Realtime Interview with IQMax CEO Paul Adkison

On Monday I had the chance to chat on the phone and work through an online demo with Paul Adkison, CEO of IQMax (www.IQMax.com). IQMax has developed technology that allows a corporate or enterprise user the ability to securely manage and distribute rich multimedia podcasts and RSS feeds to mobile devices such as PDA’s and Smartphones.

I have to say, the IQMax demo was very impressive. What they've got is an enterprise server technology that allows an enterprise to download and manage mobile content for employees on corporate PDAs and Smartphones.

The IQMax solutions initially seem focused on health care. That's a natural fit because it's their heritage. IQMax has been around since 1999, providing solutions to the health care industry, but if you look at the
How do Intelligent Mobile Solutions Work for You? link on their web site, you'll find easy ways this solution fits in an array of health care solutions, but there's also a link for IT managers. I'll show screen shots of a different use here.

IQMax provides a solution that lets the enterprise take control of delivering content, and it circumvents the realtime streaming issue by doing intelligent synchronization via WiFi, broadband, Bluetooth or desktop synching. The data can be synched to corporate handhelds and ketp current. Think if it as the business content answer to iTunes.

Organizations can put traning materials, reference materials, sales demos, any streaming content on the handheld and keep it synchronized so the mobile worker has access to the latest information at their fingertips. The data doesn't need to be streamed realtime unless you want it to. Podcasts and video webcasts can all be managed from a central source and pushed to users.

They provided me with several medical examples, but let me show you one that's completely different.

In the image above we see a simple news feed channel. This lok like the basic MSN feed, but why not an industry specific news feed from the sector your enterprise is involved in? Financial news, medical news, tech sector news and more. All within your control at the enterprise level. Share the news pertinent to your organization.

Note the drill-down takes us to more detail on the story. An overview with links to play the media if the user wants.

And, we can watch the media stream right on the device.

As enterprises become more and more mobile, this looks like a streaming media content delivery solution that really hits the mark. This streaming content can be anything that's appropriate to your enterprise:

Medical training for health care or other professionals, even courseware to maintain certifications and licenses. Continuing education content, complete with testing capabilities.
Sales and marketing presentations. Executive presentations. Imagine your account executive not just delivering the Powerpoint slide deck to a potential customer. You could push a multimedia presentation out to the handheld while your account rep is on the way. Let your marketing director join in the pitch directly via pre-recorded webcast.
Podcast and webcast company meetings and press announcements. Keep your staff up to date on what's going on inside the enterprise.
Deliver podcast and webcast training to employees. Have road warriors who spend time on planes? Put the content on their devices that keeps them in touch and up with all the latest training on your enterprise solutions.
Transportation sector? Push information to drivers. Road conditions, Where to fuel. Safety vidoes.
Service providers and carriers? There's something here for service delivery management that I haven't fully thought through yet. Why not provide, from the carrier, a subscription service to podcast and videocast as part of the base service? There's a competitive edge.

In short, I see this as the corporate answer to iTunes. Everyone carries an iPod in their pocket for idle and commuting times. Why not put your enterprise-oriented content in your employees pockets and use technology to keep yuor staff at the top of their game?

It's fair to say that IQMax impressed me with a very solid enterprise solution to streaming content media management. Check their web site, and I think you'll find something for your enterprise too.

To add a bit more information here's a press release

IQMax Introduces Enterprise Podcasting Through Its New Rich Media Application
IQChannels™IQMax, Inc., a leading enterprise mobile platform and software solutions provider, is pleased to announce that it is teaming up with Microsoft Corporation and Verizon Wireless to introduce Enterprise Podcasting through its IQChannels™ collaborative rich media application. IQChannels™, powered by IQMax’s enterprise mobile platform, enables high quality rich media content (voice, video, images, text, etc.) to be distributed securely to targeted users in an interactive and contextual environment. Through IQChannels™ business organizations can now deliver and manage a wide variety of rich media and RSS feeds to employees on their mobile devices in a secure, managed environment. Content that can be delivered to users in an enterprise environment include company announcements, internal sales and training programs, sales and customer support content, or any other information an organization wants to deliver to mobile end users. Because of its flexibility in delivering content, IQChannels™ can also be used as a Sales Force Automation tool delivering contextually linked information to a specific sales event. For example, using IQChannels™ a sales rep could pull up a list of customer appointments on a mobile device, select a customer and IQChannels™ will deliver specific rich media content customized and designed specifically for that unique customer presented on the sales rep’s mobile device. IQChannels ™ is vertical agnostic and can be used in any industry that requires rich media and other information to be delivered to mobile users in the field allowing for increased effectiveness and productivity of an organization’s sales, marketing, service or training efforts. IQChannels™ is an end to end Microsoft solution that runs on Smartphones and Pocket PC devices utilizing Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Media Player.

IQChannels™, powered by IQMax’s enterprise mobile platform, possesses a number of distinct advantages related to the delivery of podcast and or RSS type content. IQChannels™ allows users to store content on removable storage cards, offering users the ability to store a sizeable amount of content for viewing on their mobile devices. IQChannels also allows the distributed content to be protected through encryption, preventing non-authorized distribution of sensitive materials. And unlike an iPod or MP3 device, IQChannels™, content can be synched in a wired environment using either a card reader or wirelessly through Wi-Fi or Broadband wireless access, allowing the end user to access content anywhere, anyplace, and anytime. IQChannels™ can also allow an end user to view “live” content that is streamed on the mobile device and is not limited to static content that is downloaded to the device from a desktop computer. This unique feature allows the user to access any additional content necessary when out in the field anywhere, anytime at a time and place that is convenient for the user. IQChannels’™ flexible delivery model can deliver content that is managed and pushed to end users by an administrator or is subscribed to by an end user on the mobile device. It also has an “audit trail” feature that allows an administrator to track the viewing activity of each individual user. For example, using this feature an administrator can keep track of what content is viewed by each individual user and how long that specific content was viewed. Finally, IQChannels™ features interactive functionality allowing end users to view content on their mobile device and then interact with that content and communicate interactively with content providers through Instant Messaging, e-Mail, XML, or by simply making a phone call using their mobile device..

IQMax unveiled its new IQChannels™ application at the Verizon Wireless Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Summit on Mobility Solutions, a conference sponsored by Verizon Wireless and Lucent Technologies on October 2-3, 2006, where Paul Adkison, the CEO of IQMax, was one of the featured speakers. IQMax is pleased to partner with Microsoft and Verizon Wireless to deliver IQChannels™ to enterprise customers in the Healthcare and Life Sciences Vertical and beyond.

About IQMax, Inc.
IQMax is a leading enterprise mobile solutions provider delivering innovative solutions to the healthcare and life sciences industries. IQMax’s mobile healthcare solutions are currently being used in many of the nation’s leading healthcare facilities. IQMax’s enterprise mobile solutions are powered by a robust Enterprise Mobile Platform which can be implemented either as a hosted application service with IQAnywhere™ or as an on premise installed solution with IQEnterprise™. Mobile Healthcare Solutions developed by IQMax include IQSpeak® for mobile dictation, IQCharge™ for the capture of billable procedures, and IQRounds™ for access to clinical information. The company just released its latest application, IQChannels™, which delivers rich media content to end users in a specified, contextual environment.