIR application is targeted at mobile executives of enterprise. The application provides anytime anywhere access to organization's telephone book using Reliance India Mobile. The key components of the application: the executive's ability to search any employee detail based on name, location, department and grade in real-time, users can send SMS or call the employee by selecting the specific employee detail from the search results.

The Group Communication application provides group messaging facility to the mobile executives by providing access to different user profiles based on group and location within organization. The executives can view users based on name, group, location (city) or organization hierarchy in real-time and send SMS or e-mail to all or selected users.

Says Mahesh Prasad, president, Reliance Infocomm, "We have been working on this solution for the past few months and have now perfected architectural issues related to the email servers. We believe that an enterprise with this solution would be able to scale up productivity from its employees. And though other service providers also claim to offer similar applications, Mobile Office comes with certain unique advantages."

One of the biggest advantages, Reliance claims, comes on the security front. According to Prasad, several enterprises have been reluctant to use similar applications earlier since a few service providers were replicating mails and there were concerns regarding security. "We are not replicating the mails at the Reliance servers. We are providing total security supporting both end-to-end 128-bit encryptions as well as SSL. Besides enterprises can use applications on the Internet, leased line or VPN."

The data interchange between handsets is covered by enhanced CDMA data network security features. Office mail can communicate data using standard Internet data security as well as secured channel access using SSL over POP3/IMAP protocols. Alternately, the enterprise could also adopt secured password authentication model with/without SSL/TLS.

But more than security, accessibility in a mobile environment is one of the biggest advantages Mobile Office offers to corporates. Mobile Office allows employees of the customer organization to access their enterprise applications, chiefly their office e-mail, from their Reliance IndiaMobile handsets. Mobile Office already supports 90% of all popular enterprise e-mail products such as Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and other e-mail servers. Another possibility would be access through Reliance IndiaMobile to the office directory, apart from the complete range of regular e-mail features. (In addition, see table How Enterprises and Users Benefits) "This application will suit large enterprises, medium and small enterprises as well as the small-office home-office (SOHO) market," adds Prasad. Since Reliance Infocomm's telecom infrastructure as well as the fact that nearly 90% of handsets sold by the company are Java-enabled, with download speed of 144 kbps, it will mean that there are no restrictions on text matter, said a statement from the company.

In fact, for many purposes, Reliance Infocomm officials see the Reliance IndiaMobile replacing the cumbersome laptop for mobile corporate employees. "It would be like having one's desktop on one's mobile handset," explains Anil Pande, the chief architect of Prasad's applications and solutions group. Besides, there is no need for additional capex requirement at the enterprise level. Even the application is not limited to certain handsets and there is no need for laptops or PDA phones. The enterprise can avail of this application at a flat monthly subscription rate.

Mobile Office can turn out to be a strategic masterstroke for Reliance too. It means that all employees of a customer who is allowed Office Mobile access would be customers of Reliance IndiaMobile. In addition, of course, would be the charge for the office service itself, roughly at Rs 100 per head or seat for unlimited usage. Only specific RIM mobile handsets would be used by customers of this service, though Prasad assures that barring the entry-level phones this would include all models. Incidentally, Reliance Application Platform (RAP) on which Mobile Office is based, is the first platform from the company's stable sought to be patented. The company has applied for patents in the US and Europe.

In the first month since its inception, Reliance has bagged 15 customers including blue-chip names like Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Dabur and Eicher. Plus, the application trial like all Infocomm pilots was also run on Reliance Industries. Says Manish Choksi, VP-strategic planning and IT, Asian Paints, "Attempts at deploying pervasive computing applications in India were severely hampered due to the non-availability of robust telecom infrastructure. The improved telecom infrastructure in India provided by integrated vendors such as Reliance Infocomm presents organizations such as ours with the capability to allow our employees secure access to enterprise IT systems including mobile email while they are away from their place of work. This convenience has helped enhance their productivity and decision making capability." Adds CN Ram, CIO, HDFC Bank, "Our single minded focus has been the customer and we have always been open to embracing technology to serve him better. Mobile Office keeps our executives on the alert about any new query generated in any sector and helps link up information anytime, anywhere."

Rajneesh De in Mumbai

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How the Enterprises and Users Benefit

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