By Olivia Cahoon
Today’s financial software companies create solutions for globalization, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) to remain competitive. The financial software market is growing. Research from MarketsandMarkets indicates that the global financial services application market to grow from $66.92 billion in 2004 to $103.66 billion by 2019, a compound annual growth rate of 9.1 percent.
Here is review of the financial application industry’s top players ranked highest in the 2016 Software 500, which published in Software Magazine’s November 2016 issue.
Fidelity National Information Services
Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), number 26 in the 2016 Software 500, reported revenue of $6.6 billion—2.83 percent growth from previous year. Fidelity provides financial technology solutions that power the financial world with software, services, consulting, and outsourcing solutions.
The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, and employs 55,000 people, serving more than 20,000 clients in over 130 counties.
FIS offers outsourced asset finance, banking treasury services, collateral marketing, compliance, commercial lending, risk management and analytics, and tax reporting.
The FIS Protegent suite of compliance solutions increases visibility across operational data to highlight risk areas for financial crime compliance. It is designed to identify patterns of trade behavior that indicate market manipulation or illegal insider trading. Protegent also administers personal trading processes for the entire staff and facilitates new brokerage and non-brokerage account openings.
Fiserv
Fiserv ranked 33 in the 2016 Software 500 with a revenue growth of 4.55 percent, bringing the company to $4.4 billion in revenue. Fiserv provides innovation in payments, processing services, risk and compliance, customer and channel management, and business insights and optimization.
With 22,000 employees, the company is based out of Brookfield, WI, and helps more than 13,000 clients worldwide.
Fiserv serves banks, credit unions, and wealth management. Its banking platforms are available for in-house or outsourced processing. Its Enterprise Services Framework (ESF) underlies Fiserv technology and helps financial institutions leverage enterprise information and introduce new technology faster.
ESF features real-time alerts, fraud detection, and enhances banker mobility and flexibility. It is the foundation for Communicator Advantage, an integration solution that modernizes and extends current system investments and facilitates future channel expansion.
Intuit
At number 37 in the 2016 Software 500, Intuit reported a revenue of $4.2 billion. Headquartered in MountainView, CA, Intuit Inc. has 7,700 employees. It capitalizes on social, mobile, and global trends by accelerating to the cloud.
The company creates business and financial management solutions that simplify processes for businesses, consumers, and accounting professionals. Its flagship solutions include QuickBooks and TurboTax.
The company also offers Mint, a money management application targeted at consumers that manages budgets and bills. Its ProConnect brand portfolio includes ProConnect Tax Online, ProSeries, and Lacerte tax preparation offerings. Intuit markets mobile applications for customer convenience.
Sage Software
Sage Software ranked 61 in the 2016 Software 500, reporting a decline of 1.10 percent, in revenue compared to the prior year, bringing the company to $2.2 billion in revenue. With 13,271 employees, the company is based out of Irvine, CA.
Sage provides integrated accounting, payroll, and payment systems to support the ambition of the world’s entrepreneurs.
“Our strategic partnerships with like-minded tech pioneers such as Salesforce, Microsoft, Google, and Apple build our credibility in the marketplace and help us gain significant traction in solving tomorrow’s accounting challenges,” says Jennifer Warawa, EVP, product marketing, Sage Software.
Warawa believes the business accounting sector is in dire need of technical innovation as the world continues to advance. Key trends include globalization, cash-less societies, intense focus on automation, compliance demands, AI, and bots.
As businesses globalize, companies are forced to manage different currencies—breaking away from traditional accounting that solely involves the local finance teams. Sage supports the integration of accounting into the entire company by offering accounting applications that connect to other applications for diverse functions accessible by other departments.
AI takes the accounting industry’s manual business processes to a faster speed with accuracy and volume capability. It crunches numbers and breaks down terminology to colloquial terms.
Sage Software offers Sage One, an online accounting software for small businesses to established users with specific business needs. “They’re looking for in-application help and direction on what to do and need only basic capabilities, such as create estimates and invoicing to send to clients, manage expenses and cashflow, integrated bank accounts to pay vendors and reconcile transactions, and manage simple inventory,” says Warawa.
Sage uses Pegg, a chatbot for accounting, to create new ways for users to engage in business. Pegg is like other messaging applications—Facebook Messenger or Slack. Warawa believes that utilizing messaging technology makes Pegg enable seamless collaboration among accountants and clients.
Verisk Analytics
Verisk Analytics ranked 66 in the 2016 Software 500 with a revenue growth of 18.39 percent, bringing the company to $2.1 billion. With 7,647 employees, the company is based out of Jersey City, NJ.
Verisk Analytics is a data analytics provider serving customers in insurance, natural resources, financial services, government, and risk management. With 45 years of experience, the company delivers data, analytics, and decision support to its customers.
Using advanced technologies to collect and analyze billions of records, the company draws on unique data assets and deep domain expertise to provide first-to-market innovations that are integrated into customer workflows.
Verisk offers predictive analytics and decision support solutions to customers in economic forecasting, claims, catastrophe and weather risks, global risk analytics, natural resources intelligence, rating, and underwriting.
Argus, a Verisk Analytics company, is a provider of information services for financial institutions. It offers predictive algorithms, business intelligence (BI), and analytics tools to help customers measure and manage portfolio performance.
Jack Henry & Associates
Jack Henry & Associates (JHA), number 87 in the 2016 Software 500, achieved revenue of $1.2 billion and a 7.97 percent growth from the previous year. The company is headquartered in Monett, MO, and employs 5,822 people to serve over 10,000 customers.
JHA offers over 300 products and services for customers to process financial transactions, automate business, and succeed in a competitive marketplace. Its brands include Jack Henry Banking, Symitar, and ProfitStars to support financial institutions and technology providers.
Jack Henry Banking includes three core banking platforms—SilverLake System, CIF 20/20, and Core Director. The platform solutions include retail delivery, online and mobile, payments, imaging, information security, risk management, BI, and consulting solutions.
Symitar offers solutions for core data processing and ancillary technology solutions for U.S. credit unions. Its Episys core platform is deployed in 650 U.S. credit unions.
ProfitStars solves business challenges by offering six performance solution groups—financial performance, retail delivery, imaging, JHA Payment Solutions, information security and risk management, and online and mobile.
DH Corporation
DH Corporation (formerly Davis + Henderson) ranked 88 in the 2016 Software 500 with a revenue growth of 14.40 percent, bringing the company to $1.2 billion. With 5,500 employees, the company is based out of Toronto, ON, Canada, and serves 8,000 clients from over 70 countries.
DH offers solutions for lending, payments, treasury services, enterprise solutions, and retail solutions. Its enterprise solutions provide integrated technology to financial institutions that need to grow, compete, and optimize business. Each DH core system integrates with the company’s other specialized products for ease and coverage.
As banks and credit unions face pressure to grow and improve operational efficiency, cloud solutions provide a technological foundation to manage risks, offer competitive products, improve efficiency, and deliver excellent customer service levels.
Enterprise products include core solutions with Microsoft-based architecture, designed exclusively for financial institutions, sales and analytics, digital banking with one platform across all devices, and merchant services.
Temenos Group
At number 140 in the 2016 Software 500, Temenos Group reported $542.5 million with a growth of 15.75 percent. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Temenos Group has 4,400 employees. The company creates software for banking and finance. It has over 2,000 firms across the globe and commits to spending 20 percent of its annual sales to research and development.
Its solutions include CorporateSuite for one system of all corporate banking needs and FundSuite to handle fund administration. The MicroBankingSuite is used by financial institutions and banks to handle micro banking issues like limited financial means, outreach costs, business model diversity, lack of scalability, and administrative challenges.
Temenos Group believes the digital revolution disrupted the marketplace and changed customer expectations, leaving banks to lose control while customers drive the retail banking evolution. The RetailSuite offers analytics and a single platform for distribution across all digital and assisted channels. It enables banks to provide convenience and choice for customer bank management. RetailSuite includes omni-channel solutions, front office, analytics and reporting, financial crime, and payment solutions.
Fidessa
At number 160 in the 2016 Software 500, Fidessa reported $452 million of revenue with a decline of 0.34 percent compared to the prior year. Headquartered in Surrey, U.K., Fidessa has 1,757 employees. Its products handle the trading process from low latency trading tools to compliance and risk management.
Fidessa’s Investment Management Solution allows mid- to large-asset managers to meet requirements with an end-to-end platform. It delivers services for investment decision, compliance, orders and trading, and post trade.
Fidessa offers solutions to automate front and middle office workflow and cover manual, electronic, retail, institutional, block, DMA, and algorithmic-based business. Its trading tools include basket and pairs trading, algorithmic trading, analytics and model building, and BI.
Its global connectivity allows businesses to access the world’s financial markets directly or connect to a range of trading services. Global connectivity is available for full integration into Fidessa’s buy- and sell-side product suites or as a direct FIX connection for in-house or third-party systems.
SS&C Technologies
SS&C Technologies, number 101 in the 2016 Software 500, achieved revenue of $1 billion, a 30.27 percent growth from last year. The company is headquartered in Windsor, CT, and employs 6,089 people.
The company offers over 30 years of knowledge and resources to create comprehensive software technology in the financial services industry. SS&C Technologies owns and maintains all of its technology to service any new market or asset class and respond to regulations. Its expertise is accounting, data management, reconciliation, reporting, and performance measurement and attribution.
Bill Stone, CEO/board chairman, SS&C Technologies, credits the company’s success to its customer’s deep industry expertise. “Our solutions enable our clients to focus on core operations, better monitor and manage investment performance and risk, improve operating efficiency, and reduce operating costs,” says Stone.
Stone believes the financial sector is experiencing an uptick that will continue for years in market consolidation. It’s influenced by the financial services industry’s desire to work with one-stop shop vendors instead of overseeing various vendor relationships.
Within the industry, one of the greatest challenges is competition. It addresses this issue by offering innovative products and services that strive for reliability, speed, transparency, and ease of use. “SS&C keeps a constant pulse on the industry to spot new opportunities and ways to further support both existing and new clients,” says Stone.
Financial Applications
Customer-driven banking and demands for speed now occupy the financial sector. With these demands we see the financial industry’s top ranked financial software providers offering solutions to better serve consumers.
May2017, Software Magazine
