Harmony enables secure, two-way bank-to-mobile-phone interactions, and Over-the-Air (OTA) customization for mobile banking, mobile payments - including card account customization - and on-demand merchant relationship services. With Tyfone's unified solution encompassing the client platform, U4ia, and the middleware, Rhapsody/Harmony, a bank's business leaders have great flexibility to define each unit's mobile offers, and IT has a single, unique integration platform. Consequently, with Tyfone, there is a very compelling total cost of ownership and an even more compelling time-to-market advantage.

"Harmony strengthens our commitment to banks by enabling them to use the mobile channel in a manner that bests suits their customers and business," comments Tom Spitzer, Tyfone's chief executive officer. "One size fits all may be a good way to get started, but it is not a sustainable strategy. At Tyfone, we recognize that banks are unique in how they interact with their customers and designed our architecture to adapt their mobile solutions to suit their individual needs."

The platform empowers the bank and consumer to communicate to each other securely, with simplicity and speed, including enabling the bank's server to push information as well as initiate a query or transaction, a true peer-to-peer capability. Harmony facilitates this secure two-way communication from the bank to the mobile phone or the reverse. What this means for business customers is they can safely transmit financial information, including wire transfer authorization, and receive an automated confirmation message, all via the mobile channel.

"With Harmony, the installation and delivery of the application is easy for the bank and for the end-user," explains Siva Narendra, Tyfone's chief technology officer. "Our micro-packet capability delivers information and transactions conveniently and fast, providing an excellent user experience, including SPAM-free targeted offers. In addition, Harmony in conjunction with Rhapsody provides best of breed security solutions to enable any back-end bank functions to be delivered to the phone securely."

Harmony harnesses OTA technology, giving banks the ability to customize not just mobile banking, but mobile contactless payments and on-demand merchant services to build their brand and increase loyalty.

"The two-way communications capability of Tyfone's platform is a critical component for a bank's adoption of the mobile channel," explains Prabhakar Tadepalli, Tyfone's managing director in the Asia Pacific headquarters. "Our research and discussions with banks confirmed the importance of providing their customers with relevant, personalized information and services, to differentiate the bank in this competitive and commoditized market - Harmony directly supports that goal. While others are scrambling to build alliances, Tyfone's unified, bank-driven mobile solution offers banks the ability to provide mobile banking, mobile contactless payments and merchant relationship services all using a single platform."