Darren Besgrove
The ability to support the myriad of mobile devices in a coherent way is a bugbear for mobilising enterprise applications, but one local start up has leveraged open source components to make it all happen without the need for an on-premise server or native app.
Blink Mobile Interactive, based in Kariong on the NSW Central Coast (north of Sydney), has developed a Cloud service that integrates enterprise applications and presents them in the best form-factor for the user’s device – be it an iOS, Android, Symbian or Windows-based handset.
The company has developed its own scripting language to handle events like how the data will be displayed on the device, says director Darren Besgrove.
All the data passes through Blink Mobile’s Cloud service hosted in Canberra, but the company does not retain any of the information it processes.
“It’s developed in PHP with some Java, but we have developed a custom language to help integrate applications,” Besgrove said.
Other open source components use are the MySQL database and jQuery JavaScript framework.
Blink Mobile also uses the open source PhoneGap HTML5 mobile framework for maximising the app experience on different devices.
“Everything is developed locally on the Central Coast and we’ve always surprised at the quality of developers and project managers available here,” Besgrove said.
“Our service does the work behind the scenes so enterprises can enter data on a mobile device and have it integrate with a corporate ERP or document management system.”
Blink Mobile customers include Billabong, the University of Technology Sydney, the NSW Waratahs rugby club and many local councils where the company has found a loyal market for its services.
The company doesn’t need to distribute its application through any of the vendor’s mobile app stores, but Besgrove said customers can gain phone system functionality through native apps that include links to Blink Mobile’s Cloud service.
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