Last year, corporate banks began offering technology to clients
creating added value services.
Now, a top German bank has gone a step further by giving up
software developed in-house to the open-source community.
Joy
Macknight finds out why
Technology is increasingly being seen as tool to give businesses
a competitive edge. So, giving away a multi-million pound in-house
software system would be madness, right?
That is exactly what investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort
Wasserstein (DrKW) did last month when it released the source code
to a software application it claims will answer its clients'
systems integration problems. Openadaptor, part of a £5m middleware
development, is available freely from the Internet to clients and
competitors.
"Openadaptor is a software platform which allows for rapid
business system integration with little or no custom programming,"
said Gary Casey, director of systems integration at DrKW - the
company formed after Dresdner Bank bought the Wasserstein Perella
Group. "It speeds up the process of getting our clients' systems
connected with DrKW's.
"We need to reduce the cost of doing business for our clients.
Integrating our systems with those of our clients is a key part of
doing that, so we need to make it faster for our clients to
integrate with us. Making Openadaptor open source makes it easier
for our clients to use the software."
In a radical move by DrKW, the source code to Openadaptor has
been released to the community and can be developed or improved
through public collaboration. The source code licence is based on
Linux's MIT X licence, allowing free use in any open source or
restricted application.
"Our clients are sophisticated users of multiple investment
banks," Casey said. "Enabling them to interact with anyone they
choose, even at the so-called expense of helping our competitors,
will not only increase market transparency and liquidity, it will
reduce costs and increase business for all."
Laurent Lachal, senior analyst at Ovum, said there were good
reasons behind DrKW's altruism.
"Many banks are taking a proactive stance towards e-commerce
because they have customers who come to them and ask them to
integrate two or more systems. A proactive stance will allow them
to dictate integration," said Lachal.
Making in-house technology freely available could be a strong
element to this strategy. Lachal also pointed out that if banks can
reduce interfaces by getting companies to adopt their interfaces,
it will save them money.
Java/XML-based Openadaptor links applications by automating the
custom coding required for system integration.
It is different from middleware, in that a middleware product
attempts to reduce links between systems by providing a common
communication backbone throughout an organisation. Openadaptor
de-couples the middleware product internally. It connects different
systems so that they can pass information between one another.
Casey explained, "Once we had deployed the messaging middleware,
we realised we needed a toolkit to allow our development teams to
quickly use that middleware - ie, lowering the technical barriers
to entry for the teams. During autumn 1998, there was no product we
could buy to fit our needs of supplier-independence, highly
reusable, and easy to use and so we started the Openadaptor
development."
Businesses considering implementing Openadaptor will raise the
same question - where do you go for support?
"Support is available through the Openadaptor Web community
informally, like other open source projects like Apache and
Jabber," said Casey.
"You can buy packaged versions of open source products such as
Linux and Apache from commercial companies like RedHat and
Covalent, which were set up to provide support and service levels
companies may want. Our licence is such that a firm can offer
similar support and services for Openadaptor."
Yet Lachal said he would remain sceptical about claims for
Openadaptor until he sees the evidence. "The bank has different
services and I cannot believe there is an interface to all
services. I cannot believe there is a panacea to integration given
away for free," he said.
Open source bank initiatives
Last September, Deutsche Bank and AlphaBox developed a portal
for analysts and sales staff. Software was developed for financial
services and customers. Credit Suisse also targeted investors with
online banking and services so people could deal in shares and see
updated information.
In February last year, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson launched a
portal offering investment information and applications.