URL: http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216300408
How can Wall Street firms offer fast, full-featured mobile applications when they have no control over the performance of local wireless network carrier performance or over mobile device operating systems? E*Trade Financial has been using software from Vaultus to overcome the performance limitations of mobile devices and wireless networks.
According to Vaultus, its solution accelerates mobile applications by 50 percent through the use of data compression and network optimization technology. Although E*Trade doesn't share data transmission numbers, the firm reports that between August and October of last year, following the deployment of the Vaultus technology, daily average revenue trades (the number of trades from which a broker can expect to generate revenue through commissions or fees on any given day) using the brokerage's mobile system increased 139 percent.
E*Trade has long offered mobile access to its Web site through a wireless application protocol (WAP) interface that allows anyone with a cell phone or PDA to pull quotes and initiate trades. Last summer the online brokerage took its mobile initiatives a step further. "Our focus is on making sure that whatever platform our customers want to interact with us via -- whether it's phone, desktop computer, the Internet, a mobile phone -- that experience is as easy, intuitive and user-friendly as possible," says Tina Martineau, a senior director with E*Trade.
To deliver on that mission, E*Trade introduced on July 1 a BlackBerry application built by Vaultus that is comprised of plug-ins from existing trading applications. "The goal was to give customers many of the same interface, security and banking features available to them via e-trade.com from their desktops," Martineau says. "We also provided real-time information and the ability to transact with brokerage accounts any time via their BlackBerrys."
Customers connect to the E*Trade/Vaultus Mobile Pro platform via direct TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) connection (most experts agree that TCP/IP enables a faster and more secure connection to Internet services than WAP); the Mobile Pro platform then connects to the servers that power E*Trade's Web services and streaming quotes, Martineau explains. E*Trade opted to use a downloaded thick client application for the mobile service to provide additional security capabilities and a richer, more responsive end-user experience, she adds.
E*Trade installed Vaultus' Mobility Server technology inside its network behind the firewall, Martineau relates, adding that the online brokerage's back-end systems were tweaked in order to integrate with the middleware solution.
The new BlackBerry app offers watch lists, portfolio tracking, three real-time streaming stock and options quotes, and the ability to trade equities and options and to place conditional orders on those trades, according to Martineau. It also enables brokerage and bank account transfers, either among E*Trade accounts or with outside institutions to which customers have linked their accounts, she continues. A "complete view" feature lets customers view all of their linked accounts on one screen on the BlackBerry. (For security reasons, none of the data is stored on the BlackBerry. The Vaultus application also locks down the handheld devices after a certain amount of time off-line, preventing a thief from using a stolen device.)
How Speed Is Achieved
The Vaultus technology speeds the transmission of data, according to David Birnbach, the vendor's CEO, by reducing the size of the data by 93 percent through data compression. It also has a network optimization layer that senses and tracks wireless network speed, battery life and network congestion, then chooses the optimal packet size for data based on those factors, he explains. Even on an iPhone, Birnbach says, Vaultus' technology can present a new screen of information significantly faster than un-optimized applications.
"The two most important things that matter in making mobile applications work for mobile workers and consumers are application experience -- responsiveness -- and security," Birnbach says. "Everything else is complementary."
While just three years ago Wall Street firms were still concerned about letting people trade via mobile devices, fearing, for example, that it might be too easy to make a mistake, E*Trade's Martineau says that is no longer an issue. "We have the same protection whether you're on e-trade.com at your desk or using a mobile device -- you get a confirmation before the order is placed," she comments.
Apparently customers are plenty comfortable conducting trades on their handheld devices. But what do E*Trade mobile customers do the most on their BlackBerrys? View portfolio activity, market news and real-time streaming quotes, Martineau reports, noting that, following the success of the BlackBerry mobile app, E*Trade launched in mid-March a customer beta test of an Apple iPhone/iTouch Mobile Pro application.
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