In the Media

ResQNet.com Inc.'s AlertU wasn't created in response to the times, but to the needs of a single customer. However, the New York City-based company now actively markets the solution because its function seems suited for the post-Sept. 11 world.

A Java applet, AlertU is designed to protect enterprises from undesirable or illegal business relationships by allowing them to check whether potential trading partners are included on U.S. Treasury and Commerce department lists of targeted terrorist-sponsoring organizations and international narcotics traffickers.

Jim Shapiro, ResQNet.com's executive vice president, says that while the decision to promote AlertU came in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the product's origins go back well before that. He says ResQNet.com developed AlertU about three years ago at the request of its sister company, Complex Systems Inc. (CSI), a provider of electronic trade finance software.

"We created a basic version to meet their needs," Shapiro says. For some time thereafter, the company sold AlertU but didn't make it a focal point of its product line. But then came Sept. 11, and the need for a solution like AlertU was suddenly and dramatically underscored.

"Once we got back into product-development mode, that was the first thing we worked on," Shapiro says. "We said, 'Hey, we've got a product here that would be very beneficial in the area of homeland security.' So we put, some developers on it and beefed it up."

The solution, which is designed to work with ResQNet.com's Web-enablement offerings but is also available as a standalone product, supports the iSeries and other major platforms. AlertU allows enterprises to search data compiled by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) (www.treas.gov/ofac) and the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) (www.bxa.doc.gov). The former entity maintains a list of nations and organizations that the U.S. government has linked to terrorist groups or drug trafficking; the latter lists organizations and individuals that have been denied export and re-export privileges.

Shapiro describes customer response to ResQNet.com's February announcement of AlertU 2.0 as "tremendous," As one might expect, interest in the solution is coming foremost from government agencies-primarily those on the federal side, "Actually, I'm surprised how much attention it's been getting from very significant sources," he says.

Customers' newfound interests in homeland security aside, things have largely returned to normal at ResQNet.com. Located a mere four blocks from Ground Zero ("close enough to feel the ground shake," Shapiro says), ResQNet.com was obviously among those iSeries companies most directly impacted by the events of Sept. 11.

Under the circumstances, ResQNet.com has recovered quickly. "We're pretty much back to the way we were," Shapiro says.

Phone and Internet service, however, remain limited. In the days after the attacks, two tenants in ResQNet.com's building loaned ResQNet.com phone service and Tl access. Early this year, the company was able to re-establish its own phone system, though it still doesn't have direct-dial capabilities. ResQNet.com continues to borrow Tl access. Through its relationship with CSI (which founded ResQNet.com in 1995), some ResQNet.com employees-including technicians responsible for recovering systems-initially worked out of the offices of the sister company.

Andrew Angelopoulos, a senior technical consultant for ResQNet.com, points out that the company also benefited front its disaster-recovery plan, which included provisions for stoning copies and backups of all intellectual properties at two offsite locations. "We were thinking if we ever used our plan," he adds "it would be more along the lines of a small office fire."

Most fortunate, of course, is that none of the company's 50-some employees were injured in the attacks. "In that regard we're very, very fortunate," Shapiro says. "We, had a hard time doing business for awhile, but we didn't lose any business based on our inability to function. I'm quite proud of all the employees."

Neil Tardy is senior editor of eServer Magazine. He joined the publication in 1996 and has 15 years of experience as a reporter and editor. He can be reached at (507) 286-6863 or, neiltardy@us.ibm.com.

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ResQNet.com Solution Finds its Niche in a Post-Sept. 11 World