First Data And Entrust Ride The Next Wave In B2B E-commerce.

Although the Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce market shows no signs of abating--Gartner Group estimates that B2B e-commerce transactions will exceed $7.3 trillion by 2004--most business users would probably opt for improved online security. How lucky, then, that e-payment services vendor First Data, along with security solution provider Entrust Technologies have formed a new company-PaymentWave--to keep business users feeling secure.

By providing a payment platform for B2B exchanges, PaymentWave aims to promote safe, secure, authenticated payments for businesses buying and selling through e-markets. The payments platform--via a suite of payment and security products--will certainly make use of its parent companies' expertise. The new solution will be able to accept, process, and settle all e-payment types, as well as domestic and international Electronic Funds Transfers, thanks to First Data's capabilities. Similarly, the platform will bear Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) security and digital certificate offerings, along with registration and verification services, compliments of Entrust.

Essentially, Payment Wave makes it easy on buyers and sellers. Who wants to go offline to complete an online payment transaction, anyway?

"As B2B e-commerce continues its explosive growth, Entrust and First Data will continue to make sure that end-to-end transactions--from authentication of the parties right through to payment processing--will be done safely, easily, and efficiently over the Internet," says Entrust president and CEO John Ryan.