Entries by Art Gillis

Small Bank Tech Companies Stay Focused, Have Longevity and Serve Thousands
July 27, 2010 | There are 82 companies (vendors, researchers and associations) in Automation in Banking - 2010 (my annual report on the bank technology industry). Fourteen of them are small. My definition of "small" is companies with fewer than fifteen employees. The average...

Financial Overhaul May Improve Banks' Customer Relationships
July 20, 2010 | My experience as a bank customer began early. I was the treasurer of our household at age nine, and the custodian of five Christmas Club accounts. That was my grand total understanding of banking. Every week I went to the...

Nice to See the Return of the In-House vs. Outsource Debate
July 13, 2010 | The recent story about First Tennessee deciding to take IT back in house caught my eye because it was the first article I have seen in a long time about a most popular issue from the past. In fact, I...

It Was a Good Year for Bank IT, But Who's Gloating?
July 06, 2010 | After 25 years of publishing my bank tech report, I do not think 2009 was any different for the bank tech industry as long as one isolates it from all the other disasters that occurred in 2009. In other words,...

Bank Tech Vendor Revenue and Financial Institution IT Spending — More Than Meets the Eye
June 29, 2010 | One nice thing about the boring business of research and numbers crunching is that without trying to get some answers, the process makes discoveries that appear out of nowhere. Here are some examples:...

There's a Lot of Story-Telling Besides the 81 Companies in Automation in Banking - 2010
June 21, 2010 | At the end of each major core vendor's profile in my annual report on bank tech vendors is a commentary about what I think of the company. My comments are a reflection of how many sparks fly based on the...

The Banking Crunch Has Done Wonders for Expanded Development of Tech Solutions
June 15, 2010 | I can think of lots of cliches that apply to the basis for this blog, but unless you live under a rock, you must have heard them all by now. My observation of good resulting from bad comes as I...

Still No Upswing in the Sale of New Core Systems to U.S. Banks
June 08, 2010 | For the past 33 years U.S. banks, thrifts, credit unions, de novos and near-banks have been implementing new core systems. And not just for five years until a "better mouse trap" is discovered, but for the life of the bank....

Less-Than-Full Usage of Bank Software, Part 3
June 01, 2010 | In this third and final part of a series (unless you keep it going with your excellent feedback), I intend to prove that many banks are not using their rich and robust applications software to the fullest, and thus are...

Less-Than-Full Usage of Bank Software, Part 2
May 25, 2010 | When I wrote last week's blog, I knew I wasn't going to get off easy. There's a lot more to tell about bank software, and some clever readers spotted my short cuts. This second installment was inspired by a reader...

The Value of Bank Software is Based on a Bank's Skill in Using It, Not the Vendor's Price
May 17, 2010 | Before I go any further, I know what you're thinking. I'm not talking about ASP, or outsourcing, or cloud computing (if that idea ever becomes popular in banking), where the cost model is based on how many transactions a vendor...

Q&A With Raju Shivdasani, A General in the Front Lines of Bank Tech
May 10, 2010 | It's hard to pin down the year in which I met Raju Shivdasani, president of Harland Financial Solutions, but now I count decades so the year doesn't matter. Orlando is the world of fantasy and citrus, but I relate to...

If Very Large Banks Used the Technology of Community Banks, They Might Never Fail
May 04, 2010 | I will probably be called a bigot because 97% of my banking clients are in the small and mid-size ranges of the total bank population. Having worked for only eight of the top 34 U.S. banks (two if you try...

You Know 2009 Was an Unusual Year for Bank Tech When Fiserv Didn't Make Any Acquisitions
April 27, 2010 | Acquisitions have been as much a part of bank technology companies as introductions of brand new solutions and healthy organic growth. Now all three are waning....

Even Bank CIOs Don't Know the Real Cost of Their IT Resource
April 20, 2010 | Calculating the accurate cost of a bank's IT resource is like pinning down the exact location of Osama bin Laden's cave. There are some ideas floating around, but they're fuzzy. Because I don't have a personal stake in this matter,...

Press Releases Issued by Bank Tech Vendors are Now My Favorite Reads
April 13, 2010 | There was a time about five years ago and more when I would delete an online press release just by the sound of its title. Now, not only do I read them all, but I catalog them, file them for...

Lookin' For Growth in All the Wrong Places
April 06, 2010 | Last week I covered the subject of diminishing growth among the top six bank tech vendors, based on the banking crunch and the weaknesses of the economy. This week I see a long term problem for bank tech companies and...

604 Banks Disappeared in 2009 — For Good and Bad Reasons
March 30, 2010 | Bank Population Accounting: January 1, 2009 16,374 Add de novos 26 (185 in 2007 before the crunch) Deduct failed banks 140 Deduct acquired banks 464 December 31, 2009 15,796 (This 3.5% net reduction compares to a 2.4% average during the...

With 30 Brands of Credit Union Core Systems in the Market, Who Woulda Thunk We Needed One More?
March 22, 2010 | The answer is Fiserv, and the new core product is Acumen. Unlike Henry Ford, Fiserv is not a "one-color-for-all" vendor. In fact, the company has more brands of same-type-applications than any other bank tech company. In the case of credit...

Bank Tech Vendors Do Not Live By Core Alone
March 16, 2010 | A first-time event occurred in the bank tech space during 2009. Whereas in previous years the list of popular solutions sold by major vendors included ten solutions, in 2009 the list shot up to 34. These 34 are a unique...


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