All:
StockHouse had an interview with IWM management posted today (http://www.stockhouse.com/interviews/may99/050499.asp) Unfortunately, still no mention about concrete figures such as the magnitude of profit, etc.
Neil.
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Infowave Wireless Management Team: Infowave Promises More News to Come; More Relationships to be Announced.
On May 3rd, Infowave Software, Inc. announced a strategic partnership with Wireless Knowledge LLC, a private joint venture company formed between Microsoft and Qualcomm. This relatively unknown Vancouver-based company was instantly shot into the forefront of the world's wireless convergence stage. Experts agree that "wireless convergence" is the next biggest advance for the Internet and virtually every major computer and telecommunications company is dedicated to capturing its share of that market. To read the recent news release, click here. To visit the Infowave Software, Inc. website, click here (www.infowave.com). To learn more about Wireless Knowledge, click here (www.wirelessknowledge.com).
StockHouse: Is this a significant enhancement to Wireless Knowledge's mobile solution or does this strategic partnership mean that Wireless Knowledge (WK) will begin offering additional features to their Revolve service?
Jim McIntosh: A little bit of both, actually. What it does right now with the Revolv service, they offer a browser interface access into Microsoft Exchange. What we provide them, is we let them round out their Revolv service and add to it - being the full (Microsoft) Outlook access to Microsoft Exchange. So at the end of the day, when you access Revolv service, you could use a browser. When they signed a deal with General Magic, you could do it by voice. Now with the agreement they signed with us (Infowave), they can use the Outlook client software to access it.
Ron Jasper: I just want to put that in perspective for you, from a numbers standpoint. This is where the significance of this becomes obvious. Wireless Knowledge is in the business of connecting people to the Microsoft Exchange message store and all the information that's in there: that's your mail, your address books, your contacts, your schedule. Right now, 80% of the people in Corporate America access that Exchange Message Store using Outlook. Before they connected with Infowave, Wireless Knowledge could only do that on a browser. Now they can do it on a browser and on Outlook. Imagine, 80% of the of the people are using Outlook today - what are they going to do if they want to use it wirelessly? Probably the same interface they're familiar with - that they already know how to use. It's very key for them to, as Jim said, round out their offering and cover it off from the low end - all the way up, to the top end with the Infowave clients.
StockHouse: Does that mean that Wireless Knowledge can't really live without Infowave?
Ron Jasper: Absolutely.
StockHouse: Will Infowave's Office Enabler require fine tuning or a complete overhaul to become compatible with Wireless Knowledge's Revolv?
Bijan Sanii: Our product has been launched - has been deployed - in some major corporations and Fortune 500's in the last year or so. It's been a big cycle. It's been a long cycle for us. We've gone in there and we've gained credibility and built a product that is working today for corporate America. We've essentially taken that product and we've nuanced it as an add-on service for the Wireless Knowledge network. No, it's not a huge amount of work. It's not a re-write by any stretch of the imagination. It's a proven model. It's a proven product. And it's being customized to live in and be hosted by the Wireless Knowledge services as an add-on service.
StockHouse: Will Infowave be allowed to continue offering Office Enabler, apart from Wireless Knowledge?
Bijan Sanii: Infowave will be. In addition to that, it's actually critical, because as soon as a corporation gets exposed to the solution through Wireless Knowledge - decides that it needs to host its own exchange servers and host their own wireless access base exchange servers - then they will be touch with us. They will be deployed and have a virtual private network (VPN), connected to Wireless Knowledge in order to provide just the airlinks for them.
Ron Jasper: I noticed you called it Infowave Office Enabler. We have (now) called the product "Infowave for Exchange." It's got some new products that are forming a family of products. Infowave for the Net is the other one, which is targeted at the Intranet space. That was the reason for the name change. I also wanted to cap Bijan's comment by pointing something out. By doing this, we've obviously tapped into a pretty great channel in terms of delivering products and services and customers. What we've also done, is in a similar move to Wireless Knowledge - Wireless Knowledge broadened their product offering to cover an area they weren't covering. What we've done, is we've broadened our offering to cover an area that wasn't covered. That is the outsource community. Right now, our product has been targeted at corporations that want to deploy their own solution and have their own wireless connection. Now, they have two options: one is to use the VPN (Virtual Private Network) - that means they don't have to worry about the wireless connection to the network. It's all done through their existing Internet connection. Then (second option), it goes through the Wireless Knowledge NOC, or Network Operation Center. And then the third one - for smaller and medium-sized businesses, is that Wireless Knowledge will host an Exchange server with our server software on it as well. That will allow them to connect directly to that and not have to have their own server in house at all. Those are the three ways that people will be able to do it.
"We have been generating a lot of interest and activity with a number of industry players and other manufacturers in this space. I think that the level of activity that's been going on in Infowave - and what our management team has been involved with - is extensive."
StockHouse: Is the hand of Bill Gates behind this?
Bijan Sanii: That is speculation. Obviously, Microsoft's personnel - Microsoft's people - view this as a positive development. And wireless is an important area for Bill Gates. He's made that clear. Whether he's personally involved in the details of what's going on here, in the background, is speculation.
StockHouse: In none of the materials, or during the analysts conference, did anyone ask this question: Have Wireless Knowledge and Infowave finalized the license fees?
Bijan Sanii: Yes, they have. Wireless Knowledge is going to provide the base service and Infowave is an add-on for those Outlook customers and Outlook clients that were described. Every time they click on that - they pay a monthly fee. It has been negotiated. Correct.
StockHouse: What wasn't that announced?
Bijan Sanii: It just was that this time - we believe the agreement and the announcement of the partnership was critical. The service, itself, and the details of it, we felt was inappropriate to release at this time.
StockHouse: When will the financial arrangements be announced?
Jim McIntosh: It'll be a monthly fee. It's a good piece of add-on software for them. Wireless Knowledge is going to price those to the carriers - just like the Wireless Knowledge service is going to be priced differently. At the end user, it'll be priced differently as well.
StockHouse: How does this effect your FY2000 revenue projections for the Wireless division?
Jim McIntosh: We don't have projections that we've made public for the year 2000. But, obviously, if we have another product to sell for the year 2000, it provides an ability to generate additional revenue.
StockHouse: How many of these Infowave for Exchange units are you projecting to sell through the Wireless Knowledge channels?
Bijan Sanii: That question is truly a Wireless Knowledge question, simply because - as a percentage of the people that sign onto their service that are Exchange-based users, because of the comments that were made earlier - we expect that percentage to be high. What you're asking here, really, is - we know that they will have hundreds of thousands of users, and that's what their objective is - we will have a high percentage of that. The number itself and what they do - that's a question for them. I can't answer that.
Ron Jasper: I think Andy Seybold did venture to guess. I think his quote is in the press release - he indicates that he thinks it would appeal to a majority of the wireless users. In that case, he's thinking that it's probably more than 50%. I think that's reasonable, if you consider that 80% of the people, who are using Exchange today, are using Outlook to get at it. I think that's really great for us, is that it's recurring monthly revenue - that Wireless Knowledge and/or it's partners do all of the billing, all of the support, and we just collect the revenue stream at the end of each month.
StockHouse: How was the corporate response to today's (Monday, May 3rd) announcement?
Bijan Sanii: We have been generating a lot of interest and activity with a number of industry players and other manufacturers in this space. I think that the level of activity that's been going on in Infowave - and what our management team has been involved with - is extensive. This is a building block deal that other deals will be put on top of and built. So, you can expect similar announcements building on this one - again I really reiterate that - going into the next quarters coming.
StockHouse: Have any other media or news services interviewed you today?
Bijan Sanii: We have been interviewed by a number of media. Yes. We just interviewed, a few minutes ago, with "Wireless Integration."
Ron Jasper: I think the important thing is that it was actually quite interesting - a broad base. There were some mainstream business-type publications, like "Business 2.0," right through to the standard wireless-specific ones. We're seeing a nice broad range of interest there. This is an excellent event for us to get this kind of an announcement out, because we're not competing with a lot of other major announcements at this event. This is really going to be the "buzz" around this event. We think, probably, the media frenzy is going to start more, this afternoon (Monday afternoon, May 3rd). I think there was on the order of 60 or 70 analysts on the line for the conference call this morning. That was at the start, so I'm sure more tuned in late. That's a phenomenal start.
StockHouse: Would you sum up what's happened to your company since this announcement was made?
Jim McIntosh: Bottom line is - it's the biggest event that we've had on the wireless side of it, since we've been doing this stuff in 1993. There is no doubt in my mind, this is a strategic building block and will act as a catalyst for us to continue to be the leader in the wireless software game.
StockHouse: Now that you've gotten Microsoft behind you, where can you go from here?
Jim McIntosh: There are lots more things that we're working on. There are lots more things to come from our software and from our relationships that we're continuing to work.
Bijan Sanii: This was a key fundamental. Let me characterize it as this: essentially, right now, in the wireless data space, you're talking about building the future. All the companies involved in this space have been energized, somewhat, with the formation of Wireless Knowledge. Wireless Knowledge sort of spurred the market. Microsoft created interest in the market. This particular deal carves out Infowave's space at the table for the future. You know the volume of people who come on board, who use wireless data solutions: corporate users, individuals within corporations, services. We are part of that future and today, we made our mark and we stamped our mark.
StockHouse: How long is this deal supposed to last?
Jim McIntosh: The actual agreement is for three years, first off. And second off, there will be lots of other things that we'll look at, working through the Wireless Knowledge service. Basically, customers are going to like the software. They're going to buy it, and they're going to use it.
StockHouse: Did Microsoft and Qualcomm both do due diligence on your product family or was it just Wireless Knowledge?
Jim McIntosh: We work closely with all Wireless Knowledge people right now.
Ron Jasper: I can't tell you exactly about their due diligence process, but I can tell you that the guys down in the Redmond office know our stuff inside out. They know our engineers very well. I'm talking about the guys in Microsoft, working for Microsoft and the Exchange groups and the CE groups. They know our stuff very well. It could be the case that Wireless Knowledge tapped that as part of their due diligence. I'm not sure. But I can tell you, they did their diligence. They chose the right partner. And getting somebody to have their software working inside the NOC is a cooperative effort. They will be working together with us, to make sure that this product works well and works well for their customers.
StockHouse: Thank you very much.
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