The telecommunications industry, for example, can lose millions of rands, as well as customer loyalty, when systems fail for even as little as an hour.
 
The same applies in financial organisations and any business continually processing a large number of electronic transactions software failure and the related downtime is simply not an option. Globally, organisations that need 100% reliable software (specifically the telecommunications market) make use of applications developed in a little-known language called Erlang.
 
Erlang is a general-purpose, functional, concurrent programming language and runtime system designed to have strict evaluation, single assignment and dynamic typing. Originally a proprietary language developed by Ericsson to support distributed, fault-tolerant, real-time, non-stop applications, Erlang was released as open source in 1998 and is still being enhanced and applied globally.
 
As an open source product, the Erlang distribution is known as the Open Telecom Platform (OTP), as it includes a complete set of libraries and the Mnesia real-time, fault-tolerant, distributed database.
 
Erlang is perfect for the demands of the telecommunications industry as it supports hot swapping so code can be changed without stopping a system, explains André du Toit, MD of Pattern Matched Technologies (PMT), a software development company focused on Erlang development. Erlangs structure makes creating and managing processes simple, as all concurrency is explicit.
 
Using Erlang, PMT addresses the need for zero downtime of software due to its dynamic upgrade capabilities. In simple terms, software can be upgraded to a new version without having to stop the application, ensuring business as usual at all times.
 
What makes Erlang especially usable in industries processing large numbers of transactions 24x7 is its pattern matching capabilities, adds Du Toit. Put simply, pattern matching is like a conditional clause, only Erlang allows users to find matches in data using fuzzy descriptions instead of having to explicitly account for every option that may be provided, he notes.
 
Du Toit further comments on the power and efficiency of Erlang-developed systems, which, he says, is reflected in the relatively low capacity hardware needed to run applications. Using pattern matching technology, PMT developed a system handling between 400 and 500 USSD requests per second running on a 386 machine with 128MB of RAM. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) is a technology for transmitting information over the signalling channels of the GSM network, he adds.

PMT has also inked an agreement with Erlang Training and Consulting, a UK company focused on providing Erlang training and services in Europe. Through the partnership, PMT hopes to broaden its scope in the European market where its products are already gaining attention as well as offer Erlang training in SA and the rest of Africa.
 
PMT currently offers the following products based on OTP technology, to local, African and European customers:
* The Indigo SMS Suite is an SMS gateway, text content management platform and modem manager.
* The Amber USSD platform is designed to make short work of managing short codes sent via SMS
* The Azure Realtime Billing Engine caters for pre-paid as well as post-paid billing scenarios in real-time. The post-paid engine spoils a contract management system, enabling you to rapidly setup and deploy complex post-paid contracts. Azure is an event-driven billing engine, and can easily be deployed to bill for utilities (water and electricity) or loyalty programs.
* The Crimson Financial Switch is PMTs first non-telecommunications product. It is an ISO 8583 compliant switch that handles financial transitions reliably and efficiently.
 
As can be seen from the product list, PMT is not competing with international developers by providing bespoke GSM network services, but has opted to provide services that use cellular technologies to deliver value to users. 
 
Locally, Edge Channel, part of the Edge Evolve Group, has been appointed as a local reseller for PMT solutions. Edge Channel is in the process of setting up a national software distribution channel for the development houses products.