B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

380 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
billion cell phones in use. Today, Fortune 500 companies report that
close to 40% of their workers are mobile and that the standard mobile
applications, if any, are e-mail services, productivity applications and
sales force automation applications that are provided to workers.
A wireless business portal is a vital link for the mobile workforce
and contributes greatly to making the entire concept of mobile access
effective.
Handheld devices are now moving from a role as personal productivity
tools to providing enterprise-wide business solutions. In effect, they are
extending the reach of the enterprise and the use of mission critical
applications wherever they are needed.
In considering a mobile solution, attention should be directed to
existing legacy systems, a company's Web infrastructure and any
middleware platforms to be used for particular features such as
'synching', alerts, or instant messaging. It is certain that custom software
development will be called for, even if an off-the-shelf solution is
employed.
Wireless technology will play a crucial role in B2B interactions and
transactions. It would enable the users to query an integrated backend
system, such as SAP R/3 and have the response forwarded to other
wireless devices: laptops, WAP-enabled phones and PDAs.