|
 Case
Study: mPortal
1.When was your company established? mPortal was founded
in May 2000.
2. What is the origin of your company name? The lower-case “m” signifies
mobile, and “Portal” is
for all things we enable or mobilize. The goal is to help people navigate the
mobile world, and we want to be the entry point, or the portal, to that world.
3. Who owns your company? A privately-held company, mPortal
was co-founded by our Chief Executive Officer D.P. Venkatesh and our Chief
Technology Officer Sathiya Krishnan. mPortal is venture-backed and has received
funding from Friedli Finance Corporation, a leading Swiss venture capital firm.
4. What is your main business focus? mPortal enables mobile
content and applications for mobile network operators (MNOs), mobile virtual
network operators (MVNOs), content providers and enterprises. mPortal's products
and services help customers to create, launch, manage, and generate revenue
from mobile content and applications across multiple mobile devices and networks.
Typically, a wireless subscriber must go through many frustrating steps and
navigate a confusing user interface in order to access mobile data content
and applications. With mPortal’s SPRINGBOARD™ Smart Client Client,
however, the subscriber can easily and intuitively find, preview and purchase
ringtones, wallpapers, games and applications.
On the provider side, the SPRINGBOARD Content Delivery Manager allows the
service provider to provide an enhanced user experience for subscribers by
customizing the handset interface for each market segment or even for each
individual subscriber.
5. Who are your primary customers? mPortal serves a variety
of global customers, including Alltel, AOL, Disney Mobile, ESPN Mobile, Reliance
Infocomm (one of India’s largest mobile
operators), TV Guide, Verizon Wireless and Xerox.
6. What sets you apart from your competitors? We are unusual
in that we provide a total bundled solution for the mobile service provider.
Most companies focus on either client-side products for discovery of content
and applications or on the server-side for content, applications and user management.
mPortal offers both products, which can either be bundled for a complete integrated
package or sold independently, depending on the service provider’s immediate
needs. The SPRINGBOARD family of products is scalable, robust, and drives revenues
and stickiness.
In addition, the SPRINGBOARD Smart Client focuses heavily on personalization
and the importance of synchronization and the ability to cache content locally
on the handset, which reduces the actual network usage and dramatically increases
and enhances the user experience. The SPRINGBOARD Smart Client can be deployed
across many types of handsets—from high-end to low-end models.
At Reliance, the SPRINGBOARD Content Delivery Manager manages and delivers
more than 50 million wireless data hits each day and serves 26 million subscribers
and their data services. The feedback from Reliance users has been extremely
positive and has driven the uptake of data usage.
7. Where do you see your company in five years? mPortal expects
to be a leading enabler of mobile content and applications. We expect to grow
globally and leverage our headquarters to expand in the Americas.
8. How many employees do you have? mPortal has more than
100 employees around the world.
9. What are the advantages of your Fairfax County location? mPortal
made the strategic decision to locate its headquarters in Fairfax County because
of the pool of highly qualified workers in the areas of information technology
and communications, supported by several top-notch educational institutions.
Another advantage of our Fairfax County location is the strong presence of
wireless carriers in the region. Fairfax County also provides a convenient
gateway to global markets; our McLean (Tysons Corner) location offers us easy
access to Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan National
Airport.
10. Where is your company located (address, phone number, Web site)?
7900 Westpark Drive, Suite A530,
McLean, VA 22102 USA;
703-852-9600;
www.mportal.com
| 
