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Articles from
October 2006
AQS®, INC. SELECTS INDUSTRY VETERAN AND FORMER PMSC EXECUTIVE AS CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
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Former PMSC Sr. Vice President, C. Bruce Davis Jr., has joined AQS, Inc., a leading provider of commercial policy administration solutions to the property and casualty insurance industry. Mr. Davis will serve as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and will serve on the company’s board of directors.
Mr. Davis is a 27-year veteran at Columbia-based Policy Management Systems Corporation (PMSC), which merged with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in 2000. There he served as the company’s Sr. Vice President - Sales and Marketing, for both the Property and Casualty and Life and Annuity industries. During his tenure, Mr. Davis was involved in numerous acquisitions in addition to overseeing the related sales and marketing activities in the company’s successful launch into the Life and Annuity market where it became the industry leader. Most recently, Mr. Davis worked for Unisys as Vice President- Global Insurance, and was responsible for overseeing the firm’s global strategies and activities in Insurance Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and technology outsourcing including related products, services and market entry activities.
Mr. Davis said, “I am pleased to be a part of the excitement at AQS where the emphasis is on the customer, bringing value to their business, and exceeding expectations. This is the mindset that the industry needs and deserves. We have exciting plans, but our focus towards client service excellence will not waiver”
AQS President and CEO, Dave Kerford said, “As AQS positions itself for the long term, we need to have talented individuals who know and understand the needs of the insurance industry very well. Bruce gives us that greater depth and perspective to be able to serve our industry well. I am elated that Bruce is joining our team.”
About AQS, Inc. Since 1979, AQS has provided leading policy administration solutions for commercial property and casualty insurance carriers. In addition to its innovative Web-centric product, AQS/advantage™, and integration solution, AQS/advantage™ Integrator, AQS provides diverse client service solutions to numerous insurance companies throughout the United States. AQS/advantage™ supports all commercial lines of business, in all states, and leverages the Internet and innovative technologies such as Web services and .NET to automate and shorten the entire policy transaction lifecycle. AQS is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
Grey Mountain Partners, a Boulder, Colorado-based private equity firm, acquired AQS in January of 2005. The firm provides AQS with capital to enhance and expand its product offering and support its customers.
For more information on AQS and the AQS/advantage™ product suite, visit the AQS Web site at www.aqsadvantage.com or call Martha Audley at 262.369.7444. AQS, Inc. is located at 1325 Walnut Ridge Drive, Hartland, WI, 53029-8894. Phone: 262.369.7500, Fax: 262.369.7501.
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Triton’s Calypso Obtains Approval to Accept Visa International Cards
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Calypso Canada Extends ATM Convenience to Millions of International Cardholders
Calypso, the largest white label Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transaction processing market in Canada and a preferred processor for Triton ATMs, is pleased to announce that it has obtained approval from Visa to accept VISA International cards at VISA approved ATM locations.
With this new approval, ATMs processed by Calypso, the first white label ATM processor to succeed in getting both VISA Plus and VISA International approval, will now be able to accept International Visa-sponsored cards, an additional 1.5 billion cards worldwide. Also, the approval allows for Visa branding to be applied to Calypso ATMs.
“The ability to service both VISA Plus and Visa International cardholders is a significant value-added step for Calypso Canada, our partners and our customers,” said Doug Epp, General Manager for Calypso. “Since we obtained Visa International approval we have already seen a 5 percent increase in foreign card transactions.”
Calypso Canada officials worked very closely with Moneris Solutions Corp., our technology and ISO partners, and Visa Canada to ensure that all of the rigorous security and operating standards established by Visa have been met.
About Calypso
The largest ATM transaction processing, reporting and settlement services market in Canada, Calypso delivers sophisticated and cost-effective EFT solutions to a wide range of ATM devices. Formed in 1999 as Canada's first ATM processor to deliver an ATM management and processing solution specifically engineered for the Triton family of ATMs, Calypso Canada processes transactions for thousands of white label ATMs in Canada and the UK. Calypso is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta and is an operating company of Dover Corporation Canada (Limited), a subsidiary of Dover Corporation (NYSE - DOV).
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AMS Services Now the Preferred Solutions Provider for Smart Choice
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AMS SETWrite Chosen as Top Multiple-Carrier Rating System
AMS Services, a leading provider of software solutions for the insurance industry, announced that Smart Choice® chose AMS SETWrite™ as its real-time, multiple-carrier rating solution for its network of more than 2,200 independent agents across 25 states.
With the AMS SETWrite solution, agents log in and enter information for multiple carriers one time, eliminating extra keystrokes and redundant processes. As a result, agents can rapidly respond to customer requests and write more business in less time. AMS SETWrite also provides advanced comparative rating capabilities so agents get the best rates for clients with the confidence that quotes are accurate. AMS SETWrite includes a broad selection of real-time carriers, seamless integration with credit and motor vehicle reports and proof of multiple rate requests.
"We chose AMS SETWrite because of the real-time carrier information it provides, its user-friendly workflow and AMS Services' leadership in the insurance industry," said Doug Witcher, chief executive officer and founder of Smart Choice. "We believe our agents deserve the best comparative rating technology and support in the industry. AMS Services provides both."
Smart Choice is offered by Worldwide Insurance Network, Inc., headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina. The program consists of thousands of independent property and casualty insurance agencies operating across the country, providing personal and commercial insurance, financial services and other value-added products. Smart Choice will add AMS SETWrite to its package as an option for agents at a discounted rate.
"The Smart Choice selection validates AMS SETWrite's continued acceptance as the primary choice for real-time, comparative rating," said Bill Bunker, senior vice president, product management and marketing, AMS Services. "We look forward to working with Smart Choice on providing the best technology to agents to help them write more business."
For more information about Smart Choice please visit www.smartchoiceagents.com.
About AMS Services Vertafore, Inc d/b/a AMS Services is dedicated to helping independent insurance agencies achieve maximum performance and operational efficiency. The business offers a comprehensive, insurance-specific solution for managing critical business activities, including agency management, rating, benefits, performance management and carrier connectivity. With more than 150,000 users in over 15,000 agencies, as well as 600 carrier partners, AMS Services is a proven market leader providing the strategy and scalability to help independent agencies excel now and in the future. For more information on AMS Services, please visit www.amsservices.com.
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ATERAS Announces IMS Product Strategy For Migration to DB2, Oracle, SQL Server
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ATERAS, a leading provider of fully automated legacy migration and modernization solutions, announced its IMS (Information Management System) strategy to migrate databases and applications to DB2, Oracle, or SQL Server using its automation technology DB-Shuttle™. The IMS product offering helps companies automatically migrate applications to modern, open technologies and database management systems. When an IMS migration is complete, a client will have functionally equivalent, seamlessly integrated applications, with Web capability that provides a reduced cost structure, improved business agility, applications that are SOA enabled and new technical capabilities.
DB-Shuttle automates the conversion of any software language to any other language and the conversion of any non-relational database to any relational database. Using a unique technology, DB-Shuttle collects and stores the definition of any original file or database structure, collects and stores all software source entities, and designs and generates new relational databases and software applications for the target environment. The IMS product solution is another component in the overall DB-Shuttle strategy, which includes: comprehensive IT assessments, database and data migrations and application migrations.
ATERAS also announces that several IMS assessments are in process in the government, education, insurance and healthcare markets. DB-Shuttle performs a detailed, targeted assessment of the entire mainframe application environment and provides the ability to fully define the conversion project plan, including assignments, responsibilities, timeframes and costs.
“Providing an IMS conversion solution is an important addition to our DB-Shuttle automation technology suite of products. ATERAS already provides powerful automated migration solutions that convert older applications and databases to new technologies,” states Scott Miller, president and CEO of ATERAS. He added, “ATERAS has many years of experience in managing and implementing large-scale mission critical migration projects. With offering an IMS conversion solution, we are widening our product offering and customer base globally.”
About ATERAS
ATERAS has supported global enterprises for over 20 years, offering state of the art services to our clients by modernizing and migrating legacy systems to the most current IT environments. The patent-pending DB Shuttle™ automation technology provides everything from comprehensive assessments of existing IT environments to fully automated conversions. Migration of mission critical applications and databases can be either mainframe to mainframe or mainframe to distributed platforms utilizing the .NET Framework. ATERAS delivers these solutions by working through leading systems integrators and alliance partners in markets including: Insurance, Financial Services, Healthcare, Government and Universities, both domestically and globally. For more information on ATERAS’ solutions visit www.ateras.com, or contact ATERAS at info@ateras.com, 972.664.9005 or 800.801.9005, 12750 Merit Drive, Suite 1105, Dallas, TX, 75251 USA.
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Micro Focus Server for SOA and Server Express 5.0 Launch
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Micro Focus Extending COBOL to Service Orientated Architectures (SOA)
Join us on Wednesday November 8th for a worldwide webcast introducing Micro Focus Server for SOA and Server Express 5.0
Date: Wednesday November 8th Time: 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT / 5pm CET
Micro Focus can help you to:
- Enable new business channels and integrate disparate systems by extending existing COBOL assets to a Service Orientated Architecture (SOA)
- Reduce costs and improve efficiency by extending COBOL business processes as Web services
- Deploy COBOL Web services with no additional 3rd party software
- Integrate COBOL into any leading edge strategic architecture (i.e. J2EE running the latest Java Application Servers from IBM, Oracle, BEA and others)
See how one of our customers, Title Guarantee of Hawaii, moved quickly into an SOA framework for the first time using Net Express and Server Express.
"Using the latest Micro Focus technology we were able to save approximately 75 person years in effort just by employing/reusing embedded business logic in a web services interface." Title Guarantee of Hawaii
For more information and to register for this 'must-attend' webcast event, please click COBOLtoSOA. Webcast attendees will be entered into a draw for a chance to WIN an Apple iPod®.
You also still have time to register for the October 30th launch webcast on Net Express 5.0 and .NET, please click COBOLwithinNET.
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Crédit Agricole Centre France Reports Strong Results Using Exstream’s Dialogue Software
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Exstream Software Inc. announced the leading bank in France’s Massif Central region, Crédit Agricole Centre France, reports positive results using its Dialogue enterprise software to streamline document creation processes and produce more effective communications for clients. Crédit Agricole Centre France is a regional division of the bank Crédit Agricole, operating its activities in five of France's départements—Allier, Cantal, Corrèze, Creuse and Puy-de-Dôme—located in the Auvergne and Limousin regions. The bank is using Dialogue to provide its customers—farmers, private residents, businesses, professional services, local authorities, shop owners and tradesmen—with customised transactional documents that improve their overall experience with the company. Using Dialogue, the bank reports it has optimised the entire process of producing the more than 55 million correspondence and statement pages it produces every year for clients (approximately 230,000 each day), reducing development time for simple documents to four hours, and to less than five days for very complex document applications that include dynamic tables and sophisticated rules. Additionally, Dialogue is used by the bank’s marketing department to produce 10 or more customised mailings each week.
With the aim of streamlining its document creation processes and providing customised correspondence to improve customers’ overall experience with the bank, Crédit Agricole Centre France began a serious evaluation of available market solutions in 1999. The company had two absolute requirements: switch to hardware capable of continuous printing and find a software solution that allowed it to design and create fully customised customer documents in-house. The company investigated many solutions available on the market, and chose Exstream’s Dialogue as its software solution because of its breadth and depth of functionality—especially for integrating with existing systems and data, and its intuitive design environment for developing sophisticated document applications quickly. Over a six month period, the bank’s team converted 250 documents to Dialogue, making each one customised for the recipient.
"We are very pleased with our Exstream Dialogue solution,” said Martine Muller, electronic publishing project manager at Crédit Agricole Centre France. “In particular, we've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of time it has saved us. It's an investment that has more or less paid for itself."
"As a leader in France's banking industry, Crédit Agricole Centre France is a forward-thinking company that understands the importance of improving customer experience," said Jean-Jacques Joly, Managing Director for Exstream France & Southern Europe. "We are very happy that Dialogue is satisfying the bank’s requirements with bottom-line results in cost and time savings, and most importantly, customer satisfaction." About Crédit Agricole Centre France:
Crédit Agricole Centre France operates its business in five "départements": Allier, Cantal, Corrèze, Creuse and Puy-de-Dôme, which are located in the Auvergne and Limousin regions of France. It is the number one bank in the Massif Central area and is extremely future-oriented. The mission of Crédit Agricole Centre France remains now more than ever to offer its customers all the benefits of a modern, dynamic bank, under optimum conditions. Crédit Agricole Centre France is the number one bank used by private customers, but is strongly established across all the markets: businesses (5 out of 10 businesses are customers of the bank), professional services (there is a team of experts specially dedicated to their requirements), public authorities (with a large number of local authorities in particular), tradesmen and shop owners, and obviously farmers (8 out of 10 farmers are loyal Crédit Agricole customers). www.ca-centrefrance.fr About Exstream Software:
Ranked among the world's fastest growing technology companies, Exstream Software provides enterprise software for businesses around the world to streamline document creation processes and produce higher quality, relevant communications of all types for delivery through print/mail and online channels. Companies in the financial services, insurance, service provider, telecommunications, utilities, hospitality, retail, government and other industries benefit by getting communications to market as much as 85 percent faster, reducing document production costs up to 80 percent, and as much as tripling customer response.
For more information about Exstream Software and its market-leading Dialogue enterprise personalisation software, visit www.exstream.com, or contact Exstream at 859-296-0600 or info@exstream.com.
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Whitehill Technologies releases Whitehill xml Transport 3.2
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New release of leading document composition technology offers more flexible distribution options, enhanced output capabilities
Whitehill Technologies, Inc. announced a significant upgrade of Whitehill xml Transport, a leading software offering which lets businesses automatically create, format and distribute high-volume personalized documents.
Insurers, banks and other companies use Whitehill xml Transport to efficiently produce documents, such as policies, reports, statements or customer correspondence, and then distribute those documents wherever they need to go-whether by mail, e-mail, fax or the Web.
"Whitehill xmlTransport 3.2 offers more flexible delivery of documents, such as a powerful collation feature to reduce printing and postage costs," says Neil Betteridge, VP, Product Management, Whitehill Technologies, Inc. "It also offers features which our clients have been requesting, such as a middleware edition optimized for use in service-oriented architecture (SOA) environments, and enhanced output capabilities such as direct generation of AFP print streams for high-volume printers."
Enhancements offered in Whitehill xml Transport 3.2 include:
- Integrated document collation, including grouping and sorting functions, simple or complex report generation and multi-channel distribution
- Streamlined distribution options, easily configured through a re-designed user interface, plus an option for custom distribution
- Enhanced output options, including the ability to output directly to AFP printers for high throughput printing
- Dynamic charts and graphs for richer, more compelling customer communication
- A middleware edition that can be seamlessly integrated and managed in companies' "on-demand" IT environments running IBM WebSphere and BEA WebLogic application servers
"These improvements will make it even faster and easier for our customers to get the right information into the hands of the right people, in the right format," says Betteridge. "Speed is crucial in today's business environment, and Whitehill xml Transport continues to help our customers accelerate their key document and output processes."
About Whitehill Technologies Inc. (www.whitehilltech.com)
Whitehill Technologies, Inc. develops and implements document and compliance automation software that helps insurance companies and legal firms accelerate key business processes. Whitehill's InSystems product line helps get new products to market faster by speeding up development and regulatory filing processes. More than 1,000 customers in 45 countries, including more than half the largest 100 insurers in North America, have used Whitehill software to personalize and accelerate the way they communicate with customers, getting the right information into the hands of the right people at the right time. Whitehill is a privately held company with more than 200 employees in Canada, the United States and the UK. Whitehill is headquartered in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
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JACK HENRY & ASSOCIATES CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY AT 2006 NATIONAL USER GROUP CONFERENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE
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Nearly 1,500 Attendees Expected to Attend Conference |
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Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (Nasdaq: JKHY), a leading provider of integrated technology solutions and outsourced data processing for financial institutions, announced that its customers, employees, business partners and vendors will converge on the Gaylord Palms Orlando Resort Hotel & Convention Center October 23 through 27 for Jack Henry's National User Group Conference & Technology Showcase.
This four-day conference will offer more than 250 sessions, roundtable discussions, and education classes on upcoming product-specific enhancements. According to Jack Prim, CEO of Jack Henry & Associates, "This conference is a great opportunity for our customers to network and exchange ideas with their peers and our staff, and to discuss industry trends and challenges. The conference also provides a time to strengthen existing client relationships while providing them with the opportunity to investigate solutions for their ongoing technology requirements."
The technology showcase is a venue for customers to interact with more than 80 business partners and vendors, and to learn about the more than 100 complementary business and banking solutions provided by Jack Henry.
Attendees also will join the company in celebrating its 30th anniversary with a reception Wednesday evening - complete with cake and videos of past meetings. "This celebration of 30 years in business gives us the opportunity to let our customers know how important they are to our success and to tell them how much we appreciate their business," said Prim. "It is also an opportunity to affirm to our customers how committed our company is to providing the technology they need to support their business strategies and to continually improve their financial performance."
About Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.
Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated computer systems and processor of ATM/debit card/ACH transactions for banks and credit unions. Jack Henry markets and supports its systems throughout the United States, and has more than 8,700 customers nationwide. For additional information on Jack Henry, visit the company's Web site at www.jackhenry.com. | |
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Open Solutions Hosts Credit Union CEO/Directors Forum
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Client-focused program enables open dialogue between credit union and company executives
Open Solutions Inc.® (NASDAQ:OPEN), recently hosted its annual Credit Union CEO/Directors Forum in Carlsbad, Calif. The event provided an open, educational forum for credit union executives and key Open Solutions management to discuss industry trends, best practices and exchange valuable information on issues facing credit unions today. Open Solutions is a provider of integrated enabling technologies for financial institutions in the United States, Canada and internationally.
“The information provided at the CEO/Directors Forum is invaluable,” said Larry Tobin president and CEO of FAIRWINDS Credit Union. “Open Solutions gives its clients the opportunity to attend educational sessions, get product demonstrations and network with executives from other credit unions. Information from the conference has given me a more thorough understanding of current compliance and legislative issues affecting credit unions. Open Solutions’ management team listens to the feedback and comments from clients, and I feel they truly understand what we are facing.”
Attendees heard keynote addresses from Open Solutions’ Chairman and CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr. and Gary Daniel, SVP and general manager, Credit Union Group. Notable presentations from staff, clients, analysts and industry leaders included: Cyber Security Risks, Solutions and Examiner Expectations; Net Promoter; Information Security and Risk Management; Check 21 and Image Exchange; and Regulatory and Compliance Readiness.
“The Open Solutions CEO/Directors Forum was one of the most rewarding sessions I have attended,” said Al George, chairman of the North Island Credit Union board. “Outstanding presenters provided very timely and useful information that is pertinent to me as a director and to our credit union in general. It was also great to meet Open Solutions’ outstanding team of professionals.”
Daniel said, “The Credit Union CEO/Directors Forum gave us an excellent opportunity to gain insight on the many and ever-changing issues facing credit unions. At Open Solutions, we dedicate ourselves to serving the credit union industry through both technology and service. We believe that through consistent interactive communication, we can better serve our credit union clients to ensure their success. We plan to improve and continue this event next year and look forward to providing more resources for our credit union clients.”
Louis Hernandez, Jr., Open Solutions chairman and CEO, said, “Open dialogue with our clients and two-way communication are very important to Open Solutions. This special event allows Open Solutions and our credit union clients to learn more about industry trends and exchange business strategies and solutions. Our clients provide observations and suggestions on their technology interests and needs, enabling us to respond quickly to their concerns.”
About Open Solutions Inc. Open Solutions Inc. offers a fully featured strategic product platform that integrates core data processing applications built on a single centralized Oracle relational database, with Internet banking, cash management, CRM/business intelligence, financial accounting tools, imaging, digital documents, Check 21, interactive voice response, network services, Web hosting and design, and payment and loan origination solutions. Open Solutions’ full suite of products and services allows banks, thrifts, credit unions and financial services providers in the United States, Canada and internationally to better compete in today’s aggressive financial services marketplace, and expand and tap their trusted financial relationships, client affinity, community presence and personalized service.
For more information about Open Solutions or its financial product line, contact Mickey Goldwasser by email at mgoldwasser@opensolutions.com by phone at 860.652.3153 or via fax at 860.652.3156. Visit Open Solutions’ Internet site at www.opensolutions.com.
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Investment Management to Radically Shift Over Next Two Years, Says TABB Group in "Institutional Equity Trading in America 2006: The Return on Relationship"
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Competition for Alpha Redirects Order Flow, Consolidates Relationships and Reinforces Importance of Global Top-tier Brokers
Institutional Cash Equity Commissions to Decline by $1.7 Billion by 2008
Institutional equity commission revenues are plummeting, sales trading and research departments are being downsized and buy-side traders are opting for a self-directed approach to executing their orders. This is happening, says TABB Group in its newest annual industry research study, "Institutional Equity Trading in America 2006: The Return on Relationship," as the once rock-solid bond between the buy-side and sell-side is morphing due to more directly accessible liquidity, less human interaction and fewer commission dollars changing hands.
However, while traditional long-only investment management commissions are declining, the total brokerage revenue picture is increasing as a growing number of traditional investment managers are looking elsewhere for alpha and launching hedge funds. As these managers start hedge funds, search for overseas opportunities and develop alternative-investment vehicles, their need for a global, multi-asset broker becomes greater. Additionally, the services these global brokers provide need to become more complex and sophisticated.
"Traditional investment management is dead," writes Adam Sussman, TABB Group senior research analyst and report author, "in the sense that it is no longer useful to talk about traditional asset managers as one group and hedge funds another." Instead, he explains, investment managers should be segmented four ways: long only versus long/short; broad-based versus narrow (sector or region); fundamental versus quantitative; and alpha seeker versus beta enhancer.
According to the TABB study, the bond between buy-side traders and sell-side sales traders has changed as increased regulatory scrutiny, a migration to lower, commissionable no- and low-touch channels and a realignment of sell-side services forced a drop in overall equity commission dollars paid, making it harder for brokers to know their clients and inspire loyalty. The result, TABB Group forecasts, is that US institutional cash equity commission revenues will decrease by approximately $1.7 billion dollars, or 6%, by 2008.
As traditional equity commissions decline, the rub is, says Sussman that the success of the buy-side is becoming more dependent on its access to other brokerage services such as global equity trading and research, derivatives, financing and deal flow. "As the importance of the interpersonal relationships is diminishing and commission dollars are dropping, investment managers are reducing the number of brokerage firms they use so they can allocate more commission dollars to their most valued providers. However, as the buy-side faces an increasingly complex world where liquidity, research and technology are not necessarily found at the same location, a more complex services and commission management mechanism needs to be developed." He adds that this portends real change in the buy-side/broker relationship over the next two years as the buy-side realigns commission dollars, the number of engaged brokers and the percentage of order flow allocated to these brokers. This is what TABB Group defines as the "Return on Relationship."
The increasing tension between trading and the brokerage business model is also affecting the move to electronic trading, as there is still a significant amount of large-block liquidity that is not electronic. Tapping into this liquidity will be critical for both buy- and sell-sides. Currently buy-side firms believe that internal and external crossing networks will be the best mechanisms to digitize this liquidity because it reduces market impact, exchange fees and execution cost. However, as the US market structure changes, the solution to tapping into this liquidity will change as well.
Additional findings and forecasts include:
* Over 50% of large, traditional, long-only investment managers have developed hedge fund products. In addition, 17% of all interviewed long-only managers that have not launched a hedge fund plan on doing so during the next two years.
* While 65% of long-only funds have no expansion plans, 31% plan to expand into Asia, 29% into Europe and 11% into emerging markets.
* Institutional investors are aggressively moving into equity derivatives as 67% of funds used futures, 64% options and 33% equity swaps.
* Full-service firms dominate buy-side commission flows, as 13 of top 18 brokers (ranked by commission flows) are full-service firms offering clients access to liquidity, research, corporate management meetings, capital commitment, new issues and more.
* 60% of institutional investors are covered by a commission recapture agreement. Over 20% of buy-side funds saw a decrease in commission recapture business while nearly double expect to see recapture decline further in the next two years.
* Buy-side traders are challenged by commission management with nearly one third of funds planning to add or upgrade their commission management software in 2007.
* Growth of trading algorithms is slowing as buy-side traders are only leveraging algorithms for 11% of their order flow compared with last year's rate of 10%. Crossing network usage and growth, however, is more aggressive than projected in 2005.
* While the adoption rate of algorithms by the investment management community is leveling at around 80%, implementation-shortfall algorithms are now the most widely used category on the Street, a change from 2005 when VWAP reigned supreme.
The 66-page study summarizes conversations with head traders at 61 traditional asset managers handling aggregate assets under management (AUM) of nearly $10 trillion, covering the launch of hedge fund products to meet increased appetite for risk and diversity among their client base; equity derivatives trading; commission recapture; the use of trading platforms,algorithms and crossing networks in the hunt for liquidity; and the technological infrastructure that brings players together. Also featured are 56 exhibits including: institutional cash equity commission revenues per execution venue; top brokers by commission revenue; percentage of order flow to top brokers; percentage of order flow captured; software buying plans for2007; change in broker relationships 2006 - 2008; and leading trading technology providers.
Copies of the "Institutional Equity Trading in America 2006: The Return on Relationship" study are available for download by TABB Group Research Alliance clients and, by request, qualified financial media. The study is available for purchase at www.tabbgroup.com/research.
About TABB Group TABB Group is the premier financial markets research, advisory and crisis management firm. Founded in 2003, TABB has helped senior business, trading and IT management gain a truer understanding of financial markets issues, trends, risks, opportunities and threats through comprehensive research and analysis, counsel, consulting, acquisition due diligence and business continuity strategies and consulting. For more information, visit http://www.tabbgroup.com/.
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Open Solutions Offers Regulatory Management Toolkit for Financial Institutions
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Compliance tool helps manage ever-changing regulations, higher regulator expectations
Open Solutions Inc.® (NASDAQ:OPEN), announced the availability of its new service offering – a Regulatory Management Toolkit designed to help financial institutions respond to evolving regulatory compliance requirements and higher regulator expectations. Open Solutions is a provider of integrated enabling technologies for financial institutions in the United States, Canada and other international markets.
The Regulatory Management Toolkit is a bundled package offering of services that can be customized to fit a financial institution’s specific needs. Instead of purchasing, managing and maintaining separate regulatory compliance tools, institutions can purchase the Toolkit as a single-source solution for regulatory management.
“Open Solutions is excited to offer our clients the Regulatory Management Toolkit,” said Peter Buffone, product manager, Risk Management Solutions, Open Solutions. “Not only do financial institutions get the tools and services they need to enhance regulatory compliance efforts, but they also get the information and knowledge of the Open Solutions expert team. This comprehensive solution is a great tool to assist financial institutions in managing today’s ever-changing and complicated regulatory compliance environment.”
Open Solutions provides financial institutions with a fully-featured strategic product platform, integrating core data processing and strategic applications such as Internet banking, intelligent customer management, financial accounting applications, electronic imaging, payment and interactive voice response solutions and, now, risk management tools. Its relational enterprise-wide data processing platform and complementary applications offer the flexibility necessary for running a service-oriented institution by offering efficiencies to streamline both front and back office processes.
“The cost and complexity of regulatory compliance is escalating for financial institutions,” said Mike Nicastro, SVP and CMO of Open Solutions. “The Regulatory Management Toolkit was designed to be a cost-effective yet advanced solution that will help institutions manage and enhance their existing compliance programs. The costs of noncompliance can include increasing fines and civil penalties, and can lead to the voiding of contracts and restrictions on business activities. Risk exposure can damage an institution’s reputation in the marketplace – something they cannot afford. The Open Solutions Regulatory Management Toolkit, we believe, can help decrease risk and minimize regulatory burden and will continually evolve to reflect the latest regulatory requirements and best practices in risk management.”
About Open Solutions Inc. Open Solutions Inc. offers a fully featured strategic product platform that integrates core data processing applications built on a single centralized Oracle relational database, with Internet banking, cash management, CRM/business intelligence, financial accounting tools, imaging, digital documents, Check 21, interactive voice response, network services, Web hosting and design, and payment and loan origination solutions. Open Solutions’ full suite of products and services allows banks, thrifts, credit unions and financial services providers in the United States and Canada to better compete in today’s aggressive financial services marketplace, and expand and tap their trusted financial relationships, client affinity, community presence and personalized service.
For more information about Open Solutions or its financial product line, contact Mickey Goldwasser by email at mgoldwasser@opensolutions.com by phone at 860.652.3153 or via fax at 860.652.3156. Visit Open Solutions’ Internet site at www.opensolutions.com.
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Open Solutions Co-hosts HSA Luncheon for Industry Leaders, Policy Makers
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Event provides HSA industry leaders opportunity to discuss market issues, legislation
Open Solutions Inc.® (NASDAQ: OPEN), a provider of integrated enabling technologies for financial services providers across the United States, Canada and other international markets, joined N.J.-based Information Strategies Inc., to co-host an event for bankers on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) in Washington, D.C. The private briefing sponsored by Information Strategies at The White House Executive Offices on Sept. 19, 2006, was followed by a luncheon co- sponsored by Open Solutions. Open Solutions offers major trustees, insurance carriers, third party administrators to insurance carriers (TPAs) and other eligible financial institutions a comprehensive, outsourced processing solution for HSAs.
Approximately 65 senior executives from major HSA custodial institutions, community banks and credit unions representing more than 90 percent of all U.S. HSA account holders attended the briefing and luncheon. The group included major HSA custodial institutions, community banks and credit unions. This year’s HSA briefing and luncheon provided Open Solutions’ HSA clients and prospects the opportunity to learn about future trends affecting the HSA market, investment alternatives for HSAs and how to develop and grow HSA business within their organizations.
Keynote speaker Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, spoke about the “four cornerstones of the U.S. healthcare market.” He said Americans needed to develop healthcare information standards, define measures of healthcare quality, enable consumers to compare prices for health services and establish “pay for performance” incentives for providers. According to Secretary Leavitt, the Federal government is inviting employers to join the dialogue and positively influence the healthcare market. Employers need to follow the same steps as the government and help implement these four cornerstones.
Joining Secretary Leavitt was Brad Campbell, deputy assistant secretary for Employee Benefits, U.S. Department of Labor. Campbell referenced a new round of guidance to be released late this year intended to answer questions that have arisen since HSAs were introduced.
Following The White House Executive Offices briefing, a luncheon was held for attendees to further examine HSA-related issues. Addressing the group were two long-time policy makers -- Jon Sheiner, staff counsel for the Committee on Ways & Means and for Legislative Director Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY); and former health care advisor to President Bush and HSA expert Roy Ramthun. Prior to joining the President’s staff, Mr. Ramthun served as senior advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for health initiatives. In this role, he led Treasury’s implementation of HSAs after they were enacted into law in December 2003.
Mr. Sheiner discussed the need for policy-makers to negotiate better pricing structures with the larger pharmaceutical companies to assist HSA/HDHP policy holders.
Mr. Ramthun told the group how the industry could broaden the appeal of HSAs through more favourable tax benefits, increase contribution limits to cover more out-of-pocket expenses, provide individuals the same tax benefits as currently experienced by employees from their employers and allow employers to assist chronically ill employees to transition from a traditional plan to an HDHP.
According to Rob Pinataro, vice president and general manager of Open Solutions’ Corporate Financial Solutions (CFS), “Open Solutions was delighted to co-sponsor this event with Information Strategies Inc. This is an exciting time in the Consumer Driven Healthcare industry as healthcare consumers and employers are increasingly looking to Health Savings Accounts as a way to lower the costs of obtaining high quality healthcare. The Secretary laid out a visionary approach for government and business to make healthcare more affordable for all Americans through the four cornerstones and the Health Savings Account. We, at Open Solutions, look forward to working with the healthcare and financial industries to bring this vision to reality.”
About Health Savings Accounts The Open Solutions CFS division provides outsourced information processing in the area of asset retention, corporate banking, healthcare banking and insured deposit services for banks, insurance companies and major corporations. Open Solutions has developed a comprehensive and flexible suite of technology and services to enable HSA service delivery for all the participants in the healthcare market from the individual consumer and employer to third party administrators, banks and investment brokers. Our proven solution provides a compliant, secure set of services that enables the full range of HSA activities from enrolment and contribution, to payments, account management and investment.
About Open Solutions Inc. Open Solutions Inc. offers a fully featured strategic product platform that integrates core data processing applications built on a single centralized Oracle relational database, with Internet banking, cash management, CRM/business intelligence, financial accounting tools, imaging, digital documents, Check 21, interactive voice response, network services, Web hosting and design, and payment and loan origination solutions. Open Solutions’ full suite of products and services allows banks, thrifts, credit unions and financial services providers in the United States and Canada to better compete in today’s aggressive financial services marketplace, and expand and tap their trusted financial relationships, client affinity, community presence and personalized service.
For more information about Open Solutions or its financial product line, contact Mickey Goldwasser by email at mgoldwasser@opensolutions.com by phone at 860.652.3153 or via fax at 860.652.3156. Visit Open Solutions’ Internet site at www.opensolutions.com.
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Fincentric Signs National Agreement with Seven of Canada's Largest Credit Unions
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Fincentric Corporation, a leading global provider of core retail banking software to financial institutions, has signed an unparalleled agreement with seven of Canada’s largest credit unions. From BC to Ontario, the Alliance consists of Capital City Savings, Libro Financial Group (formerly St. Willibrord Credit Union), Cambrian, Conexus, Meridian, Saskatoon and Westminster Savings Credit Unions, which are focusing on improving member services through their shared core banking software system.
Nearly half of the country’s largest and most progressive credit unions currently use Fincentric financial software solutions. This strategic agreement will service the Alliance’s over 600,000 members in 156 branches across Canada. By joining forces, the seven credit unions are positioned to leverage more significant decision-making and purchasing power. Their new agreement extends support for the credit unions’ current technology platform until 2012, and provides licensing rights to Fincentric’s latest Wealthview Banking™ software.
“This agreement outlines our commitment to utilize enhanced technology and to strengthen and continually evolve our member services,” said Steve Gesner, CIO of Meridian Credit Union. “We experienced tremendous growth over the past few years, supported by the Fincentric banking system, with increased size of assets and number of members. This new agreement reflects our long-term commitment to provide an advanced banking platform that supports our plans for continued organic growth and partnerships.”
“With our latest Wealthview Banking™ software, each credit union in the Alliance group can make the most of our integrated Microsoft technology and easily incorporate new applications and tools as they are developed. This accelerates their ability to respond to and stay current with changing industry needs,” said Robert Nygren, President and CEO of Fincentric Corporation. “This exciting agreement marks a significant step forward in our strategy to service the growing Canadian credit union marketplace.”
About Fincentric Corporation Fincentric Corporation is a leading provide of core retail banking software to the global financial services industry. Fincentric’s Wealthview Banking™ family of integrated products enables financial institutions to leverage customer knowledge to deliver personalized service and products, and to develop profitable customer relationships. Fincentric has strategic alliances with TELUS, Microsoft and Intel, and supports financial institutions in over 20 countries. For more information about Fincentric, please visit www.fincentric.com
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Greenwood Credit Union Selects Open Solutions for Outsourced Enterprise-Wide Data Processing
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Open architecture, flexibility, ease-of-use and real-time processing solidify the decision
Open Solutions Inc.® (NASDAQ:OPEN), announced that Warwick, R.I.-based Greenwood Credit Union has selected The Complete Credit Union Solution® (TCCUS) to handle its enterprise-wide data processing needs in an outsourced environment. Open Solutions is a provider of integrated enabling technologies for financial institutions in the United States, Canada and other international markets. Greenwood Credit Union has $240 million in assets and approximately 42,000 members.
“We began our search for a new technology partner because it was becoming more and more difficult to adapt our previous data processing system to accommodate the new products and services that we needed to grow,” said Jim Irving, CEO of Greenwood Credit Union. “We needed a system that could provide real-time information in an efficient, timely manner and we also wanted a system that was easy to navigate.”
Irving added, “We selected Open Solutions after a thorough system evaluation. We wanted to work with a vendor that offered a flexible and fully featured outsourced data processing solution. Right now, the credit union management does not want data processing operations in-house; however, if we decide to bring our operations in-house, Open Solutions can accommodate our needs without our incurring any major changes to our business operations.”
The Complete Credit Union Solution is built on a single, powerful OracleÒ relational database and is designed to be an open environment application. Open Solutions’ relational core platform allows a credit union to have a more centralized view of its specific relationships with individual as well as business-focused members. Open Solutions offers a fully featured strategic product platform, integrating core data processing with strategic applications such as Internet banking, business intelligence, financial accounting applications, electronic imaging, payment and interactive voice response solutions. To meet the needs of individual financial institutions, Open Solutions offers both an in-house and outsourced servicing options. The in-house structure allows financial institutions to specify and maintain their hardware configuration and operating system preferences. Outsourcing provides clients with access to the same system, hosted and maintained at one of Open Solutions’ state-of-the-art data centers. Clients may also switch from outsourced to in-house processing, or vice versa, without the need to change systems.
In addition to The Complete Credit Union Solution, Greenwood Credit Union selected many of Open Solutions’ complementary products including: Financial Accounting Suite (general ledger, accounts payable and fixed assets); Loan Participation; Mortgage Loan Origination; Investor Reporting; Credit Card Module; Safe Deposit Module; Real-time ATM/Debit; Premium Overdraft; Asset Collection Management System; Commercial Deposits; Commercial Lending; e-Commerce Banker™ (Internet banking and cash management); and Digital Document applications.
According to Irving, another reason for selecting Open Solutions was the ability to add new products to the system at any time, giving the credit union a competitive edge in the marketplace. “We can respond quickly and easily to our members’ ever-changing needs. The Complete Credit Union Solution gives us the ability to easily implement product changes and will enable us to be very market responsive and highly competitive with our offerings,” he said.
“Greenwood Credit Union is one of the largest indirect auto lenders in the country,” Irving said. “We needed a solid processor that could handle our indirect lending and participation lending operations. The Open Solutions open architecture platform offers the functionality and the efficiencies to support this area of our business.”
Louis Hernandez, Jr., Open Solutions chairman and CEO, said, “Open Solutions' main objective is to offer a complete enterprise-wide core and complementary technology solutions designed to allow credit unions to operate the way they want to, whether that is in-house or in an outsourced environment. Providing our clients with a solution that improves the level of service they give their members is mission-critical to Open Solutions. We designed our technology offering with an open architecture and flexibility so it would be easier for credit unions to reach their goals and remain competitive. We are pleased at the opportunity to assist and work with Greenwood Credit Union in achieving and surpassing their business goals.”
About Open Solutions Inc. Open Solutions Inc. offers a fully featured strategic product platform that integrates core data processing applications built on a single centralized Oracle relational database, with Internet banking, cash management, CRM/business intelligence, financial accounting tools, imaging, digital documents, Check 21, interactive voice response, network services, Web hosting and design, and payment and loan origination solutions. Open Solutions’ full suite of products and services allows banks, thrifts, credit unions and financial services providers in the United States, Canada and internationally to better compete in today’s aggressive financial services marketplace, and expand and tap their trusted financial relationships, client affinity, community presence and personalized service.
For more information about Open Solutions or its financial product line, contact Mickey Goldwasser by email at mgoldwasser@opensolutions.com by phone at 860.652.3153 or via fax at 860.652.3156. Visit Open Solutions’ Internet site at www.opensolutions.com.
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Whitehill Technologies Inc. receives the 2006 NRC-IRAP/APCC Award at the Progress Top 101 Companies awards celebrations
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As part of Progress magazine's Top 101 Companies awards celebrations, at the Delta Brunswick in Saint John, it was announced that Whitehill Technologies Inc. is the 2006 recipient of the National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) / Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce (APCC) Innovation Award.
The NRC-IRAP/APCC Innovation Award recognizes an organization that has invested in unique approaches to its business operations to increase productivity and competitiveness. The award is a new addition to the Top 101 program and is in its second year.
Whitehill Technologies Inc. is a software company based in Moncton, NB. Whitehill's software enables organizations to automatically create, format, transform, and deliver documents while complying with regulatory standards. The benefit of their software is primarily in increasing the speed of business. They offer software solutions to some 1,000 leading organizations in 45 countries around the world in the insurance, banking, and legal industries - which includes more than half of the largest insurers in North America and two thirds of the world's largest law firms.
In June 2006, Whitehill acquired InSystems of Markham, Ontario, bringing together two leading vendors with powerful complementary technologies, enhancing their insurance carrier capacity with more clients, improved technology, and an expanded team of experts.
Steve Palmer, Chief Operating Officer of Whitehill Technologies, Inc., accepted the award on the company's behalf.
"We're very pleased and honoured to receive the NRC-IRAP/APCC Innovation Award," said Palmer. "Whitehill has always focused on being a leader in four key areas: business performance, people, customer service and innovation. This award is an affirmation that our strategy is working."
The National Research Council Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) provides technical and business advisory services as well as financial support to growth-oriented Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) focused on research and development (R&D). NRC-IRAP supports innovation and technology development leading to the commercialization of new products and services or enhanced productivity. This program is delivered by an extensive network of 260 professionals working directly with their SME clients in 100 communities across the country.
The principal role of the Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce (APCC) is to be the advocate for business interests in the Atlantic Region. Today, the four provincial Chambers and the regional APCC operate under a common set of by-laws and serves a federation of 127 local Chambers of commerce and boards of Trade representing over 12,000 businesses ad professional people in Atlantic Canada.
Progress magazine, now in its 13th year, created the Top 101 Awards to celebrate business success and regional prosperity. The awards receptions were launched nine years ago as a place where business decision-makers in each of the Atlantic Provinces could connect. The Charlottetown, PEI reception took place on September 13th. Whitehill Technologies Inc. accepted their award at the Saint John, NB reception on October 11th, and the final reception will take place in St. John's, NF on October 19th.
About Whitehill Technologies Inc. (www.whitehilltech.com)
Whitehill Technologies, Inc. develops and implements document and compliance automation solutions that help customers accelerate key business processes. Whitehill's InSystems line of software helps insurers get new products to market faster by speeding up development and regulatory filing. Whitehill Enterprise, <xml> Transport, Transform and BPI software help insurers, law firms and other businesses personalize and accelerate the way they communicate with their customers, getting the right information into the hands of the right people. More than 1,000 customers in 45 countries have used Whitehill software, including half the largest 100 insurers in North America and two thirds of the largest 250 law firms in the world. Whitehill is a privately held company with more than 200 employees in Canada, the United States and the UK. Whitehill is headquartered in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
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Insurity Names Markland Chief Technology Architect
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Insurity, a national provider of business-processing services and technology to the property-casualty insurance industry, has named Jerry Markland to the position of chief technology architect.
Markland has 25 years of experience as an executive, enterprise architect and system engineer and has been recognized as an expert in the design and development of software tools for the insurance industry.
He previously served as chief technology officer with Benefits Technology Group (BTG), where he was responsible for strategy and product development of human resources and benefits-related technology for brokers and general agencies. In addition to setting technology direction, Markland designed and built an information infrastructure to support BTG's product development and consulting organization.
Markland also was a co-founder and CTO of StarNex, a company that linked brokers and insurance companies online through BrokersPortal, an information and communications center for the insurance industry. He previously held positions with AMS and StarSolutions, designing and developing various insurance processing software applications. His projects included rating systems and web-based systems for life, health, and property/casualty businesses.
“Jerry has great experience in insurance and technology and we’re excited to have him joining us at this time,” said Bob Larew, Insurity’s chief operating officer. “As we are integrating the functionality of recent acquisitions like ePolicy and Steel Card – and as we continue to expand our development efforts with Microsoft and its .NET platform – Jerry’s architectural development and design experience will be a valuable asset.”
Markland is a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
A ChoicePoint® company, Insurity employs more than 400 technology and insurance experts in Connecticut, New York, Georgia and Minnesota.
About Insurity
Insurity protects insurers from underwriting risks, claims fraud, compliance exposures, escalating expenses and premiums, and unfavorable ratios. Headquartered in Hartford, Conn., Insurity offers Insurance Decisions—the most comprehensive software and services in the property/casualty industry covering rate, quote, issuance, administration, billing, claims, reinsurance, data warehousing, compliance support, regulatory reporting, hosting, and managed services. Customers include more than half of the nation’s top 20 commercial lines carriers as well as regional carriers, specialty lines writers and MGAs. For more information about Insurity, please call 860-616-7721 or visit www.insurity.com.
About ChoicePoint
ChoicePoint (NYSE: CPS) helps businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations make better decisions through information and technology solutions. Each year, ChoicePoint helps more than 7 million people get the jobs they deserve and more than 100 million people get fairly priced home and auto insurance. Small businesses can obtain affordable commercial insurance because of our products. Businesses can cut costs through our authentication and anti-fraud tools. Government agencies use our data and technology to fulfill their missions in all parts of the world. Visit www.choicepoint.com for more information.
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TwoFour Announces Another Client Licenses TwoFour
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TwoFour Systems, www.TwoFour.com, is proud to announce that a US bank with a growing international presence has licensed the TwoFour product as its global FX and Money Market front to back office processing system. TwoFour will support their trading rooms in the United States and Asia with its cross product trading solution.
John Feeney, head of product development at TwoFour states, “TwoFour’s flexible, workflow based application provides an integrated front to back office solution. This is the first client that will utilize TwoFour’s SWIFT messaging functionality. In addition, they will track customer credit, position limits and country exposures using TwoFour’s limit monitoring capabilities.”
The bank was looking for a robust solution from an experienced provider that would significantly lower their annual costs. TwoFour Systems Managing Director Chris Davis, said, “This licensing of TwoFour is a significant win for us. The bank evaluated many other providers in this space and chose TwoFour. This license adds to TwoFour’s expanding position in the Banking, Brokerage and Corporate sectors of the financial markets.”
About TwoFour
TwoFour is a comprehensive global trading solution for front, middle and back office processing across financial asset classes whose business focus is to provide its clients with the ultimate experience which TwoFour views as STP2 - service, technology, people and product. TwoFour supports FX, money market, futures and exchange traded options and OTC options trading. TwoFour is designed for real-time, high volume, straight through processing of transactions and is available 24-hours a day, seven days a week. TwoFour is written in C# and runs on Microsoft’s .NET framework. Information about TwoFour Systems is available at www.TwoFour.com or contact Chris Davis at 914-220-8801 or Sales@TwoFour.com.
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Securities Industry Faces Unprecedented Challenges to Enhance Order Routing, Storage and Bandwidth in Compliance with Reg NMS Order Protection Rule
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TABB Group Predicts Daily Intermarket Trades Could Surpass 6 Million by 2009
Rule Creates Frenzy to Develop Private Market Exchanges and Broker Linkages
TABB Group in a new report released "The Reg NMS Order Protection Rule: Preparing for the Impact," says implementing the Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation NMS Order Protection Rule 611 will have an unprecedented and drastic impact on the equities markets. Using conservative estimates, TABB Group predicts that the number of intermarket trades will grow at a rate of over 73% a year between 2006 and 2008. By 2009, that number could surpass 6 million per day.
To handle this rising number of trades and messaging rates, the latter projected to grow by 225% to 2 billion a day in 2009, co-authors Larry Tabb, founder and CEO, and Jeromee Johnson, senior research analyst, believe "market trading centers will be forced to expand their already large investments in routing power, bandwidth and compliance."
As the markets become more automated and trades are driven by computer programs rather than human intervention, latency and low bandwidth rates will become intolerable. "Trading centers that wish to compete for this most demanding of flow must not only automate, deal with a consistent doubling of messages and be smarter about where and how they route orders," explains Johnson, "but also be forced to do it faster than ever before. What's more, these exchanges and brokers will not only need to be compliant, they will also need to prove that compliance."
TABB Group also believes that many on the buy-side, preoccupied by a search for liquidity, will not universally adapt technologies such as FIX Adapted for Streaming (FAST) in time before Reg NMS goes into effect. "Unfortunately," says Johnson, "they ignore the tidal wave of market data bearing down on them. Although they're aware, we feel that the magnitude of this challenge hasn't been fully recognized." Adds Tabb, "With the new regulations such as the intermarket sweep in Rule 611 acting as an enabler for improved routing, firms removing liquidity a fraction of a second faster will win."
The TABB report, in summarizing the National Market Structure (NMS) Rule 611 and its impact, explains the need for private linkages, how participants are repositioning themselves, the importance of being an exchange under the Order Protection Rule and the effect of the rule on best execution, intermarket routing and the various exemptions to the rule, including an intermarket sweep order. Five exhibits cover the evolving market landscape, intermarket trade routing, intermarket message traffic, storage requirements and compliance data.
The report is available for purchase at www.tabbgroup.com/research.
About TABB Group TABB Group is the premier financial markets research, advisory and crisis management firm. Founded in 2003, TABB has helped senior business, trading and IT management gain a truer understanding of financial markets issues, trends, risks, opportunities and threats through comprehensive research and analysis, counsel, consulting, acquisition due diligence and business continuity strategies and consulting. For more information, visit www.tabbgroup.com
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Exstream’s Dialogue Software Benefiting SunTrust Bank
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One of the Nation’s Largest Commercial Banks Improves Customer Response and Eliminates Manual Account Opening Processes Using Dialogue
Exstream Software, Inc. announced that SunTrust, one of the largest commercial banking organizations in the U.S., is using its Dialogue enterprise personalization software to produce clearer, fully relevant welcome packets for customers opening new accounts. SunTrust Online, the Bank’s premier Customer Contact Center, opens more than 4,000 checking, savings and money market accounts each month for customers that initiate requests over the phone or the Internet. Using Dialogue to streamline the process and respond with personalized account-opening materials, the Bank reports significantly improved customer response, accuracy, and elimination of time-consuming manual processes.
SunTrust initially selected Dialogue because of its ease of use, breadth of functionality for creating high quality variable communications of all types, and ability to streamline complex document creation processes by directly and simultaneously integrating with any type of data source or system. For the personalized account-opening application, sales representatives capture relevant details during the phone call with customers, which is fed to Dialogue from their desktop system to create the easy-to-understand, relevant welcome packets. The process is fully automated for requests that come in over the web.
“Dialogue integrated seamlessly with our back-end systems, allowing us to eliminate a manual function that involved merging and matching customer documents,” said Debbie Gardner, manager of SunTrust Online Operations Support. “This has reduced the possibility of errors associated with labor-intensive administrative tasks. It also frees our representatives to do what they enjoy most—work with the customers. Additionally, due to the fact that Dialogue creates documents that are personalized and easier to understand, the accuracy of account-opening applications returned to us is significantly higher. This makes it possible to activate accounts faster for our customers.”
“Dialogue’s breadth and depth supports an enterprise’s efforts to improve the customer experience,” said Brent Burns, vice president of Exstream’s financial services practice. “SunTrust is an organization that understands the need to make the banking experience more efficient and flexible in order to drive acquisition and improve customer satisfaction. We are pleased Dialogue is giving SunTrust the ability to meet these goals.” SunTrust Banks, Inc.:
SunTrust Banks, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the nation's largest banking organizations, serving a broad range of consumer, commercial, corporate and institutional clients. As of June 30, 2006, SunTrust had total assets of $181.1 billion and total deposits of $124.9 billion. The Company operates an extensive branch and ATM network throughout the high-growth Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and a full array of technology-based, 24-hour delivery channels. The Company also serves customers in selected markets nationally. Its primary businesses include deposit, credit, trust and investment services. Through various subsidiaries the Company provides credit cards, mortgage banking, insurance, brokerage, equipment leasing and capital markets services. SunTrust’s Internet address is suntrust.com. About Exstream Software:
Ranked among the world’s fastest growing technology companies, Exstream Software provides enterprise software for businesses around the world to streamline document creation processes and produce higher quality, relevant communications of all types for delivery through print/mail and online channels. Companies in the financial services, insurance, service provider, telecommunications, utilities, hospitality, retail, government and other industries benefit by getting communications to market as much as 85 percent faster, reducing document production costs up to 80 percent, and as much as tripling customer response.
For more information about Exstream Software and its market-leading Dialogue enterprise personalization software, visit www.exstream.com, or contact Exstream at 859-296-0600 or info@exstream.com.
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