ELECTRONIC COMMERCE: Taking Divergent Paths

Both sides vow that they are still committed to convergence, but proponents of the OFX and Gold standards are proceeding on their separate ways with the announcement of certification procedures to ensure that technology solutions comply with the disparate standards.

CheckFree, Intuit and Microsoft announced their certification process for OFX in mid-July. The trio contracted with Prosoft Engineering to create, operate and manage a series of test clients and suites that can be run on OFX servers installed at institutions. "They're building generic client software that will ensure that these OFX servers are conforming to OFX specs," says Microsoft's Matt Cone, business development manager.

Companies will be charged $3,000 to get certified, primarily for the time it takes to run the week-long tests, according to Microsoft officials.

Similarly, Integrion announced its own certification process for connecting to the Interactive Financial Services (IFS) platform via the Gold standard. The four-step processowhich is billed more as a partnership with the technology companies than a vendor-buyer relationshipobegins as consulting and analysis period. "We're not looking at this as we're buying something from these companies or they're buying something from us," says David Fortney, director of product development at Integrion. "We're integrating our solutions, and we have common customers which are the banks."

The last two steps of Integrion's certification process are the development of a joint implementation plan to write code to Gold specifications and connect to the IFS platform, followed by certification that solutions meet standards. Integrion has been developing and certifying applications on a case-by-case basis, but is attempting to create a more standardized process. The cost of certification separate from a specific implementation project will be similar to that of OFX, or as Fortney says, "a few thousand dollars type of price."

The two separate certification processes, sources say, should not affect convergence. Says Integrion manager of planning and communications Emily Mendell: "We don't intend to paralyze the market by waiting until we have a clear convergence path and have implemented that path. We're both doing the industry a service."

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