Cynomix, through its platform eTrade Lifeline, will receive billing information from fulfillment participants such as freight forwarding companies, and insurance companies, and will pass the information on to Deutsche Bank. The bank will electronically present the information, which can be accessed by the debtor via a browser-based application. The debtor will verify and authorize the bill or bills to be paid using the Identrus digital certification scheme, and Deutsche Bank will receive the payment from the debtor's bank and remit the funds to the biller's bank for settlement. This electronic bills payment and presentment scheme, db-eBills, was launched earlier this year in Asia, following a pilot with the Cargo Community Network in Singapore.
Cynomix's eTradeLifeline is based on an application service provider, which means that clients will access fulfillment services, such as shipping arrangements and documentation, finance and marine insurance through centrally located servers in a "rental" or lease arrangement. eTradeLifeline is based on the Jasmine ii e-Business infrastructure which is provided by Computer Associates (CA). Cynomix is a joint venture between CA and Nissho Iwai Corporation, a Japanese general trading company.
So far, two e-marketplaces, Singapore-based TradeAlliance, a Commerce One powered horizontal exchange, and ePaperAlliance, a paper and pulp vertical portal, have agreed to use the collaborative settlement scheme. According to Yosuke Yamaguchi, spokesperson for Cynomix, the company anticipates another agreement shortly with a steel e-marketplace.
Cynomix and Deutsche Bank anticipate that the settlement scheme will be up and running by the first quarter of 2001.
