S1 Corporation and Aether Systems have signed a multi-year, global agreement to jointly develop, integrate, deploy and support a suite of wireless data access and transaction services for financial services providers. In addition, S1 has signed a parallel agreement with Sila Communications, a company formed by Aether and Reuters Group to provide wireless data services in Europe and Asia.
Under the terms of the agreements, Aether and Sila will provide m-commerce services to S1 and its subsidiaries, VerticalOne and Q UP. In this way, S1 will be able to offer its 900 worldwide financial services customers the ability to extend their e-finance capabilities to a full range of handheld devices, Web-enabled phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and pagers. Availability is targeted for fourth quarter 2000.
S1 also becomes the preferred partner for Aether's Personal Commerce Portal. Through this portal, users will be able to conduct a variety of financial transactions, including bill payments, person-to-person payments, online shopping and banking transactions. SI subsidiary VerticalOne will supply the portal with online account aggregation services software.
Chip Mahan, CEO of S1 Corporation, says: "Many solutions on the market today require financial services providers to negotiate and connect with all major carriers independently. Through this partnership, S1 customers will be able to deliver robust wireless services quickly and efficiently to meet the needs of their entire user base."