<*dv_6*>Changing the ways companies do business

Luxembourg Business - Oct 1997

 

You have heard of the Internet. You are probably using it already. But have you considered if you are exploiting this new business tool to the best of your organizations advantage? The Internet is already changing the way the whole world is conducting its business.

ERIN specializes in business solutions utilizing Internet and related technologies. It works with dynamic organizations, helping them to integrate this technology to increase their business efficiency and competitive edge.

Working closely with its international client base, ERIN puts a high emphasis on both quality of service and client liaison. They determine specific needs and translate these requirements into successful solutions. They provide skills in the fields of design, development and integration, as well as marketing and organizational issues, and apply them via its key business services.

<*dv_3*>This month, ERIN celebrates its first year of operations. It has been a very busy year concentrating on building up strong relations with major organizations in the financial, business and public sectors. ERIN looks forward not only to maintaining its present momentum, but to increasing it, believing that it holds a unique place in the market place for Internet and Intranet expertise.

<*dv_0*>ERIN understands many of the requirements of the broad financial sector here in Luxembourg. Until recently, financial transactions were realized by closed telephone networks. Banks and financial institutions are now looking to the Internet in order to expand and extend their range of services.

The Internet provides a platform not only to transfer money, but also to buy and sell stocks, bonds, etc. The advantages are clear: the customer has continuous access to these facilities world-wide; the institution can provide customers with specific information concerning their financial portfolio; all other financial information is just one click of a mouse-button away.

<*dv_5*> Financial institutions and corporate clients, in particular, remain concerned about the security of Internet traffic, including transactions. Not only a secure firewall should be applied, but the customer should also be involved in securing the connection. Each client requires a unique customer password, a Personal Identification Number, which changes each session. In addition, the connection can be secured by a personal cryptopass; a credit-card-like personal access which is connected as a hardware peripheral. The cryptopass handles the encryption of the electronic message, and is part of the Virtual Private Network (VPN) which is created between the customer and the financial institution.

An example of ERINs commitment to providing solutions meeting both existing and emerging market demands, concerns Secure Electronic Transactions. ERIN have forged alliances with industry leaders enabling the company to provide an unrivaled service suite built around leading components, some of which are featured below:

Raptor System's Eagle is the most secure firewall available today. The Eagle works at the application level, using a set of application-specific security proxies to evaluate each attempt to pass data in or out of the network it secures.

In addition, Raptor has implemented VPN capabilities to secure network level sessions, and packet filtering on a per-interface and per-tunnel basis to provide increased flexibility to system administrators and users.

Raptor also secures internal networks or Intranets through the EagleLAN and offers a remote or branch office solution through EagleRemote. Raptor offers solutions for the 5 domain's of security: the Internet, the Intranet, the mobile worker, the remote office, and the total integration and management of all these products.

<*dv_2*> Oracle: Industry experts anticipate that electronic payment transactions will dramatically increase on the Internet once a safe and reliable infrastructure is in place.

<*dv_4*> By integrating Oracles Internet commerce technologies with VeriFones payment processing expertise, Oracle and VeriFone are helping to put this infrastructure in place. Both Oracles and VeriFones commitment to open systems and standards assures customers that the infrastructure built today will not be gone tomorrow. The results therefore: Extend existing architecture to the WWW; Support full security throughout the solution, including SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) for credit card authorization, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), Digital certificates; Based on open standards for interoperability and extensibility.

Microsoft has introduced with its Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 3.0 Active Server Pages (ASP Files). Active Server Pages let organizations combine ActiveX Scripts and ActiveX Server Components to create dynamic content, and powerful Web-based applications easily.

<*dv_1*>Active Server Pages enables component-based Web application development in any language, including Java. It is easy to learn; it provides an open development environment, and it allows developers to build truly browser-independent Web solutions.

Active Server Pages can be adopted as the platform on which to build or re-engineer dynamic Web applications, linking with many databases including ORACLE, Sybase, Access, and many more. The combination of Active Server Pages in IIS 3.0 running on Windows NT Server 4.0 provides the ideal platform for developing personalized content and powerful Web-based business solutions for corporate Intranets and the Internet.

Sterling Commerce offers a range of secure electronic commerce products which can be integrated to provide total solutions for the financial sector. Connect Conceal is a suite of cyptographic software products which can secure networks, workstations and servers, including Web (HTTP) Servers. The latter provides browser-server transmission security. Connect Direct provides secure node-to-node data transmission.

This article first appeared in the October 1997 issue of Luxembourg Business. It is the Copyright (1997) of International City Magazines (ICM S.a.r.l.) and we use it with their kind permission.