Leading Application Vendors Turn to Puma Technology for Mobile Synchronization Solutions
SAN JOSE, Calif. — June 15, 1998 — Puma Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:PUMA), a leading provider of advanced synchronization solutions providing the broadest support for handheld devices and applications, has signed licensing technology agreements with leading application vendors QUALCOMM Incorporated, SalesLogix, and Time/system. Using developer tools and support provided by Puma Technology, these agreements allow the three companies to integrate Puma's Intellisync synchronization software solutions within QUALCOMM's Eudora Planner(TM) software; SalesLogix's sales force automation software (SFA) SalesLogix; and Time/system's TaskTimer applications. This is provided to deliver support for leading mobile devices such as 3Com's Palm Connected Organizers and personal information management and scheduling software packages. The new partnerships have significantly expanded the market potential for Puma's award-winning Intellisync offerings as it moves into a new spectrum and category of solutions.
QUALCOMM Turns to Puma for Support Between Eudora Planner for Windows and PalmPilot
Puma's Intellisync technology is integrated into QUALCOMM's new Eudora Planner 4.0 for Windows 95/NT calendar and contact management software enabling direct synchronization with 3Com Palm Connected Organizers. With the recent introduction of Eudora Planner for Windows, consumers now have a complete personal and workgroup productivity solution for calendar and address book management with a new level of portability, speed of use and simple data sharing. Puma's expertise in mobile device synchronization has enabled the company to provide QUALCOMM with both a runtime version of Intellisync and a developer tool kit to further extend the capabilities of Eudora Planner software to users.
QUALCOMM turned to Puma Technology to help it enable direct synchronization between its Eudora Planner software and 3Com's Palm Connected Organizer. "With a growing number of customers using the PalmPilot Connected Organizers, we realized the need for a robust and tightly integrated synchronization solution with Eudora Planner," said Randy Salo, director of Product Line Management for QUALCOMM's Consumer Products Division. "Considering Puma Technology's industry leading position through its Intellisync synchronization solutions, the choice to partner with Puma was an obvious one. Puma's expertise enabled the company to provide us with the most robust tool kit and full support for our product team resulting in complete customer satisfaction." Puma Brings Synchronization to Sales Force Automation Software
Using tools licensed from Puma Technology, SalesLogix will be able to deliver synchronization support for handheld devices and scheduling packages for the SalesLogix Sales information system later this year. Puma's Intellisync has successfully addressed the challenges associated with keeping the digital information mobile professionals carry with them on handhelds in sync with the information back on their home or office PC. By partnering with Puma to embed the Intellisync technology into its SFA application, SalesLogix will be providing direct synchronization to handheld devices including the PalmPilot and Windows CE offerings later this year. In addition, this enables a co-existence strategy that allows SalesLogix users to seamlessly synchronize data with their corporate PIM and groupware application standards including Microsoft Outlook, Novell GroupWise and Lotus Notes.
This integration of technologies will further address the critical challenges mobile sales forces face in communicating throughout the corporation. Mobile salespeople carry the latest in handheld computer technology as a means of accessing critical data, including customer, sales and project information. While in the field, they are faced with a common dilemma of having to keep this information updated with what is stored on their laptops or PCs, as well as having to share information contained in other applications in use throughout the organization.
"In searching for the ideal synchronization solution to meet the needs of our customers' mobile sales forces, we quickly learned that Puma Technology's Intellisync family alone provides the most intelligent synchronization for the broadest range of handheld devices and scheduling packages in the industry," said Pat Sullivan, president and CEO of SalesLogix. "By licensing Puma's Intellisync technology, we are able to seamlessly add synchronization capabilities to integrate more options with the SalesLogix system in an efficient and cost effective manner."
Puma Brings Synchronization to Information Management Application
Puma has also licensed its Intellisync technology to Time/system for integration with its TaskTimer 4.0 for Windows, a group-focused time and team management system. Time/system, an international company providing solutions to increase the efficiency of organizations, teams and individuals, offers customers up-to-date information management technology. With TaskTimer 4.0, users have one complete tool for managing their personal schedules and tasks, for sharing meetings and project information with teams, and for accessing a single common planning system for an entire enterprise.
As the European market is embracing all the new handheld devices such as the PalmPilot, Time/system customers are seeing a critical need to have a means of keeping their devices up-to-date with their information management application. In an effort to address these needs, Time/system turned to Puma Technology and will deliver its synchronization support later this year.
"Many of our customers have adopted the latest in handheld computing devices as a way to carry information with them while on the road," said Nina Due, International Product Marketing Manager of Time/system. "Due to their new dependence on these devices and their heavy use of our PC-based TaskTimer application, customers are now looking to us for a solution. We realized that Puma Technology had the expertise and prominent international presence to provide us with the synchronization support needed to extend our TaskTimer solution. With the integration of Puma's Intellisync technology these devices can quickly become extensions to our customers' PCs."
Intellisync — The Standard in Advanced Synchronization Solutions
Intellisync is the engine driving intelligent synchronization between mobile computing devices, leading PC-based personal information management (PIM) and corporate groupware software applications. It is the very essence of how people keep all their data within various digital devices and PCs up-to-date at all times. Puma's patented Data Synchronization Extensions Technology (DSX Technology(TM)), found in every Intellisync offering, provides advanced synchronization capabilities such as field mapping, filtering and conflict resolution. Not only do these features enable the most seamless user experience, they also help to optimize the device itself.
"Our Intellisync solution is currently the defacto standard in the industry and the only solution able to provide top level synchronization across a variety of handheld devices and popular PC-based applications," said Puma President and CEO Brad Rowe. "These licensing agreements pose an exciting turning point for Puma moving beyond our retail and OEM market channel penetration. Working with vendors like QUALCOMM and SalesLogix and Time/system to develop extensions to our Intellisync software is the third phase in our strategy to proliferate our intelligent data synchronization technology and enable new markets for handheld devices. We forsee that other third party vendors will increasingly design related software to work with our technology. Given the explosion in the mobile computing market, the potential opportunities for Solutions Development Kit partnerships are limitless and our intention is to look at every possible way to make our Intellisync technology the most pervasive and flexible synchronization solution for mobile devices and applications in the market."
Intellisync currently supports a wide range of mobile devices including 3Com Palm Computing platform devices, such as the PalmIII connected organizer; all existing Windows CE-based handheld PCs; the REX PC Companion; AT&T's PocketNet Service-based phones; the Nokia 9000i Communicator; the family of Sharp personal organizers; the Texas Instruments Avigo and family of organizers; notebook computers and others. About Puma Technology
Puma Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:PUMA), is the leading provider of Mobile Data Exchange(TM) software, high-performance wireless infrared connectivity solutions that allow users to easily exchange or access information and applications from a remote computer over both wireless and wired media and content aware data synchronization software for PCs and handheld devices. Puma's product offerings make it simple and inexpensive for users to transfer information and documents between computing devices and between computing devices and peripherals. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. and maintains a Web site at www.pumatech.com.
Note to Editors: Puma Technology, the Puma Technology logo, Intellisync, the Intellisync logo, DSX Technology, The DSX Technology logo, Mobile Data Exchange, and the Mobile Data Exchange logo, are trademarks of Puma Technology, Inc. that may be registered in some jurisdictions. Al other marks belong to their respective owners.
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