A SET deal from HP, Verifone & Microsoft to speed
Ray Van Eng (05/12/97)
Hot on the heels of their Verifone acquisition, Hewlett-Packard announced that they have put together a complete electronic commerce system that combined Verifone's vPOS "cash register" and vGate secure electronic transaction (SET) software, Microsoft's web storefront and wallet technology and HP's series 9000 web server hardware. The idea is to create an end-to-end turnkey system for banks and financial institutions who will then offered it to their merchant customers especially those retailers who are interested in selling over the Internet and allowing consumers to use their credit cards to purchase products and services online. According to a press release, the triad was formed because of Microsoft's "prevalence in the desktop arena", HP's "vast experience in enterprise-solutions integration" and Verifone's "leading SET development and compliance and extensive relationships with financial institutions." The partnership is non-exclusive, meaning that each vendor is free to pursue other interest or strike an alliance with some other company. But the union here is meant to be a mix from best-of-breeds. It is interesting to note that both Microsoft and Verifone have participated in engineering the SET protocol that Visa and Mastercard are now finalizing and will release version 1.0 on June 1. This is just another indication that SET will gain widespread support among electronic commerce vendors. Currently, SET based pilot tests are being conducted globally with vendors such as HP, Verifone, Microsoft and one of their most formidable competitors: IBM Corp., who has been offering their Internet merchant software, the Net.Commerce system to retailers and banks around the world. In fact, IBM believed strongly that the time is right for Internet shopping. To assure consumers that using their credit cards to shop on the Internet is now safe, IBM is running TV ads on prime time TV programs such as the NBA playoff games and other popular shows such as X-files and Sliders. The HP, Verifone and Microsoft package is expected to
cost $600,000 to $800,000, depending on the configuration and the number
of merchant the server is hosting. Before this deal is announced, HP and
Verifone have already been implementing similar services with BankAmerica
Corp.'s BA Merchant Services unit, Sumitomo Bank of Japan, and a number
of Singapore banks involved in a joint SET project. |
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