2nd day in a row Stratus Business for Ascend:
Tuesday December 1, 9:02 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
S2 Systems' ON/2 Electronic Commerce Software To Drive Ecuador's Newest, Largest POS Network New DataFast System Saves Banks Money, Aids Growth
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 1, 1998--S2 Systems, a leading global supplier of electronic commerce software, today announced that its ON/2 electronic commerce software will process transactions for DataFast, a new national network for POS transactions throughout Ecuador
Scheduled to go online in December 1998, DataFast is a joint venture of FilanBanco, MasterCard and Diners Club. Headquarters are in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Combined, the participants support 6000 POS devices. The network, based on an ON/2 VOS Continuum platform from Stratus Computer, will be Ecuador's newest and largest. The first phase of the project is a POS front-end network.
''With ON/2 in place, DataFast will give participating banks and card issuers new economies of scale and lower costs per transaction,'' said Ivan Koon, president of S2 Systems. ''The ON/2 installation reflects S2's strength in providing state-of-the art electronic commerce software to Latin America.''
''DataFast will offer consumers widespread access to their funds and faster retail transactions at thousands of POS locations throughout Ecuador,'' said Francisco Torres, general manager of DataFast. ''Before selecting the Stratus/S2 Systems proposal, we analyzed performance, reliability, scalability, support, speed and cost. The application and network will minimize our capital investment, and also keep transaction costs low for our customers and the consumer. And we saw the advantages of having ongoing service and support from LASC (www.lasc.com.co), an experienced S2 Systems distributor.''
ON/2, a continuously reliable OLTP system that drives electronic banking, retail payments and other electronic funds transfer services, runs on the Stratus Computer VOS platform. For over a decade, S2 Systems has provided ATM/POS software to banks with as few as 40 to more than 2,000 ATMs, and to service bureaus processing several thousand to more than several million transactions daily. S2 Systems software drives local, regional and nationwide ATM or POS networks in 60 countries. The company's software supports electronic funds transfer, online banking applications or loan payment services, file transfer, EC messaging and EC gateways between legacy systems via Internet or Web-based technologies.
The Latin American market now encompasses 475 million people and a gross domestic product of $41.3 trillion, offering long-term growth opportunities for banks, most of whom are nationwide, not regional. Matilde Guzman, a banking analyst at Bital SA, said an ongoing wave of bank mergers in Latin America is creating a better banking system. ''With a larger branch network, banks will have fewer costs,'' she said.
Return on assets of major Latin American banks are often more than double those of the US, Europe and Japan, according to industry statistics. Analysts expect the Latin American banking systems to be very profitable in the future as more consumers demand more financial services.
S2 Systems, Inc., is a leading supplier of business electronic commerce software and professional services. S2 focuses on EC gateway, electronic banking/payments, health care transaction processing and customer relationship marketing systems for financial services, retail, healthcare and evolving industries. With headquarters in Dallas and offices in Atlanta, Hong Kong, London, Maarssen and Melbourne, S2 products are licensed by more than 600 customers in 60 countries. S2 Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Stratus Computer, Inc. (NYSE:SRA - news).
Regards
Neil
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