Case Study: Bridging the Gap to Series 60

Project Type: Complex Porting
Customer: Sybase iAnywhere
Technologies: UI Development, Symbian OS, Series 60

Product Overview

iAnywhere OneBridge Mobile Groupware is one of the most successful mobile applications to date, with over 250,000 users worldwide. It connects company employees on the move with email, calendar and contacts data from their office computer systems through a wide range of smart mobile devices. 

Problem

iAnywhere’s enterprise customers were demanding support for more devices using the popular Symbian operating system. Two versions of the software already existed for the Symbian OS, but these were for higher-powered Series 80 and UIQ devices. iAnywhere required a version for the simpler, and more common, Series 60 platform. This would provide its customers with a greater choice of devices from which to access the OneBridge services. It would also enable customers' IS departments to manage more of users’ own devices if they preferred to keep their existing phone.

The timescale for the project was short. iAnywhere wanted to announce the new feature alongside the latest version of OneBridge. This was scheduled for the CeBIT trade show in Hannover, one of the world’s largest technology fairs, allowing only 6 weeks for development and testing. iAnywhere has an excellent Symbian OS development team in house, but these developers were engaged on another urgent project. So iAnywhere turned to Penrillian’s experts for help.

Objectives

- Quickly deliver a working version of the software in time for the launch event
- Leverage iAnywhere’s investment by re-using existing code where possible
- Deliver a robust end product in a tight timescale  

Method Deployed

Penrillian worked with iAnywhere to separate the existing code into two parts: a portable Symbian OS engine, and a platform-specific user interface (UI). While Penrillian worked on implementing the UI for Series 60, iAnywhere applied automated tests to the engine to improve its robustness.

Results

The working version was delivered on schedule for launch at CeBIT, where iAnywhere received the publicity benefits of a launch with Nokia. The finished product was demonstrated by iAnywhere on the Nokia booth.

Penrillian removed one of the barriers to sales of OneBridge, and extended the potential market with support for the full range of Symbian OS devices.

Today thousands of Series 60 devices are in use with OneBridge Mobile Groupware.