Appear Newsletter 1/2007

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CEO's Update

News

2007 promises to be an exciting year for Appear.  With the enterprise mobility software market rapidly growing, Appear is preparing with new staff, new offices and improved off-the-shelf product to appeal to a broader range of market verticals. 

Let me begin with people.  We have a new EMEA Sales Director, Tim Carter (tim.carter@appearnetworks.com), who is hiring European sales and partner managers to better cover this region.  In addition, Tim is launching our Channel Partner strategy.  We are also pleased to welcome Yad Jaura (yad.jaura@appearnetworks.com) to the newly created Vice President of Marketing position.  Based in the UK, both Yad and Tim bring significant experience in the enterprise mobility market to Appear.

To support our growth in the European market, we have opened offices in Spain, France, Italy and the UK.  Our first South American office is now open in Chile, And, in the U.S. offices are open in both Florida and Washington, D.C. 

Our biggest changes, however, come with our product.   We are simplifying context and standardizing our product so that it can be more widely used in enterprise mobility solutions.  In addition, we have improved the flexibility of our distributed network architecture and extended the functionality of our industry-leading synchronization product.  We are confident that these changes, along with other improvements, will make a profound impact in the market.

Our team is proud of what we have accomplished, and excited about what the future holds.

Scott Layman, CEO Appear

Appear and Dutch Rail are awarded "Best Mobility and Wireless project of the year" at Cisco Networkers in Cannes
>> Read more

Kista Science City wins international recognition with Appear IQ
>> Read more

Appear selected for ramp management wireless system at Cairo Airport
>> Read more

Appear awarded Gold and Silver in  mobile awards
>> Read more

Appear appoints Yad Jaura, VP Global Marketing
>> Read more

Our Growing Partner Community

The second half of 2006 has introduced a number of new partners to the Appear family. They have expertise in software and services that can support our customers across different industries and geographies.

In addition Appear have entered into a partnership agreement with PanGo to be able to provide marketing leading location based asset tracking and power it with the Appear context platform. Look our for more details on this new capability on our website.

Look out for Appear at the upcoming industry conferences and trade shows:

Europe:

• 12 - 15 February: 3GSM, 2007, Barcelona, ES

• 27 - 29 March:  Passenger Terminal Expo, Barcelona, ES

• 17 - 18 April: Gartner Mobile and Wireless Summit, London, UK

Meet Appear! If you are attending 3GSM in Barcelona, please take the opportunity to meet us at the Swedish Pavilion, Hall 2, stand F213. Send an email to Mia Falgard, mia.falgard@appearnetworks.com if you wish to book a meeting with Appear staff at the booth.

Welcome!

US:

• 25 February - 1 March: HIMSS Annual Conference, New Orleans

• 22 - 26 April: Gartner Wireless Symposium, San Francisco

• 3 - 6 June: APTA Rail Conference, Toronto, Canada

• 10 - 13 June: Annual AAAE Conference and Expo, Washington DC

Product News

Product releases

The Appear IQ has continued its impressive product development, and has in recent releases focused on a number of key new features. We’ve focused on increasing the power of the context engine, on continuing to increase the number of supported platforms and also to make the platform more open for integration with other enterprise systems. Appear continues to work closely with our System Integration partners, providing them with early access to new platform releases. The most recent of these releases is a new Windows XP/Windows Vista client. 

Context Engine

The Appear Context Engine has been extended with a number features. The main focus has been  opening up for external third-party services to extended the context engine space with system and sensor information. This way a third-party service can add its own data to the context engine. This can then be utilized by the provisioning, synchronization, and notification modules. For example, an external service providing temperature data to the context engine allows a provisioning rule to dispatch an alarm document whenever temperature goes above a defined value. The format of the context data is XML, which is used to define objects with attributes subsequently added to the context. Such objects then co-exist with the device context space. Each external context source fetches the context data elements using a HTTP-based xml protocol.

Integration Support

The Appear IQ identity management module has been extended to be able read all element properties from any LDAP database, which all will extend the context space with user specific attributes. From the release 5.4 the Appear IQ will include a ready to use Microsoft Active Directory plug-in component. The user attributes are also exposed to the client plug-in framework, which enables system integrators to create unique off-line login modules, allowing the client user to continue its current activities in a personalized way even when the client has moved out of network coverage.

Appear Client Re-Branding and Customization capabilities have undergone a major overhaul and now provide system integrators with a vast variety of configuration, client re-branding and packaging tools.

Synchronization Improvements

Both the Appear Client and the Appear Sync Daemon have been extended to better handle network fluctuations, and now provides a very robust mechanism to handle network dropouts. Checkpoint restart has been included so that if a connection breaks, AppearIQ is able to pickup from the point-of-failure when the connection is reestablished. AppearIQ no longer needs to restart from the beginning of the file.

Technical Tips

Did You Know…?

Since the release of AppearIQ 5.3, anything can become a context!

With the introduction of External Context Providers, you can use the values extracted from any well formed XML file as a context to use in your AppearIQ system. The values you want to use should be retrievable with XPath expressions and contained within file or web pages accessible by the AppearIQ Proxy.

The four simple steps to using external contexts are:

1. Create a new External Context Provider, defining the source and values to use

2. Configure the Appear Proxy to use the External Context Provider

3. Create new Context Predicates using the new external context values

4. Use your new Context Predicates to deliver your services and releases.

Example: Link in to a weather site and deliver a smiley face to your users when it’s sunny!

Context can be evaluated at the Client.

The built-in Client keywords can be used to determine context at the mobile device.

To use client-side context:

1. Add new context predicates to the context-conditions.xml file on the Client, using client keyword as the context-key

2. Use these new context predicates in “include-if” fields on service definitions.

Example: Deliver documents to mobile users in the language that is set on their device.

Messages can be sent from the Client.

With the introduction of two way notifications, messages can now be sent back from the Client to an external system. Message templates can be created for Client initiated messages, and these could contain keywords too.
Example: Embed the User ID, MAC address, Battery level and free memory details of the device in every message that the Client sends. Some useful client keywords (see documentation for full list and definitions):

DEVICE_IP
LANGUAGE
ZONE
POS_X
POS_Y
POS_CONTEXT
USER_ID
ROLE_LIST
POS_URL
DATE_TIME
BACKLIGHT
MAC
BATTERY_PERCENT
AVAILABLE_MEMORY
OSMAJORVERSION
OSMINORVERSION

The Power of Context

Context: Powering The Next Generation of Mobile User Interface, by Xavier Aubry, COO Appear

When equipping a mobile workforce with PDAs, smartphones and other wireless devices, it is critical to understand how employees will use these devices, and what it will cost to deploy and maintain a mobility solution. It makes no sense to simply transfer desktop applications to wireless devices. Increasingly, organizations want to package and deliver applications and information based on the user’s situation (context) at the time a request enters the system. This translates into increased employee productivity, easier development of new services, and an improved return on the organization’s mobility system. `

In a recent piece of research, Ivano Ortis, Program Manager Transportation & Retail at IDC commented: “we find that context-aware mobile services are going a step beyond from location-based services. Location information is still crucial, what's even more is the user context, i.e. the use of location, profile, language, time, type of mobile device, network bandwidth availability information and so forth and so on. This translates into a system that provides information services that are relevant to specific operative situations and transportation business environments. As a result, we recognize an increasing focus on adopting mobile context-aware solutions among Western European transportation companies”.

It is no surprise that the first adopters of context-aware technologies were leading European ground transport operators, who face the same challenges: a constantly mobile workforce distributed in disparate geographical locations, a dynamic and complex workflow model, requiring users to share and access real-time information on the job.

These mobile workers – let’s call them ultra-mobile workers - have very different requirements from regular mobile office workers: they focus on the field task or the customer in front of them, not the computer. They work in a dynamic and distracting environment, not in a quiet, static location. They need the right information, and the right tool to anticipate their requirements. They are constantly moving from one location to another. They need real-time, instantaneous, on-the-spot information. They don’t have time to browse and search. They need technology that is easy to understand, learn and use, even if mobile devices are not exactly like desktop computers, with their small interfaces, poor data-entry capabilities and limited battery life…

For these ultra-mobile workers, context is the solution: context-aware computing means that the user’s current situation is analysed in order to decide what services are presented to the user, when services are launched or stopped. This is very different compared to traditional desktop systems where direct user interaction is required (and wanted) for services to start. The user experience is quicker, simpler and more efficient.

In practice, context information gives mobile users instantly updated access to customized services and information. Say a conductor is helping a passenger at a train station. The travel planner application automatically fills in the station’s name without the conductor having to manually enter it or having to select from a long list of menus. If the conductor leaves the platform and walks to the bus area, the next bus departures pop up on the screen.

Precise information about the end user’s context is collected from various sources and stored in the Context Engine. For example, the location information can come from different sources, such as GPS, Cell-ID or pinpoint indoor Wi-Fi triangulation. But context is much more than location. Context parameters can encompass everything from date, time, location and user role to PIM data, task at hand and network bandwidth. They can also include custom-made parameters such as outdoor temperature, the capacity of the forklift the user is operating or any other information relevant to the specific domain.

When a request is made on the system, the Context Engine validates it against the rules-based engine that sits at its core, and delivers the appropriate information and applications. The Context Engine allows applications and services to be built and delivered in a modular fashion. This allows users to access relevant information through simple icons at a certain time depending on the user’s context information. When the Context Engine is integrated into a mobility platform, common features such as device management, synchronization, provisioning and notification are greatly enhanced, creating an intelligent mobility environment.

In essence, the Context Engine is a “Reverse Search Engine”, powering the next generation of mobile user interfaces.

Context brings operational performance to the organization: with nearly 20,000 employees taking care of one million passengers per day, Dutch Rail (NS) realised that implementing a mobile solution to improve employee performance and add value to the passenger experience was no small task.  Today, the 10,000-head contract implemented by Appear Networks, using context-aware technology, is already saving the organisation an estimated €8m per year. And counting.
 

Contact Us

Press Enquiries
press@appearnetworks.com

Partner Enquiries
partners@appearnetworks.com

      Customer Enquiries
customers@appearnetworks.com  

 Mia Falgard, +46 8 54591378

 Europe: Tim Carter,
 +44 1865784431
 US: Paul Flanagan,
 +1 650 2999 0441

 Nordics: Xavier Diab,
        +46 854591370
 UK:  Ian Matthews,
        +44 1865784431
 Benelux: Tom De Wit,
        +31 302106051
 South Europe: Xavier Jombart,
        +39 0637716327
 North America: Scott Layman,
        +1 727 797 1500
 South America: Alex Cabrera,
        +56 32 2570120

Copyright 2007 Appear Networks
Appear, Click & Run, Workspot are registered trademarks of Appear Networks
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