I think I found an app that could hold the attention of Wall Street operations mavens looking for a new twist on remote desktop solutions. At Pepcom’s Digital Experience products expo last week in New York, I was introduced to Parallels, an IT provider of virtualization and automation solutions for the desktop.
The company’s mobile offering, the Parallels Access app, has been making a name for itself since its August 2013 introduction. The system has gained ground among “real estate and insurance agents, soccer moms, police departments, realtors and social workers,” say company officials. Each group says it has boosted productivity via the wireless access to applications.
Could an operations manager, I wondered, benefit from being able to turn on and update a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, an accounting engine, a risk management system or an AML filter, for instance, while riding in a cab? It’s possible.
The Parallels Access service initially targeted the Apple iPhone and iPad environments but has recently branched out to embrace the Android smartphone realm. The company has also launched Parallels Access for Business for clients that want to “centrally assign, manage, and secure remote access to their computers,” officials say.
The Parallels Access for Business Subscriptions system helps IT managers to centrally control Parallels Access for their employees, covering granting or restricting access and reassigning accounts as needed, officials say. Business Account subscriptions start at $49.99 per year for five computers. (In fact, the company has a special offer — Parallels Access for Business for free for unlimited users and computers until July 31, 2014.)
Some of the key features of the recently upgraded Parallels Access are the ability to launch desktop applications “with a single tap right from the home screen” of an Android or Apple wireless device and have it running natively on the handheld, officials say.
The current hardware requirements are:
- iPad: iPad mini and iPad 2 or later running iOS 7;
- iPhone: iPhone 4s and later running iOS 7;
- and Android: Most tablets and phones running Android 4.0 and later.
The remote desktop hardware can be a PC running Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1, or an Apple Mac running OS X Mavericks (10.9), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and OS X Lion (10.7), officials say.
Parallels Access also offers a new file browser that enables iOS users to browse and open files on their remote hardware. In addition, desktop applications that use a microphone will work with the microphone on an iPad or iPhone.
For Wall Street types, this new flexibility could lead to new ways to deal with extremely urgent operational matters while they are in transit. It could also be a potent sales and support tool for wealth managers working remotely from client sites that have risk management and accounting support concerns. There may be even disaster recovery and business continuity uses.
Parallels have been making friends among the technology elite such as Cisco Systems, which has invested in the company. The upstart has also gotten the support of industry analysts.
Laura DiDio, principal analyst of ITIC (Information Technology Intelligence Consulting), is a fan of Parallels Access calling it “a must-have mechanism” with “breakthrough ‘applification’ technology” that promises to make mobile devices “effective productivity tools.”
Another prominent industry analyst Tim Bajarin, CEO at Creative Strategies, makes a similar argument in that iPads, iPhones, Android tablets and Android smartphones “merely consumption devices” waiting to be made into productivity tools. He is hoping that “revolutionary apps” such as Parallels Access can transform mobile devices.
It is far too early to tell if Parallels Access or systems like it will catch on among operations and IT managers on Wall Street.
But I think the concept of evolving and splicing mobile, cloud, Saas and virtualization technologies has legs. It’s not that great a leap to want handheld devices to become important variables in managing some key areas of securities operations.
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