TrueContext aims to make enterprise content more accessible to mobile workers

Ottawa-based start-up TrueContext Inc. sees an enormous opportunity in easing the use and management of enterprise applications and content by mobile workers, and the company recently won a major boost when it received an injection of cash from CANARIE Inc. Earlier this month, the company, funded in part by Skypoint Capital, received $1.5 million from the not-for-profit corporation. TrueContext CEO Alvaro Pombo tells Report on Wireless that the funding from CANARIE will be used to develop a new iteration of the company's mExperience software collaboration platform for the small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market. The money will be divided between R&D and commercialization activities. "It's a little bit of an evolution to the product from different angles. It's a horizontal platform, but as you know the requirements (for the SME market) are very specific by industry and by applications. So that's where the money goes, focusing it more on some specific requirements in the SME space," Pombo explains. The SME version is the next step for TrueContext, but the company is already receiving some significant customer traction for the current mExperience product. The software is currently in trials with an undisclosed large Canadian government department and a European mobile operator. Landing the government department trial was a bit of coup for the company, Pombo explained during a presentation at Skypoint Capital's annual general meeting on May 15. Prior to implementing the mExperience software, the department used various methods to communicate, resulting in an expensive and cumbersome process. "We explained what we did and what the software was all about and (the director general) immediately said, 'I need to use your solution right now.' The reason for that was they have a tight collaborative environment for (publishing) reports that go up to the Cabinet minister. Now they are using our mExperience based on a Pocket PC device. They get documents. They modify them. They publish them and they are constantly on the same page. What's the value for the organization? Simplicity. Speed. Quality." The software platform can be likened to expanding the shared computer network experience into the mobile environment. No longer would mobile workers have to rely on email communications to receive information, the information they request is automatically updated. The software allows users to be notified by a push-based alert or allows them to pull enterprise content from the corporate network to the device. Kevin McGuire, VP marketing at TrueContext, says that while email is an excellent tool for communications and sharing information, it can become difficult to manage. He cites the conundrum of sending a colleague critical information via email and then that person having to filter through a bunch of emails to find the information. "You don't have to rely on a messaging platform to sift through emails to find the nugget of information. It's instantly installed and you're notified as soon as you connect to the network," McGuire tells RoW. TrueContext says it won't burn through its funding base as it strives towards profitability. "We're also in the process working with these enterprises to grow our market reach and ultimately refine our product roadmap. We're seriously driving towards breaking even in 2004. The numbers are big on the customer side and are big in terms of the potential that we're seeing. We want to capitalize on it," Pombo told the Skypoint AGM. "Definitely, the next six months are critical for us."

TrueContext aims to make enterprise content more accessible to mobile workers

News | 05/27/2003 4:00 am EDT

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