Another Service

Considered adding Personal Information Manager data to your suite of services? We show why this service is valuable from the users' point of view.

By Alexis D. Gutzman
Columnist, ecommerce-guide

If you've ever lost the "right" version of your address book — the one with the correct phone number for your sister who just switched jobs, the right address for your husband's grandmother who just moved into a nursing home, and with the contact info for that VP you met at the conference who wanted to hire you to do consulting — then you know the horror. Unfortunately, the more places your personal data (also known as PIM, personal information manager data) — address book, calendar, tasks, memos — resides, the more likely it is to get out of synch. When was the last time you backed up your address book and other personal information?

So Simple, So Elegant
SwiftTouch offers a way not only to centralize the storage of your PIM data, but also to get at the right copy of your PIM data from any device at any time. Using any of the major PIM applications — Outlook, Outlook Express, Palm Desktop, PalmOS, and, coming soon, Notes, and several others — you can import your PIM data directly into their server. Then, you can synch your Palm or your other applications to your data on their server whenever you need to.

Even more exciting, you can take advantage of SwiftVoice to dial into a voice-response system and get at your PIM data, this means that whether you splurged on the WAP phone or not, you can get at your PIM data wherever you are. You can even get at it from a pay phone, should you find yourself without a mobile device!

Test Drive
I was so intrigued by this solution to the "dog ate my address book" problem, that I decided to register for the service, upload my PIM data, and access it from the Web, just to see if it really did run as smoothly as promised.

I'm sold.

I was able to upload my Outlook 98 data to the SwiftTouch server then synch it with my Palm in about 15 minutes, including uploading the hundreds of contacts I've accumulated from interviews for columns. This included downloading the SwiftSynch software, which allows my e-mail software to talk to their servers.

Now, I can find my editor's phone number wherever I am, with or without Web access, whether my Palm V or OmniSky have charged batteries or not.

ASP to ASPs
SwiftTouch licenses their systems to ASPs and ISPs, intending to be part of a suite of mail services, but individuals can take advantage of SwiftTouch/SwiftVoice by signing up on the SwiftTouch site. Accessing your PIM data is free if you do it via synchronization, from the Web site, or from the WAP site, and costs less than $20/month for the SwiftVoice access. ASPs and ISPs pay for the SwiftTouch software on a per-user basis, with the cost per user being negotiated. SwiftTouch hosts the software for the ASP or ISP, being an ASP to ASPs.

ASPs can expect it to take one day to several weeks to implement SwiftTouch, depending on the level of customization they require. SwiftTouch handles integration and customization for the ASPs as part of the licensing arrangement.

SwiftTouch's solutions have a "eureka" quality to them, leaving this PIM devotee asking, "Why didn't anyone think of this sooner (before I lost my last Palm Pilot)?"

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