Mobile Application updates

German applications giant SAP has announced its intention to acquire Syclo, a US-based company whose technology allows customers to build mobile apps that call data from their enterprise systems.

The acquisition adds to SAP's existing mobile enablement portfolio, which is based principally on assets it acquired along with database and mobile technology vendor Sybase in 2010.

Syclo was positioned as a 'challenger' on analyst company Gartner's Magic Quadrant for mobile enterprise application platforms, for its Agentry mobile platform. The Agentry platform can hook into back end systems including SAP, Oracle and IBM's Maximo asset management software. It can be used to build applications for Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry, iOS and, as of July last year, Android.

Syclo claims to have over 750 customers, including Lockheed Martin and Coca Cola.

SAP has had a 'co-innovation' agreement with Syclo since 2009. The two companies have jointly developed an "80% prebuilt, preintegrated" version of Syclo's SMART Mobile Suite for use with SAP's applicaitons.

"For years now, Syclo has been SAP’s go-to mobility partner for [enterprise asset management] and CRM service projects in utilities, oil and gas, life sciences, telecommunications and many other industries," Sylco s mobile solutions fully support the Sybase Unwired Platform strategy and architecture, ensuring that the solution you deploy today will be fully supported, upgradeable and complementary to your future SAP mobility initiatives," it adds.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.