DATABASE COMPANY Sybase is pushing to become a leader in the fast-growing market for solutions to allow employees to access corporate data while in the field.
Powered by advances in 3G technology and improvements in personal digital assistant (PDA) design, employees are becoming increasingly mobile. This has created demand to access data held in corporate databases when an employee is out of the office. To help companies make best use of their mobile workers, Sybase created a subsidiary in 2000 called iAnywhere.
iAnywhere's Asia Pacific sales director Thomas So said its focus was on creating mobile database and mobile access products, as well as acquiring companies.
The company's solutions are being used in areas such as sales force automation and field force automation. For example, salesmen can check if the warehouse has a product in stock while visiting customers, or field agents can submit inspection reports directly to head office, thus saving on paperwork upon returning to the office.
Mr So said these solutions were proving very popular in Hong Kong's manufacturing sector.
He said there was a lot of demand from companies with staff travelling between Hong Kong and the mainland.
It was often easy for companies to see the benefits of increased mobility for staff, with increased sales, improved automation and better customer service, he said. Another less-tangible benefit was improved employee morale, as mobile workers did not need to return to the office at the end of the day to do paperwork.