CHAMPAIGN — A mobile-applications company started by a University of Illinois alumnus plans to open an office in EnterpriseWorks in September, the director of the UI Research Park said.

Lextech Global Services, a Lisle-based company founded by Alex Bratton, is expected to hire five to seven full-time employees locally at the outset, research park Director Laura Frerichs said.

Lextech Global Services, founded in 2001, creates applications for the mobile workforce. A sister company, Lextech Labs, founded in 2008, makes video surveillance technology available via mobile devices.

That technology — which makes live camera feeds available on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and on BlackBerry devices — is being marketed to police departments, security firms, schools, employers, convention centers and parking garages for surveillance purposes.

Lextech has already posted openings for mobile application developers on the research park's website. The company also plans to take part in the UI Computer Science Career Fair on Sept. 8.

Bratton received a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the UI in 1993. While here, he worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications developing network and collaboration applications.

Frerichs said the area of mobile application development is "really exploding" and Lextech was "an early mover in that space."

Lextech Global Services' mobile applications allow sales people to do inventory searches, call up interactive sales brochures, get pricing answers and collect leads — all remotely.

Other applications allow people to use their mobile devices as global-positioning-system (GPS) sensors to track products and personnel.