announced that its flagship MobileManager software now supports Palm smartphones, including the recently released Palm Pre. Zenprise is the only vendor to automate the monitoring, management and troubleshooting of multiple smartphone devices, including the BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and Palm platforms.

Smartphone sales continue to outpace traditional cell phone purchases. According to research released in May by Gartner, the number of smartphones sold in the first quarter rose 12.7%, to 36.4 million, while total cell-phone sales declined during the same period.⁽¹⁾ This demand for smartphones is due, in part, to organizational cut backs on mobile devices. With a decrease in business-issued smartphones, employees are forced to purchase their own devices for both personal and business use. This presents a major management challenge for IT, as employees are demanding access to corporate services, such as email and calendar, from their personal smartphone. Each smartphone platform requires an entirely different set of support processes and expertise -- from initial deployment of the device, to break fix support procedures and administrative maintenance tasks. These requirements force enterprises to allocate precious time and resources to routine management activities.

"The wide-spread consumerization of smartphones puts great pressure on IT to support a wide range of mobile platforms," said Andrew Borg, senior research analyst, Aberdeen Group. "The latest platforms add to this growing challenge in the data center as IT must now support even more mobile devices on flat or reduced budgets. A platform-agnostic approach provides enterprises with optimal flexibility as employees can use their smartphone of choice."

Zenprise MobileManager introduces an automated, best practices approach to finding and fixing user issues. Based on patented ZenPro™ automation technology, MobileManager recognizes interdependencies across the entire mobile infrastructure -- from servers and network devices deep in the data center, to carrier networks and devices outside the data center. This holistic approach enables administrators to resolve complex support issues including critical "Severity-1" problems. These high priority issues have the biggest impact on service reliability and productivity, and can best be addressed by evaluating the entire mobile infrastructure. Organizations that automate mobile management can lower mean time to repair, standardize problem resolution, minimize support calls and improve overall productivity.

"Enterprises are facing increased pressure to support multiple smartphone platforms," said Jayaram Bhat, Zenprise CEO. "This presents new challenges for IT as each device platform requires different IT support processes and best practices to function in an enterprise network. Zenprise MobileManager enables enterprises do more with less by automating common support activities across multiple platforms. This results in greater productivity and significantly reduced costs."

Pricing begins at $35 per user for 1000 users. Supported platforms include BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and Palm. 

⁽¹⁾ Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Declined 8.6 Percent and Smartphones Grew 12.7 Percent in First Quarter of 2009, by Gartner, Inc., May 20, 2009.

About Zenprise

Zenprise's award winning software automates mobile management. The software automatically troubleshoots end user issues across BlackBerry®, iPhone, and Windows Mobile environments. Unlike pure monitoring solutions, Zenprise identifies the root cause of end user issues and provides detailed resolution steps to fix these problems. Founded in 2003, Zenprise is headquartered in Fremont, California and is privately held with funding from investors Bay Partners, Ignition Partners, Mayfield Fund, and Shasta Ventures. Zenprise's executive and product teams bring enterprise software experience from companies such as Mercury, EDS, Zambeel, Bay Networks, and Loudcloud.

Information Source:    Marketwire