• HTML 5 Application Development.  Now our customers can not only create Smart Client Apps with no coding, but also HTML 5 Web Apps that work on any device and any operating system’s browser.
• Web Application Development. MobileFrame developers can now create sophisticated web portals with absolutely no coding. The MobileFrame Thin Client Server solves several common web app implementation issues including cross browser compatibility, security and authentication, and Active Directory support. These web applications can be utilized in any setting, including data collection, management dashboards, reports viewing, customer portals and more.
• Swiping and Gesture Support. Our Client software now includes built-in swiping and gesture support.
• Desktop Changes. The entire product has a new look and feel including improved navigation, clearer fonts and several other usability improvements.

• Mobile Device Management. In addition to a full complement of device and user management capabilities, administrators now have the ability to cancel running applications remotely.
• The Grid. The grid functionality has been re-written to support function buttons, images, touch scrolling, per cell formatting, improved style editing, and includes several performance enhancements.

Our 100% code free development environment empowers business users, with no programming skills, to create sophisticated native and/or feature-rich HTML 5 mobile applications in less time, and with less effort than any other application development tool on the market. Unlike other vertical market solutions, our platform allows enterprises to create any custom mobile apps needed, all tailored specifically to their unique business processes.

MobileFrame is widely regarded as the industry leader with the most complete enterprise mobility platform. With our unparalleled capabilities, customers enjoy the lowest total cost of ownership and the highest return on investment when compared to other application development tools.

“With the release of Version 5.0, MobileFrame continues to raise the bar in mobile computing. Our patented 100% code free mobility platform now extends across all devices in the mobility marketplace, providing greater ROI than ever to our customers and network of over 300 resellers world-wide.” Lonny Oswalt, MobileFrame CEO.

After several months of extensive beta testing, the feedback on Version 5.0 has been overwhelmingly positive:

“Great job with the 5.0 release! Having been a developer for over 20 years, I can honestly say I have never seen such a feature-filled release of ANY development environment I have ever worked in. You guys need to be careful – when you work this kind of magic, people come to expect it all the time.” Paul Richmond IS Project Manager McFarland Cascade Holdings

MobileFrame Product Suite 5.0 is shipping now.

About MobileFrame
MobileFrame is the leading provider of Configurable Mobile Applications™ enterprise software that requires no coding or programming to create, deploy and remotely manage sophisticated mobile applications. With secure SOX compliant instant messaging, remote device control, configuration and management, intelligent networking, remote software updates, prioritized synchronization, automatic device driver recognition and loading all built-in, MobileFrame’s platform significantly streamlines mobile application development, deployment, and administration. MobileFrame eliminates custom programming through an intuitive, user friendly point-and-click graphical user interface, enabling novice computer users to quickly create and deploy custom mobile applications tailored to their business. For more information, customers may contact MobileFrame directly at 1-408-885-1200 or visit our website at http://www.mobileframe.com.

Contact:
Thomas J. Laughlin
MobileFrame LLC
(408) 885-1200

In fact during a recent meeting with a prospective client we discussed this very topic. During our discussion he said that when his team was implementing their legacy mobile solution in 2003, they had to learn about a variety of technologies related to mobile computing.

Including:

• Application Development
• Database Replication
• Data Deployment
• Application Deployment
• User Authentication
• Device Security
• Mobile Peripherals
• Device Drivers
• Mobile Printing
• and the list goes on…

Furthermore he said that even though his team went through the pain of learning about mobility they still had to rely on a custom application vendor to build their hard coded mobile solution from scratch, and then maintain it. This came at a great cost, and ultimately the developed solution was deemed good enough, and has not been touched since. This “good enough” approach left a number of nice to have features and functionality on the table and negatively impacted the return on investment of the entire project.

The good news for this customer and for any other organization looking to implement a mobile solution is that MobileFrame has solved this problem. We bring together all of the tools needed to ensure a successful mobile deployment across every department, on every device, throughout your entire organization. And, you can do all of this without becoming a mobile computing expert. Furthermore, because our solution is end user configurable, our customers do not have to rely on us to maintain, develop, or enhance their applications. This allows companies the means to control their own environment, lowers total cost of ownership, and provides a quick return on investment.

Some of the tools we provide out of the box include:

• Code Free Application Development
• Mobile Device Management
• Application & Data Deployment
• Integration Wizard
• Real-Time Instant Messaging
• GPS Tracking
• Plug and Play Peripheral Device Support
• Mobile Printing
• Dynamic Web Portal Creation
• Plus Many More…

If you are interested in learning how other organizations just like yours have eliminated the guess work and have freed themselves from the cost, headaches, and confusion of implementing a mobile solution please contact us today.

Contact Us | Phone: 408.885.1200 | Email: Sales@MobileFrame.com

• Database Setup Wizard.  This wizard helps users quickly and easily create a new MobileFrame database and set it up for use.  It will work with any/all databases supported by MobileFrame including SQL, Oracle and DB2 databases.
• Task Version History.  When you save a task (a mobile application), an automatic backup of that version will be generated and stored in the database.  You can review all versions of your tasks, rollback to a particular version, or export different versions of your task.
• Project Publisher.  With the new Project Publisher, Administrators can “publish” (export) entire Projects including mobile applications, enterprise data (static and dynamic), mobile workers, etc. This allows Administrators to move projects across servers from development to production and/or create complete backups of their projects.
• Desktop Administrator Preferences.  Customize the level of access granted to each Business Administrator in the MobileFrame system. With this feature, System Administrators have finely-tuned control over which features each Business Admin can access, from creating tasks to monitoring mobile workers to full administrative privileges.
• Restart the MobileFrame Client.  In addition to the full suite of Mobile Device Management features previously offered via our Remote Manager tool, Administrators now have the ability to remotely restart the MobileFrame Client on a mobile device – unloading MobileFrame from memory and re-starting just where a mobile worker left off.  With this feature, Administrators have an even greater level of control over devices in the field.
• Enhanced Step Editor. Administrators can now build applications directly from the Screen Designer – truly drag and drop mobile application development.  In addition, users can now add or edit steps from within workflow functions using step drop downs or insert step features – greatly simplifying and error-proofing the organic development process generally used by novice users.
• Advanced Photograph Functionality. Our new Change Photo function adds the ability to resize a photograph to specified dimensions and/or add captions to photographs.

MobileFrame’s Product Suites enable businesses to rapidly deploy a variety of mobile applications with a low total cost of ownership and a high return on investment. As always, our patented Smart Architecture™ provides a user friendly point and click desktop that enables novice computer users to easily create, deploy and manage sophisticated mobile applications without the need for costly and time-consuming custom coding typically required in mobile application development.

“MobileFrame’s software continues to surpass all competitive offerings in the market place,” said Lonny Oswalt, MobileFrame’s CEO and President. “There is simply no competitive technology that facilitates 100% Code Free Computing. This release continues to keep MobileFrame at the forefront of enterprise mobility, providing customers the most flexible and comprehensive mobility system in the market.”

For more information, or to obtain a copy of MobileFrame version 4.7, contact your MobileFrame Sales Rep or sales@mobileframe.com.

Not surprisingly for this week we’ve decided to focus on : What a Mobile Computing Platform is, and why it matters (Disclaimer – MobileFrame is a software company that focuses on providing the most highly configurable and easy to use Mobile Enterprise Application Platform, that money can buy)

First and foremost what is a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform?

In its most simple form, a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) is a software based mobile computing strategy for providing organizations the means to deploy multiple different mobile applications on top of the same technology stack. Typically this type of Platform approach provides organizations with the ability to extend the data usually enclosed in multiple different back-end enterprise systems, deploy against multiple different types of operating systems, and connect or “Sync” over a wide variety of different types of communication mechanisms.  The platform approach usually involves the ability to scale quickly and easily, with a build once and deploy to a wide variety of different types of devices without the need to actually target a specific device or operating system.  This approach when carefully planned lowers overall total cost of ownership, and provides a central management point for all mobile application throughout the enterprise.

Typically there are several components to a mobile computing platform

1. Development Environment – Provides the ability to create the mobile application screens, and underlying business logic
2. Synchronization Server – Allows for bi-directional synchronization of data between the back office business systems, and the mobile worker
3. Consolidated Database – A Database that serves as the central data repository or the pass through to multiple different back end systems, also referred to as a Staging Database.
4. Client Software - This is software that gets installed onto each mobile client to run the mobile applications, manage the synchronization, as read / write to the local database if applicable

The Typical Problem:  ABC Corporation has 3 separate divisions that all would like to implement mobile technologies, each with their own unique needs.  When faced with the decision of what to do ABC Corporation must decide if they plan on building or buying their mobile solution, as well as who is going to make the selection of the solution vendor, devices, as well as who is going to manage and support the applications.  Unfortunately many organizations allow for each division to separately manage their own solution, leading to a decentralized approach.

This approach leads to some of the following challenges:

• Significant development costs
• High total cost of ownership
• Decentralized management
• Hard-coded applications, with the need to re-install whenever changes are made
• Developed for use with a single device type, and or operating system
• No out of the box integration mechanisms to manage the data
• Support related headaches, no centralized management

If ABC Corporation were to take the platform approach, they would gain the following benefits

• Rapid application development tools
• Code Re-use
• Single source toolset
• Mobility management (device management, etc.)
• Application updates handled wirelessly
• Out of the box connectors to multiple different backend systems.
• Multiple Device support
• Lower total cost of ownership
• The ability to make changes and deploy them instantly.

For these reasons and many others, organizations that are interested in going mobile have been looking at Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms, to provide the necessary tools, connectors, and support mechanisms to alleviate many of the common pitfalls of going mobile.  If you would like to see a demonstration of how MobileFrame addresses the mobile challenges within the enterprise, please contact us today!

www.MobileFrame.com | Twitter.com/MobileFrame | www.Blog.MobileFrame.com

This optional update includes fixes for several minor issues reported by our customers and partners.  Read the release notes included in the download to see exactly what was addressed.

Note that you can apply the update to an existing MobileFrame 4.6 installation only.

One fallacy that I’ve found when companies are investigating mobile solution providers is that they fail to consider the full lifecycle of the project.  Here are a couple of questions that should be asked.

• How am I going to make changes to the application when feedback is received from the field?
• How can I deploy the changes to the field force when the mobile application is updated?
• How can I enforce Security Policies?
• How is IT going to be able to support these mobile workers when they are disconnected from the corporate environment?

MobileFrame provides support for the full lifecycle of enterprise mobility deployments; we make it easy to design, develop, deploy, and support custom mobile applications.   Inside of our 100% code free mobile computing environment application bug fixes and updates can be fixed in minutes, and deployed to the field in seconds.  Existing security policies can be kept intact and mobile devices can be locked down to prevent users from accessing unapproved, black listed applications.  IT can support mobile workers out in the field with our Mobile Device Management capabilities, including taking remote control of the mobile workers device.

If you are interested in learning how MobileFrame can provide your organization support for the full lifecycle of your Custom Mobile Application, contact us today.