SAN FRANCISCO, May 11, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FinovateSpring 2010 -- Banks, credit card companies and other financial services companies can now efficiently extend services and engage customers with iPhone and Android smartphone applications using the WorkLight Smartphone Platform for Banking.
"We want to help banks extend their reach beyond their core banking websites, specifically to the rapidly evolving smartphone channel," said Kurt Daniel, COO at WorkLight. "Most financial institutions have reported significant difficulties in developing, rolling out, maintaining and managing multiple smartphone application efforts. Leveraging a single, flexible solution to address these non-trivial problems can result in significant advances in terms of efficiency and time to market."
The WorkLight Smartphone Platform for Banking, which is being showcased at the FinovateSpring banking technology conference, affords the following capabilities:
- Efficient Development – Reduce time to market by leveraging common web development skills coupled with native technologies across multiple devices.
- Complete Security – Leverage existing infrastructure to deliver complete protection on both sides of the firewall.
- Built-in Integration – Accelerate backend integration to provide seamless access to information and processes.
- Scalable Delivery – Maintain preset performance levels as banks grow to support millions of users and multiple applications.
- Flexible Services – Leverage WorkLight's expertise and technical know-how for quick development from design to rollout.
Recent research has shown that while overall adoption of smartphones is increasing rapidly, fragmentation of the smartphone category continues to hamper banks' efforts to reach consumers who turn to different devices.
According to research firm Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments surged 50 percent in the first quarter of 2010 over 2009, to 54 million units. Smartphones accounted for 18 percent of all handsets shipped in Q1. Industry reports have also shown that the Apple iPhone continues to surge in popularity, with over 50 million devices sold worldwide to date. Google's Android devices and related applications are also gaining traction with more than 8,000 applications added each month. BlackBerry smartphone users are estimated at 41 million.
With WorkLight, banks can efficiently manage the development and maintenance of multiple, optimized versions of their mobile applications. Development time is reduced by relying on ready-made components and by sharing device-independent sections of code. Banking applications delivered using the WorkLight solution leverage common technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript across multiple devices, without sacrificing the ability to tap the power of native technologies and tools, such as Objective-C and xCode.
This latest release complements WorkLight's offerings for desktop and web channels, such as Windows, Mac, Facebook, iGoogle and more.
Availability
The Smartphone Platform for Banking is available immediately for iPhone and Android devices. WorkLight plans to release support for BlackBerry smartphones in the coming months. In addition, a complete range of services is available, including the ability to design and build applications on top of the WorkLight platform.
About WorkLight - Extend Your Business™
WorkLight is a global leader in multi-channel software and services that power mobile, desktop and web applications for banking, e-commerce and the enterprise. The WorkLight Solution enables businesses to reach and engage their customers, partners and employees on the iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, Facebook, Google and more. Using WorkLight, a focused user experience can be efficiently created and delivered to drive more business while reducing cost of development and time to market. For more, visit www.worklight.com.