For example, the banking industry initiates a myriad of credit and background checks that require secure management of customer information by their various suppliers.

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With the latest technology, says Cho, the bank can measure the profitability of every branch employee and customer, mine its customer database and run sophisticated risk-management and credit-analysis programs.

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It does mean all bookings, almost 90% over the Web, are firm credit-card sales, the flight costs determined by yield-management software familiar to any airline customer.

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