Looking to make a play in the wireless e-business enablement space, Brience Inc. was formed six months ago by former executives of KPMG Consulting who found existing wireless enablement solutions lacking.
“We saw a trend about 18 months ago back when we were building for companies like Cisco, we started seeing a huge demand for mobile pilots,” said Keyur Patel executive vice president of strategy at Brience. At KPMG, Patel and his colleagues had to use what wireless extension systems were available then and saw an opportunity to design something better.
“If we can come out with a more robust system, we could create the standard around which the others could build,” he said.
After collecting $200 million in funding this February, Brience introduced itself to the world in March. Since then, Brience has attracted such players as Sprint PCS and Research In Motion Ltd.
The Brience Framework 2.0 is the flagship product used to make this happen. It consists of three parts-a content transformation and deliver server; a development tool for IT developers to wirelessly enable their existing applications; and the wireless edge server, which delivers the content to the wireless networks.
“We sit in front of the application server of a company, but behind the Web server,” Patel said. “We are a software platform totally focused on wireless, both narrowband and broadband.”
The Framework is designed as an out-of-the-box solution for IT managers to configure their existing applications to wireless devices and networks. Like other enablers, the Framework adapts the content for whatever wireless pipe and screen is receiving the information. It leverages the existing IT server platform and extends it wirelessly using XML. It also can integrate with platforms, such as those from Sun Microsystems Inc., IBM Corp. and others.
“Our business model is to leverage existing e-business applications. We don’t build customer applications. We’re non-disruptive. We take advantage of existing content and applications and work out of the box.”
The company licenses Framework 2.0 on a per server basis, much like how Netscape and other software companies license their products. In its short lifespan as a company, it has gained more than 60 customers.
A recent customer is RIM, which has agreed to support enterprise applications using software solutions from Brience on its BlackBerry service. According to the companies, the Brience 2.0 Framework will allow customers to extend additional corporate applications to BlackBerry wireless devices without the need to change existing system architecture.
It also has some fairly powerful partnerships. Sprint PCS leverages Brience technology for its Wireless Web for Business service. When approaching enterprises, Sprint suggests they use Brience’s platform to wirelessly enable their systems so data, content and applications can be transmitted over the Sprint Network.
“We are having tremendous growth in the enterprise space,” Patel said. “Lots of ASP solutions and customer platforms are available, but not a lot of standardized platforms such as ours.”
While wireless enterprise enablement represents the majority of its business, Brience also offers carrier services-hosting the wireless Internet infrastructure for wireless operators.
“We actually host their wireless Internet service. We are their Internet service provider,” Patel said.
The company added this expertise through its acquisition of Data On Air shortly after launching publicly. Brience hosts Phone.com gateways, manages the wireless Internet services, designs the wireless Internet architecture and controls how the wireless Internet menu looks on the phone screen.
“We configure the menu screens you see on phones. We also conduct the content transformation for carriers’ content providers,” Patel said.
