Early adopters of Bank of America’s Business Center invited to participate via teleconference opinion forums to discuss implications of its e-Business platform.

Seattle, WA – January 8, 2001 - Silicon Valley Research Group Inc. (www.siliconvalleyrg.com), a leading high technology research and strategy development company, has been commissioned by the e-Commerce division at Bank of America, a leading financial institution, to conduct a study on the early adopters of the Business Center, an online platform that integrates business tools designed to help small business owners.

Selected early adopters of the e-Business platform from across the United States will be invited to participate in the exclusive teleconference focus groups. An initial wave of focus group sessions will be held to investigate and explore the early users’ reactions to the Business Center’s features and functions. A secondary wave conducted through one-on-one discussions with the same users will be used to probe further into the Business Center’s usability and specific issues discussed during the initial sessions.

“The feedback we gather from these initial adopters will be particularly insightful for early product concept testing,” says Al Nazarelli, President and Founder of Silicon Valley Research Group Inc. “From this information, we can provide strategic recommendations to Bank of America on optimizing their e-business platform and potential enhancements.”

Along with the current project, Silicon Valley Research Group Inc. has conducted three other research studies for Bank of America on the Business Center. The results of these collaborations will be used to enhance the Business Center for the small business users nationwide.

For more information:

Bob Sandler
EQUS Group Inc.
pr@siliconvalleyrg.com