Edibanx in Development Deal with EDS Corp.For Electronic Commerce

EDI Bank Alliance Network Exchange, or Edibanx, has signed up Electronic Data Systems Corp. to develop its intranet-based electronic commerce service.

Terms were not announced, but sources put the contract's value at about $1.8 million.

Edibanx, a three-year-old initiative of the Chicago Clearing House Association in the electronic data interchange field, is looking for a shot in the arm.

It has lost seven of its 15 dues-paying bank members but is confident it can attract new business through services like the one EDS was hired to develop.

The system is designed to let banks' small-business customers send payments and related documents electronically, said Rick Leander, chairman of Edibanx's management committee and a senior vice president at NationsBank Corp. "It's a terrific way for institutions to provide desktop enablement tools to their customer base," he said.

EDS and Edibanx, which had been working together on the intranet project for some time, are testing software with several undisclosed companies in the Midwest.

Patrick Looby, manager of vendor items and EDI services at Walgreen Co., said the new system would let more of his smaller trading partners conduct electronic data interchange. Only a few hundred of Walgreen's 5,000 trading partners now use EDI.

"I think it will be a tremendous tool," he said. "If it is priced right, I think a lot of suppliers will really be interested in it." u

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