Web services firm Cape Clear has said that it plans to target the telecommunications industry with the release of its next-generation product family Cape Clear 4.5. The range incorporates several new features designed to meet the requirements of the telecoms sector and support the creation and deployment of so-called business services.
Cape Clear 4.5 These services typically tackle issues such as easing the integration of third-party content for mobile operators, and improving remote and third-party access to network management systems for both fixed and wireless operators.
Cape Clear 4.5 includes three products: Studio, Server and Manager, which enable the design, development, integration, deployment, and management of web services-based business services. New features in version 4.5 include asynchronous processing, notification services, event management, mobile device support, and support for the PARLAY-X telecommunications standard.
Dublin-based Cape Clear was established in 1999 by Iona co-founder Annrai O’Toole and in 2001 the firm raised US$16m in venture capital from Accel Partners, Greylock Capital and Dublin-based ACT Venture Capital.
Last year, Cape Clear accelerated its drive into the financial services industry when it succeeded in joining SWIFT, a major global network of financial institutions, with a view to speeding up the integration of the banks’ ability to exchange messages valued at trillions of dollars every day. SWIFT is a worldwide community with more than 7,000 financial institutions in 197 countries, which are active in payments, securities, treasury and trade services, and collectively exchange trillions of dollars worth of transactions over a dedicated messaging platform.
In terms of the telecoms and interactive services industries, Cape Clear has scored deals with BSkyB and BT. In particular, the company says it sees enormous opportunities in the mobile sector, enabling mobile network operators to increase revenues from new content services. Many of the most promising and lucrative services involve the delivery of third-party content over the operator’s network, such as ring tones, traffic updates, sports results, and video and music clips. Market research firm the Yankee Group estimates that by 2006, one third of all European mobile operators’ revenues will derive from data services, and one third of that will derive from the delivery of third-party information and entertainment content.
“The adoption of web services is fundamentally changing the discussion from ‘how can we get all this IT investment to interoperate’ to ‘how can we leverage this investment to create new business services’,” said Ross Hinchcliffe, senior vice president of sales at Cape Clear Software. “The telecom sector has been one of the fastest adopters of web services. As a result, they are leading the way in building new business services that connect customers, suppliers, and partners to generate new revenue opportunities. Cape Clear 4.5 provides the tools you need to swiftly create and deploy business services.”
BT’s research, technology, and IT operations business, BT Exact, has used Cape Clear Software’s previous products and was a participant in the Beta test program for this new revision of its web services platform. Jon Calladine, web services integration manager at BT Exact, said: “There’s no question that companies in the telecommunications sector, like BT, have rapidly adopted Web Services and are already realising business benefit from the cleaner integration it provides. Cape Clear has a history of providing workable solutions to this sector – capable of accelerating integration with customers, suppliers and internal applications.”
By John Kennedy
