Goldman Sachs Goes Mobile On New Venture

Goldman Sachs is officially jumping into the mobile-phone software business with the announcement of its latest venture.

What was once just a collection of software for mobile phones developed in-house at Goldman Sachs will now be turned into a separate venture of which the company will hold a minority stake, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (Oct. 27).

Synchronoss Technologies, a publicly traded software firm, will manage the venture and intends to leverage Goldman Sachs’ technology programs called Lagoon and Orbit to create advanced mobile solutions. Lagoon enables secure access to business applications from an employee’s mobile device, while Orbit is a collection of applications that support email and other services for remote use.

“Providing our clients and employees with secure access to data and applications, any time, any place, on the device of their choosing, is the basis of our mobile strategy,” Don Duet, global co-head of the Technology Division at Goldman Sachs, said in a press release. “We’ve worked hard to ensure that the container in which our applications and data reside is highly secure. At the same time, we believe in delivering well-designed applications that are intuitive and deeply integrated to the enterprise. Lagoon and Orbit have created significant value and efficiency at our organization, and we are excited that Synchronoss intends to extend this solution to other enterprise users.”

According to Synchronoss, the venture will seek to address the challenges associated with mobile enterprise applications and serve as an integral part of the company’s newly formed Enterprise Business Unit.

Dave Schuette, EVP and President of Synchronoss’ Enterprise Business Unit, said: “While some companies have addressed the security of mobile devices at a basic data-loss-prevention level, the biggest challenge facing enterprises is enabling individuals to have a more productive mobile experience at a lower level of risk.”

By building off of the technology created by Goldman Sachs, Synchronoss hopes to bridge this gap by diving deeper into the enterprise to create a mobile framework that will support the complex nature of mobile security, Schuette added.

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