Oracle announced the release of Oracle(R) Sales for Handhelds, a new application that gives mobile salespeople real-time access to deal-critical information on wireless handhelds. The software turns handheld mobile devices into powerful access points for enterprise information on customer contacts, opportunities, products and other information required to coordinate sales efforts and close deals.

“Any company with a mobile sales force is challenged to keep all participants in the sales process on the same page,” said Vice President, Enterprise Applications and CRM Software at IDC, Mary Wardley. “Providing a two-way exchange of enterprise information, as Oracle is doing, can make mobile salespeople significantly more effective.”

Oracle Sales for Handhelds turns handheld devices into an access point for enterprise information. Sales reps can access and update contacts, appointments and tasks through their own handheld device using their Personal Information Manager (PIM) and update deal critical information via a web browser in real time. Sales reps can pull the latest customer and opportunity information, monitor order status, take notes and set follow-up items. Additionally, when sales reps update information on the status of a deal, the changes automatically flow into the related sales forecast, ensuring a unified view of customers pipeline and orders for both the sales and management teams.

Because all deal-critical information is stored in a central location, Oracle Sales for Handhelds makes it easy to maintain a unified view of customers and deals in the pipeline. Consistent data capture reduces errors and duplication, and enterprise information sharing supports collaborative selling-reducing conflicts between sales reps or channels.

“Oracle Sales for Handhelds extends the power of enterprise applications to handheld devices,” said Vice President CRM Strategy at Oracle, Barbry McGann. “Our architecture provides a robust and scaleable system for keeping mobile sales reps aligned with the larger sales process.”

Oracle Sales for Handhelds complements the online and disconnected editions of Oracle Sales, part of the Oracle E-Business Suite. The application supports Pocket PC handheld devices running Pocket IE on Windows Mobile 2003, Palm based handheld devices running Blazer 3.0 browser or higher and Nokia Communicators running Opera browser on Symbian Operating System 7.0.

Oracle Sales for Handhelds is available now.