
BridgePort to ink deal with VeriSign
May 3, 2004
BY MICHAEL KRAUSS
Chicago's BridgePort
Networks expects to announce a partnership agreement today with
Mountainview, Calif.-based VeriSign Inc.
The agreement
significantly extends BridgePort's ability to deliver its software
technology which enables cell phone customers seamless access
to Internet telephony. The deal should markedly increase BridgePort's
value.
"Our
partnership with VeriSign presents a unique solution for providing
roaming between mobile and IP networks," says Mike Mulica,
BridgePort's CEO. "The combined solution enables quick implementation
so users can use the same mobile number across both mobile and
cable networks."
When cell
phone users make calls outside their home network, the connection
is frequently run behind the scenes by VeriSign. "VeriSign
hosts and operates that network, and has agreements with over
1,000 different service providers," says Sanjay Jhawar, BridgePort's
senior vice president for business development and marketing.
By deploying
through VeriSign, BridgePort gains immediate access to the cellular
and broadband service providers VeriSign connects with. "We've
taken the barriers down from deploying lots of infrastructure
to signing pieces of paper," Jhawar adds.
Content
managers converge
"Companies
face over 120 different kinds of regulation," says IBM's
Brett MacIntyre, vice president for content management and compliance
IT. "The Securities and Exchange Commission says companies
have to keep all their e-mails and instant messages," MacIntyre
adds. "It's spawned a whole new category of content management."
Whether driven
by Sarbanes/ Oxley, HIPPA or SEC compliance, MacIntyre says, companies
are retaining enormous quantities of unstructured data, including
e-mails, images and multimedia files. "In order to meet all
those regulations, companies need to know where the information
is," he adds. "The amount of this data is doubling every
year."
That creates
new problems and opportunities for business executives and technology
geeks. Seven hundred leaders in managing digital content will
converge on the Chicago Hilton today to plan for the future. The
upshot, according to MacIntyre, will be lower cost of operation,
easier data access and better customer service, as companies learn
to manage this morass of unstructured data.
What Chicago
needs
"The
Midwest is a case study in organizing," says University of
Chicago sociology and strategy professor Ron Burt. "To be
efficient, you drive out variation. Colleagues can watch you more
closely than a boss can. We need to get more comfortable seeking
out people who think differently than we do."
Burt's point
is that Chicago's economy grew by building a strong cohesive elite.
He suspects that can hold back growth and innovation. "We
have pockets of what we're looking for here in Chicago,"
Burt says. "It simply needs to be more widespread."
Burt believes
we need to be more open to skill and style diversity and more
accepting of difference and variation. He's not just talking about
ethnic diversity, he's talking about diversity of thought and
perspective.
"Chicago
grew dramatically by extracting value from the things flowing
through here," he says. He compares Chicago to a large company
like Raytheon, which does the bulk of its business responding
to federal government proposal requests.
"Companies
like Raytheon are very good at doing what they do well. They have
a majority share in the missile market," Burt reports. "Getting
them to do something different when conditions change, that's
not easy," he adds. Burt thinks local conditions have changed
because of globalization.
He's launching
the Chicago Project: Capital and Careers in an American Metropolis
to explore the social fabric and behavior of Chicago's business
community. The results could be instructive.
Bits &
Bytes
Kellogg professor
Mohan Sawhney shares views on outsourcing's impact on cities Friday
with a group of mayors and CEOs at a gathering of CEOs for Cities.
The group was founded and is co-chaired by Mayor Daley. Sawhney
will discuss ways cities can respond to the outflow of service
and knowledge jobs.
Michael Krauss is a Chicago-based tech writer and consultant.
|