Dresdner Kleinwort, the German investment bank, is to employ a new software system, called Openadaptor, that will allow distinct systems and devices to connect to each other on the Net. It is based on Linux, Apache, and other open-source Internet software tools, including a system developed by Silicon Valley based CollabNet.

The software, which the bank plans to release to the open-source community, is based on a system called SourceCast, from CollabNet. SourceCast was designed to allow collaboration between programmers working for different companies.

Dresdner says that the software will work well in the banking industry because clients often use different banks, and need to move money between them. It claims its new Net based software will make that process faster and easier. It will allow any system that can connect to the net to talk to any other system.

Al-Noor Ramji, chief information officer at Dresdner told the New York Times: "We have to take fundamentally important steps such as speeding up connectivity for all our clients even at the so-called expense of helping our competitors." ®