(September 10, 2002) - Three veteran entrepreneurs have launched Swingtide, a new software company whose aim is to protect, measure, and maximize companies' Quality of Business amid the proliferation of XML.

Swingtide was founded by three veteran software entrepreneurs, one a former CTO of one of the nation's largest insurers. The company has raised $4 million in first-round financing from Pequot Ventures, the investment arm of Pequot Capital Management; and private investors. Cofounders Jack Serfass and David Sweet were founders of Bowstreet. Cofounder David Wroe was previously chief technology officer at CNA, one of the nation's largest commercial insurers, and chairman and CEO of Agency Management Services, a software company with over 25,000 agency customers, 500 insurance customers and 1,500 employees.

Swingtide was conceived with the guidance of a group of executives concerned with the emerging complexity of XML as it spreads unchecked within their corporations. Swingtime perceives that the sheer volume of XML services, vocabularies and standards is overwhelming companies and their IT staffs. XML also contains important business information, but most businesses aren't yet taking advantage of this because they lack the appropriate solutions. In other words, XML is affecting what Swingtide calls "Quality of Business."

The need to optimize Quality of Business (QoB) is creating the need for a new management approach, to achieve Quality of Service (QoS). Swingtide's first products towards this goal will be available later this year.

Swingtime's view on Quality of Business (QoB) is described in detail in a new white paper, "XML is Challenging the Quality of Online Business," available at www.swingtide.com.