IBM and German software vendor Paybox.net AG will combine their efforts to offer customers the ability to make secure payments from wireless devices, the companies announced Thursday.
IBM Global Services will blend its wireless e-business consulting, services and integration offerings with the mobile payment software and services from Paybox.net, in Raunheim, Germany, the companies said in a statement. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
IBM and Paybox.net will jointly develop mobile payment applications aimed at retail, finance and banking organizations as well as wireless operators. They will also jointly distribute existing Paybox services and work together to sign up new licensing partners, IBM and Paybox.net said.
Last March, the Armonk, New York, company announced 23 partner vendors including Paybox.net to its program designed to deliver a wide range of capabilities into its WebSphere Portal Server. Other partners are Vignette Corp., i2 Technologies Inc., Information Builders Inc. and Divine Inc.
By entering into partnerships with a variety of vendors, IBM was looking to add new application functions, in areas such as e-commerce, into its portal offering by way of portlets, or snippets of code that provide pre-integrated application capabilities, the company said at the time. As part of its latest agreement with Paybox.net, IBM will combine its WebSphere platform and its retail software and services products with the Paybox.net applications including the Paybox Intelligent Architecture (PIA), a modular application infrastructure for custom mobile payment and authorization systems, the companies said.