Azure Media debuts Zala™ Mobile Money Transfer Application for Blackberry Devices.

Azure Media , the mobile marketing, advertising and strategy firm debuts Zala™ (myzala.com), the first mobile money transfer application developed exclusively for Blackberry® devices at the 2008 Blackberry® Developer’s Conference. Zala™ is the first dual consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer application in the financial services space that leverages the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (BES) and the BlackBerry® Mobile Data System (BMDS). The tremendous value of the Zala™ application is that it permits secure person-to-person transactions on a unified communication platform, which creates an optimized user experience and equally optimized enterprise deployment, maintenance and security strategy for any organization that is considering mobile banking, bill presentment or payment as a commercial service.

“We decided that the first release of Zala™ was most suitable for BlackBerry® consumers because this is a user group that wants instant information, instant transactions, security and an easy way to manage their personal finances. We wanted to eliminate the challenges associated with wiring money when we were developing our consumer-to-consumer edition of Zala,” said CEO, Brian Lisi. “Texting is not for everyone,” said Ron Espinosa, Vice President of Development, “Zala™ differs from similar apps because it’s a rich application, not a SMS-based messaging system, rather the Zala™ interface capitalizes on the large Blackberry display and trackball navigation.” “We wanted Zala™ users to experience mobile computing, so usability was a critical factor to simplify complex processes and to bolster user adoption,” stated Tamecca Anthony, Chief Marketing Officer.

Aside from making sending and receiving money easier for consumers, the second release of Zala™, which is scheduled for the 2nd quarter of 2009, will allow “corporate or enterprise” users to use Zala™ as an alternative payroll and expense management service. Zala™ comes out at a time when the American public is demanding greater corporate accountability. “We think that the Zala™ application will curtail ‘corporate binge spending.’ Corporate finance administrators can easily adjust ‘the controls’ on a Zala account including spending limits, restrictions, replenishment amounts and reimbursements. This is made possible in the mobile environment because we harnessed the power of the Blackberry® Enterprise Server and devised a platform that was centered around Blackberry’s adherence to unified communication,” said Joe Bambara, Senior Solutions Architect.

For more information, see azuremedia.com