Kansas City, Mo. ? Sprint Corp. said Monday it was coming out with a suite of services aimed at helping companies better manage the cell phones and PDAs they issue to employees, including a feature to remotely erase sensitive information from lost or stolen devices.

The “managed mobility” package is designed to help information technology departments in medium and large companies keep a better eye on the use of wireless devices and automatically upgrade their software without having to bring in the devices.

The program also will allow companies with several cell phones to purchase pools of minutes as opposed to having to monitor and pay for dozens of individual calling plans.

The Overland Park-based telecommunications giant said it was testing the package now and expected it to be available in the first quarter of 2005.

Sprint officials said the product was aimed at in-house technology departments that monitor the devices.

“Mostly, you just have voice devices right now,” said Howard Janzen, president of Sprint’s business solutions division. “But then the first data applications come out — the Trios and the BlackBerrys. Companies are now more worried because you have people walking around with these e-mail devices falling out of jackets and bags and getting lost. Security is now an issue.”

Avi Greengart, principal wireless device analyst for Current Analysis of Sterling, Va., said other companies already provided services that remotely shut down or lock up wireless devices. But the ability to manage other tasks, such as automatically updating software on those devices, require the wireless carrier’s help.

Demand for these services currently is small, Greengart said, as relatively few companies have decided to buy and maintain their own network of wireless devices.

But he said he expected that to change quickly.

“Is there a growing understanding that these devices are critical for business functions? That’s clear, especially when you’re discussing lines of business applications, such as e-mail,” he said.