GE Capital, Global Commerce Systems, Sun Microsystems and Total System Services Forge E-Commerce Global Alliance
Global Commerce Alliance to Promote Open, Business-to-Business Online Commerce for Companies with Global-Scale Procurement Requirements
New York, NY, June 16, 1999 — A powerful lineup of Internet, computing and financial services companies today announced the creation of the Global Commerce Alliance, a strategic coalition of industry leading companies that will leverage the combined core competencies of the participants to provide globally scalable, turnkey e-commerce solutions to securities and capital markets and other industries worldwide.
The Global Commerce Alliance includes: GE Capital, Global Commerce Systems Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Total System Services, Inc.® (TSYS®).
The Global Commerce Alliance’s business objective is to provide world-class end-to-end electronic commerce capability to global suppliers and buyers of products and services who are seeking to realize the economic benefits of interconnected trade cycle management over the Internet. Additional card issuers, hardware manufacturers, systems integrators and network systems integrators will become Alliance participants as the organization evolves.
Leveraging their combined strengths, the Global Commerce Alliance members will work over the next three years to package and jointly market a co-branded suite of turnkey products aimed at facilitating managed Internet commerce between large companies, their trading allies and customers. The products are expected to address online buying, selling, bill presentment and payment, target marketing and customer self-service and to provide an new generation of supporting business information products.
Application products will tap JavaTM technology’s "Write Once, Run AnywhereTM" cross-platform benefits to lower cost of ownership, speed application development and ease maintenance.
"Any $1 billion-plus company looking to "dot-com" their business will be interested in this solution particularly when they are looking to integrate existing legacy business systems, processes and supply chain management programs with Internet commerce solutions," said Masood Jabbar, president, computer systems, Sun Microsystems. "That is why we have gathered this powerful lineup of companies, each with its own area of expertise."
GE Capital brings world class global procurement card services to facilitate payment and settlement transactions, business-to-business procurement and information services to the Global Commerce Alliance. Global Commerce Systems delivers the Commerce.comTM suite of scalable electronic commerce applications to provide customer self-service, leads management, communications campaign management, reporting applications and professional support and integration services. TSYS brings world-class Internet commerce services, transaction processing and large-scale payment account management operations expertise. In addition, TSYS is the commercial card market leader, processing 86 percent of all Visa and MasterCard commercial products issued in the United States.
"Our combined capabilities will make it easier for companies around the world to connect with one another and directly access the data and information that trading partners need—anywhere, anytime and from any device," said Geoffrey Shaw, president and CEO, Global Commerce Systems, a leading provider of Internet commerce software products and services that enable seamless integration of trade cycle sourcing, procurement and payment systems management and administration over the Internet.
"No single entity can provide the full suite of trade cycle integration solutions demanded by large customers that want to conduct business-to-business Internet commerce in the networked world," said Rob Hall, vice president, global financial services, Sun Microsystems. "The Global Commerce Alliance represents a very advanced implementation, and it leverages our SunConnectTM architecture to offer a highly scalable, resilient enterprise solution for business-to-business e-commerce."
The Global Commerce Alliance is committed to providing card processing, settlement and secure services through participating issuing banks via the Internet.
"We believe that by leveraging our large-scale credit card transaction processing and customer self-service over the Internet with other Global Commerce Alliance companies puts us in a position to better serve our clients around the world," said Philip W. Tomlinson, president, TSYS, one of the world’s largest processors of electronic payments of credit, debit, commercial and private-label card accounts. "This differentiates the Global Commerce Alliance from other commercial account management alternatives. We think this alliance will enhance the partnerships we share with our other commercial card issuers and propel them into the business-to-business Internet commerce game."
"Our goal is to help customers more efficiently manage their purchasing process through value-added card programs and information products," said Jeffrey R. Dye, senior vice president, GE Capital Corporate Expense Management Services. "The Global Commerce Alliance integrates our payment products and services with other industry leaders to provide an increasingly rich trade cycle management and operations capability to the industries we all serve."
"The Global Commerce Alliance is about combining the core competencies of Internet commerce technology, business and service industry leaders to meet the needs of large businesses to more efficiently manage their trade cycle activities and practices over the Internet," said Shaw. "We look forward to adding alliance members as we move forward."
About GE Capital
GE Capital Corporate Expense Management Services offers Corporate Purchasing and Fleet card programs to help companies manage travel, procurement and vehicle expenses. Accepted at 16 million locations, these MasterCard products are backed by 24-hour service, sophisticated controls, comprehensive reporting and GE "best practices" to support customer policy and process objectives. For information, call 800-554-0581.
About Global Commerce Systems Inc.
Global Commerce Systems Inc. (GCS) is a leading provider of Internet commerce software products that enable seamless integration of trade cycle sourcing, procurement and payment systems management and administration over the Internet. GCS’ commerce.com suite of products enable real-time management and administration of commercial and consumer credit card payment accounts, buyer and seller, procurement, account management, invoice presentation, automated commercial communications campaign management, targeted marketing and comprehensive customer self service over the Internet. The distributed nature of GCS software technology enables real-time access to distributed sources of data and just-in-time creation of value-added information products that can be broadcast directly to targeted individuals and populations. GCS is focused on the financial services, manufacturing and telecommunications industries. For more information on GCS, visit the company’s Web site at www.commerce.com or call 303-583-5000. Corporate headquarters are located in Colorado at 4840 Pearl East Circle, 301-W, Boulder, 80301.
About Sun Microsystems Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer," has propelled Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on World Wide Web at www.sun.com.
About The SunConnect Framework
SunConnect is a Java technology-enabled architecture providing a complete, robust and secure foundation for building and deploying financial services applications that allow organizations to exploit many powerful channels and to reach a new range of customers. SunConnect has a certification and alliance model promoting best-of-breed implementation of the various architectural components for mission-critical environments. Products developed to the SunConnect framework are foundation-services independent, run on any hardware and support all industry-leading specifications for online transactions.
About Total System Services, Inc.
Total System Services Inc. (NYSE: "TSS") is one of the world’s leading information technology processors of data transactions and payments for domestic and international users of credit, debit, commercial and private-label cards, TSYS’ sophisticated systems offer online accounting, data processing, electronic commerce services, portfolio management, account acquisition, credit evaluation, risk management and customer service. Through our family of companies, TSYS services the entire life cycle of card accounts, making it possible for more than 188 million cardholders to use their cards at the point-of-sale or over the Internet. Headquartered in Columbus, Ga., TSYS is an 80.8 percent-owned subsidiary of Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: "SNV"), (www.synovus.com), named the Best Company to Work for in America by Fortune. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.totalsystem.com.
Contacts:
Becky Roberts
Project Manager, Corporate Communications
ph. (706) 641-3839
broberts@totalsystem.com
Jerry Kasten
Global Commerce Systems
ph. (303) 583-5008
gakasten@commerce.com
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, SunConnect, "Write Once, Run Anywhere," and "The Network is the Computer" are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Total System Services, Inc.®, TSYS®, and its logo are federally registered trademarks of Total System Services, Inc. All brand names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective companies.