Pooling resources

InterTradeIreland has assisted a group of Irish software companies in coming together in a unique joint venture

When most of us use our mobile phones for making calls, sending texts or availing of other services, we don't really stop to think about the underlying technologies that enables these things. But a huge amount of data processing has to go into even the most basic of services.

Not only does the service have to be delivered, it has to be charged for, it has to be billed, the provider has to be paid if they are a third party, and so on.

This underlying technology, which sits between the actual physical network infrastructure and the user, has become known and the software involved is commonly called the service delivery platform or SDP.

Where an SDP is implemented as a single, integrated solution, it can be expensive and inflexible.

Indeed, a typical installation can cost a network operator around $10 million (€7 million) with $6 million (€4.2 million) going to the system integrator and only $4 million (€2.8 million) going on the purchase of the actual software.

Ireland now has a serious player in this potentially highly lucrative market following the formation of SDP Alliance towards the end of 2006. SDP Alliance is made up of six telecoms software product companies, two from Northern Ireland and four from Ireland: Aepona, ChangingWorlds, Cibenix, Mobile Cohesion, Openet and Xiam.

They were initially brought together by the All Island Software Network which was set up by InterTradeIreland to bring together members of the Irish Software Assocatione in the South and the equivalent organisation, Momentum, in the North.

Each company is a world leader in its own specific field within the SDP space.

These specialities include content management, partner relationship management, billing and mediation, and on-device portal solutions. The SDP Alliance has already had considerable success with Nokia signing up as a global integration partner and solutions deployed in a number of Asian networks.

"One of the issues with service deployment platforms is that they can be quite risky when they come as a single integrated product," explains Denis Murphy of Mobile Cohesion, co-chair of the SDP Alliance.

"They are very expensive and they can also be quite inflexible. So, when technology moves on you can quickly be left with an outdated solution. We have the advantage of being a group of leaders in various fields who can offer either a full end to end solution or selection of what clients want."

This "some of it or all of it" approach is certainly attractive. One example of rapidly moving technology is mobile TV. Mobile phone users will be able to download their favourite programmes and watch them on their phones, but it doesn't end there.

It is believed that such services may actually be free in future with users "paying" for them by agreeing to accept advertisements from certain companies.This will require increasing complex service deployment solutions to mediate the multiplicity of transactions involved in one service download by a user.

"With rapid change comes risk," says Murphy.

"No company wants to be stuck with outdated technology. Our solution is effectively de-risked by being available as a set of individual products."

This allows for rapid updating of individual components in the future, as well as for clients to hold onto those parts of legacy systems that may still be useful.

The SDP Alliance was officially launched at the 3GSM 2007 conference in Barcelona where it generated significant interest from network operators, systems integrators - the people who actually build the networks for the operators - and potential future partners who could add their products to the product set.

The alliance also presented its offering at the SDP Budapest conference in June where the post conference workshop attracted approximately 40 industry representatives who stayed for an extra day to discuss the capabilities and opportunities that the Alliance provided.

There have also been other spin-off benefits.

Through building the network, partnership and trust which has developed, the member companies have jointly investigated market opportunities with major operators at a level which they would not have had access to as individuals. This has resulted in the partners sharing customer contacts and collaborating in joint deployments.

The formation of SDP Alliance was strongly supported by InterTradeIreland. "The guys in InterTradeIreland were fabulous," says Murphy. "We really couldn't have done this without them."

Indeed, the companies had already discussed collaborating and marketing themselves as a single entity, but had realised that they needed someone to independently facilitate this and help them establish this alliance.

The All Island Software Network and InterTradeIreland were able to provide a facilitator to act as the catalyst to analyse what the network could achieve and help build this partnership.

"The importance of this support cannot be overstated," Murphy says. "We are all venture-supported companies and are very focused on closing deals in the short term. We do not have a lot of time for longer-term strategic stuff.

"Without InterTradeIreland's support we simply wouldn't have been able to establish the SDP Alliance."

SUPPORT FROM INTERTRADE IRELAND

InterTradeIreland operates a number of programmes aimed at supporting businesses across the island. These include the Acumen Programme which is a cross-Border business development programme designed to stimulate cross-Border trade amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in both parts of Ireland.

The Acumen programme concentrates exclusively on stimulating cross-Border trade by assisting individual SMEs with tailored consultancy and salary support mechanisms for market builders, in cross-Border markets in Ireland. The programme has provided assistance to over 200 companies and secured more than €36 million in sales since it was rolled out across the island in 2003.

Fusion is InterTradeIreland's all-island technology transfer initiative that gives companies access to the wealth of expertise and facilities in universities and colleges across the island of Ireland, allowing them to make strategic advances in innovation and capability.

The Fusion programme develops and facilitates partnerships between companies, with a technology need on one side of the Border, and colleges or universities that can provide the required specialist expertise on the other side. A high calibre graduate is then employed by the company to spearhead a project for up to two years.

Since 2001, Fusion has helped approx 200 companies across the island. To date more than €37.4 million worth of benefits has been reported by companies and this figure is expected to increase significantly over the coming years.

The InterTradeIreland EquityNetwork offers businesses a dedicated professional advisory service to help in perfecting their business plan and assisting the business become "investor ready". It also offers Investment Pitch Master classes, unique practical sessions which offer business promoters the opportunity to present their business plan to an experienced mock panel of investors, including a venture capitalist, equity advisor, and marketing and sales and communications experts.

Finally, InterTradeIreland launched the get2business website (www.intertradeireland.com/get2business) in February of 2006. The website was developed to meet the need for a central database of information to help companies to develop their business.