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APPLICATIONS
Small
Banks are On-line with Help from Integrators
One
of the tenets of financial success is to be where money changes
hands, and be one of the hands. A software integration firm in
the Midwest is deeply involved in moving money electronically.
They specialize in communication software for Automated Teller
Machines (ATMs), remote bank teller systems, and point-of-sale
authorization routing.
Their
largest customer supplies community banks all over the country
with a full line of banking software. "It's used by banks
with anywhere from twenty million dollars in assets to several
billion," according to their president. "Half of them
don't even have a data processing department, they rely on my
client."
 When those banks need to step into the world of data
communications, the integrator is ready. "They might want
to hook up ATMs from various vendors, or open a remote branch.
There's a lot of pressure for them to connect to a network switch
provider for transaction authorization." Authorizing credit
card advances is critical to protect a bank's assets, and allowing
debit cards to be used at gas stations and grocery stores also
requires switch membership. "A small community bank can
give the electronic green light to stores and catalog order takers
just like the multi-nationals."
The
company has also provided the communications software for the
switch itself. "An intercept processor acts like a credit
card authorization router. When you use your card, it goes to
one of our systems to determine which bank is responsible for
the authorization. Then it passes the go / no-go back to the
store making the request."
Their
expertise is in making sure the proper bits reach the right place
in the proper sequence. "With dozens of protocols, operating
systems, frame sizes and access controls, it becomes a very exacting
science. Fortunately, we found ARTIC adapter cards and programming
tools from Quadron."
Quadron
Corporation has been writing and marketing communications cards
and software for them since 1986. Quadron's customers are Fortune
500 leaders in telecommunications, finance, medicine, and transportation.
The
firm's president says he would recommend Quadron to others, "in
a heartbeat. With their boards and software I can get more communications
ports on a single PC, and I can take the same application and
run it, untouched, on a board for DOS, OS/2 or Unix. In fact,
when we ran into some trouble with a Unix server, we just shipped
it to Quadron and they made it work for us. It's tough to find
customer service like that these days."
They
appreciate the way Quadron software shields them from the lowest
level bit wrangling. The Developer's Toolkit provides a high
level C-language API. "I don't have to be bothered with
port initialization, baby-sitting the transmission or handling
the interrupts. I can concentrate on the device drivers. Hooking
up a different vendor's ATM is hard enough without having to
watch every bit."
"I
rate Quadron's technical acumen as Excellent," their president
continues. "Without them, I'd spend more time than I have
resolving protocol problems. We now have a mobile ATM in the
field that can be driven anywhere and connects to the bank over
cellular phone or satellite. A bank can now service a sporting
event or a disaster area in a matter of hours. I don't want to
think about how long that application would have taken without
support from Quadron's cards, software tools, and customer support."
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