Thanks to the Technological Prowess of CGI and Bell's CTS Group, a Million Users Can Now Easily Navigate the Internet From a Display Phone

Navigating the Internet using a display phone has almost become commonplace. Yet the technological means and efforts employed to develop this convenience were anything but banal. For the IT experts behind this major coup, the project amounted to nothing less than pushing the technological envelope to new frontiers.

As part of its marketing strategy, Bell's product management group recently decided to focus on expanding the content available to users from their Vista 350 and Vista 450 phones. The deadlines were difficult and the technical challenge formidable, especially with respect to making phone access to the Internet as simple as possible for users. CGI would have to work its magic to make this sophisticated application work for users by hiding it behind a mere touch of a key!

The Challenge
The Micro-Browser project called for the development of a WML browser for display phones such as the Vista 350 and Vista 450, to allow subscribers of this service to navigate the Internet. From the outset, the problem to overcome resided with the translation or conversion of codes used on the Web and those used in display telephony.

In this ambitious project, CGI had to integrate several advanced technologies (Enterprise Java Beans, XML, XSLT, WML), while dealing with a very tight deadline, taking into account the specifications evolving over time, the learning curve required and the research needed for a project of such technical complexity.

But despite the complexity of the challenge, CGI was able to achieve its goal of simplicity of access by developing an interface that integrated WML technology in addition to PHONE.COM add-ons while supporting HDML. Such a configuration can accommodate a high volume of information or data.

The Strategy
To execute the project, the first order of business for the CGI team was to integrate seamlessly with the Micro-Browser team. The technological environment required to implement the project was complex and constrained by the limitations of Bell's existing systems. So it meant that the CGI team had to control the parameters right from the start.

The technical strategy consisted of developing prototypes and conducting simulations in order to test the technology and refine the solution to arrive at a user-friendly and functional product. The team devoted several hours of research on the Web primarily to become familiar with the WAP protocol (Wireless Application Protocol), which is used to transmit data between the Web site and the browser. CGI worked closely with Bell's CTS group which provided the expertise and EAN platform.

• Environment: EAN platform (Unix on HP and SCO)
• Software: Oracle, Enterprise Java Beans, WML, XSLT, XML,C

The Results
"This project was definitely a major technological breakthrough. CGI put together the right team of technical experts, integrating perfectly with our existing team. Today, the system is available on the market" Jean Bouchard, Project Manager at CTS Bell.

But beyond the technological performance, what really made this project a success was converting this sophisticated application into a simple operation for users… which is consistent with CGI's reputation for offering clients IT tools that are easy to learn and simple to use.