Computers & Processors:

Banco Edwards Expands with Unisys ES7000 Servers

With a powerful triad of Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000 systems in place, a leading Chilean bank launched pivotal front- and back-end technology initiatives to significantly grow its business and customer base.

Banco Edwards will undertake a major electronic banking conversion as the first step to launch a new Internet banking and marketing program.

Capitalizing on the mainframe-class scalability and reliability of three Unisys ES7000 servers, Banco Edwards consolidated the workload of 28 commodity servers and enhanced the existing customer database.

Two servers will be used to significantly expand Banco Edwards financial and customer service offerings by handling administration processing and powering a comprehensive customer database. The third ES7000 will support the company's Web-based banking initiatives from one centrally managed source. The powerful partitioning of the ES7000 will enable Banco Edwards to manage its three key business initiatives, including e-business, bank administration, customer relationship management and electronic multi-channel integration simultaneously.

"By looking at our technology needs holistically, we knew that we needed high-availability, high-power systems to handle the essential components of our business," said Fernando Risco, chief information officer, Banco Edwards. "Moving to a strong, robust platform has been very important for us because we finally have acquired the incentive and means to carry out our long-range expansion goals."

With more than 67 branches, Banco Edwards commands eight percent of the market and hopes to aggressively enlarge its banking practice during the next years. As the bank continues to expand its e-business and service offerings, the scalability of Unisys ES7000 servers will enable the bank to handle increased data processing demands resulting from its expansion. In addition, the ES7000 will empower customers to check balances, transfer funds and make bill payments from anywhere at any time, via the Internet.

To successfully kick off its high-growth expansion initiatives, Banco Edwards also will improve its internal back-office processes. Before purchasing the Unisys ES7000 servers, Banco Edwards relied on a host of commodity Intel-based servers to handle daily administrative tasks. To reduce the size of its large server farm, the bank chose to consolidate on the highly scalable Unisys ES7000, which is handling the workload of its 28 existing servers.

Banco Edwards uses one Unisys ES7000 to handle administrative processing. A second server runs a Siebel customer relationship management (CRM) application and COM+ object management. The third supports key Web applications, including the www.mundoedwards.com Web portal as well as the database and transaction manager associated with the portal.

"To exert influence in any competitive industry today, companies need to incorporate solid technology backbones into their IT infrastructures to drive future growth," said Peter Samson, vice president and general manager, Technology Sales Development, Unisys Corporation. "By adopting a savvy, integrated front- and back-end strategy with the easy-to-manage, cost-effective Unisys ES7000 server, Banco Edwards will reinforce its global reputation for its smart, streamlined approach to business."

The Unisys ES7000: Enterprise-Class Windows Performance Powered By CMP

The Unisys ES7000 is based on the Unisys Cellular MultiProcessing (CMP) server architecture, which provides an array of computing capabilities required for enterprise-class e-business computing -- capabilities that are well known to users of large-scale computers, but unprecedented in computing environments using Microsoft and Intel technology. The ES7000 was designed for the power of Intel 64-bit Itanium processors. Using CMP's innovative partitioning capabilities, Itanium and Pentium III Xeon processors can run side-by-side within one server. These and other advantages enable CMP-based servers to match the performance of UNIX systems in enterprise-class e-business and other critical applications at a fraction of the price.

About Banco Edwards

Banco Edwards provides a broad range of banking and other financial services to over 300,000 personal and business clients throughout Chile. Founded in 1866 as Chile's very first private bank, Banco Edwards today has 67 branch offices throughout the country, and ranks fifth in the league of Chilean banking and financial organizations, based to annual sales. An active focus on technology distinguishes Banco Edwards from its competitors. As many as 100,000 customers use the bank's extensive Website to obtain a broad range of services; and customers can communicate with the bank through a multitude of other channels, including the telephone, mail and face-to-face sales, automatic teller machines, selfservice centers, videoconferencing and information access through mobile telephony.

About Unisys

Unisys is an e-business solutions company whose employees help customers in 100 countries apply information technology to seize opportunities and overcome challenges of the Internet economy. Unisys people integrate and deliver the solutions, services, platforms and network infrastructure required by business and government to transform their organizations for success in this new era. The company offers a rich portfolio of Unisys e-@ction Solutions for e-business based on its expertise in vertical industry solutions, network services, outsourcing, systems integration and multivendor support, coupled with enterprise-class server and related technologies. The primary vertical markets Unisys serves worldwide include financial services, transportation, communications, publishing and commercial sectors, as well as the public sector, including federal government customers. Unisys is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, in the Greater Philadelphia area. For more information on the company, access the Unisys home page on the World Wide Web at www.unisys.com.