Data synchronization is also vital in sales-force automation. Todd Christy, managing director of consulting for Pyxis Consulting, a technology consulting company to the financial services industry in Wellesley, Mass., says the push is to go beyond personal information management-type content (names, addresses and phone numbers) and to synchronize enterprise data?specifically sales data, performance reports and client prospecting information.

Pyxis built a synchronization system for a large mutual funds company that lets the sales force receive a subset of the sales and marketing system on their Palm devices. When someone syncs his Palm with a remote server, only his sales information, contact information and targeted news are sent back to him?other people’s information stays on the server, and the updated information on his Palm is sent to the server as well. The salesperson can then use the synced data on a sales call and synchronize back to the enterprise system after the call.

Christy offers advice for any company looking to set up an enterprisewide synchronization system: "The number-one success factor is scope control. We put together a very simple set of needs and business requirements and stuck to them tightly." That means, Christy says, forgoing some things that can be incorporated later?for example, synchronization in both directions and starting out with wireless sync.

Analysts International, an IT consulting group in Minneapolis, is also using synchronization for its sales force. The company has outfitted salespeople with Palms that they synchronize with a Lotus Notes CRM database using Pylon Pro. Before salespeople leave the office, they sync with Notes to retrieve the most current customer information. After the call, the syncing updates the central database with any new information. The key to any synchronization plan isn’t a technical one?it’s based on business needs, says Joanne Bocci, managing director for mobile and wireless practice for Analysts International. "The biggest key isn’t the tools, it’s formulating a strategy that is driven by business considerations?how to provide better customer service with better productivity and a positive return on investment."

Where It’s All Heading

Those are isolated stories; that kind of enterprise synchronization rarely happens today. But the business benefits seem so compelling that such corporate connections are clearly the wave of the future. And CIOs are already looking ahead.

Domino’s Monteith sees the day when a delivery person arrives at your door with a hot pizza and a handheld device that can give the driver directions, accept and verify credit cards on the spot, and deliver customer information back to the office?in other words, always-accessible data synchronization.