• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Japanese Microsoft Unit, Nihon Unisys to Build Windows-Based Banking Systems

Posted on: Tuesday, 2 December 2003, 06:00 CST

Dec. 2--TOKYO--Microsoft Co., the Japanese arm of U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp., and Nihon Unisys Ltd. said Tuesday they will jointly construct banking systems based on personal computer servers running the Microsoft Windows operating system (OS).

The planned systems will be the first of their kind in the global banking industry as proprietary software and the Unix-based OS are more common, and no banking system has ever been built entirely around Windows, industry observers say.

They have already received an order from Hyakugo Bank, a regional lender based in Mie Prefecture, for a system to be up and running in 2007, the two firms said.

Microsoft and Nihon Unisys, a major computer importer, formed a wide-ranging marketing alliance in 2000.

Microsoft has set up a project team to promote business under the latest agreement, the firms said.

Large replacement demand is expected as many of Japan's banks, which now operate mainframes running proprietary software, are expected to update their information systems.

The new Windows-based banking systems will cost around half as much to introduce and operate as mainframe systems and about 30 percent less than banking systems based on Unix servers.

Nihon Unisys has years of experience building mainframe systems for regional banks. Working together, the two firms will apparently target Japan's many regional banks seeking low-cost ways to update their banking systems, observers say.

-----

To see more of Kyodo News International, go to http://www.kyodonews.com

(c) 2003, Kyodo News International, Tokyo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

8056, 8368, MSFT,

More News in this Category