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Sprint Monday introduced its Universal Application Messaging service, which was designed to allow an organization's employees to access corporate applications from an instant messaging system's buddy list.

While Sprint has aimed this new service at both wired and wireless networks, Ken Kurz, the company's senior practice principal for mobile computing, said it will be especially useful for mobile workers.

Companies will be able to host an application such as a sales order form as just another entry on an IM buddy list. When a field salesperson clinches a deal, he can call up an order form from his buddy list, fill it out and send it back as an instant message to a corporate database.

An IM First?

Kurz said Sprint believes it's the first company to incorporate applications into an IM system. Other applications suited for the new service include employee directories, real time inventory updates, and alerts of critical e-mails, Kurz said.

Kurz said Sprint has priced what he dubbed "person-to-application" messaging at roughly $7 to $10 per seat per month. That fee would cover service for an individual user both at a wired PC in the office and over a wireless phone in the field.

Alexa Kaufman, a spokesperson for AT&T Wireless Services in Redmond, Washington, said that her company offers wireless versions of IM services provided by America Online and Yahoo but it doesn't offer the ability to embed applications in IM.

Instead, Kaufman said, AT&T Wireless prefers to work with its enterprise customers to help them custom-build wireless access to enterprise applications. She noted that while IM emerged first as a consumer phenomenon, it has recently begun to penetrate businesses.

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