Intuit Gives Boost to Analytic Software Firm
May 7, 1998
American Banker : A company that makes high-powered
analytical software for financial institutions has
received a vote of confidence from Intuit Inc., the
software marketer best known for its Quicken personal
financial manager.
Licensing software from Financial Technologies
International Inc. and taking an equity stake of up to
10% in that New York company, Intuit seems to be
underscoring its desire to be a consolidator of financial
information.
FTI's principal products, The Box Universal Financial
Server and Global Financial Data Model, are designed to
help large banks, brokers, and insurance companies pull
together account data from a variety of computer
systems.
"They enable consolidation of multiple streams of
financial information, " said Raymond G. Stern, Intuit's
senior vice president of strategy. "If you think about
what Intuit does, we consolidate information for the
consumer."
"We tested The Box and Global Financial Data Model
for performance, flexibility, functionality, and content,
and found them to be a unique, well- engineered
solution," said Eric Dunn, senior vice president and
chief technology officer of Intuit.
He also described FTI as "a partner with valuable and
scarce financial software skills and experience."
Mr. Stern said Intuit's specific plans for FTI software
would not be publicized until later this year, but the deal
comes in the context of other alliances Intuit announced
in recent months with America Online Inc., CNN
Financial Network, and Tele-Communications Inc. The
linkups are expected to boost traffic on the Quicken.com
World Wide Web site, where Intuit plays a consolidator
or aggregator role for financial consumers and their
information needs.
Intuit, based in Mountain View, Calif., is evolving into
more of an Internet service provider from a marketer of
off-the-shelf software like Quicken, which helps home
computer users consolidate information from multiple
accounts.
In the move to the Web, Intuit may need larger-scale
systems to warehouse personal financial information for
delivery to individuals' browser software. FTI's
programs can help in managing incoming streams of
financial data and organizing them for individuals.
"We are accustomed to helping large enterprises and
helping them organize their data to stay up-to-date with
the needs of their customers and the needs of the
regulators imposed on financial institutions," said
Charles J. Lewis, chairman and chief executive officer of
FTI.
Noting that the Global Financial Data Model has been
endorsed by the data base vendors Oracle Corp.,
Sybase Inc., International Business Machines Corp.,
and Microsoft Corp., Mr. Lewis said it is "by far the best
possible way for banks to begin to evolve from a state in
which they have no data standards to establishing data
standards."
But getting to a true standard may take a long time, an
analyst said.
"There is no de facto data base model" for the financial
services industry, said Octavio Marenzi, research
director of Meridien Research Inc., Needham, Mass.
"Every vendor has their own."
This multiplicity makes it difficult for financial
institutions to integrate the various types of software
they use internally.
Because data base products were historically created for
internal use, financial institutions had less incentive to
unite around a standard the way they have in the home
banking area, where the industry pushed for a
convergence of the competing approaches known as
Gold and Open Financial Exchange, or OFX.
With more financial institutions seeking to open data
bases to customers and partners via the Internet, FTI
officials sell their Box software as an information hub
between banks' mainframe computers and the Internet.
The Box consolidates disparate accounts using the
Open Financial Exchange protocol, which was originally
backed by Microsoft, Intuit, and Checkfree Corp.
"We approached FTI last year to explore ways that FTI
technology could help us accelerate some of our plans,"
said Intuit executive vice president William Harris,
executive vice president, who pointed to the two
companies' OFX compatibility.
"We discovered a strategic platform and decided to
invest," Mr. Harris said.
Some analysts wonder about FTI's benefit to Intuit. Mr.
Marenzi said, "It seems like overkill for a retail banking
application."
"Intuit is really an infomediary, a party who steps
between two groups but preserves the relationship and
the confidentiality of both parties," said Gary Craft of
BancAmerica Robertson Stephens. The analytic
software could help a company analyze individual
consumers' personal financial details and offer
suggestions about how to save or invest, he said.
But Mr. Marenzi contended there is "a fundamental
mismatch between the markets that Intuit goes after and
the much larger banks, brokers, and investment banks
that use FTI's systems," he said.
FTI clients include Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette
Securities, E-Trade Group, CIBC/Wood Gundy, Merrill
Lynch & Co., Northern Trust Corp., Royal Bank of
Canada, Union Bank of Switzerland, and Wilmington
Trust Co. Copyright c 1998 American Banker, Inc. All
Rights Reserved. americanbanker.com
By DREW CLARK
[Copyright 1998, American Banker] |
