New Unimobile version has travel services

FOSTER CITY, California -- Electronics For Imaging (EFI) is launching the latest version of its Unimobile enterprise messaging system. EFI says its Unimobile 5.0 enables companies in major vertical markets such as travel, banking and finance, media, and field services to roll out end-to-end mobile business solutions, the company said. Travel services will include flight notifications, gate change notifications, mobile ticketing, frequent flyer updates, mileage redemption, and in-flight text messaging.

"Unimobile 5.0 supports a wide range of business solutions and provides more efficient support of enterprise applications," said Vas Bhandarkar, general manager of EFI's Unimobile Division. "Our solution uniquely enables enterprise customers to leverage their infrastructure and internal business processes to achieve both a better relationship with their customers, and a faster return on their investment."

Bhandarkar said EFI's Unimobile 5.0 features a highly secure and reliable messaging solution that works seamlessly across all carriers, giving enterprise businesses the ability to reduce business costs, increase employee productivity, and enhance customer satisfaction. Many current Unimobile customers have been using the 5.0 upgrade and report excellent results, including ABN AMRO Bank.

Technically robust

"We believe that Unimobile 5.0 is both functionally rich and technically robust," said Nitin Chopra, vice president and head of consumer banking for ABN AMRO Bank, India. "Unimobile 5.0 enables the bank to provide secure, interactive mobile services that help our credit card customers to stay informed on all their vital transactions."

Two months ago, EFI announced ABN AMRO Bank was offering new wireless and e-mail services to its Indian credit card customers using the Unimobile messaging platform. Unimobile’s technology gives ABN AMRO’s credit card customers Active Alerts, a feature that keeps cardholders informed on e-mail and mobile phone (SMS) of transactions made with the card.

Unimobile 5.0 contains three integrated components: the Unimobile Intelligent Network (UIN), a global two-way network that delivers data to end-users via 500 mobile carriers in 130 countries; the Mobile Messaging Platform (MMP), which enables enterprises to deploy advanced messaging applications to their employees and customers; and Enterprise Application Connectors (EAC) to rapidly configure and leverage existing infrastructure systems to meet the needs of individual customers.

New features Unimobile 5.0 include an interactive notification engine for secure, two-way messaging, and a query and response engine for accessing data from enterprise applications. 

Java and XML

Also, the new release has a Java and XML Application Programming Interface (API) for integration with existing and customized enterprise applications, such as Remedy, SAP, Clarify, and Microsoft Exchange. EFI describes Unimobile 5.0 as having advanced billing support to leverage new carrier agreements that expands Unimobile network's global two-way messaging capability, reverse charging, premium Short Message System (SMS), and PrintMe support to enable remote location printing or faxing of mobile messages from any mobile device.

Two weeks ago at Comdex in Las Vegas, EFI and Sharp Electronics demonstrated PrintMe Networks remote printing system for Zaurus PDAs. PrintMe allows Zaurus users to easily send documents to any enabled printer or to any fax machine, without complex setup, software or IT support.

With a PrintMe account, Zaurus users can print documents by simply e-mailing files to PrintMe-enabled printers on the PrintMe network. With a premium account, which will be offered by Sharp, users can also print to any fax machine almost anywhere in the world. The PrintMe service is only available for Zaurus PDAs that use optional wireless modems and have an Internet connectivity account through a service provider.

"PrintMe solves one of the most vexing problems of mobile professionals -- printing away from your desk," said Ofer Tenenbaum, EFI general manager of PrintMe. "By teaming with Sharp, Zaurus users can now easily accomplish the one thing they couldn’t do before -- print full-size documents whenever and wherever they need them."

Print wirelessly

PrintMe works like a phone system for printers. Every printer that joins the network (that is, becomes PrintMe-enabled) is assigned a number, like a phone number, that allows users to send documents to it from wireless devices, Tenenbaum said. PrintMe is a secure, global system that connects printers and users, anytime, anywhere. PrintMe works with any mobile device without requiring the addition of software, drivers or IT effort. Users can immediately begin printing wirelessly at any PrintMe-enabled location throughout the world including select airports, hotels, print for pay and corporate environments and, with a premium account, at any fax machine as well. 

ABN AMRO is one of the largest financial institutions in the world and serves its wholesale, consumer and commercial, and private and asset management clients through an extensive global network. Headquartered in Amsterdam, ABN AMRO has total assets of approximately Euro 543 billion (US$505 billion).

Last May, Electronics For Imaging, Inc. acquired Unimobile, Inc., a wireless messaging software company. Unimobile, founded in 1996, has offices in Santa Clara, California, and Bangalore, India. Bhandarkar was retained to direct the Unimobile business unit at EFI.

The acquisition price was approximately $2.5 million, including up to a $1 million earn-out based on achievement of revenue goals.