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Banco do Brasil, Latin America's largest retail bank, serves approximately 15 million customers
and has assets of more than $104 billion (U.S.) As part of a 1.8 billion (U.S.) technology rollout
that will take place between now and the year 2000, Banco do Brazil is making a significant
commitment to Java by implementing Banco do Brasil Personal Banking, which includes moving
its three current home banking applications to one Java-based application. The bank will also
train half its IT programming staff, 900 professionals, in Java, which represents one of
the largest Java training initiatives worldwide.
Banco do Brasil is making significant investments in IBM solutions. The bank will introduce
Banco do Brasil Shopping which uses IBM's SET technology for secure electronic transactions
over the Internet, establishing IBM as the first vendor to have SET technology in Latin America.
Banco do Brasil officials believe using IBM software to conduct e-business will lower its
cost per transaction, expand its market reach, decrease its time to market and lower its overall
cost of ownership, establishing the bank as an innovator in the use of technology for commercial
banking.
"IBM was the only vendor that could provide us with a complete, end-to-end solution to fit our
needs," said Hugo Dantas Pereira, Banco do Brasil's director of retail banking and services,
technology and infrastructure. "We look to IBM as a strong partner that will help drive our IT
investment, make us more competitive and lead us into a new era of network computing."
Lower Cost Per Transaction
A recent study by Booz-Allen and Hamilton concluded a bank that conducts Internet
transactions, versus face-to-face, call center or PC transactions, can lower its overall cost per
transaction. The study revealed a transaction cost an average of $1.08 when a customer walks
into a branch office, $0.54 when the customer uses a call center, $0.28 when using a PC, and
$0.13 when it is made over the Internet. Banco do Brasil officials said they believe offering
Internet banking as an option to its customers will prove to lower its overall cost per transaction,
potentially saving the bank millions of dollars.
Expanded Market Reach
With 4,300 branches worldwide, including offices in New York, London and Tokyo, Banco do
Brasil is looking to the Internet and Java to help it reach its geographically diverse customer base.
The bank will work with IBM to port its current platform-specific banking applications to Java,
allowing the applications to be accessed by anyone, anywhere, no matter what operating system
they are using. Banco do Brasil Electronic Commerce will allow the banks customers the
convenience of banking 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In addition, through the use of IBM's SET technology, the bank will be able to establish secure
and private transactions with its clients worldwide. The bank is currently piloting the SET solution
called Banco do Brasil Shopping with five companies in Latin America. The SET solution will
allow these companies to offer online shoppers security when making credit and debit card
purchases over the Internet. IBM has been instrumental in the development of the SET
specification and software solution and was the first company to enable SET transactions on five
continents.
Decreased Time to Market
The bank believes that standardizing on Java will decrease its time to market with new
applications. The bank currently has three home banking applications, and must make changes to
all three when upgrading its service offerings. With both its commercial banking application and
personal banking application written in 100% Pure Java, the process is streamlined. Banco do
Brasil can spend less time updating and distributing applications and can bring new banking
services to market quicker.
Lowered Cost of Ownership
Banco do Brasil is adopting a network computing model and is investing in Java and OS/2 Warp
Server technology to get it there. When choosing an operating system, an IT administrators
biggest concern can be the total cost of ownership. Ease of use and time required to perform
specific tasks are critical factors that can greatly affect the long-term cost for an operating system.
In addition to its network computing features, like a built-in Java capabilities, OS/2 Warp Server
also gives IT administrators true value with strong performance at a low price, which can result in
lower long-term cost of ownership.
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