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The Latest Word
ShiftKey relaunches as Kinecta
New products, new name for ICE syndication system vendorShiftKey, supplier of content-syndication systems, introduced last month a
new version of its software and relaunched itself as Kinecta. The new
company name, a synthesis of the words
"kinesis" and "connect," symbolizes
the company's focus on helping businesses establish dynamic information
connections with business partners.
Kinecta's Interact system is a Web syndication system whose first
high-profile customer is Reuters. It includes a server component, with which you
create subscription offers and set up distribution, and a Subscriber component
that helps you manage incoming feeds. Both components are Java applications
available for Unix and Windows NT. The system is one of the first (along
with Vignette StoryServer) to be compliant with the Information Content
Exchange (ICE) protocol developed for syndicating content over the Web.
Version 3. Kinecta's Interact version 3.0
is the new incarnation of ShiftKey's syndication server and SiClone subscriber
technologies. They are now united under a single product name, though server
and subscriber components remain.
The Interact Server creates and manages packages of digital content,
which can be automatically and dynamically delivered to subscribers. Among its
new features are facilities for pushing content out to subscribers and for entering
subscription start and end dates. A new user interface improves searching,
logging, event notification and reporting functions. Underlying databases may
be Microsoft Access, SQL Server or Oracle 8i.
The subscriber software receives and redistributes digital packages into
local content repositories, which might be databases, file directories or Web
servers. As part of that distribution, Interact
can transform and customize content, such as giving it a different layout or
marking it up for PDAs or wireless devices.
Both components have been written in Java and provide browser-based
administration.
Interact pricing begins at about $25,000 for a server handling 10
subscribers. An improved API is provided to Interact customers at no additional cost.
Beefing up the management team. To help propel
it through its next stage of its growth, Kinecta has added three new members
of its executive team in the past few months. They include VP of sales and
marketing Scott Cahill; VP of channels and services Steve Sillari and VP
of business development Pierre Wolff. They join chairman and chief executive
officer David Mathison, chief technology officer Arthur Do and chief strategist
Adam Souzis.
Customers. The key reference account for Kinecta is Reuters, where
Mathison worked before leaving to found ShiftKey, Reuters, which already uses SiClone
to deliver content to syndication partners in more than 50,000 locations, has said
it will deploy Kinecta Interact in its new Internet Delivery System, an
alternative to the company's existing satellite,
FM and terrestrial telecommunications network. Aimed primarily at new
media customers, Reuters' IDS will furnish customized baskets of content in
XML, rather than in the legacy news and HTML formats it has used in the past.
Other customers include Motorola, which uses it to syndicate product
information out to the field, and theStreet.com, which uses it to
manage syndicated columns. Kinecta recently signed Astrology.net, a subsidiary
of iVillage.
Looking ahead. The new name and relaunch of its products are part
of Kinecta's attempt to generate buzz at a time that interest in syndication is
soaring. Vignette's stock has skyrocketed; no doubt Kinecta's founders would like to
go public, too. In the current market, ramping up the marketing program is just
as important as developing a solid product; in this case, Kinecta started by proving
its product and is now seeking a wider audience.
An interesting future development we anticipate from Kinecta will be its
expansion into syndication services. In particular, the company hopes to launch
an online directory of syndicated content. If it succeeds in that business, as Yahoo
did with a general Web directory, Kinecta's
toolset will be only one facet of what makes this company worth watching.
Mark Walter
Kinecta, 1338 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103; phone (415) 934-5800, fax (415) 575-9755; www.kinecta.com