Toronto, Ont.-based wireless Internet ASP (Applications Service Provider) Wysdom Inc. plans to introduce new services to outfit Internet content providers and e-business with turnkey wireless solutions over all major mobile devices.
Based on a set of customizable mobile applications, Wysdom’s infrastructure allows it to deploy, host, manage and enhance applications, assisting the delivery of content and services over new Wireless Access Protocol (WAP)-enabled smart phones, portable digital assistants, pagers as well as digital PCS phones, and deliver that content at any time from anywhere around the globe. “Dot-coms will have access to their customers not only at their desktop, but while they’re away from their desktop,” said Wysdom’s chief technology officer, Ian Collins.
“Every desktop needs to be in the wireless business. We basically provide the infrastructure that will make you wireless, with applications and connections, management, hosting, and operations,” said Collins. “It’s not new in the sense that it’s an ASP, because…everybody from a business sense offers the same thing: a fully hosted, managed service focused on one particular area of expertise. The new part is that it happens to be wireless now. It’s not an email ASP, or a chat ASP, or a PIM ASP, it’s a wireless ASP.”
Already working with all the wireless carriers in North America, Wysdom is negotiating tighter relationships with these carriers, said Collins. “We’re using a lot of public gateways today and negotiating with all of them as quickly as we can to establish tighter relationships with lower level access, so we can enable better reliability and better services for the dot-com customers,” he said.
Collins said that Wysdom will offer solutions across a variety of mobile devices — not merely those affiliated with specific dot-coms.
“Rather than selling people technology, we’re bringing that service to say Bid.com…(and) taking them wireless,” he said. “Regardless of what device that person has, or what carrier, or what geography they live in, they should be able to have access to Bid.com’s auction notification.”
Wysdom’s revenue model stems from the company seeing “wireless Internet starting to emerge about a year ago, but realising everybody was going at it from an un-Internet-like perspective,” said Collins. “We didn’t think it made any sense. We did not understand that if this truly was a wireless Internet, why an Internet business model wouldn’t be applied to it?”
According to Collins, Wysdom’s applications will give established e-businesses a simple and low cost solution when entering the wireless Internet market. E-businesses have become more accustomed to outsourcing certain technologies to specific ASPs with pockets of expertise that can provide them with the infrastructure to help manage areas of their business, he said.
“Many people are approaching it (wireless) trying to help carriers get into the market, and they’re (Wysdom) approaching it the other way,” said Mark Zohar, research director for Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. “They’re looking at enabling existing on-line providers, content providers, e-commerce and dot-coms to extend their application content to a wireless environment.”
“The question is how much commerce will actually be conducted on wireless devices and how sustainable is their model?” said Zohar. “It’s still early, but they’re well-positioned, they’re well-financed, and they’re certainly targeting a market that’s ripe for their products right now.”
Wysdom’s recent acquisition of US$50 million in equity financing will enable the company to expand their vision and open sales, marketing and support offices throughout the world.
“It will allow us to accelerate our growth on two sides: in organic growth, where we’re hiring as fast as we can and building up our worldwide ASP facilities as quickly as we can,” said Collins. “We’ll do some acquisitions, we’ll buy some companies that fit in well and will add expertise that we couldn’t as quickly build by hiring and developing a new piece of the organization. We’re bringing a real Internet model to this, and we think that that is what the future is going to look like.”
For more information Wysdom can be reached at www.wysdom.com or 1-905-763-6979