Fiserv Touts Magic Gartner Study, Partners with Kronos

October 18, 2011 Alex Woodie

Gartner has placed Fiserv‘s IBM i-based Signature banking system in the leaders quadrant of its “Magic Quadrant for International Retail Core Banking” report for 2011. Also, Fiserv announced it has partnered with workforce management software provider Kronos to help Signature customers maximize their labor efficiencies.

Gartner’s Magic Quadrants, if you’ve never seen one, rank IT solutions on two axes, including the “completeness of vision” and the “ability to execute.” Those that score well in both categories are placed in the vaunted upper left quadrant of the magical box. Nine other vendors had solutions in the winners quadrant, Fiserv says. (Access to the magical boxes is quite restricted.)

Dave Santi, division president of the bank solutions business at Fiserv, says the Gartner listing reflects Fiserv’s commitment to lead the digital transformation of financial services. “We believe the positioning of Fiserv in the leaders quadrant by Gartner is evidence of the Fiserv core competency in account processing, as well as our deep expertise in the delivery of deep yet cost effective solutions for global financial institutions,” Santi states in a press release.

Signature is one of two core banking platforms from the Brookfield, Wisconsin, software company that run on the IBM i platform, the other being Premier. Signature, which used to be called Comprehensive Banking System (CBS), is used by medium-size and large financial institutions, including retail banks, credit co-operatives, and credit unions. The software is used in 46 countries across 21 languages, and supports savings and term deposits, loans, overdraft and agreed credit arrangement (ACA) processing, mortgages, collections, trade finance, treasury, insurance, imaging, document management, and card products.

The software–which Fiserv dubs an “SOA-based” system–actually runs primarily on the IBM i server, although some components can run under AIX. Last year, Fiserv ventured to IBM‘s Rochester Labs to see how well the SOA-based software scaled on IBM’s SOI (silicon on insulator)-based hardware. Signature was able to process 80 million accounts in two hours and 41 minutes on a 12-core, Power 6-based Model 570. It undoubtedly runs even faster on the new Power7 technology.

In other news, Fiserv and Kronos announced plan to develop software that measures the performance and efficiency of the human labor force working at Fiserv Signature shops.

The integration will involve Kronos’ workforce management software, which helps to control labor costs by analyzing absenteeism, leave liability, unplanned overtime, unproductive hours, and aligning labor with customer demand. The software’s automation of pay policies also helps to ensure accuracy of paychecks, and minimizes the chance of running afoul of labor laws.

“The workforce is often the largest asset of a financial institution and as such needs to be effectively managed,” Andrew Steadman, director of product strategy in the Bank Solutions business at Fiserv.