Customer Spotlight – Interscape Flip for the Mobile Sales Workforce

Continuing with our Sync Framework customer spotlight, I wanted to introduce another company called Interscape who has developed a simple to use sales tool called FLIP Client.  Flip was built to incorporate features like scheduling, pipeline reporting, outlook and more.  I had a chance to talk with Matt Francis, CEO of Interscape and this is what he had to say about the Sync Framework and Occasionally Connected Applications: “About 2 years ago I noticed sales professionals using a slew of applications to manage their sales process. Some were online, some were disconnected… None of them let people manage data and documents in a “sync” framework. The idea is that no matter what the data store is, we need an easy way to keep it in sync”. “We started researching and found Microsoft’s new SYNC Framework to look like a good solutions for our new FLIP sales client to keep documents on the team in sync with each other. It worked exactly the way we wanted, we created a SYNC provider and the SYNC Framework handled the rest”. “We then implemented an interface to keep our data in sync as well, between SQL CE and SQL2005. No problem, just create a sync process and interface and now our remote data store is syncable (not a real word… yet!)” “We then had another challenge… How do we keep the events in the client in-sync with Outlook? The answer was SYNC Framework. We worked with the SYNC Framework group and created an Outlook sync interface. The framework managed the rest”! “Overall, the idea of occasionally connected applications is perfect for the mobile workforce. Helping them sale thousands of dollars on wireless cards, reduce frustration of slow online applications, and keep them working when they need to be, is the goal of any organization. The SYNC Framework helped us out and we have accomplished the goals using this technology”. “Now our sales team and other companies are using the FLIP client to work when and where they want to”!

One of the things that I really like about Flip Client and something I can appreciate from discussions with other customers is the need to make synchronization solutions simpler.  I believe we are approaching a time in technology where data synchronization is not just limited to large enterprises that have the resources to implement and manage these solutions.  We are now starting to see solutions that incorporate cloud based data storage and sync services such as Project “Huron” that offload the complexities of data synchronization scalability, security, availability and management to the cloud.  As these technologies and others like Flip Client mature, I believe small and mid-size businesses will begin to see the advantage of data synchronization typically only available to large organizations. For more information on Interscape and Flip Client, please visit: https://www.interscapeinc.com/ or for a closer look at the client please visit: https://www.perfectsalesclient.com/

Liam Cavanagh

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 25, 2009
  We recently updated our official MSF blog with three new Customer Spotlight case study data detailing