Enterprise software is often built to run on a network. Professional software, although it may be used in an enterprise environment, generally applies to niche software built for a single user in a particular field, such as law or medicine. Developer software is used by those who write software for mobile devices. We've listed the winners in the Best Developer Software area alongside this article; we do not currently do that for enterprise or professional software.
You may review current listings of all of these types of software at http://www.PocketPCmag.com/encyclopedia.asp.
Enterprise categories include:
- Communications: enabling data or voice communications between mobile devices, or with wired or wireless networks.
- Customer Service: managing contact data, customer history, sales leads, and calendars.
- Data Capture: acquiring, processing, and displaying data such as GPS location data.
- Data Collection: forms for entering and transferring data on site from a mobile device.
- Database Management: working with information in table/database form. This type of software is widely used in many of the other Enterprise and Professional categories.
- Development: the basic tools for creating applications and software.
- Groupware: enabling integration and synchronization of mobile devices with corporate applications such as contact information and e-mail.
- Sales Force Automation: order entry and access to real-time customer, inventory, and sales data for field personnel, accountants, and managers.
- Security Solutions: setting up VPNs, firewalls, and security controls for the mobile environment.
- System Administration: network administrator tools for deploying, securing, and managing mobile devices.
- Vertical: enterprise applications that apply to a specific industry or "vertical niche." These include the Professional categories listed below.
Professional categories include:
- CAD: computer aided design. Such software lets you view, edit, and even create blueprints for buildings and other objects.
- Education: tools for empowering teachers (administration, testing, instruction, etc.) and students (learning, accessing information, displaying their mastery, etc.) and administrators (supporting teachers and students, etc.)
- Engineering: engineering calculators and other support tools.
- Healthcare: tools to assist healthcare workers including references, patient-tracking, billing, etc.
- Law: tools to access information and manage client activity
- Pilots/Aviation: tools to track pilot flight-time, aircraft maintenance, etc.
- Real Estate: tools to access available real-estate, track buyers and sellers, etc.
- Sales and Marketing: tools to allow salespeople and managers to track prospects, customers, and transactions, etc.
- Transportation: tools to route cars and trucks most efficiently to conserve fuel and save money, etc.
Developer Categories Include:
- Controls: a basic unit of programming; they allow programmers to focus on the bigger picture by automating basic, repetitive programming tasks.
- Database Utilities: tools for manipulating databases.
- Developer Utilities: tools for developing applications.
- Host Integration: tools for connecting devices (clients) with servers (hosts)
- Installation and Distribution: tools for automating the installation and distribution of software. Especially useful for larger enterprises that need automated, uniform installation and distribution of applications for their employees.
- Language: tools for creating software/applications in particular programming languages.
Many of the Developer areas apply to programmers in Visual Basic or C++. Products include such things as Active X controls, database engines, editing utilities, installation programs, and code libraries, as well as other programming languages.
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