Innovation continues to be on Vodafone Malta Limited's agenda, chief commercial officer Paul Bahia said at the business launch last Wednesday of wireless push e-mail, a new service enabling real-time access to e-mail from a mobile device.
Speaking at the InterContinental, St Julian's, Mr Bahia said Vodafone aims to introduce 3G telephony by the "end of the summer". He outlined the major milestones in Malta in the Nineties and since 2000 and its current propositions, including the Travel Promise, data connectivity, a range of handsets from the top industry manufacturers, the Vodafone Simply and Vodafone Live!
"Once again Vodafone is leading the way when it comes to offering its customers mobility, enabling them to respond faster, get more done, stay in touch and in control while saving time and money," Mr Bahia said. "Wireless push e-mail is the best real-time e-mail solution on the market, offering secure access to e-mail via a customer's mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)."
Vodafone's customer value senior manager then gave details on the new offer: advantages like security, reliability and the availability of e-mail anywhere, any time; and benefits like better use of time, enabling clients to be more efficient and effective.
Push e-mail differs from standard 'pull' e-mail in that, whereas with pull e-mail, you receive it when you press the 'Send & Receive' button, with push e-mail the e-mail is automatically sent to the designated mobile device - PDA or mobile phone - as soon as it is received on the mail server.
Vodafone's wireless push e-mail integrates seamlessly with Vodafone Malta's network, providing users with real-time updates and access to their email, calendar, contacts, and files on the broadest range of mobile devices. Updates are affected by means of an end-to-end secure connection using FIPS compliant AES encryption.
The service is available both for business organisations operating a central server through Vodafone's Enterprise System and to professionals, small businesses and individuals who have a standard e-mail address.
Vodafone's wireless push e-mail solution is powered by Visto, which is the leading brand in wireless mobile solutions and is the same solution chosen by operating companies within the Vodafone Group.
Speaking to The Sunday Times after the presentation, Mr Bahia said the service, which was delayed until fully tested by a local financial institution, is now up and running. He anticipates that 60 per cent of Vodafone's business clients would opt for the service.
Visto, similar to the technology in the Blackberry devices, was one of three systems considered. Visto is totally integrated from end to end and the advantage over Blackberry devices is that you can opt to download attachments in any format - Word, Excel or PDF.
Vodafone has partnered with Intercomp for the set-up, installation and everyday maintenance on Microsoft Enterprise Servers and is working to partner with another local IT partner for other software suites.
"Vodafone's strength is in mobile communications," Mr Bahia said. "That is why we are partnering with local IT specialists to supply this service."
For more information on Vodafone's wireless push e-mail, contact the Business Segment Sales team on 2388-8228 or by e-mail at corporatesales.mt@vodafone.com.