Seagull Inc., a provider of e-business solutions for Windows and Web-based systems, extended its reach into the wireless realm last week with the introduction of its server-based Wireless-to-Host Solution.
For 10 years, Seagull has offered Web-to-Host and Windows-to-Host solutions, basically providing software that allows enterprises to extend their legacy applications, such as on mainframe computer and mid-level IBM AS100s, to new clients. It is now adding wireless clients to that mix.
“We’re now evolving to wireless, a new set of devices to deliver these business functions to,” said Brett Roeder, Seagull director of wireless product marketing.
The software package allows enterprise customers to make their legacy corporate applications available on Internet-enabled wireless devices, such as Wireless Application Protocol phones and wireless personal digital assistants. It includes a developer kit and the actual server software. The developer kit allows firms to choose what portions of their existing applications they want accessed by various devices. The server software is able to determine what type of wireless device is requesting the information and then sends the information in a format designed to the device, regardless of wireless transmission protocol.
“We deal at the markup language level,” Roeder said.
Specifically, Wireless-to-Host will translate information into Wireless Markup Language for WAP phones or compressed versions of Hypertext Markup Language for Palm and Windows CE devices.
Roeder said firms will benefit from the Seagull solution rather than creating their own WAP site for these functions. First, it can format to more than just WAP. Second, it manages the interaction between legacy systems and newer phones. Legacy applications rely on a session between the client and the server in which interaction occurs in a synchronized connection. Phones and palmtop computers instead send requests for information to the server, and await a response, what Roeder called an asynchronous connection.
“In addition to determining the device is given the right information, it also manages the session between an asynchronous phone and the server,” Roeder said. “If you were to try that on your own, you’d have to build that capability, and that’s the hard part … The enterprise mainframe and AS100 applications were never meant to be accessed by asynchronous devices like phones and palmtops.”
While offering similar capabilities to the Windows-to-Host and Web-to-Host products, the pricing scheme for Wireless-to-Host is much different. Seagull charged for the former two on a per-user basis, but is asking for an up front fee for the wireless solution.
“It’s hard to project how many users there will be,” Roeder said. “The pricing model for wireless doesn’t fit nicely when you try to do it on a per-user basis.”
Instead, Seagull is charging $5,000 for the developer kit and $25,000 per processor for the server software.
Wireless-to-Host was first introduced to beta users in December. Release 2.0 contains several changes. The original version required developers to write in Java.
“We found that Java was harder than anyone thought, so we backed off that,” Roeder said. “As a result, the time to build fell from three weeks to three days.”
While the server software is still Java-based, it no longer requires the developer optimizing legacy applications to wireless phones to know Java.
In addition, Seagull is offering developer support as well. The company will either train their customers’ developers in how to use the system, or go as far to do all the development work themselves. This is an add-on, custom fee from the basic product.
Adopting the technology to date is MEXX, a leading fashion brand in Europe; International Rectifier Corp., a semiconductor firm; and Alltel.
MEXX is using the technology to provide its employees and business partners, such as retail shops, with wireless access to its business systems. Seagull and IRC will co-develop a wireless implementation of IRC’s ERP applications for deployment to its customers and suppliers as an Internet solution. And Alltell is developing a prototype mobile Internet banking application with Seagull.
