Siemens KAG, an investment management institution, is using BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT as part of a straight through processing (STP) solution developed by European consultancy COMIT Gruppe. The solution automates financial messaging to and from custodians over the SWIFT network.

"The combination of Microsoft® BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT and the COMIT solution provides us with a more-secure EAI system that automates our trade process. This means guaranteed message delivery and robust handling of statuses and business errors — saving us time and money," said Dr. Josef Mehl, head of Administration Securities at Siemens KAG.

BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT uses the latest Microsoft technology to provide a comprehensive solution with support for SWIFT’s connectivity interfaces and SWIFT messages, both FIN and Extensible Markup Language (XML). Throughout the development process, Microsoft has been working closely with SWIFT.

"With the BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT, the financial community has even more access to technology that is simple to implement and lowers the cost to connect to SWIFT," said Johan Kestens, the marketing executive at SWIFT. "We feel that it is just such advances in technology that will be important to achieve SWIFT’s goal: a completely automated financial services value chain."

The solution includes the Payments Toolkit, specifically designed to seamlessly integrate with existing industry standards, including RosettaNet Payments, to enable the automation of corporate-to-bank payments using the SWIFT payment initiation and cash-reporting XML standards. It also supports the migration and interface requirements for all new SWIFT services.

"Microsoft has worked with SWIFT and other strategic partners such as Unisys to reduce the cost of SWIFT implementations for financial institutions," said Josh Weisberg, senior product manager for E-Business Servers at Microsoft. "The BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT provides industry leading performance, time-to-value, and ease of implementation for SWIFT and other financial messaging needs."

Peter Tripp, global practice leader for Microsoft eBusiness Servers at Unisys, said, "Financial institutions need to be confident about the types of new technologies they deploy. Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 and the BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT provide a robust financial messaging platform. BizTalk Server 2004 powerfully complements the Unisys 3D Visible Enterprise, an innovative approach to understanding the cause-and-effect relationships between business vision, business operations and the IT systems that support them. Having this capability is key to reducing the risks associated with implementing new technologies."

BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT will be available in late April.