Bank Group Turns to Java In Challenge To Microsoft
>
> Source: American Banker
>
> American Banker : Meca Software and its owners, including
> Citicorp, NationsBank Corp., and BankAmerica Corp., have climbed on the
> Java bandwagon as an alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s home banking
> technology.
>
> The Meca consortium announced an agreement Monday with Sun
> Microsystems Inc. to promote development of interactive financial software
> and services in Sun's Java programming language.
>
> Given the Meca ownership-other shareholders are First Bank System, Fleet
> Financial Group, Royal Bank of Canada, and New England Life-the move
> represents one of the strongest industry endorsements of Java as well as a shot
> across Microsoft's bow.
>
> Microsoft came out a month ago with its Internet Finance Server Tool Kit,
> with CoreStates Financial Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. among 75
> companies in advanced testing stages.
>
> Meca and Sun are pulling out all stops to proclaim their Java approach
> superior, and in the process banking is turning into a crucial Sun- Microsoft
> battleground.
>
> There has been no love lost between the software companies and their
> respective chief executive officers, Scott McNealy and Bill Gates, over both
> computing philosophy and industry allegiances.
>
> Mr. McNealy raised the specter of Microsoft as interloper, stating, "Sun and
> Meca respect the institution's relationship with its customers and will help the
> institution enhance this relationship and build its brand."
>
> "Meca's commitment is in line with Sun's philosophy of not competing with
> banks," added Sun financial services vice president Rob Hall.
>
> Sun's slogan, "The network is the computer," indicates its orientation toward
> powerful networks of linked workstations, whereas Microsoft emphasizes
> autonomous personal computers with Internet connectivity. Java lends itself to
> programs, or abbreviated programs called applets, that can be transmitted to
> machines or devices of any size.
>
> Microsoft, like many technology companies, has licensed Java but has limited
> its embrace. Interviewed earlier this year on the Mecklermedia Web site
> internet.com, Mr. Gates said, "We believe in Java the language, but not Java
> the religion."
>
> Meca is proselytizing, sending letters to 30 major banking, brokerage, and
> insurance companies, inviting them to join the software development effort.
>
> Meca Software LLC president Paul Harrison said he expects 15 to
> participate.
>
> Mr. Harrison said Trumbull, Conn.-based Meca seeks to transcend its
> business of personal financial management software, where it competes against
> Microsoft's Money and Intuit Inc.'s Quicken.
>
> Those products "as we know them today will disappear," he said. "We are
> creating not a product but capabilities for Internet infrastructure that can be
> deployed and branded by financial institutions."
>
> Price Waterhouse has been commissioned to research electronic banking
> opportunities and consumer receptivity. Based on the findings, Meca would
> define products to be deployed in the first half of 1998.
>
> "Because of Java capability, there is no need to define the end product; we
> can deliver components over time," said Mr. Harrison.
>
> Cyril Reif, Sun's director of financial industry technology, said the Java-
> SunConnect architecture is broader than Microsoft's because it is "open and
> cross-platform." Microsoft's Internet Finance Server, which was code-named
> Marble, limits users to Windows operating systems.
>
> "We feel confident that we still have the best Web-based banking products,"
> said Don McGill, product manager for Microsoft's Internet Finance Server
> Tool Kit. "Based on what we have seen, financial institutions want tools they
> can develop, a robust system ... that runs on standard PCs. When it comes to
> a net value proposition, the combination of Marble with the NT server is the
> clear winner."
>
> Meca's alliance "establishes a road map for its product and gives its owners
> and partners confidence in its future intentions," said Piper Jaffray analyst Bill
> Burnham. He also said it could complement the strategy of Integrion Financial
> Network, another on-line bank consortium and Microsoft antagonist.
>
> By CAROL POWER and JEFFREY KUTLER
>
> [10-06-97 at 19:11 EDT, Copyright 1997, American Banker]
> |
