[NEWS] Crypto/privacy related wire clippings (per Bill Stewart's request)

[dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)]

CITIBANK MINES DATA--MARKETING GOALS WARRANT PARALLEL PROCESSING
Citibank wants to do more than track its credit-card holders' buying behavior.
Soon, it hopes to know what they'll purchase next, and who's committing fraud.
Data-mining techniques and data warehouses, part of a project called the Cards
Analytical Model (CAM) slated to be completed by the end of 1997, are the
tools Citicorp Credit Services in Long Island City, N.Y., hopes to use to
predict future consumer patterns. To make CAM work, Citibank's IS team knew it
needed a powerful mainframe-class system to handle the complex formulas and
algorithms pounding away on close to 2 terabytes of data. But the mainframe
wasn't an option. "We didn't want the data warehouse to impact our OLTP
(online transaction processing) production," says Kevin Murphy, VP of IS for
Citicorp Credit Services. "We didn't have the luxury to give up cycles and
drives." Instead, Citicorp chose the IBM RS/6000 SP MPP (massively parallel
processing), consisting of 116 nodes (or processors) and 7 terabytes of
storage capacity. The database is DB2 Parallel Edition, also from IBM. More
than 50 C++ and C developers, from Citicorp and Lockheed Martin, the systems
integrator, are working on the CAM project.
-- Information Week, 10/07/96

American Banker: Wednesday, October 9, 1996

Card Frontiers

Citi Alumna's Consultancy to Focus on New Technologies

By Jeffrey Kutler

Catherine Allen, the former Citibank vice president and founding chairman of
the Smart Card Forum, announced the formation of a consulting partnership, the
Santa Fe Group.

She is president and chief executive officer of the firm. Former Citibank
technologist Ted Fine and entrepreneur Howard Sherman, who helped develop the
Midas and SuperCuts franchise operations, are executive vice presidents.

The aim is to help businesses understand and assimilate innovations in
management and technology. The firm's base, New Mexico's capital city, is a
hotbed of the study of complex adaptive systems, a scientific discipline that
is crossing over into business management.

Ms. Allen said she hopes to "break new ground by applying complexity theory to
practical business challenges." She has scheduled a forum, "Complexity and
Technology: Organizing for Innovation," in early November.

Mr. Fine, who managed Citibank's global consumer systems, said the firm could
help "master the challenge" of emerging technologies like the Internet and
smart cards.

Ms. Allen had been developing the business since she left Citibank early this
year. Santa Fe Group has been working on several consulting assignments, but
didn't begin widely advertising its services until mid-September.

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<a href="mailto:dlv@bwalk.dm.com">Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM</a>
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps