Materna Information & Communications SE
MATERNA and Fincom International a.s. Agree on Strategic Partnership
Successful MATERNA Brand Anny Way Expands European Presence
Dortmund/Hradec Kralove (ots)
Dortmund-based software vendor MATERNA Information & Communications and Czech reseller Fincom International a.s. plan to work together as strategic partners in the future. From now, the MATERNA umbrella brand Anny Way will be marketed in the Czech, Slovak and Polish market by Fincom Systems, a 100 percent subsidiary of Fincom. Fincom Systems will also be active as an operator. MATERNA has thus successfully entered the rapidly growing telecommunications market in Eastern Europe.
With this commitment in the East European markets, MATERNA is intensively pursuing its internationalization activities. New branch offices have already been opened in Paris and London this year and, with a joint venture in Hong Kong, the first foothold has been established in the Asia Pacific region. "For us, partnerships with experienced and established local companies form the basis for successful international activities", says Managing Director Helmut an de Meulen. "Fincom currently has more than 40 percent of the market for remote-access products and modems. As the largest telecommunications distributor on the territory Poland, Czech and Slovak, it is the ideal partner for our expansion policy in the East European markets."
For MATERNA, geographical proximity and EU plans to expand to Eastern Europe were not the only decisive arguments for expanding sales activities to the east. According to estimates, the number of East European customers in GSM networks alone is expected to increase from approximately 24 million today to almost 70 million in 2004. In addition, experts expect the number of distributed SMS messages to increase to one billion per month in Eastern Europe (compared with 0.5 billion per month in North America).
Value Added Services for Professional Users
MATERNA offers integrated added-value services in the field of mobile communications under the Anny Way name. The Anny Way Carrier & Provider Solutions and Anny Way Business Solutions in particular are to be marketed in Eastern Europe.
Network carriers and service providers are the target group for Anny Way Carrier & Provider Solutions. The base technologies include SMS, WAP, GPRS, Internet, E-mail and Fax. Today, Anny Way is already the market leader worldwide for SMS added-value services. The Anny Way SMS solutions include information and gateway services, entertainment, and publishing services. Anny Way WAP solutions are implemented as a one-stop shopping solution and range from individual WAP applications all the way to managing a complete WAP infrastructure.
Anny Way Business Solutions provides products, services and system solutions for businesses. Based on mobile communications technologies, CTI and messaging platforms, Anny Way offers unified messaging, gateways, portals, applications and content platforms in this field.
Further Activities Planned in Eastern Europe
The interest in mobile solutions and unified messaging in the East European market is evident, as initial talks with network carriers, providers and businesses have shown. "The underlying conditions are right, the market potential is there. We are already noticing great demand for our Anny Way services", exclaims an de Meulen. The commitment in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland is thus due to be followed by the entrance into the Hungarian market in the medium term.
MATERNA Information & Communications
The MATERNA Group is one of the leading software vendors in the field of information and communications technology. MATERNA currently has a staff of 1,000 employees throughout Europe. In 1999, the company earned 252 million German marks in revenues. In addition to its headquarters in Dortmund, MATERNA has branch offices and subsidiaries throughout the Federal Republic of Germany and is present in France, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Great Britain, and Hong Kong. MATERNA's range of services includes products, solutions, and services based on e-business, mobile solutions and unified messaging.
For further information, contact: MATERNA Information & Communications Antje Zimmer Media Relations Director Vosskuhle 37 · 44141 Dortmund / Germany Phone +49-231-55 99-531 Fax +49-231-55 99-67 531 antje.zimmer@materna.de http://www.annyway.com
Original content of: Materna Information & Communications SE, transmitted by news aktuell