CA builds wireless plans with multiple deals

Computer Associates International Inc. (CA) announced a deluge of wireless partnerships Wednesday aimed at beginning what it calls the second phase of its mobile eBusiness plans.

The announcements, covering everything from partnerships on mobile application development and management to administration using mobile phones, team CA with Broadbeam Corp., w-Technologies Inc., Novarra Inc., Kyocera Wireless Corp., MobileSys Inc. and Wireless Knowledge Inc. The deals are part of CA's larger push toward hastening the spread of mobile applications to wireless devices and broadening the range of devices that will be able to access those applications, the company said in a release.

With an eye toward developing mobile applications, CA announced deals with Novarra, Broadbeam and Wireless Knowledge based around the company's Jasmine ii e-business development and management platform. CA's alliance with Novarra will use Novarra software to instantly enable applications developed with Jasmine ii for access by wireless devices including Palm OS-based handheld computers, PocketPC handhelds, Research in Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry wireless device and WAP (wireless application protocol)-enabled phones. This feature will allow these devices to quickly access a broad range of applications without requiring that the applications be rewritten, CA said.

CA's link with Wireless Knowledge, a joint venture between Microsoft Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., with make use of Wireless Knowledge's Echo software to create mobile versions of applications built with Jasmine ii. Echo will allow businesses to quickly and cheaply develop mobile applications that can be accessed through a Web browser by any Internet-enabled device, be they phones, handhelds or laptops, CA said. In addition to this, Wireless Knowledge will also provide consulting, application development and training services to customers.

Thanks to its agreement with Broadbeam, CA customers using applications built with Jasmine ii will be able to give access to mobile messaging and applications to Palm OS, Blackberry, Windows CE, WAP and other devices. The deal will save companies time and money on infrastructure and training costs, according to CA.

Along with mobile applications access, CA made two announcements concerning mobile management and administration and the company's Unicenter TNG management software. CA teamed with w-Technologies to offer companies the ability to send alerts to a range of wireless devices using CA's Unicenter. Based on w-Technologies' Mobilero software and Unicenter, managers charged with overseeing infrastructure and distributed computing environments will be able to receive notifications of problems and process them on wireless devices, including handhelds, mobile phones, two-way pagers and laptops, CA said. Because so many devices will be supported, the initiative will offer IT departments greater purchasing flexibility, the company said.

Additionally, CA also said that its partnership with MobileSys would allow the companies' joint customers to more easily use Unicenter to manage their wireless messaging systems and applications. Customers will also be able to outsource the deployment, management and tracking of messages through the MobileSys Network.

Lastly, CA and Kyocera demonstrated the ability of Kyocera's QCP 6035 mobile phone to function as a node on a network, using Unicenter. This will allow for the reliable delivery of mobile applications, CA said. The QCP 6035 is a CDMA (code division multiple access) mobile phone which integrates a Palm OS organizer running Palm OS 3.5 and sporting 8M bytes of RAM.

Wednesday's announcements come less than two months after CA announced another series of wireless applications deals with Aether Systems Inc., Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Soft Design A/S.

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More about Aether SystemsBlackBerryBroadbeamCA TechnologiesKyoceraMicrosoftMobileSysMotorolaNokiaNovarraQualcommResearch In MotionSoft DesignUnicenterWireless KnowledgeW-Technologies

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