IBM today announced the launch of its "SWAT Team" to help customers rapidly extend their e-business services to a new breed of WAP-enabled mobile wireless devices. The number of customer requests for WAP solutions and projects has increased dramatically over the past few months in Northern Europe, and IBM is currently addressing more than 100 projects and opportunities. The IBM WAP SWAT Team, formed to address this surge in demand, enables IBM to get customers started on WAP applications within days. Europe is leading the world in the early adoption of WAP technology. Throughout Western Europe and Scandinavia in particular (where the penetration of mobile phones is currently as high as 60 percent in some countries), companies now want to extend their Web based content and services to the new classes of mobile devices. WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) is the de-facto global standard for delivering Internet-based data services to these devices over today's wireless networks.
"The commercial world moves quickly and WAP technology, by delivering wireless access to the Web, is helping companies extend their e-business solutions beyond the PC," said Mark Bregman, General Manager of IBM's Pervasive Computing Division, announcing the IBM WAP SWAT Team today at InternetWorld, Sweden. "What started in the Nordics is now happening right across Europe, as demand for WAP-based handsets grows so does the need for WAP-based services. Our customers are reacting fast to steal the march on their competitors, and IBM's new SWAT team will enable them to move even quicker."
IBM's Pervasive Computing SWAT Team has access to more than 200 people who can deliver the wireless technology extensions of e-business solutions. The SWAT Team consists of consultants, architects and developers who work hand in hand with the local IBM Global Services teams, which recently added a new practice dedicated to helping customers use pervasive computing and WAP to extend e-business to a new generation of devices. Using the SWAT Team approach, IBM can get customers started using WAP in a very short time. After this point, the SWAT Team withdraws and is replaced by the local IBM team which will deliver the project to its conclusion.
"IBM is in a great position to move the WAP market forward because we can implement solutions within the rapid timescales that our customers require," said Bregman. "The SWAT Team allows us to deliver WAP-based solutions to our customers whenever and wherever they are needed. It really is a pervasive-style team for IBM's Pervasive Computing solutions."
Whilst demand is increasing throughout Europe and across industries, it is the banking sector which is leading the early take-up of WAP-enabled services. IBM's experience in implementing the world's first WAP-based mobile e-banking project at Handelsbanken, which was achieved in less than a month from start to finish, prompted IBM to take this new approach to addressing customers' wireless requirements and led directly to the formation of IBM's WAP SWAT team.
The most recent mission undertaken by a SWAT Team was at Banesto, a leading Spanish bank, where a WAP-based extension to the bank's existing e-business solution was delivered in ten days. From the moment the local IBM business manager requested the SWAT Team's assistance, the IBM SWAT team was in and out in under ten working days. The Team left Banesto with a WAP-based extension to its retail banking system able to be piloted by the bank.
In a similar move, IBM's subsidiary Lotus Development announced during its Lotusphere conference in Berlin, the formation of a "Wireless Competence Center" in Helsinki, Finland. This centre will work closely with the IBM SWAT Team to pursue the integration of Lotus' collaborative capabilities -- e-mail, directories, and beyond -- into European WAP-based solutions.
Lotus is already working with providers like Telefónica Móviles, KPN and Libertel on a variety of end-to-end WAP solutions.
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