Telstra makes Good on mobility computing

Telstra has partnered with US-based Good Technology to take its mobile computing software and services to the government and enterprise markets.

The deal will see Telstra make available Good’s Mobility Suite on its range of Palm, I-mate and Nokia smart handheld devices (SHDs).

The suite offers Mobile Messaging – a push email offering, Mobile Intranet – secure access to corporate intranets, and Mobile Defense – for application security.

Telstra services arm Kaz will also work with Good to integrate its back end management platform into ASX top 50 and government department networks, Terry Austin, president worldwide sales and marketing at Good Technology, said.

Despite Good’s focus on the US market for the last five years Austin was confident the company’s offering could lure the local market away from its fixation on RIM's Blackberry.

He said Telstra, along with its handset partners, had also committed to investment in a large-scale marketing and awareness campaign.

“We have about 8000 corporate accounts in the US, many of which are multinational companies, so in a way, we already have a presence here through them,” he said.

Austin said he viewed the Australian market’s high mobile handset saturation as a positive, arguing that with refresh cycles now typically averaging one year, end-users were more likely to upgrade to SHDs.

“Mobility computing is the next big wave but it is hugely under-penetrated,” he said. “At the moment there are 56 million converged devices around the world but only 10 million of those are used for [push] email.”

Austin said Good’s relationship with Telstra had already borne fruit; a deal had been signed with a customer in the natural resources industry and another in the system developer vertical.