Hitachi, Ltd. and Nihon Unisys, Ltd. (NUL) have agreed to enter in to a reseller agreement
under which NUL will sell Hitachi's EC (Electronic Commerce) software products. This
collaboration will create synergy by multiplying Hitachi's powerful product-developing
capabilities with NUL's award-winning SI consulting capabilities, which will enable both
companies to respond actively to the emerging EC business and market.
In October 1996, Hitachi announced "Hitachi Commerce Solutions" composed of various
EC software products and services to support the development of comprehensive EC
systems. Since then Hitachi has been providing new EC software products and services for
the Business-to-Consumer system, Business-to-Business system and EC Payment system to
achieve its EC total solution. "Hitachi Trading Server," in particular, has been used widely in
the development of sophisticated EDI systems as the enterprise EC platform and also as the
backbone of TWX-21, Hitachi's Business to Business media service, which now has some
1,000 member companies.
Since 1995, NUL has been focusing on the EC business sector developing and marketing
global-standard-complying products and services such as "System (Nyu)" and "EC
Enabling Middleware," both of which were developed to comply with upcoming global EC
standards. NUL has also restructured its organization to better serve its customers in the EC
business area. As part of this, in May last year NUL opened its EC/CALS Experiment
Laboratory, a test bed for conducting research and verifying potential EC/CALS products.
NUL has also been providing a wider range of security protection products.
Under the new reseller agreement, Hitachi will provide NUL with its "Hitachi Commerce
Solutions" EC software products, that are based on CORBA technology, an industry-
standard distributed object technology. NUL will integrate Hitachi's software products into
System, using its own technology and adding value. Product details and pricing will be
announced in March 1999.
Hitachi and NUL will strengthen their ties and collaboration in the area of electronic
commerce, starting with work-sharing of EC application development. The two companies
will also explore an alliance to encompass solution and middleware products that will be
required in the aftermath of changes brought about by the "Big Bang" in the financial and
other industries.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics
companies, with fiscal 1997 (ended March 31, 1998) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen
($63.8 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products,
including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial
equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at
http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
* At an exchange rate of 132 yen to the dollar.
Nihon Unisys, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1958 is the joint venture of
Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Unisys Corp. with fiscal year 1997 Non-consolidated sales (ending
March 31, 1998) of 293.2 billion yen. The company provides products and services,
including mainframe computers, personal computers, software, system related and network
related services. Please visit Nihon Unisys's Web site at http://www.unisys.co.jp.
Contact:
Emi Takase Teiji Ikeuchi
Hitachi, Ltd. Nihon Unisys, Ltd.
(03) 3258-2055 (03) 5546-7411
emi@cm.head.hitachi.co.jp Teiji.ikeuchi@unisys.co.jp
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