Ameritrade executing fast growth strategy with Cach'e database software

InterSystems Corporation today announced a new strategic relationship with Ameritrade Holding Corporation, a leader in the discount and online brokerage industry, to support the brokerage firm`s fast growth and enable delivery of key new products and services in 2000. The announcement spotlights InterSystems` focus on providing infrastructure for e-business with its Cach'e e-DBMS software.

InterSystems is the leading provider of high performance post-relational software for transaction processing. The Cach'e database is the engine for Ameritrade`s Back Office System (BOS), which manages interactions with clearing firms and banks for the online brokerage firm`s daily trading transactions.

Omaha, Neb.-based Ameritrade is also planning to leverage the proven rapid development technology and scalability of the Cach'e e-DBMS to provide its brokers and clearing house information users with easy access to the BOS application via a secure Intranet scheduled to go live in 2000.

Fast Growth Demands Scalability, Reliability

"Over the last year, Ameritrade has seen spectacular growth and we expect more of the same in 2000," says Ameritrade CIO James Ditmore. "Since our customers expect high value and reliable service at low cost, we must have IT systems that will enable us to seamlessly meet their needs. Our IT strategy is focused on ensuring that our application systems are scalable, componentised, and extremely reliable," he says. "Our Cach'e-based Back Office System has been highly effective in supporting our fast growth and is key to our strategy."

Ditmore points out that the online brokerage business is one of several key industries that stretch the limits of IT on an ongoing basis. "Telecommunications, airline reservations and financial services demand a stream of new products and services. In addition, firms in these fields require complete system reliability and are continually pushing the edge in terms of scalability." Online brokerages add one more factor - the need for 24 x 7 internet processing - to the equation, putting these companies at the tip of the IT requirements pyramid," he says.

"Our approach is to work with technology vendors who are leaders in their field. That means more than having a good product and a good support team. InterSystems has proven that they understand how to help customers resolve business and IT issues and get the most out of their Cach'e solution," says Ditmore.

New Services coming

In order to continue to provide its serf-directed customers with the best services, solutions and value, Ameritrade plans to introduce a series of new features and services during 2000. Current possibilities include delivery of real-time account balances and support of international trading.

InterSystems is working closely with Ameritrade technologists to support these initiatives. For example, the BOS is currently brought off-line for a short time each day to run a key batch process. By the second quarter of 2000, the Cach'e based application will be transitioned to support 24-hour transaction processing, enabling real-time account balance information delivery.

"We`re committed to doing everything possible to continue the success of Ameritrade in the fiercely competitive online brokerage industry," says Paul Grabscheid, InterSystems vice president of strategic planning. "As specialists in providing the database infrastructure needed for the large OLTP environments typically found with e-business applications, we`re well positioned to help Ameritrade deliver innovative new products to their customers in the compressed time-to-market that`s a fact of life in e-business today."