What is the current focus of your company's business?

Howle - When we envisioned nuBridges, our focus was to develop a platform that could link companies in better and easier ways. We wanted to deliver something that would be less costly to manage and be an extensible platform that didn't have any predetermined limits. What we are doing now is delivering a next generation e-Business connectivity solution, using the Internet and connectivity tools that deliver on our vision of easy management and implementation.

The company operates a network, provides software for AS2, EDI-Int, and technology for securing sensitive data both at rest and in transit. The truExchange eBusiness Platform is extremely versatile and can be used in a wide range of settings, not limited to EDI, but including processing remittance advices, and performing business management tasks.

How has this focus changed in the last 2 years?

Howle - We brought the nuBridges platform to market in 2004, and have made some small acquisitions, but from the beginning we decided to base our efforts on technologies that would provide flexibility and low costs.

The system is based around Software as a Service (SaaS), and we base our pricing on the value of the services delivered to the customer. We wanted to lower the risk for the customer, take complexity out of getting started, and lower the initial investment. We decided to have a platform that is easy to deploy and allows us to put a link in place for relatively low time and effort, then structure our revenue to actual use and deployment.

Part of the strategy is to make use of open source software and Linux. Internal software isn't required in order to use our system, but for companies that have very high volumes of transactions, we provide the option to install our Linux based data transformation appliances on premise.

 What are your current initiatives?

Howle - We started off with a broad vision in 2001 and have been working diligently since then. We are now delivering on that vision and have a lot of things in the works to move our platform forward. 50 of our staff of 100 are working on enhancing the programs that make up the nuBridges platform. That's a significant amount of effort.

 How has the market for EDI changed with the impact of the Internet?

Howle - The tools and capabilities available now have made a big difference since the early days of the Internet. Now it's normal to assume a big pipe connection, and the fact that it's always on has changed the way we can deal with data. We saw both the expansion of connectivity and the growth of Linux and have leveraged them.

 What are the greatest challenges for your customers?

Howle - We are helping a major retailer with our truExchange product and connecting up a couple thousand of their trading partners through a portal. This is a hosted solution. Our portal, truExchange, is a big connectivity platform that can be used for a lot of purposes including collaboration, business processes, secure data transport, etc. It's a large set of services, all centered around e-Business connectivity. Our first large deployment was with CheckFree where high transaction rates and security of the data is very important.

 How are you helping your customers address these challenges?

Howle - We are lowering the risks by providing open source solutions. They are less expensive for us and for our customers. And we are offering SaaS and willing to have our payments come at the time the value is received.

We also see that companies are restricted from expanding their e-Business because of the management challenges they face. For example, Home Depot now has 6,000 trading partners with 60 people managing those relationships. The company wants to add another 10,000 trading partners but can't afford to expand without better tools. They need people in place to handle the issues that are always coming up. We are helping companies to expand their businesses without expanding their expenses.

 What is your stance on the eC-BP organization and tenets?

Howle - What eC-BP is striving for is music to our ears. We are all trying to lower the barriers to e-Business and bring value to the market. The tenets make a lot of sense.