NEW YORK-The iAnywhere Solutions Inc. subsidiary of Sybase Inc., Emeryville, Calif., will join L.M. Ericsson in a global strategic alliance to develop and deliver what the companies are calling the industry’s first always-available mobile banking solutions.
In their announcement, the companies said Sybase would establish a test center in Sweden for joint development of mobile business applications using Sybase’s iAnywhere Wireless Server and Ericsson’s Epoc-based mobile phones.
Ericsson and Sybase plan collaborative development of mobile banking and trading applications based on Wireless Application Protocol. They also intend to combine their expertise in mobile Internet, financial markets and wireless technologies to provide services that enable widespread adoption of these applications.
“Currently, mobile applications require users to stay connected to the wireless network to access data. The Sybase/Ericsson solutions in development will provide mobile users with the unique ability to work either on or offline so they have always available access to their financial profile,” the companies said.
As an example of how this would work, they said a customer could use his wireless handset to input desired transactions into his wireless phone, even when out of network range. Once the subscriber re-enters the coverage area, those transactions would automatically be initiated.
Likewise, a financial institution would be able to send an alert that requires customer action, even when the subscriber is out of range. That message would be delivered automatically once the end user returns into the wireless coverage area.
