October 30, 2001
Microsoft and Information Services International
Dentsu Agree on Strategic Co-operation to Expand Business in Financial Solutions
- Joint Operations based on ISID Financial
Solutions and Microsoft's Windows Server/.NET Enterprise Servers
Microsoft Co., Ltd (head office location: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and Managing Director Chikaichi Ata; capital ¥499,500,000; referred to hereafter as Microsoft) and Information Services International Dentsu Ltd (head office location: Nakano-ku, Tokyo; President and Managing Director Jutaro Takinami; capital ¥8,180,500,000; referred to hereafter as ISID) have agreed to join together in a strategic business partnership aimed at business expansion in the field of financial solutions.
This is Microsoft's first strategic collaborative venture with an enterprise that provides systems integration (SI) focusing on the financial field. Furthermore, this collaboration is one that also includes the overseas financial market within its ambit, and which the parties intend to carry out in close co-operation with Microsoft Corporation.
[Background to the Partnership]
Microsoft's Windows 2000 Servers family and .NET Enterprise Servers (see Note 1), are valued for their reliability and user-friendliness, and have come to be more widely adopted for use in mission-critical financial computing systems formerly constructed around mainframe computers, UNIX-based systems and so forth. On the other hand, ISID has a well-established track record in the provision of SI services to city banks and other major financial institutions, and is a provider of systems employing highly advanced financial engineering.
The two companies have also worked together in the past on a variety of individual projects involving financial systems -- for example in constructing the MCIF (Marketing Customer Information Files) system used by the Suruga Bank. This time the aim will be to exploit the synergistic effect of both companies' strategic collaboration in expanding the business of providing financial solutions, and thereby expand the use of systems based on Windows Server/.Net Enterprise Servers in the mission-critical financial field.
[Scope and Content of the Partnership]
ISID's financial solution products will be made compliant with Windows 2000 Server/.Net Enterprise Servers; the two companies will jointly market and expand the sales of these solutions, and will collaborate in the construction of systems related to these projects. The two companies will advance their joint activities by integrating their co-operation in the technical, support, sales and other areas, and future plans include overseas marketing activities also.
1. Technological Aspects of the Partnership
(1)Establishment of "Finance .NET Technology Group" (as of November 1)
In order to implement the agreement, ISID will establish in-house a new "Finance .NET Technology Group", which will develop and promote the combination of the company's financial solutions with financial .NET Enterprise Servers. The Finance .NET Technology Group will start with an initial staff of 20, which will increase to 40 after the second year. It will focus its efforts on developing performance verification and solutions etc using .NET Enterprise Servers.
(2)Establishment of "Finance .NET Technology Solutions Center" (as of November 1)
ISID will establish a development environment/evaluation laboratory which will perform the following tasks among others:
- Performance verification and benchmark testing of ISID's current financial solutions on .NET Enterprise Servers
- Development of new financial solutions
(3)Obtaining "Certified for Windows Program" Logo
It is intended to obtain a "Certified for Windows Program" logo, which will be recognized worldwide, for those solutions for which performance verification on Windows 2000 Server/.NET Enterprise Servers has been completed, and the solutions subsequently developed for use on these servers. Initial candidates for the "Certified for Windows Program" logo will be the account-settlement package "S.T.P.Engine" (see Note 2) and the ISID's own asset management package "Asset Management System"(see Note 3).
(4)Application of XML Technology to Financial Solutions
In accordance with this partnership, the two companies will jointly develop new solutions which apply XML technology in the financial field. In addition, the companies are considering to establish a meeting, including the users of the companies' products, for the study of utilization and development of XML Web services into financial field which can be anticipated for wide diffusion in future.
(5)Establishment by Microsoft of an In-house ISID-dedicated Technical Support Desk (as of November 1)
Microsoft is to establish in-house an ISID-dedicated support desk with a staff of five engineers from various departments, which will provide general technical support, development support, environment maintenance support, assistance with the education of technical personnel etc.
2. Business and Marketing Aspects of the Partnership
(1)Joint Sales Promotion Activities, Showcasing of Products at Events and Seminars, Advertising Activities
Commencing with joint seminars at Microsoft's November conferences in Tokyo and Osaka (Microsoft Conference 2001/Fall), joint marketing activities will be conducted.
(2)Promotion of Solutions in the Overseas Market
In co-operation with Microsoft Corporation it is intended to promote solutions in the overseas market.
3. Solutions and Plans for Targeted Financial Sectors
In accordance with this partnership, focusing on the four sectors listed below, both companies will conduct verification of ISID's solutions for .NET Enterprise Servers and undertake the development of solutions for financial institutions, and so on.
-Customer service sector
-Investment sector
-Accounts settlement sector
-Global systems sectorAs a first step, ISID will convert two of its own products to be compliant with the Windows 2000 Advanced Server, the SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition and other .NET Enterprise Servers: these are its "S.T.P.Engine" package (targeting the STP process control engines area within the accounts-settlement sector), and its "Asset Management System" (targeting the asset management area within the investment sector).
As a second step, with March 2002 as the target time for completion, ISID intends to convert its "S.T.P.Engine" to be run on the BizTalk Server. Also, in connection with "Microsoft Visual Studio .NET" (see Note 4), which is currently under development, the two companies will evaluate and verify this product, and will implement modification of each solution to be compliant with the "Microsoft .NET Framework" (see Note 5), one by one.
4. The Partnership's First User Company
(The first Internet banking system in Japan, based on Windows 2000 Server and .NET Enterprise Server)
Microsoft and ISID are working jointly on the supply of solutions and the construction of systems for the Internet banking service which the partnership's first user company, the IY Bank (head office location: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and Managing Director Takashi Anzai) plans to open within the year. It is intended that the new system being developed for the IY Bank, being the first internet banking system to be realized by combining the Windows 2000 Server and .NET Enterprise Server with ISID's financial solutions, will achieve equal or greater reliability, availability and scalability comparing with the conventional technology-based systems in which main frame or UNIX-based constructions have been the main stream.
[Activities commencing]
November 1, 2001
[Sales target by this co-operation]
1 billion Yen in the first year (ISID's order received sales basis)
(Note 1) .NET Enterprise Servers
A group of server software products for enterprises designed to run on Windows 2000 and to be compatible with of Microsoft's internet strategy for the next generation, Microsoft .NET ("dot NET").
(Note 2) "S.T.P.Engine"
A package developed by ISID itself, which is compatible with T+1 settlement for securities.
A transaction processing system. It controls the entire life cycle of securities transaction, from contract through to settlement, so that the business flow can be handled in real time, including exception processing.
(Note 3) "Asset Management System"
A system to be developed as ISID's own product for fund management companies, which supports fund managers in asset allocation, from portfolio management through to stock trading.
(Note 4) Visual Studio .NET
A Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool developed by Microsoft for the construction of Web applications and XLM Web services of next generation which operates on .NET frameworks.
(Note 5) .NET Framework
In "Microsoft .NET", the next generation Internet strategy, .NET Framework is provided as an environment for the development and execution of a software. In .NET Framework you can execute a software without being dependent on any particular hardware, and it also uses a mechanism called CLR (Common Language Runtime), which performs memory management, security management and other troublesome tasks.
*Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.
*The full name of Windows is "Microsoft Windows Operating System"
*Names of other companies or products mentioned in this document are the respective registered trademarks or trademarks of those companies.
