If You Want To Know Which Apps Were Hot In 2006, Ask The Guys Who Sold Them

Art Gillis www.artgillis.com

It was the first time I ever asked this question, and I was thrilled at the quick, clean and no-hype reactions from six in-the-trenches companies that have been telling it like it is to me for 25 years - Fiserv, Fidelity (and its acquirees), Metavante, Jack Henry, Harland Financial Solutions and COCC.Thirteen apps made the list of the most sold technologies to banks, S&Ls and credit unions, but only three got mentioned more than once.

Remote Merchant Capture 5 Compliance & Security Related 3 Bill Payment 2

I had an opportunity to test the accuracy of this survey. While I was interviewing the CEOs of these companies in a totally unrelated setting, they pretty much recognized two hot areas - 1) electronic payments (that's bill pay) and 2) anything having to do with security. That's pretty good confirmation. Maybe the reasons the CEOs didn't pick Remote Merchant Capture is because they are P&L oriented, and that application, as hot as it is, isn't making much money for bank tech vendors. You can figure that out. In Remote Merchant Capture, the vendor gives up tasks for others to perform. That doesn't increase the tech vendor's invoice value to a bank. Merchants buy their own capture devices, enter their own items, truncate the documents, and stop paying vendors Item Processing charges for those transactions. It's a better system, but not for the guys who don't do the work anymore.

For readers who are more interested in what is, as opposed to what counts, I offer the other 10 popular apps:

Loan & Deposit Pricing Image Exchange (aka Check 21) eStatements Distributed Capture Applications (that includes Remote Merchant Capture) Core Applications (both in-house and outsourced) Commercial Credit Management System Check Image Processing Cash Management Card Solutions Business Intelligence

I also want to express my sentiments about why I regard vendor feedback a whole lot more reliable than banker feedback. Here it is in simple terms. Vendors know stuff because it impacts their wallets. Bankers tell stuff because they are planners. Who would you believe?