Sources say NCR Corp will base its core Internet strategy around Top End, its transaction processing mechanism, claiming that it solves the security issues connected with electronic commerce. An announcement of some kind is expected any time now. The scheme, which NCR aims to make ubiquitous, will provide the same kind of security already provided – and accepted by the banking industry – in automated teller machines. It involves providing a Java Remote Client that can access Top End over the Internet. This 50Kb client, based on teller machine code recoded for the Java virtual machine, is said to be much speedier than Netscape Communications Corp Navigator. Top End, meanwhile, is capable of handling tens of thousands of messages a second and doing real-time credit settlement, a factor that could make it beloved of both merchants and credit card companies since there is forecast to be somewhere between $500m and $800m worth of float on the Internet by the year 2000 – money on which no-one gets any interest. Float aside, there are some $35m worth of credit card purchases being made on the Internet right now. NCR is said to be offering the cross-system client free and go after the big accounts like Internet service providers, call centers and data warehouses with Top End, server hardware and professional services. It has been quietly working on proto-types with banks, airlines, German travel agent RK Reisen GmbH and retail giant Walmart Corp for the last six months. It will depend on partners to integrate Top End with the verticals’ software and provide tools. It expects little competition from Tuxedo. It claims BEA Systems Inc hasn’t the resources or mentality to go after the enterprise. Encina is about the closest. IBM Corp is not expected to make its CICS Internet-capable until next year.
