Compaq and Microsoft have entered a joint initiative to develop a mobile solutions framework for the financial services industry.
The Finance Mobility Platform (FMP) will enable financial services organisations to take advantage of the latest mobile technologies and negotiate the evolving mobile business landscape, say the companies.
The FMP will seek to create a comprehensive roadmap and development methodology designed to minimise the risk for financial services organisations wanting to build and trial their own mobile solutions. These include applications for accessing banking and related services from wireless networked devices such as PDAs, laptop computers and mobile phones.
The FMP incorporates four distinct components:
* an architectural framework which will deliver an end-to-end framework for software vendors and financial services organisations to develop mobile solutions;
* a methodology drawn up by industry experts and informed by current best practice;
* an industry forum to provide a channel for communication between the suppliers and users of mobile technology; and
* a solutions lab where third-party application developers will demonstrate working solutions to educate financial services organisations and help them exploit the mobile Internet.
David Slight, financial services industry manager, Microsoft, says: "As the networks increase in capability, we can expect the user experience of the mobile Internet to improve dramatically, fuelling the demand for new services. Financial services organisations need to be preparing now. With the Finance Mobility Platform we will provide a framework within which these organisations can move forward confidently to gain the benefits of the mobile Internet sooner rather than later."