July 9, 2004

MCI Offers On-Demand Application Service For Ease of Software Distribution

BY MICHELLE PASQUERELLO


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recently, MCI (news - alert - quote) introduced its On-Demand Application Service, an innovative solution to assist companies with the distribution of software to remote users. In conjunction with Endeavors Technology, MCI's On-Demand Application Service allows businesses to control software licenses and track usage all under a pay-as-you-go model. Shirley Chun, MCI's Product Manager was available to answer some questions for TMCnet regarding On-Demand and it's contribution to corporate-wide usage of applications.



What are the challenges of offering a managed service on such a large scale?



SC: MCI has a long history of launching innovative managed services that leverage our global IP infrastructure. Our launch of On-Demand Application Service was similar to that other product launch efforts. The keys to success were finding the right underlying technology and integrating it with MCIs industry-leading IP network and computing infrastructure, and providing the right operational support. Also required is rigorous technology and operational testing to ensure the service is fully functional.



What kind of service level agreements do you have in place to protect your customers?



SC: The service level agreements for our On-Demand Application Service are based on platform up-time as derived from our networking and hosting service SLAs.



What benefits does this bring to enterprise users of VoIP (define - news - alert)?



SC: We are focused on two types of customers; enterprise and software providers, including Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Application Service Providers (ASPs).



For our enterprise customers, the benefit of this new service is one of better software license management and control. In todays world, many enterprises are faced with two challenging areas: 1) Use of IT resources for daily management of application delivery and upgrades to ensure efficient delivery and application updates and management; 2) How to capture information on how applications are utilized and the user community served. MCIs On-Demand Application Service provides a centralized platform for efficient means of application streaming only what is needed to the user desktop, thus eliminating a portion of the desktop total cost of ownership (TCO) in terms of application updates, patch management, and minimizing associated support issues. The solution also offers a level of software compliance and usage tracking to provide customers quantifiable metrics on detailed usage tracking information so that decisions can be made on how many licenses need to be purchased and allocated within the enterprise.



For our ISV/ASP customers, On-Demand Application Service offers a new approach to securely distributing software on a large-scale basis. As part of the services multi-pronged security defense, MCI encrypts the data end-to-end down to the end-user desktop, providing a level of security not available via traditional distribution methods. Also, because of the flexibility of the approach, new business models can be achieved for managing temporary licensing, which are not practical with current distribution options.



There is no strong connection to VoIP for this service although client applications such as soft-phones and remote access dashboards and related applications can be distributed to VoIP users.



How easy is it to implement?



SC: The service is easy to implement. On-Demand Application Service has two major components; the application publishing process and the customer portal.



The publishing or transcoding process takes Windows-based application as is and converts it into sizable chunks which prepares it to be streamed to the end user desktop. The Windows-based applications can be custom in-house applications or commercial off-the-shelf applications. The customer only needs to provide the application source code and licensing information and MCI will provide the end-to-end service in terms of publishing, hosting, and delivering the application. Customers can choose to perform their own publishing and, in this scenario, MCI will provide the training and tools.



The Web-based portal offers customers a range of reporting options to enable them to gather information about user and application usage. In addition, the portal is where license information is invoked and policies are established to set user hierarchies. MCI provides the ability for customers to administrate licenses to users, which is ideal for companies that want to retain control of the software yet give administrators a certain level of control. These reporting and management tools are intuitive and easy to use. After a quick review, most subscribers can easily master the service, without the need for a dedicated IT resource.



What Endeavors technology is MCI using?



SC: MCI uses Endeavors AppExpress software as the underlying technology which has been moved into a robust, managed service for our customer base. Combined with MCIs hosting, networking and management capabilities, this service offers an innovative application-streaming delivery model for software distribution and management.



Why did MCI choose Endeavors?



SC: Endeavors was chosen due to its unique ability to stream parts or entire applications to end user desktops in a secure manner with a suite of management tools. MCI reviewed several excellent alternatives and Endeavors was selected based on technological excellence and compatibility with MCIs business model for the service.



How does the platform integrate with MCI's Convergence Networking strategy?



SC: MCIs strategy is to evolve our core competencies in networking and computing to meet the needs of businesses. MCIs On-Demand Application Service does exactly this. It builds on the software-as-a-service model, where software is expanding from a licensing model to a subscription-based model. Part of this on-demand model implies the ability for network and global delivery and management. It leverages MCIs excellence in the fields of application hosting through out Digex capabilities, MCIs global IP networking, and our success as a managed services provider to deliver a solution that addresses our customers computing needs.



Who are your main competitors?



SC: Today, we do not have direct competitors that provide a managed application streaming offering. However, vendors in the server-based computing space as well as the electronic software distribution market provide similar solutions for application delivery and management. While we view our solution as complementary to what is available today, we believe that our application streaming approach provides greater flexibility from a network delivery perspective with no perceived latency and the same performance as though the application is running right at the end users desktop. There is a key advantage in the metering, monitoring, and management aspect of the application that provides options for customers who may subscribe to a concurrent licensing model enabling them to better allocate the use of their software, or the ability to virtually re-allocate license to another user based on pertinent, quantifiable metrics.



Is On-Demand easy to migrate to? How long does the migration process take?



SC: Implementing the offering is fairly easy and straightforward. However, if a customer is migrating off another application delivery solution, there may be some planning involved based on the complexity of the original solution. MCI works with customers to deploy the solution and can work with customers to initially run the offering in tandem, helping the customer to better understand the On-Demand service capabilities and to assess the best migration plan.



Does On-Demand require training? If so, how much?



SC: The service is very intuitive and very easy to use. On-Demand Application Service customers are provided with training to help them administrate, distribute and manage the licenses and the users. MCI customers have access to this and other training information through its customer portal.



MCI also assigns a company representative to work with the customer to prepare and set up specific applications for publication and delivery. Customers can easily be up and running within two weeks or less following the receipt of the application(s).



How do you run customer support for On-Demand?



SC: MCI provides an MCI representative to help with the publishing, as earlier indicated. We also have an 800 number for trouble resolution and other questions that may arise. MCI provides proactive technical support for the fully managed version of this service. It is monitored 24/7 by our hosting operations team.



How do you see the state of the VoIP industry and how do you feel MCI's contribution lends to the future?



SC: On-Demand Application Service is not a VoIP service. As stated above, it can complement a VoIP service by delivering and monitoring VOIP client applications to VoIP users.



Regarding MCIs view on the VoIP industry and our contribution, MCI is an innovator in this area and is the first service provider to offer a hosted VoIP solution to the business community through its MCI Advantage service, the industrys only true network-based communications product serving both enterprises and small business markets. MCI continues to set the pace for businesses wanting to simply and cost effectively take advantage of the benefits of VoIP.

For more information, please visit MCI on the web.

Michelle Pasquerello is the Assistant Online Content Director for TMCnet. She welcomes your comments.

Purchase reprints of this article by calling (800) 290-5460 or buy them directly online at www.reprintbuyer.com.

Negative Candidate (Medium term) - Jul 9, 2004
TADPOLE TECH. ORD 10P is in a falling trend and a continued decline within this trend may be expected. However, the price is now close to the bottom of the trend channel, which may give a reaction up. Gave a negative signal from a rectangle formation by the break down through the support at 14.70. Further fall to 11.67 or lower is signaled. The stock has broken down through the support at p 15.40. This predicts a further decline. Volume tops and volume bottoms correspond well with tops and bottoms in the price. This weakens the falling trend and could be an early signal for a coming trend break. RSI is oversold. The stock can still fall further, and we should see an increasing RSI before this is used as a positive signal. The stock is overall assessed as technically negative for the medium long term.

Negative Candidate (-79) (Overall analysis) - Jul 9, 2004 Score explanation
TADPOLE TECH. ORD 10P is technically negative for the short and medium term, and neutral for the long term.

Negative Candidate (-88)
(Short term)
Has broken down through the floor of the falling trend channel, which signals an even stronger falling rate. The negative development, however, may give rise to short term corrections up from today's level. It also gave a negative signal from a rectangle formation at the break down through the support at 14.70. Further fall to 11.67 or lower is signaled. The stock has resistance at p 15.10. RSI is oversold, which indicates a potential short-term reaction up. The RSI curve shows a falling trend, which supports the negative trend. The stock is overall assessed as technically negative for the short term.

Negative Candidate (-91)
(Medium term)
TADPOLE TECH. ORD 10P is in a falling trend and a continued decline within this trend may be expected. However, the price is now close to the bottom of the trend channel, which may give a reaction up. Gave a negative signal from a rectangle formation by the break down through the support at 14.70. Further fall to 11.67 or lower is signaled. The stock has broken down through the support at p 15.40. This predicts a further decline. Volume tops and volume bottoms correspond well with tops and bottoms in the price. This weakens the falling trend and could be an early signal for a coming trend break. RSI is oversold. The stock can still fall further, and we should see an increasing RSI before this is used as a positive signal. The stock is overall assessed as technically negative for the medium long term.

Neutral (-8)
(Long term)
Has broken through the floor of a rising trend channel. This indicates a slower rising rate at first, or the start of a more horizontal development. Is moving within a rectangle formation between support at 1.39 and resistance at 23.96. A decisive break through one of these levels indicates the new direction for the stock. The stock has support at p 5.80 and resistance at p 19.00. The stock is overall assessed as technically neutral for the long term.

A little from the queen of bb comedy to balance out the views on this thread

maut too - 10 Jul'04 - 16:41 - 74564 of 74567


lets hope the chartists are not share buyers :-)) ... the good thing about chartists is they tend to tell you what is going on about two weeks behind actual events but rarely able to tell you what is going to happen next ... one wonders why anyone would come on to tell you what the charts are saying unless they are short and trying to deramp. Most days I know about 20/25% of the trades and where and why they are happening - so the charts mean little unless people like me are buying or selling ... I think people like me will be buying on Monday.

The spammers are short term penny share traders who know little about the company and often seem to know less about trading - very few people would trade this share based on the charts because of the wide spreads - the tads army and the fact the share is mostly news led and capable of moving up by 20/40% in a single day. The fact they try and trade a difficult tiny cap illustrates how rubbish they are. I trade oom or BT or shell

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/dailyarchives.jhtml%3Bjsessionid=XH2ZNZ2RPM2NIQSNDBCCKHQ?articleId=22104729


Microsoft announced plans to better align partners

Online ads and print ads, for example will refer to Microsoft Gold Certified partners or Certified partners that have competencies in the specific solution advertised.

Thats us.

M

Hi all, I see it's all been happening lately, though sadly the price is going backwards.

Oh well, at least Tads has got 3.5 mill in the bank so it gives us plenty of breathing space to see how the Stream deal integrates, and time for more decnt news.
If we only had say 1/2 a mill then I'd be worried!

The 3.8M should be enough to keep them afloat for 18 months longer in the event that the stream deal is rejected by shareholders.

How much lower is this going to go - I'm down 35% already!

The bottom will be no lower than 0.

How much is it really worth? Surely not 40 odd million?

I work in the construction industry and have pretty good experience of Autocad and similar modelling sytems for construction end users (those at the `workface`) and what is, or has been, developed by Tadpole is just what many of us have been expecting to see for a few years now with regard to simplified, quick application of part models being sent to those actually building a project on the ground and the advances made in developing avi presentations of
3D construction models has a fantastic potential throughout the industry. I am a
great supporter of this technology and see the eventual potential to be almost limitless as Tadpole appear to be able to offer a reasonably priced applications system for a lot less up front cost than full blown software purchasing, a good deal of which may not be needed by particular types of companies. I`m in and staying in.

http://www.citywire.co.uk/instrument/default.asp?vid=66742&kid=155&uid=&cid=&ctid=1&sid=&fid=&iid=&type=&dateEnd=13/07/2004%2023:59:59&rurl=/instrument/default.asp




Tadpole acquisition marks a defining moment - really
Published: 12:58 Tue 13 July 2004
By Joanne Wallen, Associate Editor
Email to a friend | Printable Version


Tadpole Technology's shares have fallen since its acquisition of Stream Theory, but management says this is a defining moment and for long-suffering investors it does not come a moment too soon.

The 43 million Tadpole (TAD) is paying an initial $25 million (13.5 million) for Stream in shares at a strike price of 15.75p, and there is a further consideration in shares based on two times new revenues generated from Stream's major Japanese broadband Internet customer over the next two years.


Tadpole chief financial officer Keith Bigsby told Citywire that the earn out was 'specifically related to cash generated from the Japanese contract' so the deal should be 'accretive to shareholders' he said.


Stream has a similar technology to that of Tadpole's US-based Endeavors business. The technology enables software applications to be streamed on demand over a network in a highly efficient and secure manner.


Endeavors had been focusing on the enterprise market, where its AppExpress technology enables a company to distribute software either to its staff or to customers. Stream has focused more on the consumer market, particularly enabling the downloading of games over the internet or to mobile phones.


The real attraction is that Stream has signed an initial $9 million exclusive distribution agreement with a large Japanese broadband Internet provider, which will use Stream's technology to distribute games and other software applications over its broadband network.


Bigsby said the acquisition strengthens Tadpole's intellectual property and the Japanese deal gives Tadpole a strong entr into the Japanese and Asian markets.


He said the deal is really significant. 'It cements our business in streaming, which we believe will be a very significant technology for the future,' he said.


The idea is that people will no longer need to load software onto a PC from a CD ROM. They will be able to download it over their company network or the public internet, as and when they need a particular application or game. (continued...)

Endeavors also recently confirmed that the major telco it signed in January was MCI. MCI will be offering customers games and applications on demand using the technology, and for Tadpole the contract includes some advanced payments for the technology and a subsequent share of MCI's monthly streaming revenues.

I like this bit:
MCI will be offering customers games and applications on demand using the technology,


M

From another BB in case you missed it

Hi guys

Just to remind you'll that MCI is approaching 1 month of usin TADs On-Demand Application Service - take a peek at the number of Countries an Subscribers MCI deal with on their home page, the 200+ user quoted below is now history......even at a dime a customer per usage, there are a lotta dollars starting to go into TADS coffers! The word exponential springs to mind....

[June 15, 2004]

MCI Launches On-Demand Application Service

MCI introduced its On-Demand Application Service to help businesses distribute software to end-users via MCI's global IP network. Companies will now be able to distribute software releases and patch updates, better control software licenses and track software usage under a pay-as-you-go model.

With a connection to MCI's IP network, companies can utilize MCI's streaming application delivery platform to centrally deploy and locally execute Windows-based software. As a result, On-Demand Application Service customers can benefit from several new capabilities, including automated software entitlement, compliance, license tracking and extensive monitoring, metering and reporting capabilities.

Hosted at an MCI data center and centrally streamed over the company's global IP network to user desktops, the service enables companies to support corporate-wide usage of applications to geographically dispersed users and the "extended" enterprise, resulting in better performance and faster download rates than more traditional methods. MCI is utilizing the latest technology from Endeavors Technology, a provider of on-demand software tools.

This service has an array of license compliance and usage tracking capabilities that provide businesses with valuable statistical information at the desktop level. With these features, MCI customers can log all usage and check for compliance each time an application is requested using a Web-based interface. This provides the ability to create a software audit of licenses in use and to assess users by specific application. Offering customers a way to plan for software purchases, MCI's On-Demand Application Service also provides strong anti-piracy and license management control features.

Enabling the distribution of six different software application deployments initially to 200+ users, MCI has stopped shipping CD-ROMS to corporate users and eliminated the time and effort spent installing the software. Now MCI can push the software simultaneously to end users quickly, easily and securely with the ability to monitor application usage, helping the department to become more efficient in managing software licenses and better informed when making software-purchasing decisions. As a result, MCI is reducing operating expenses and improving overall efficiencies through automation.

MCI's On-Demand Application Service can be integrated with the company's Remote Access, Wide Area Networking, Data Center, Security and Content Delivery services.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

for the investors out there note that MCI has stopped shipping CD-ROMS and the message is that all of the recent contracts are in a similar growth phase and TAD will be makin SERIOUS $s very soon

I hold so don't take this as advice to buy, DYOR

$

MCI are advetising us!

http://global.mci.com/news/news2.xml?newsid=11190&mode=long〈=en&width=530&langlinks=off



M

ML
Shame they don't mention our name though, although that would help competitors.

Re: Keith Bigsby in Interview with The Wall Street Reporter

Please be advised that The Wall Street Reporter (TWSR), a premier source of information for professional investors, has today interviewed Mr. Keith Bigsby, Tadpole Technology's CFO and CEO of subsidiary Endeavors Technology.

The focus of the interview is applications on-demand.

An audio of the interview can be accessed from TWSR's website - please use the following link:

http://www.wallstreetreporter.com/profiles/TadpoleTechnology.html

Sincerely,

Hugh Paterson
Patcom for Tadpole Technology
July 16, 2004

Tadpole-Cartesia and VELOCITIE Team to Provide Unique Enterprise ArcGIS
Solution

Utility, municipality, and communication industries will be able to better
deploy GIS in support of field operations

Carlsbad (CA), July 20, 2004 - Tadpole-Cartesia today announced that it has
partnered with VELOCITIE Integration to provide its enterprise ArcGIS data
management solution to the utility, municipal government, and communication
industries. The intent is to unite Tadpole-Cartesia's Enterprise Data
Management system with VELOCITIE's world-class implementation services and
for both companies to offer the new solution to existing and prospective
clients.

Under this agreement, VELOCITIE is now a value added reseller of
Tadpole-Cartesia's flagship product GO! Sync and is providing implementation
and support services. By extending Tadpole-Cartesia's reach throughout the
United States, VELOCITIE has the capability to offer a superior data
management solution to its customers in the utility, municipal, and
communications industries.

Bart Koenig, president of VELOCITIE, comments: "GO! Sync is the only product
that bridges the gap between enterprise ArcSDE and mobile ArcGIS. This
relationship gives us a key ingredient in GO! Sync, necessary for our
clients to realize the capabilities and benefits of an enterprise GIS. By
combining Tadpole-Cartesia's products and data management experience with
VELOCITIE's GIS deployment and systems integration expertise, our customers
will be able to more efficiently deploy and use GIS in support of their
field operations."

Tadpole-Cartesia develops turnkey infrastructure software that supports the
management, replication, and distribution of enterprise GIS data within and
between organizations. By extending GIS in their business processes, organiz
ations can integrate and access up-to-date data virtually on demand from any
location, at any time.

About VELOCITIE
VELOCITIE Integration, Inc. (www.velocitie.com) provides integrated GIS
solutions for utilities, municipalities and telecommunication companies.
With offices in Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Denver, Colorado, the
team at VELOCITIE brings over 180 years of combined experience in serving
the GIS industry.

VELOCITIE has the knowledge, insight, experience, and proven success to
ensure that its clients have a clear path for implementing GIS with their
business needs in mind. Our objective is for clients to realize the true
benefits and cost savings of integrating GIS technology with their IT and
core business practices while implementing a wide array of industry leading
products.

About Tadpole-Cartesia
Tadpole-Cartesia, a software business unit of Tadpole Technology plc, is a
strategic partner of ESRI, the world's leading GIS company. Further
information on Tadpole-Cartesia's businesses on 760-929-8345 (US), +44 131
6680200 (UK), by email sales@us.tadpole.com, and at www.tadpolecartesia.com.

M,

It's gone south and looks like further moves south are on the cards.

S

Ugly reading

Shares in issue (m)	296.772	Dividend per share DPS (p)	0
Market Cap (m)	37.096	Dividend Yield (%)	0
PE Ratio	-2.907	Dividend Cover	0
Operating Margin (%)	-78.921	Dividend PS Growth Rate %	0
Profit Margin (%)	-179.955	EPS Diluted (p)	-4.3
Return on Equity (ROE) (%)	0	EPS Undiluted (p)	-4.3
Turnover per share (p)	0.018	NAV (p)	1.011
PEG Factor	0.118	Price to Sales	6.976

Profit and Loss Account	30-Sep-2003	30-Sep-2002	30-Sep-2001	30-Sep-2000	30-Sep-1999	30-Sep-1998
Average Shares In Issue	0	192.735	179.072	133.912	118.045	56.598
Turnover (m)	5.318	16.724	24.607	16.838	13.688	9.391
Operating profit (m)	-4.197	-11.179	-8.008	-1.381	-3.083	-3.419
Pre Tax Profit (m)	-9.57	-11.14	-7.776	-1.467	-3.154	-3.718
Earnings After Tax (m)	-9.596	-10.923	-7.776	-1.467	-3.154	-3.717
Profits Available for Dividend	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Preference Dividends	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Ordinary Dividends	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Retained Profit	-9.596	-10.923	-7.776	-1.467	-3.154	-3.718
Adj EPS Undiluted	-4.3	-5.7	-4.3	-1.1	-2.7	-6.6
Adj EPS Diluted	-4.3	-5.7	-4.3	0.0	0.0	0.0
Dividends per share (whole year)	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

Balance Sheet	30-Sep-2003	30-Sep-2002	30-Sep-2001	30-Sep-2000	30-Sep-1999	30-Sep-1998
Net Current Assets (m)	0.06	1.654	5.584	4.435	-0.406	2.392
Shareholders Funds (m)	3.0	9.156	17.028	7.799	0.124	3.219

Snappy - I'm starting to dislike you. You always post negative comments - it makes me so angry because you invariably seem to be right. Most annoying. Any views now that the price has gone below your 11p target? Cheers, and stay lucky me old mucker.