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Main / Outsourcing Weblog

Albonetti & Co. recently released findings of a study in which it surveyed 200 corporates worldwide. It found, probably not surprisingly, that a good majority of companies do not use treasury workstations, the combination of hardware and applications that automate most core treasury processes.

My wife and I took a little breather from the bay breezes of Cape Cod to experience the value of NYC's high-culture. For her, it meant haute couture as well. The Fiserv/CheckFree announcement reached me from the telephone messages left at my Dallas office, and from what I read in the WSJ. I had a few opinions about the deal.

Open Solutions (Glastonbury, Conn.), a provider of enterprise-wide data processing technologies, announced four contract renewals for its TotalPlus outsourced core data processing platform. The renewing banks include Columbia Bank (Fair Lawn, N.J.); OceanFirst Bank (Toms River, N.J.); Pentucket Bank (Haverhill, Mass.); and Ridgewood Savings Bank (Ridgewood, N.Y.).

Independent Banker’s Bank (Springfield, Ill.) selected the InTrader solution from SunGard (Hopkins, Minn.) for securities processing, clearance and settlement for bank treasury and investment portfolio management. IBB will use InTrader in an integrated ASP-based environment to help support business growth, achieve greater operational efficiencies and deliver enhanced services to more than 300 community banks across five states.

By Maria Bruno-Britz, Bank Systems & Technology

Denver-based e-commerce and payments solutions provider First Data named Michael Capellas its new CEO. following completion of the acquisition of the company by an affiliate of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). Capellas will succeed Henry C. “Ric” Duques who has served as Chairman and CEO since November 2005, and previously served as Chairman from 1989 to 2003 and CEO from 1989 to 2002. Duques announced his intention to retire within two years when he returned to the Chairman and CEO roles in late 2005.

If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know I tend to focus on things that are wrong. I’m not a PR guy; I’m the plumber of the bank tech world. I fix broken “pipes.” So this prelude is just to convince you that I’m not pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes.

Art Gillis
www.artgillis.com

It was the first time I ever asked this question, and I was thrilled at the quick, clean and no-hype reactions from six in-the-trenches companies that have been telling it like it is to me for 25 years - Fiserv, Fidelity (and its acquirees), Metavante, Jack Henry, Harland Financial Solutions and COCC.

By Art Gillis
www.artgillis.com

First, why am I interfering in my wife’s domain? Because life dictates the need for flexibility, and even though household management is her territory, family obligations demanded her presence in New England. That didn’t stop the faucet from dripping, however. So I stayed home to "manage" the situation with our plumber.

By Art Gillis

Every bank tech salesperson will yes you to death. The CFO is well versed at saying “NO.” He says no to his own people as well, like when a salesperson is working on a big deal and wants to slash the price just to get the sale.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of meeting several CFOs at the major bank tech companies. Fiserv has had one who has served from Day One and retired recently. When I was called in as an independent voice during a due diligence meeting, I made a comment about Fiserv’s superb M&A activity, saying Fiserv had achieved a perfect record of buying solid companies. I felt an elbow in my ribs delivered by Fiserv’s CFO who said, “Art, we had one sour one.”

I have known two CFO’s at Jack Henry & Associates. I once said that when these guys make their presentations to the securities analysts, it sounds like they’re reading from the Bible. Even the bad stuff comes out. Metavante’s CFO is the only one with a sense of humor, even though it’s one that you have to hunt for to get it. I always get a good night’s sleep before I go one-on-one with Mike. I have always trusted technology that was never politically correct. Give it to me straight, and I will handle whatever comes. Wouldn’t it be great if the CIA followed the culture of bank tech vendor CFOs?