NEW YORK, and SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world's largest professional services organization, and Palm, Inc., a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet applications and a leading provider of handheld solutions, today announced a global alliance agreement to provide mobile enterprise business solutions to clients.

Under the terms of the agreement, Palm and PricewaterhouseCoopers plan to work together to help companies quickly integrate existing enterprise systems with mobile capabilities. The two organizations intend to develop and market mobile enterprise solutions based on Palm(TM) handheld computers. The solutions will enable clients to gain further benefits from critical enterprise applications deployed by businesses including CRM (Customer Relationship Management), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and B2E (Business-to-Enterprise).

PricewaterhouseCoopers and Palm have successfully conducted a deployment program, Palm@Enterprise, which "mobilized" various business functions within Palm. The mobile-enabled environment allows a secure and stable channel for Palm employees to access a personalized portal with corporate email and calendar functions, as well as enterprise systems using Palm handhelds.

"We view mobile business as an entirely new way of capitalizing on enterprise systems, enabling greater overall work force effectiveness," said Marilyn Stemper, PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consulting Services partner focused on mobile business initiatives. "The combination of our extensive consulting capabilities and relationships with wireless network operators worldwide, coupled with Palm's innovative technologies, allows us to help clients quickly realize the benefits of a mobile enabled enterprise."

"Palm is executing on its strategy to deliver secure, mobile solutions to large organizations," said Carl Yankowski, chief executive officer, Palm, Inc. "In so doing, we want to form relationships with those who have demonstrated leadership with enterprise clients on a global basis. PricewaterhouseCoopers' Management Consulting Services practice is a logical choice for this collaboration."

Palm has been working with its Palm Economy members focused on enterprise solutions to stimulate development of "behind-the-firewall" enterprise applications. In parallel, PricewaterhouseCoopers' Management Consulting Services practice is working with clients globally to exploit the benefits of mobile business by providing strategic advisory services, encouraging the mobilization of enterprise software and assisting in application development and systems integration.

According to Pooneh Fooladi, Internet services senior analyst with IDC, "Using handheld computers and other mobile devices to conduct business remotely continues to gain momentum and is fueling the next generation of telecommuting. As corporate environments continue to evolve into virtual enterprises, employees are more geographically dispersed and require greater mobility. In these extended business communities, organizations will gain enormous benefits by providing employees and business partners fast, easy remote access to networked resources and electronic communications."

"The mobile Internet is a critical channel to interact not only with employees but also with customers and business partners," said Jesus Mantas, PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consulting Services partner at Palm. "Those companies that integrate mobile devices with existing systems and infrastructures will have a clear advantage in boosting productivity, generating greater workforce efficiencies and increasing the bottom line."

PricewaterhouseCoopers has begun introducing Fortune 100 clients to the new mobile-enabled solutions at PricewaterhouseCoopers' North American and European demonstration facilities located in Philadelphia and Heathrow, U.K. PricewaterhouseCoopers' Management Consulting Services practice has more than 500 professionals dedicated to mobile business globally. In addition, clients can draw on the capabilities of more than 1,500 professionals knowledgeable in mobile-related solutions such as enterprise systems, B2E and customer relationship management.

Palm@Enterprise Program

In September 2000, Palm and PricewaterhouseCoopers set out to develop a "behind-the-firewall" mobile-enabled business solution. Tailored around Palm technology, the solution was developed to conform to enterprise-class security and management policies and provide a streamlined user experience. The result was an employee-focused portal with an intuitive user interface that provides employees with access to email; proprietary enterprise systems; and portal information. A dynamic main page is updated real-time when accessed wirelessly, and can be personalized by each user. Users must pass security checkpoints, using passwords to gain access to various databases and company-confidential channels that require additional verification.

Feedback from users and analysis of the overall program revealed that wireless dynamic content and continual, stable access to corporate data enables greater efficiency and effectiveness among mobile employees. "The test group of users felt they were receiving significant benefits from on-the-go access to corporate information and believed their work and personal productivity increased substantially. Their reaction -- and enthusiasm -- was so pronounced, we're rolling our pilot out to the entire work force in the United States," said Yankowski. "We believe this can be the case for any large organization like ours."

The challenge for businesses is determining how to best harness mobile computing and new technology to effectively connect employees and business partners with existing databases and infrastructure systems. There are complexities associated with security and technology integration in an enterprise environment. "One advantage of handhelds is that they provide both personal and corporate information in a secure and easy-to-use single device," said Mantas. "Our efforts at Palm demonstrate that it's possible to both increase personal productivity and generate even greater value to an enterprise through effective deployment of mobile business solutions."

About PricewaterhouseCoopers

The Management Consulting Services practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers helps clients maximize their business performance by integrating strategic change, process improvements and technology solutions. Through a worldwide network of skills and resources, consultants manage complex projects with global capabilities and local knowledge, from strategy through implementation. PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwcglobal.com) is the world's largest professional services organization. Drawing on the knowledge and skills of more than 150,000 people in 150 countries, we help our clients solve complex business problems and measurably enhance their ability to build value, manage risk and improve performance in an Internet-enabled world.

PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the member firms of the worldwide PricewaterhouseCoopers organization.

About Palm

Palm, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers, according to IDC (December 2000). Based on the Palm OS(R) platform, Palm's handheld solutions allow people to carry and access their most critical information with them wherever they go. Palm(TM) handhelds address the needs of individuals, enterprises and educational institutions through thousands of application solutions.

The Palm OS platform is also the foundation for products from Palm's licensees and strategic partners, such as Franklin Covey, HandEra (formerly TRG), Handspring, IBM, Kyocera, Sony and Symbol Technologies. Platform licensees also include Acer, Garmin, Nokia and Samsung. The Palm Economy is a growing global community of industry-leading licensees, world-class OEM customers, and approximately 160,000 innovative developers and solution providers that have registered to develop solutions based on the Palm OS platform. Palm went public on March 2, 2000. Its stock is traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol PALM. More information is available at http://www.palm.com . NOTE: Palm OS is a registered trademark and Palm is a trademark of Palm, Inc. or its subsidiaries.
SOURCE Palm, Inc.
Web site: http: //www.palm.com
CONTACT: Lia Papa of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Management Consulting Services, 202-822-4740, or lia.papa@us.pwcglobal.com; or Ronni Sarmanian of Palm, Inc., 408-878-2547, or ronni.sarmanian@corp.palm.com