The two companies say they will offer financial insitutions a broad-ranging combination of skills and knowledge to improve their business efficiencies and reduce time to market, risk of failure and total cost of ownership for new initiatives.

Reuters Consulting specialises in the design, implementation, integration and project management of products and services from Reuters and business integration solutions from Tibco Software.

Sun Professional Services specialises in solution design and implementation around eSolutions, Sun One platforms, Java technologies and Sun's systems and storage technologies.

As part of the alliance, Reuters Integration Laboratory, its customer facility for trialing integrated technology solutions based in London and Tokyo, will be closely linked to Sun’s iForce Ready Centres in Paris and Tokyo. The two companies have developed a virtual private network between the London and Paris centres that will enable customers to access and trial combined solutions and proof of concepts from the two technology providers around the world. Reuters Integration Laboratory is now a Sun Authorised iForce Ready Centre.

The Reuters Lab has so far conducted 247 integration demos since its opening in October 2000. Twenty-nine per cent of these sessions have been performed online. Reuters says it will open a new facility in New York early next year.

Sun's three iForce Ready centres in Paris, Tokyo and Palo Alto currently host 150 visits per month. The three centres develop 10 proof of concepts for customers every month. So far, 100% of those proof of concepts have been implemented, says the vendor, with installation time down 30% from traditional project timelines.