Mobile Workers Get New iSeries Connectivity Option

Published: April 4, 2006

by Dan Burger

When it comes to mobile workers and how they stay connected to the company data that makes them effective in the field, companies are facing some ugly challenges. Ugly as in expensive and unreliable, for instance. But if your organization has salespeople, systems managers, or other types of agents that could benefit from mobile access to information stored on iSeries servers, the idea of converting telephones or mobile terminals into workstations may have some merit. The technology to accomplish this is called BOSaNOVA Mobile and was developed by a subsidiary of Better Online Solutions (BOS). It is available in North America through a Phoenix, Arizona-based company called BOSaNOVA.

BOSaNOVA Mobile is based on thin-client architecture, which is to say the workstations are centrally managed. The advantages of a centrally managed network make a long list. According to the manufacturer, it eliminates the need to make local definitions for every mobile device in the network. In addition, it enables dynamic and remote identifications of users, configurations of mobile workstations, automatic installation and updating of software in the cellular instrument and the mobile terminal. We're not done yet, because the system creates a more stable network and it allows the retrieval of information up to the point when any mobile instrument gets cut off. The presentation of data is in the 5250 green-screen emulation.