Home> About Us> Press Room> Your.companion - From bankers...

Your.companion - From bankers, for bankers
- Arab Banking and Finance Directory

Dubai,2 May, 2001:
Ducont is a Dubai Internet City (DIC) company and one of the first Middle East based companies to specialise in offering solutions and services to the banking and financial services industry.

Bank.companion and Portfolio.companion are two flagship products from Ducont. From the conceptual stage, these products were designed with the Middle East banking practices and the highest security standards in mind. What's more, they are completely Arabised. Both products are tested, proven and acknowledged by banks and financial institutions.

Bank.companion is an amalgamation of products and services, deployed to work as the bank's client delivery channels. The channels could be the wired or the wireless media addressing the following services:

• Retail banking
• Electronic bill presentment and payment
• Corporate banking

Using the Internet or wireless devices (PDA, Palm, WAP, iMode, Pocket PC's) clients of banks and financial institutions can access their accounts and avail the desired services. Supplementing this, clients will be able to use proactive banking services by setting triggers and receiving alerts via SMS and e-mail, which could otherwise be to the detriment of client effects.

Bank.companion has been designed on an 'N' tier architecture and Enterprise Java Beans component technology in compliance with J2EE standards. Thus, this software can be deployed on any J2EE compliant middleware or application server, running in a UNIX , Windows NT or IBM mini and mainframe environment. Bank.companion can also be integrated to Call Centres, CRMs, SWIFT, Bolero, Payment Gateways and standard Payment Switches.

The single most significant feature of Bank.companion is its internal integration, which provides sophisticated cross channeling facility, enabling the customer to use the bank's services through any of the wired or the wireless channels. Bank.companion brings to reality the concept of 'anytime anywhere banking'.

Portfolio.companion is a suite of applications, which facilitate:

• Delivery of stock quotes (delayed/real time)
• Portfolio management
• Portfolio watch
• Securities broking

These features are available to end users directly through the mobile phone or the Internet. Using this service, investor clients of a bank or financial institution can keep in touch with the desired markets (NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX, LSE, BSE and NSE) on a constant basis.

Using a simple web interface, investors would be able to:

• Set-up alert criteria for their favourite stocks/indices in popular world markets
• View stocks quotes, indices, top gainers, top losers and top active stocks of various markets
• View currency rates and bullion prices
• Simulate a portfolio based on indicative/actual cost vis-à-vis market price and check net-worth

Once these services are set, clients would start receiving SMS alerts/e-mail as and when an event occurs (i.e. stock price/index crosses preset criteria). Based on the alerts, clients may want to follow the market movements, reassess their portfolio with an option to place/amend orders directly from their wireless device (mobile phone) or the Internet.

Given these services, investors would be encouraged to stay in touch with the market and be prompted to react to market trends and sentiments by indulging in trading activity. Sans doubt, the wireless and the Internet media will go a long way in enhancing the stock broking business.

Ducont is a company of bankers and technologists, who drive the product design with the objective of complying to open standards, banking norms and future technologies (GPRS & 3G). Their offering includes the solution, associated services (SMS banking, quotes dissemination etc.) and handholding to ensure project success.

You can experience the pleasure of using Bank.companion and Portfolio.companion by visiting the website at www.ducont.com.