This is the second enterprise applications blog. This community site with blogs is new so not sure how many saw that, but as a review this blog will feature different aspects of enterprise mobility.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to CTIA along with others from AT&T. For those who may not know this event, it is telecommunications show that occurs twice a year with the fall event focused on IT and entertainment. It is a good industry event where I know a lot of our partners attend. During the last four CTIA events, the AT&T developer program has done some version of Fast Pitch, that is where we let companies pitch ideas on how they might work with AT&T.
At the Spring CTIA, we gave some cash prizes for top solutions, but we scaled back our effort for the fall show because we have been so busy (although I did miss giving out gigantic checks to happy developers). Despite that, it was a very good show. I continue to be extremely impressed with the great ideas companies are developing and it continues to make working in this mobile space so exciting. It is sometimes difficult for us that we cannot work always work with companies the way they desire, but remains as one of the best way we use our time.
Since we did not offer any prizes, I wanted to mention a few of the companies I met with. There are other companies I met with innovative solutions, but I am careful to only mention some that have existing solutions in the market. The first company I will mention is Scanavert. The mission of this company is to alert users of harmful foods (such as those they may be allergic to) through a mobile application. They have a database of foods and what they contain. With the mobile application, you enter any allergies you have and drugs you may be taking. All you have to do is scan the barcorde (which you can do with your camera) and it will tell you if the product is OK for you to use, or perhaps may cause an adverse reaction to another drug you are taking. I think any applications like this that can improve the lives of others through technology are very positive.
Another nice application is DiVitas Networks. In this case, it turns out they were already working with AT&T a little. They are in the Fixed Mobile Convergence space, specifically around managing the handoff between cellular and Wi-Fi. Their solution not only manages the handoff, but with PBX functionality. I can see this solution being very useful to many companies, particularly since the solution seems easy to integrate into existing PBXs companies may have.
Another company doing nice development work is iVisit. I had met them in past, but was pleased to see their progress. Their application enables multiparty video. This is another application I could see of use to many of our enterprise customers.
One of the events around CTIA I went to was the Location 2.0 Summit, hosted by Andrew Seybold and SIRF. They had their own Fast Pitch, but here companies pitched to the whole audience then the audience voted the best application be texting. LBS is spurring a lot of really great innovation and development work and there were several great applications. The well-deserved enterprise winner was ProxPro. Their application looks to when your appointment is, calculates how long it will take you to get there, then lets you know when you should leave. Again, I could see this of great use to a lot of mobile workers.
Thanks again to all the companies we met with and I saw. Sorry to the ones I mentioned that we did not do a contest this time and then to those other good vendors I had met with that I did not mention.
For those who did not see my first blog, besides the application talk I will include some other personal bit in each blog, likely around sports or TV. For this week, I will cover my Baseball Playoff picks. For the American League, the winners of the first round series will be the Angels and the Devil Rays, with the Angels representing them in the World Series. In the National League, the winners of the first round will be the Cubs and the Phillies with the Cubs going to the World Series. I think the World Series Champ will be the Cubs after a LONG wait. I do not believe in curses and think they have the most complete team. (Best song to play if Cubs win is “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request” by Steve Goodman, favorite line, “Have Keith Moreland drop a routine Fly”)
