MIndbreeze Mobile for SharePoint

November 8, 2011

Mobile devices are quickly gaining ground on personal computers as the primary entry point to the internet and other online resources. Any discussion of enterprise software is incomplete without devoting attention to mobile access. Waldek Mastykarz analyzes the effectiveness of SharePoint 2010’s mobile device support in, “Inconvenient SharePoint 2010 Mobile Redirect.” Mastykarz’s main complaint with SharePoint mobile access is its unsuitability for internet-facing Web sites because its lack of support for anonymous users. We learned:

Not only is the standard mobile experience useless on an Internet-facing website, but it also cannot be turned off. The mobile redirect is baked into the request processing module provided with SharePoint (the SPRequestModule HTTP module) and there is no on/off switch provided that you could flip to make it go away.

The author explains several workaround options for mobile access, but is quick to mention that no workaround is seamless and none completely fix SharePoint’s limitations. A solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile is a better overall fit for this and other SharePoint shortcomings. We learned from Fabasoft that:

Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile uses a browser-based Client that is specifically adapted to the requirements of smart phones such as BlackBerry, iPhone and Android. Only three kilobytes of memory and the installation of one single certificate are required. After these steps are taken, the corporate installation of Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise – and thus all connected data sources – can be accessed through the usual Mindbreeze URL.

Additionally, Mindbreeze maintains continuous checks of existing access rights. Improving the users’ experience, every information object can be opened in Mindbreeze mobile in a preview mode that features the accompanying metadata. Enterprise solutions are useless without effective and efficient mobile solutions. Look into Mindbreeze as a good solution for increasing the usability of SharePoint’s mobile enterprise access.

Emily Rae Aldridge, November 8, 2011

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.