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The following article was written prior to the devastating earthquake in Haiti. To contact The Children Heritage Foundation or inquire about aiding their efforts in Haiti, email jose@childrenheritage.com or call 732-642-1389. When Jose Pierre, founder and CEO of Marketware International Inc., travelled to Haiti in 2007 he was struck by the enduring beauty of ... Full story

At Microsoft Gold Certified Partner SunGard, cloud computing is not just strategy, but a reality that is continually being improved upon, according to James Gibbs, SunGard's senior vice president of .NET architecture. "We have really managed to recognize some of that vision and make it a reality," he says. "Going forward we will be continuing to ... Full story

A Microsoft-sponsored survey of 500 18 to 29-year-olds (or "millennials") finds that banks can use blogs and other social networking technology to improve their image. Nearly 60 percent of survey respondents said their level of trust in financial services has decreased in the last year and only half of the group felt that the industry was ... Full story

Allianz Global Investors Distributors LLC (AGID) is further empowering the cell phones of its agents. The company, which is the exclusive distributor of PIMCO funds and Allianz funds, is bringing its SharePoint-based document management and team collaboration portal to the cell phone screen. The project, called the Apollo Initiative, was implemented using a Pyxis Mobile enterprise application platform to extend Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to ... Full story

The fortitude of the Microsoft capital markets team was on display in the English Channel on July 13, when Craig Saint-Amour, director of U.S. Capital Markets swam across the channel as part of a relay team with his daughters Melissa Saint-Amour and Roberta Saint-Amour, both of whom also have careers in the financial industry. The trio ... Full story

By Renee Wijnen Caruthers In Europe, the Single European Payment Area (SEPA), which will effectively eliminate cross-border payments between participating European countries, is ushering in payments innovation. European banks and other large multinational banks that operate in the region are leaders in deploying the global ISO 20022 message standards for mass euro payments. If these standards ... Full story

By Renee Wijnen Caruthers Manchester Capital Management, LLC is a private wealth management firm targeting clients with investable assets of $10 million or more. The rapidly growing firm, with approximately $1.5 billion under management, and offices in Manchester, VT, and Montecito, CA, recently overhauled its IT infrastructure to achieve scale and flexibility. We spoke with Henry Morneault, senior vice president, and James Bishop, IT director, to ... Full story

Microsoft's Susan Hauser envisions more partnership emerging in the financial industry By Renee Wijnen Caruthers Early in her career, Microsoft's vice president of worldwide financial services, Susan Hauser, started a conversation with customers. That dialog, which began with a council of CIOs - 12 at the time - was a frank discussion about what Microsoft ... Full story

On the following pages are the stories of 11 innovations in financial IT. The solutions described on these pages range from implementing new data standards for increasing the transparency of financial data, to automating business processes, to developing components that speed the development of new insurance products, and much more. Each of these 11 winning ... Full story

Born At Citi, Bundle Delivers a Fresh Approach Americans know they are not saving enough for retirement. They know sometimes they buy things they cannot afford. They realize that as salaries go up, so does personal spending. And they know they are not alone. But these aren't easy problems to fix. The popular personal ... Full story