Bank venture aims to certify Internet identity
Article Abstract:
An eight-bank consortium is forming a joint venture to certify corporate and employee identities in electronic commerce. The absence of a reliable identification process has hampered the promising growth of cyberspace transactions between businesses because buyers and sellers cannot verify the other party's credibility. BankAmerica's Bank of America, Citigroup's Citibank, Chase Manhattan and Bankers Trust are the four participating US banks. Amsterdam-based Amro Bank, London-based Barclay's, and Germany-based Deutsche Bank and Vereinsbank comprise the other participants. Plans call for the system to deploy public-key cryptography that relies on technology from Security Dynamics' RSA Security subsidiary. Each authorized user would receive a smart card that contains an embedded microprocessor as well as a password. Insertion of the card into a computer's special slot would encrypt a user's data and transmit it with the user's digital certificate. The concept will take effect no earlier than 2001, according to a Gartner Group estimate.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1998
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Fax-on-demand provides ready answers
Article Abstract:
Fax-on-demand is a new service that enables customers to request information over the telephone and then receive it on their facsimile (fax) machines. Fax-on-demand companies store information on computer disks and send it automatically through the fax lines when a request is made, either on a push-button telephone or through a fax machine. Some systems include tables of contents from which customers make selections. Fax-on-demand services are inexpensive to set up, total hardware expenditures sometimes amounting to as little as $5,000. Service providers use a microcomputer with a voice board to interact with callers and a fax board to transmit the information. The service is mainly used for business purposes, although it may soon enter the consumer market. Fax-on-demand is also becoming increasingly popular with government agencies.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1992
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Computers start to lift U.S. productivity
Article Abstract:
Companies are finally seeing hard evidence that computers improve productivity. Automated customer service centers for banks and dispatch centers for railroads have led to fewer workers, faster responses and less downtime. Despite huge investments in computing technology, US productivity has grown only 0.9 percent annually since 1983. Manufacturers registered annual 3.8 percent productivity growth over that period, but the service sector has shown anemic growth. The recent productivity gains help explain why unemployment is falling so slowly. New technologies and economic and cultural changes are all fueling the productivity gains. Companies are reducing costs by cutting back on employees wherever possible. It should be noted, though, that the effort to boost productivity by using computers is just beginning.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1993
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