Anticipating substantial future growth in the mobile and wireless computing industries, Sybase Inc. launched a new subsidiary to provide mobile business-to-business services and support.
Sybase created iAnywhere Solutions Inc. to help the company pursue new strategic alliances, investment strategies and technology research and development for wireless business solutions, said John Chen, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Sybase.
“The formation of iAnywhere Solutions … is expected to create more value for Sybase shareholders, customers and employees,” said Chen.
Led by Terry Stepien, senior vice president and general manager of Sybase, iAnywhere Solutions will incorporate Sybase’s Mobile and Embedded Computing division. Some of iAnywhere Solutions’ partners include BellSouth Wireless Data L.P., Palm Computing Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd.
“With RIM, we are enabling the Blackberry devices to be serviced by the iAnywhere Wireless Server. Similarly with Palm, we are focusing on the various Palm devices to extend enterprise solutions to that platform as well,” Stepien said.
The iAnywhere Wireless Server, also unveiled last week, gives mobile workers the ability to work either on or offline, and provides open data synchronization capabilities between multiple wireless devices and a variety of information sources, Sybase said. It supports both UNIX and NT platforms.
iAnywhere Solutions will cater to the business market. Chen said Sybase has no plans to extend its offering to consumers “because we think the market there is intensely competitive.”
“We’re going to facilitate that which will allow businesses to transact their day-to-day activities,” explained Chen.
In the coming months, Chen also said iAnywhere Solutions will be partnering with more companies, including some in Europe.”We actually expect a lot of the wireless leadership to come from Europe. We’re already building partnerships over there,” Chen said.
In related news, Sybase announced it formed a $50 million “Innovation Fund,” designed to provide financial backing for cutting-edge products and solutions focused on its key wireless business markets.
The Innovation Fund will allow Sybase to invest up to $5 million per project. By short-cutting the corporate decision-making process, the company said it believes it can be more responsive to customer needs and technological changes.
To date, the fund has provided backing for Sybase investments in LogonHealth and Mainstreet Networks.
