Chase Manhattan enhances regional banking technology using Early, Cloud middleware.

NEWPORT, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 27, 1995--Early, Cloud & Co. (ECC), a leading vendor of message-oriented middleware for the enterprise, today announced that Chase Manhattan Bank, NA has completed a project using ECC's Message Driven processor (MDp) middleware to integrate legacy and client/server systems in its regional banking business serving 12 million customers in the New York tri-state market.

Now, with Chase's "one and done" customer service philosophy, all information about a customer's savings, checking and credit card accounts, auto loans, and home mortgages can be accessed in real-time from one point of contact. Prior to the project, customers could get real-time status information, but only if a bank representative called each separate business operation.

The Chase Manhattan project, code-named "Fountainhead" by the bank, involved integrating existing local area networks of desktop client/server systems located in more than 300 regional bank branches with a mainframe data center and three phone support centers that handle an average of 15,000 calls daily.

"Our goal was to provide much better service by creating a seamless process enabling a Chase customer service representative to see an integrated picture of a customer's accounts with us," explained Michael Levine, division executive, Regional Banking Systems. "Our computing systems had been built up around each vertical business operation, and we wanted to avoid major time-consuming and costly modifications to those systems while trying to integrate their legacy data into one delivery system. To do this, we decided to put in a middleware layer that would talk to each system in its own language and translate the data to our delivery system," he said.

"We examined all middleware products available, and determined that Early, Cloud had the best of breed," Levine continued. "MDp functionally decouples the delivery systems from the legacy databases, allowing us to connect anything to anything. Our actual implementation was up and running within four to six months, vs. the two years it would have taken us to build one-to-one interfaces to every system. That time savings is worth a lot to us," he said.

Early, Cloud's Message Driven processor (MDp) software product enables large organizations with legacy systems to evolve to enterprise-wide client/server computing for customer service applications. MDp, which runs on IBM's CICS transaction processing monitor, insulates developers creating client/server-style applications from having to write code for low-level database and network protocol interfaces that are difficult to use and maintain.

By providing an application work flow manager, MDp enables large organizations to leverage their information system assets, including legacy systems, while migrating to client/server development using the latest popular graphical development tools. In managing activity between disparate client and server systems, MDp automates work flow by handling compound requests for business information that involve access to data located on multiple, incompatible servers.

Founded in 1981 with a focus on customer service automation, Early, Cloud & Co. (ECC) is a software development and systems integration services company with more than 200 employees worldwide. Headquartered in Newport, R.I., the company maintains offices throughout the United States, as well as Reading, England, and Rotterdam, Netherlands. ECC's products provide enhanced customer service capabilities, increased business productivity and improved quality of operations with solutions that integrate enterprise-wide data and client/server computing. Early, Cloud & Co. provides products and services that are used in a wide variety of industries, including banking and financial services, insurance, retail, telecommunications, publishing, consumer products, manufacturing, distribution, and call center service bureaus. The company can be reached at 800-322-3042.

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MDp is a trademark of Early, Cloud & Co.

CONTACT: Parker, Nichols & Co. Inc.

Brenda Nichols, 508/369-2100

MCI Mail, 481-8432

Chase Manhattan Bank, NA

Brad Pick, 212/552-7403