The Southampton, UK-based ISV offers a products that pushes enterprise email, so its MobilePA Enterprise tends to be compared with offerings from the likes of Research In Motion (RIM), Intellisync (now part of Nokia) and Good Technology.
However, Sirenic’s background in content management means it does more than that, said Ian Lynes, its business development director.
We also archive up to 10,000 emails and have a search facility that accesses that database, so we can bring up all the relevant emails from a given business partner for, say, the last year, he began.
In addition, the company’s core asset is a relevance engine, which it calls the Sirenic Relevance Server, which enables those emails to be displayed alongside other pertinent information such as invoices on the ERP system and the most recent contact in the CRM database, as well as RSS news feeds.
You might see an unpaid invoice, together with an email explaining the delay in payment and a news story that the company in question has recently been involved in some M&A activity, Lynes said by way of example. We’re really at the intersection between the mobile/PIM market and the content and knowledge management space.
IBM’s interest in Sirenic is manifold. On the one hand, the platform can run on the WebSphere app server and DB2 database, though it can also run on their main competitors, so there is also an IBM Global Services play over and above the Big Blue product portfolio. That said, the relationship is driven by IBM Software, so there is clearly a desire to maximize IBM product revenue.
On the email server front, MobilePA takes data from a Domino server, but can just as well work with Exchange. It is also agnostic to the mobile device and operating system running on the endpoint.
As for pricing, Lynes said the company sells MobilePA on a per-user, perpetual license of 360 pounds ($656) a head, plus integration and customization services depending on the customer.
It will be interesting to see how far IBM takes the business beyond the UK. The two companies are currently targeting the UK public sector, but Lynes said Sirenic has already spoken with IBM execs with European and US responsibilities within its PartnerWorld Industry Networks initiative, which is the umbrella beneath which the agreement was signed.
