EDS/Vodafone switch on managed mobility service

Vodafone and EDS have deployed a global managed service for ABN AMRO Bank of the Netherlands, based on RIM's BlackBerry mobile email clients.

The firms claim that the rollout marks the first enterprise integrated mobility service to be jointly provided by a systems integrator and wireless carrier.

The service is designed to provide access to corporate email, calendars, contacts, task lists, corporate intranet and the internet.

In an ABN AMRO pilot, employees worked via their wireless devices an average of 48 minutes each working day and 40 minutes on weekends.

Employees cited airports, doctors' offices and soccer fields as common locations where they used their wireless devices.

Over 95 per cent of the pilot users stated that real-time email access significantly improved their business effectiveness.

And over 80 per cent stated that the mobile service improved their responsiveness and customer service. Some 44 per cent reported direct revenue gains as a result of their increased responsiveness.

Bill Crawford, global offering executive at EDS Mobility Services, said in a statement: "Mobile devices have been around for a while, but EDS and Vodafone together provide the first end-to-end managed service to make them manageable on an enterprise-wide basis.

"That translates to increased corporate productivity and data security and a lower total cost of ownership."

EDS contributed design, architecture and implementation, third-party connectivity, first-line helpdesk, device configuration and managed services.

Vodafone contributed the mobile network and second-line support and the mobile devices.

"While the ABN AMRO deployment is currently limited to BlackBerrys, our ECO solution supports all popular mobile devices, including PDAs, cellphones and smartphones," said Crawford.