Client: Accenture
Client Business Need: Accenture desired to provide their Global Convergence Forum (GCF) participants with wireless interactive access to the conference agenda, participants list, email and other kinds of information. It was dynamically updated throughout the conference, so the solution would need to include synchronization functionality to provide participants with the most recent information. Each participant was given a Motorola MPx-200 smartphone, the conference venue had provided GSM/GPRS wireless network coverage.
Technical Response: The solution was implemented within client-server architecture. The Conference Assistant application runs on a smartphone and uses GPRS connectivity to synchronize with Microsoft Exchange Server storing all information about the conference. The data synchronized with the server includes conference program, participants list and a list of speakers. It was also tightly integrated with built-in smartphone features like ability to exchange emails, send SMS messages and initiate phone calls with other participants.
Client application runs on Microsoft Smartphone 2002 platform and was implemented using C++, HTML, JavaScript and COM technologies. It uses Outlook Pocket Object Model to access participants information as well as conference program details. The server side solution includes Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, which is used for synchronizing the data via Mobile Information Server. Also a number of web applications were created allowing configuring the system and editing conference information. Web applications are implemented with HTML, Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) and use Microsoft SQL Server as the back end database.
Client Result: Using this solution, Accenture was able to provide conference attendees with personalized interactive display of the conference information right on their wireless phones. In addition, it showcased the wireless capability and versatility to Accenture clients. The application was well received by the conference participants.
