Windows phone users get new data access option

Start-up Formotus powers mobile data collection and access

A software start-up has launched an application that manages XML-based data access forms created in Microsoft Office and wirelessly distributes them to any Windows-based enterprise smartphone or other handheld.

FormoPublish, from Formotus, is available either as a Web-based service, or as an enterprise application. The software lets mobile enterprise users access and update any enterprise application -- from CRM to inventory to order entry systems -- that has a Web services interface. And it does so without the IT programming resources, delays, and maintenance burdens of conventional client/server applications.

The forms themselves are created on a PC, using Microsoft InfoPath, the XML forms tool bundled with Micosoft Office. Office users can create, for example, a form to track their start and ending times on a field service call, accessing data exposed via a Web service on a backend ERP system. InfoPath binds the form to specific Web services, by which the form can extract information from a backend application or upload new data.

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A software start-up has launched an application that manages XML-based data access forms created in Microsoft Office and wirelessly distributes them to any Windows-based enterprise smartphone or other handheld.

FormoPublish, from Formotus, is available either as a Web-based service, or as an enterprise application. The software lets mobile enterprise users access and update any enterprise application -- from CRM to inventory to order entry systems -- that has a Web services interface. And it does so without the IT programming resources, delays, and maintenance burdens of conventional client/server applications.

The forms themselves are created on a PC, using Microsoft InfoPath, the XML forms tool bundled with Micosoft Office. Office users can create, for example, a form to track their start and ending times on a field service call, accessing data exposed via a Web service on a backend ERP system. InfoPath binds the form to specific Web services, by which the form can extract information from a backend application or upload new data.

A forms approach makes sense for mobile users, says Jack Gold, principle analyst with J. Gold Associates, a technology research and consulting firm in Northborough, Mass. “Mobile workers are often just filling in forms [with data],” he says. FormoPublish’s main strength is potentially, for some customers, it’s main weakness, Gold says. “Essentially, they’re a Microsoft shop,” he says. Customers have to be either using or be willing to use InfoPath, and to run InfoPath forms on Windows-based handhelds.

The InfoPath forms can become quite sophisticated, says Adriana Neagu, co-founder of Bellevue, Wash.-based Formotus, and a former Microsoft programmer who worked to create InfoPath. “On the form itself you can add a lot more [business] logic,” she says. “If a field needs a date, you can add a ‘date picker’ so people can add this easily, or to ensure it’s entered in a specific format, for example with a start date.”

An XML form lets business users select and filter just the information they want to see on their mobile device.

The forms are then uploaded as templates to the FormoPublish server. The server application converts these XML files into a format that can be manipulated to display correctly, via the downloaded Formotus runtime environment, on any of the handheld devices, including smartphones, that run a Windows operating system.

The Formotus runtime gives the handset an extended set of features compared to a conventional InfoPath form, according to Neagu. “We’ve extended the functionality of the desktop runtime so that you can do things like send data as a SMS [short message service] text message. Also, we can integrate with a built-in digital camera: you take a picture and we can include it in the XML stream. We can also include GPS [Global Positioning System] data.”

Forms work automatically with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which is the centerpiece of Microsoft’s document sharing and collaboration strategy.