German database software vendor Software AG and Finnish telecoms equipment manufacturer Nokia Oyj are working to integrate the former’s expertise in applications delivery with the latter’s wireless application protocol offerings.
At the technical level, the collaboration falls into two areas. First, Nokia has integrated Software AG’s EntireX applications integrator with its WAP Server product in order to enable corporate customers to access applications resident on legacy databases and deliver them to the server for transmission to handsets such as the 7110.
The second area of joint work is in XML. Nokia and Software AG are collaborating with German mobile operator D2 (part of the Mannesmann group) and smaller German WAP specialist, LinkedWith GmbH, to deliver applications from Software AG’s native XML Tamino database to Nokia 7110 handsets. Using D2’s network, 7110 handsets will receive SAG’s data via the Tamino-WAP Gateway, which was developed by LinkedWith.
Still to be decided, according to Software AG CEO Erwin Koenigs, is how the commercial relationship between his company and Nokia will develop beyond the current sharing of technologies; in other words, whether or not each company will sell the other’s equipment. Koenigs said a co-marketing agreement looks more feasible than cross-selling. I doubt whether we could sell mobile phones or Nokia could sell software, he said.
The relationship is, in any case, not an exclusive one, stressed Koenigs, so that similar alliances with other mobile players such as Sweden’s LM Ericsson Telefon AB or Motorola Inc of the US are distinct possibilities.
Software AG’s commitment to leading in the XML space was underscored last month by ist acquisition of SGML Technologies Ltd, the UK holding company for ACSE s.a. in Belgium and ISEA s.a. in Luxembourg. These companies have real practical experience with SGML, the representation language of which both XML and WML (the wireless mark-up language used in WAP applications) are subsets.
We plan to transfer their practical know-how into our organization, said Koenigs, adding that, when the acquisition was made, two other potential buyers, one a software vendor and the other an IT services company, had also expressed interest in buying the SGML Group. á