Mobile Portals | News

Datatel To Release Mobile App for Android and Blackberry

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 10/01/10

Datatel will be releasing an updated version of its mobile campus app in October. Release 1.1 of Mobile Access (MOX) will add support for Google Android smartphones and Blackberry devices. The program currently works on Apple iOS devices. Support for Windows Mobile, Nokia Symbian, and Palm Pre is scheduled for 2011.

MOX allows users to:

• Exchange contact and profile information from phone to phone and receive updates when those details change;
• Receive personalized notifications such as security alerts and library past-due notices;
• Access information about public and private campus events and about events limited to specific groups such as students, faculty, and staff;
• Personalize newsfeeds from the institution; and
• Follow a GPS-enabled map to campus facilities.

MOX uses the DubMeNow technology for Smartphone information sharing.

"Mobile access is here, expected by the students and faculty, and a trend you just can't ignore," said Jeremy Brinkman, director of administrative systems at the University of Northwestern Ohio in Lima. "With the new support of Android and Blackberry, MOX is more valuable than ever to help us make sure that all of our constituents have real-time mobile access to the information they need and desire."

"Mobile devices are the screen of the future, and with MOX, all an institution needs to get up and running is an RSS feed and building coordinates entered into Datatel Colleague," said Kyle Loudermilk, vice president of product management, referring to the company's enterprise resource planning application. "As a result, more than 75 percent of our clients have chosen to adopt MOX as their mobile platform for students, as well as administrators, parents, and other constituents."

MOX 1.1 will be available free from the Blackberry and Android application stores. The company will be showing its new release during the Educause conference Oct. 12–15 in Anaheim.

Editor's note: This article has been modified since its original publication to correct a factual error. We previously stated that the MOX for Android and BlackBerry would be available through the Apple App Store. That, of course, will not be the case, barring any extraordinary and unforeseen upheavals in the mobile OS marketplace. The apps will be available from their respective software outlets. [Last updated Oct. 1, 2010 at 1:27 p.m.] --David Nagel