Gorilla Systems Swings Into Interactive Banking With New Software

Armed with a name sure to get bankers' attention, Gorilla Systems Corp. has thrown itself into the interactive banking technology fray.

The Oldsmar, Fla.-based company this week announced a line of software products designed to let consumers conduct banking and other financial transactions through personal computers and television sets.

Gorilla, which was founded eight years ago, enters the market with some experience in the entertainment and banking industries. It has worked for the last three and a half years with Barnett Banks Inc. on a banking application used in Time Warner Inc.'s high-profile interactive television pilot in Orlando.

Paul Lambert, a former Barnett executive who is director of consumer services at Gorilla, was involved in that project, which Time Warner said would come to a close by yearend.

"Our core competency is in developing electronic, interactive entertainment products," Mr. Lambert said. "Now we're leveraging our knowledge of the entertainment and telecommunications industry to provide banks with a new way to provide financial services into the home."

Gorilla's line of banking software is organized around the devices through which services are delivered. For example, GorillaBankingPC is made for Internet-based PC banking, and GorillaBankingDSS works with satellites to deliver services through TVs and PCs. Other software includes GorillaBankingTV (broadband TV banking), GorillaBankingCM (cable modem Internet PC banking), and GorillaTalk (device-independent communication technology).

The software packages, which can be customized and bank-branded, are based on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java programming language.

Java "allows us some immediate advantages when it comes to animation graphics," Mr. Lambert said. "It also has an extraordinary level of security and an ability to see screens through screens."

Mr. Lambert said Gorilla has a head start in developing applications for television.

"There are few companies which have experience developing content on real-time broadband technology with devices such as digital set-top boxes and cable modems," he said.

But, he added, Gorilla's strategy is to develop a broad range of products. "We're offering banks ... access to all home-based delivery channels," Mr. Lambert said.

Several banks are building services around Gorilla products, but partnerships will not be announced until September.

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