Cisco Systems Capital and Bank of America Join Forces to Streamline Cisco's Global Leasing Business - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Sept 27, 1999

Cisco Systems Capital Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems Inc., and Bank of America has announced that they have joined forces to use digital certificates and Internet authentication services to streamline Cisco Capital's leasing process.

Under terms of the agreement, Bank of America will issue digital certificates on smart cards to Cisco Systems Capital and its customers, as well as provide validation services. Cisco intends to pilot the use of these services to securely and confidentially sign, send and receive leasing contracts and related documents with its customers via the Internet.

Cisco Systems Capital expects the new services provided by Bank of America to substantially streamline its leasing process from the current 30 to 60 day timeframe to as little as two to three business days. Cisco Capital and Bank of America plan to begin piloting these new services this fall.

"E-commerce is dramatically changing the way we all conduct business, and by broadening our e-commerce strategy to include digital certificate authentication services from Bank of America, we will be able to use the Internet to streamline Cisco Capital's leasing process," said Mike Hampton, general manager of Cisco Systems Capital. "In the not too distant future, virtually all of Cisco Capital's paper transactions will pass seamlessly over the Internet -- greatly improving the level of service to our customers while simultaneously improving overall productivity within our company," Hampton said.

"We are excited to be working with Cisco Systems Capital to enable the company to conduct trusted e-commerce by securely moving a major business process onto the Internet," said Libby Ghekiere, head of Authentication Services at Bank of America. "By using digital certificates and authentication services to create trusted identities on the Internet, Bank of America is enabling one of its major business customers -- Cisco Systems Capital -- to further improve its business model," Ghekiere said.

In addition to the significant improvement in turn-around time for its leasing process, Cisco Capital also expects digital certificate authentication services from Bank of America to help it reduce paper, postage and processing costs. Cisco Capital and its customers participating in the program will have the ability to securely and confidentially sign and approve leasing documents online via the Internet.

Bank of America expects its digital certificate authentication services provided to Cisco Systems Capital to be based on the Identrus platform. Identrus is a limited liability company formed in April 1999 to enable trading partners around the world, sponsored by their financial institutions, to conclusively identify one another over the Internet. Bank of America is one of the founding owners of Identrus, along with several other global financial institutions.

Bank of America, with $614 billion in assets, is the largest bank in the United States. The company serves more than 30 million households and 2 million businesses across the country, offering customers the largest and most convenient delivery network from offices and ATMs to telephone and Internet access. It also provides comprehensive international corporate financial services for clients doing business around the world. The company creates financial relationships featuring a full array of financial services, from traditional banking products to investments and capital raising within the securities markets. Bank of America stock (ticker: BAC) is listed on the New York, Pacific and London stock exchanges and certain shares are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Further investor information can be found at www.bankofamerica.com/investor. FMI: www.bankofamerica.com