Attachmate unveils WapFrame system

Attachmate has announced the availability of WapFrame, its Wap and back-office integration system.

Attachmate has announced the availability of WapFrame, its Wap and back-office integration system.

The new product, made in partnership with Nokia, will be sold via channel partners.

The agreement takes advantage of Nokia's wireless expertise and Attachmate's ebusiness provisions. Wap has made little impact so far, due to a lack of application developments.

Andy Shepperd, general manager of networking at Computer 2000, said: "The whole wireless development is large, but the delay has been because of a lack of content and service on Wap applications."

John Newlyn, business development manager at Attachmate, said: "Nokia's technology will be able to handle things from the data input device to the Wap server when Attachmate's technology takes over."

"The problem with Wap is that users do not know what they are getting and often need additional products to make it work," he added.

He confirmed that Attachmate will introduce a tangible Wap product to work "from the word go", adding that "for a fixed fee, we will provide the customer with everything required to build a Wap business application".

The mixture of products and services includes a nine-day consultancy.

But Nad Nadeson, marketing director at Peramon, said: "This is not such a big thing when we already have Peramon's Mobilizer data connector, which allows companies to build Wap connections with the back office."

Newlyn said that the companies most interested in WapFrame are road haulage and book publishing businesses, which benefit from workers and clients having wireless access to central networks.

First published in Computer Reseller News