Bunker Ramo Markets V Band: Venture Targets Smaller Rooms

Bunker Ramo is back in the financial information systems business as a supplier of trading systems to commercial banks. Bunker Ramo, an Olivetti company, intends to capitalize on its client base in commercial banking by selling and servicing the complete line of V Band voice and data systems.

The distribution agreement between V Band Corporation and Bunker Ramo coincides with the unveiling of Bunker Ramo's Financial Information Systems Group (FISG), which plans to offer terminal equipment from Olivetti along with the V band product line.

The new venture brings Bunker Ramo into direct competition with established trading system suppliers such as Rich and Micrognosis, and adds a new wrinkle to AT&T's increasingly complex role in the financial information systems market.

AT&T owns about 22% of the voting shares of Ing. C. Olivetti & C. S.p.A.. Olivetti recently established links with Telerate, Inc. through shared ownership of Radiocor, the leading Italian quote vendor. AT&T is directly involved with Telerate through their proposed foreign exchange transaction network.

AT&T recently renewed its supply agreement with V Band for another 30 months. Although AT&T has yet to approve V Band's ViAX data communications products for inclusion in its distribution agreement, Ma Bell has clearly taken an interest in the trading systems market.

The trading system Bunker Ramo plans to distribute is the same Angus video switch configuration that V Band introduced last September as part of the ViAX line. V Band has already installed the system at a number of small brokerage firms, and several distribution agreements for the equipment have been made.

V Band expects the ViAX information distribution system to sell particularly well to smaller regional banks, and brokerage firms with 100 or fewer trading positions. "We've come in at least 15% below Rich and Micrognosis in competitive bid situations," says Gene Ryan, product manager at V Band.

Bunker Ramo will not be selling futuristic furniture, and will not be capable of jumping through the hoops that Rich and Micrognosis can. But if you're looking for a vanilla video switch, the V Band switch is smaller, cheaper, and draws less power than traditional video switches.

Digital data distribution is still a few months away for the ViAX system, which will incorporate decision support software licensed from Lombard Systems Int'l. Ltd. of London.

Bunker Ramo will offer only the decision support software available through V Band, according to Ron Blaszczynski, general manager of FISG. This will include a local database, page composition, arbitrage modeling, and price alerts.

To avoid bouts of finger pointing, and optimize coordination of design and support, customers want one service organization to handle their trading system needs. Hence the role of the systems integrator.

Bunker Ramo wants to be "a single source supplier for trading systems throughout the financial community," says James D. Lindner, Bunker Ramo president. But Bunker's cupboard seems a bit too bare to serve as the single source for any trading room.

Although the initial emphasis will be on V Band and Olivetti products, Bunker Ramo's Blaszczynski wouldn't rule out the involvement of additional third-party suppliers. The proverbial third leg of the stool seems to be missing.

After Automated Data Processing Inc. acquired Bunker Ramo's information systems division from Allied Corp., the banking systems supply business, along with the Bunker Ramo name, was sold to Olivetti. The banking division had never sold financial information, so it may have been divested without competitive restrictions in that area.

Bunker Ramo officials declined to discuss the nature of any restrictions on Bunker Ramo's business activities resulting from the divestiture agreement. "We don't have any intention to sell data,if that's what you mean" said Bunker Ramo spokeswoman Carol Blaszcynski, (no relation to Ron).