eTrade 2001 Annual Report Download - page 38

September 30, 2000 and $12.8 million in the fiscal year ended September 30, 1999.
During 2001, we completed migration of our Rancho Cordova, ClearStation, and banking data centers to our regional operations
center in Alpharetta, Georgia. This facility is actually two separate centers, with redundant system backup for all critical facility
components. The state-of-the-art data center facility has 50,000 square feet of raised floor and allows us exceptional levels of
redundancy and expansion capacity.
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Table of Contents
U.S. Domestic Retail Technology
Transaction-Enabling Technology
Our proprietary, transaction-enabling technology engine automates traditionally labor-intensive transactions. Because it was
custom-tailored for electronic marketplace use, our engine provides customers with efficient service and has the added advantage of
being scalable and adaptable as usage increases and service offerings are expanded. Beyond these features, the multi-tiered design of
our engine and related software allows for rapid expansion of network and computing capacity without interrupting service or
requiring replacement of existing hardware or software.
Our transaction-enabling technology engine includes a wide variety of functions and services that allow customers to open and monitor
investment accounts and to place orders for equity, option, mutual fund and fixed income transactions. Our core technology is based
on our proprietary Stateless Architecture . The architecture provides the key drivers of our techno-business strategy (i.e., reliability,
scalability, reusability and security). The primary components include a graphical user interface, the session manager, the transaction
process monitor, the data manager and the transaction processor. See “Item 7. Risk factors—If our ability to correctly process
customer transactions is slowed or interrupted, we could be subject to customer litigation and our reputation could be harmed” and
“Item 7. Risk factors—If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights or face a claim of intellectual property infringement by a
third party, we could lose our intellectual property rights, be liable for significant damages, or incur significant costs and expenses
regardless of the merits of the claims against us.”
Banking Technology
Our core banking system is a Unix-based, client server and relational database product operating in a high availability environment.
This system manages our core banking interfaces with the Federal Reserve Bank for automated clearing house processing, a third party
ATM/Debit card processor for real-time communication, and the voice response unit system, which enables customers to access their
accounts via the telephone. The system also supports an interface for customer account access through Yahoo!, interfaces to the
Internet banking platform and with an online bill-pay provider. Banking operations are also supported by a number of custom
applications that allow for efficient customer fulfillment, service and reporting.
The Bank’ s web environment is based on an NT operating system, supports online applications processes, and provides Web
applications and tools such as the ATM locator, alerts and rate calculators. The Bank’ s Internet banking platform is currently provided
by a third party provider, which also hosts the Bank’ s Internet applications on its site in Georgia. The Bank’ s web site is an NT based
application that provides the user interface and functionality to support all Internet-based banking operations including bill payment,
account transfers, transaction reporting and account statements. As part of our restructuring plan, we intend to complete a migration
from the current hosted S1 system to an “in-house” platform in 2002, which will provide us with greater enhancement flexibility as we
expand our banking product.
2002. EDGAR Online, Inc.