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Technology Stocks : CheckFree (CKFR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brooks Jackson who wrote (836)	12/2/1997 10:42:00 AM
From: chirodoc	Respond to of 8545

Any one who pooh-poohs enet commerce ain't watching........ .........ibm and hp/eds launching initiative after initiative--thank god ckfr has long term contracts and makes friends......... Tuesday December 2 6:51 AM EST Hewlett-Packard Expands E-Commerce Initiative By Samuel Perry PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co. Tuesday will accelerate its move into the Internet commerce field, launching a global consortium with major financial institutions agreeing to back its technology. Electronic Data Systems Corp. of Dallas, HP and its VeriFone commerce unit, are forming the First Global Commerce initiative, executives of the companies said. The move, which has been in the works for more than a year, will help Hewlett-Packard's efforts to establish a leadership position in electronic banking and commerce. Analysts said the new consortium will help HP leverage its ownership of VeriFone, which was its largest ever acquisition at a valuation of $1.29 billion, in helping financial customers adapt to the electronic world. The effort also counters an aggressive drive into the electronic commerce arena by International Business Machines Corp., which has launched a hefty advertising campaign aimed at attracting businesses into its camp. "IBM is the person to beat in this space," said Cliff Condon, electronic commerce analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. He said the deal with EDS will help bring e-commerce to smaller banks and merchants. "To date it's just been the big guys" who can play in e-commerce, Condon said, adding that EDS's experience as a service integrator "will really give the second tier of financial institutions the ability to play in this game." Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is the No. 2 computer systems supplier after IBM but does not see itself playing second fiddle in the promising electronic commerce arena. Research firm International Data Corp. projects that commerce over the Internet will soar to more than $220 billion by the year 2001, more than 20 times its forecast for 1997. The consortium includes backing of major card vendors such as Visa International and smart card consortium Mondex as well as financial institutions Wells Fargo, the Royal Bank of Canada, Japan's Sumitomo Credit and Sistema 4B. First USA Paymentech Inc., one of the largest U.S. electronic credit card and merchant payment processors, was also among the charter members in the initiative. "The initiative with First Global will open electronic commerce's doors for more traditional merchants, like stores and retailers," Rodney Bell, a senior director at Paymentech's headquarters in Dallas, Texas, said. Analysts noted that merchants are missing from the initial list of participants, but they expect VeriFone's position as leading supplier to payment devices to enable it to attract a substantial merchant following. The group will promote electronic payment solutions based on an open architecture, beginning with VeriFone's Integrated Payment System, which supports Internet commerce, smart card and merchant point of sale uses. Last month, HP, VeriFone and EDS announced they were banding together to develop Internet credit card processing for all sizes of financial institutions, including EDS's ReadySET offering, which uses VeriFone's vGATE Internet gateway software and HP business computers. ^REUTERS@

To: Brooks Jackson who wrote (836)	12/2/1997 12:25:00 PM
From: g_m10	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8545

I'm not sure if the following news may have any effect on CKFR business. I'd appreciate if anybody comments on it. REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 2 Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced the availability of the Microsoft(R) Internet Finance Server Toolkit (MIFST), formerly code-named "Marble," at the Bank Administration Institute (BAI) Retail Delivery Conference in New Orleans. MIFST is a platform based on the Windows NT(R) Server operating system for delivering Web-based financial services compatible with the Open Financial Exchange (OFX) specification. Financial institutions that build their Web platforms using MIFST enable their customers to pay bills, check account balances, transfer funds and view banking and brokerage statement information online. The announcement follows a successful three-month evaluation and testing period with more than 100 solution providers and financial institutions around the world, including CoreStates Bank N.A., PaineWebber Inc. and Wells Fargo. "The MIFST users who participated in our beta program say the toolkit makes building an online financial services site much easier," said Lewis Levin, vice president of the desktop finance division at Microsoft. "Their tremendous response confirms the value of the cost-effective, industry-supported tools that Microsoft offers for online financial services." Other financial institutions currently embracing the MIFST platform include Ameritrade/AccuTrade, Nationwide Building Society in the United Kingdom, and Bayerische Vereinsbank, the second-largest bank in Germany. Solution providers implementing the toolkit include ADP Financial Information Services, Andersen Consulting, Applied Communications Inc., Edify Corp., Ernst & Young LLP, First Data Corp., InteliData, M&I Data Services and Unisys Corp.