Air Force Internet Pioneer in Private-Sector Mission

On-line commerce is old hat to Robert E. Frank.

Two decades ago, while in the Air Force, he helped create military commerce applications for Arpanet, the Defense Department forerunner to the Internet.

Mr. Frank, 58, is now working on business-to-business uses of that technology.

Open Commerce Inc., the San Roman, Calif.-based company he founded three years ago, is working on an Internet-based system for electronic data interchange-the automated exchange of business payments and documents such as invoices.

The Internet is seen as a way to bypass expensive private EDI networks.

"We're trying to break down the barriers that have kept the majority of the marketplace from using EDI," Mr. Frank said.

Several companies-including Netscape Communications Corp.'s Actra division and Harbinger Corp.'s Premenos subsidiary in Concord, Calif.-are active in the Internet EDI market, said David Baltaxe, Internet commerce research analyst for Current Analysis Inc., Sterling, Va.

Open Commerce therefore faces stiff competition, said Steven Bell, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.

Only four companies offering Internet EDI systems have received certification from the influential CommerceNet consortium. Mr. Frank, who is seeking certification, said he is not frozen out, because his role is system integrator.

Open Commerce offers SafeXChange, which uses data encryption to secure transmissions over public networks. The company has a dozen clients, mostly in banking and electronics, and plans to begin marketing to government agencies later this year.

Pricing follows transaction volumes. Up to 100 transactions per month costs $100; a $1,000 monthly fee gets users unlimited transactions.

Mr. Frank spent 22 years in the Air Force. His responsibilities included supply-chain management, purchasing, and procurement.

After retiring as a colonel in 1985, Mr. Frank created an integrated information systems division for Control Data Corp. The company co- developed the Intelligent Gateway. This product allowed incompatible computers to exchange data and became the foundation for Mr. Frank's later electronic commerce work.

From 1989 to 1995 he led a Defense Department team responsible for developing Internet-based EDI capabilities. Based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the group created a system for paperless dealings between the military and vendors. Some 25,000 suppliers now use the next generation of this system.

The project proved to Mr. Frank that secure, commercial EDI would be viable on the Internet.

His first project for Open Commerce was as a consultant to Wells Fargo & Co. in San Francisco, where he engineered wholesale systems to take advantage of the Internet.

Many banks claim to be EDI-capable, but few really are, Mr. Frank said. He says his technology can get them there.

"Because of international business operations that need the Internet to do business, this will be a fast-growing area," he said.

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