According to a recent report published by The 451 Group, 2009 is the year that will see attention on the delivery to mobile devices of business intelligence from enterprise applications – particularly those utilizing the “service-oriented” software architecture model (“SOA”). Additionally, Webalo, the inventor of the “Mobile Dashboard” service, which gives IT and non-IT administrators, a way of achieving this, is positioned to service this new market.

According to Tony Rizzo, Research Director with The 451 Group and author of the report, “2009 is the first real year of enterprise mobility, making 2008 the critical on-ramp year. Coupled with more than enough SOA implementations to make a difference in the market, we believe Webalo is now at the right place at the right time, with the right product to substantially increase its sales and position itself to become highly visible.” This comment appeared in an independent report, titled “Webalo delivers a marriage of mobility and SOA – are SOA and mobility ready?” which was published on March 4 of 2008.

Rizzo said in his report that the Service Oriented Architecture – a software architecture model where distributed, highly-specialized applications or “services” cooperate over the network to solve a larger problem – including in ad hoc “mashups” – is at last beyond the hype stage, and “…moving finally into real deployment levels within the enterprise.”

Webalo has created The Mobile Dashboard, a software service that allows administrators – working from a Web browser – to configure mobile users of devices such as RIM BlackBerry, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Palm Treo, and Java-enabled smartphones to receive pre-existing, internal reports from spreadsheets or business applications right on those devices. The reports are dynamically generated and preserve the look and feel of each handheld device, tailoring themselves to the native screen sizes.

The top markets for the Webalo Mobile Dashboard service include retail, financial services, entertainment and hospitality sectors, as well as any company whose executives or mobile work force would benefit from real-time access to business intelligence, and other corporate information, on their mobile, handheld devices.

AT&T’s plans to offer Webalo’s Mobile Dashboard service to companies in the retail sector, whose personnel could use timely, mobile access to stock information, delivery dates, etc. The Mobile Dashboard also has immediate application in financial services firms, for example to push portfolio data about fund performance to customer relationship managers and their customers in real-time.

Rizzo added in his report, “The Webalo platform does an excellent job of mastering its two environments: SOA and mobility. The company understands both the back-end SOA complexities it needs to navigate and the frontline mobile users it needs to service,” adding that “[Webalo] delivers on both counts in an impressive fashion and creates a nice window of opportunity.”