After close to five years of working quietly away as a software development company, Marbles Inc. executives decided it is time for the company to make its entrance into the wireless industry-and they plan to light their way with the company’s unique SkyFire wireless-computing platform.
Marbles said its flagship product will create an efficient and simple wireless network for businesses such as financial and health care institutions. While Marbles isn’t alone in the interoffice network-design market, it does boast some rather unique solutions.
The company’s SkyFire wireless platform puts all the number-crunching work on the server, which allows wireless devices to run all kinds of heavy-duty applications, including Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Excel, the company said.
Putting the weight of the work on the server saves bandwidth, frees up the hardware, helps with security and management and even allows multiple programs to run on one mobile device, the company said.
“We’re allowing a mobile wireless work force to enable any application,” said Chet Barnard, Marbles’ president and chief executive officer. “There’s been a lot of time and effort in building the intellectual properties here.”
Barnard said the company spent its time and effort developing its applications and getting it ready for where it is today-on the doorstep of the wireless industry.
Marbles was founded in 1995 and initially funded with seed capital. By August of 1999, the company had raised additional capital through a group of angel investors, and in June of this year the company released SkyFire.
“We’ve really been a software development company to date,” Barnard said.
When Marbles saw it was time to move out into the open with its SkyFire product, company executives decided it was time for new leadership. Enter Barnard, who was hired late last year.
Barnard brings previous leadership experience to the company. He served as the president and chief executive officer of systems integrator Internet Business Advantage, where he helped develop e-service solutions for a variety of companies, including EMC, Hewlett-Packard and Cigna. Barnard also served as the president of another systems integrator company, The Excalibur Group.
The move to Marbles presents “a very exciting opportunity,” Barnard said.
Marbles plans to market SkyFire to a variety of businesses, Barnard said, but first it will start with about three to five clients.
The key to success in marketing SkyFire is setting up the network quickly and making the system easy to use, Barnard said.
“You have to provide them with a programmed approach, a simple and easy approach,” he said.
SkyFire’s server-based approach allows mobile devices to operate as smart terminals, the company said. Its open platform supports virtually any Internet-connected device at almost any speed, and since no data is stored in the mobile device, corporate security isn’t compromised if the device is lost or stolen. SkyFire also comes with an object-oriented development kit.
The SkyFire server requires Windows NT 4.0 and 128MB RAM. A 350KB program is stored in the terminal, and can run on PalmOS 3.x and higher and WinCE 2.x and higher.
SkyFire solutions are now being used by VeriTop and YadaYada, and Barnard said he has plans to introduce SkyFire to more companies.
“Our real advantage is around security, cost of ownership and speed and ease of use,” he said.
