The comprehensive joint venture between Digital Equipment Corp and Ericsson Information Systems, signed in September (CI No 522) is beginning to take shape, and the two companies have announced their plans for the French market. Each company will offer its customers an integrated package of hardware and software incorporating the products of both, so that users will have a single point of contact for all their banking automation needs. The joint development centre established in Sweden is now working on full integration of the product lines, ensuring conformance to European industry standards, and its first common products will be a personal computer aimed specifically at the banking market, due out by the end of the year, and an automatic teller machine. New products will be integrated into the joint product line using Ethernet.
