FRAMINGHAM (02/11/2000) - Martlet Venture Management Ltd. needed a centralized server to allow its 20 partners and others to collaborate on contract drafts and Microsoft Office applications. The Montreal-based start-up didn't want to go to the trouble and expense of managing a conventional dial-up network using its own server, so it has been beta-testing a service from Berlin-based Space2go.com GmbH & Co.
Beginning next month, Space2go.com will give Martlet employees access to spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations or contact information on two secure IBM RS/6000 Unix-based servers in Berlin. The service will use dial-up lines, though Martlet eventually wants to move to wireless connections, said Jochen Wiechen, Martlet's chief technology officer.
"Right now, we are simply synchronizing laptops. But let's say I've been to a talk, and I'm waiting for a plane and don't want to get my laptop out of the case," he said. "Someday, I could get out my organizer and jot down notes that would be [synchronized] to the server, perhaps wirelessly."
Martlet vice president of marketing David Lavoie, who is based in Montreal, said synchronizing users' schedules has been difficult so far "because we work in different time zones, and getting everybody on the same page is important."
The service will cost a company $6 for 100MB of space per month. That price includes an HTML/Wireless Markup Language (WML) front end for access from any WML device.
A Jump on the Competition
Space2go.com went into beta with its service in December and appears to have a jump on competitor FusionOne Inc. in Los Gatos, Calif., which announced a public beta release of a similar service on Feb. 2.
Starfish Software Inc. in Scotts Valley, Calif., Puma Technologies Inc. in San Jose and other firms offer synchronization services for handhelds, but so far only Space2go.com and FusionOne are addressing synchronization with larger applications, including the Microsoft Office suite, said analyst Jack Gold at Meta Group Inc. in Westboro, Mass.
"The concept behind Space2go.com makes sense for the smaller business, but the large IT manager would probably be worried about losing control of data," Gold said. Space2go.com provides password protection and 48-bit encryption of data on its service and is developing 128-bit encryption for transmissions.
It would make sense for information technology service technicians to consult a common server for service order updates from handhelds, "but we'd use our own server," said Steve Porostovsky, technical support manager at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in Tallahassee.