Now I know how the Wright Brothers felt when they found out about Langley and Bell... ;-). Cheers, Bob Hettinga --- begin forwarded text Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 09:37:44 -0700 From: jmuller@brobeck.com (John D. Muller) Subject: An e$Lab competitor? To: e$lab@vmeng.com Sender: <e$lab@vmeng.com> Precedence: Bulk List-Software: LetterRip 2.0.1 by Fog City Software, Inc. List-Subscribe: <mailto:requests@vmeng.com?subject=subscribe%20e$lab> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:requests@vmeng.com?subject=unsubscribe%20e$lab> From MecklerMedia's http:/www.internetnews.com E-Transaction Lab for Financial Firms Opens in NYC [October 1] New York City-based Transaction Information Systems (TIS), an integration and information technology consulting company, opened FLITE <http://www.flitelab.com>, an open software factory dedicated to building electronic commerce solutions for the financial industry. In addition to TIS, the founder of FLITE, there are approximately 20 member firms, including Digital Equipment Corp., ad agency Foote, Cone and Belding, IBM, Lotus Development Corp., Reuters, Sybase, and Visa. FLITE is physically located in the former home of the historic New York Lawyers' Club at 115 Broadway in downtown Manhattan. FLITE allows sales, marketing, and information technology executives to interact with a variety of online trading systems, 401(k) management products, three-dimensional visualizations of financial data, and other electronic commerce and interactive customer service solutions. "This one-of-a-kind software factory enables financial institutions to increase sales and market reach via the rapid deployment of their financial products through multiple distribution vehicles, including the Internet, kiosks, display cellular phones and TV sets," said Bob Gold, President of TIS. "In one place, they can experience and visualize more electronic commerce and customer service applications for the financial industry than anywhere else. FLITE's design process and electronic commerce tools allow us to roll out transactional Web sites in half the time and at half the cost of the industry average." FLITE is a working lab that financial institutions can use to produce innovative products. Marketing/sales executives use the facility to learn to think interactively and develop Internet strategies, build product prototypes rapidly and conduct focus groups. Technology staffs can use the facility for jointly developing interactive products with FLITE engineers, use FLITE's specialty rooms (user interface optimization, 3-D visualization and quality assurance testing), and get hands-on training and knowledge transfer. As a factory, FLITE has specialized machinery and tools for building transactional Web sites and delivering products through interactive distribution channels, TIS said. FLITE has a variety of hardware servers, workstations, laptops, kiosks, televisions, display phones, touchscreen monitors, and financial trading equipment. "FLITE combines the promise of new technology with the city's financial heritage," said Gold. "Unlike other companies who have put research and development facilities in the suburbs, TIS believes that its downtown location in the heart of Wall Street attracts the top talent in the industry and makes it accessible to financial industry executives." --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/