Bank technology vendor CFI ProServices Inc. announced last week it has agreed to acquire a developer of systems for telephone-based customer-service centers.
Officials at Portland, Ore.based CFI said they had agreed to acquire the Genesys Solutions Group, Huntington, N.Y., for 310,000 CFI shares in deal valued at $4.3 million. CFI officials said they expect to close the deal by the end of this month.
CFI, formed in 1978. has primarily developed regulatory compliance software for use by branch personnel in community banks and midsize institutions.
Genesys, founded in 1991, has installed its software at a handful of large institutions, including Chemical Bank, First Fidelity Bancorp., Midlantic Corp., and First Bancorporation of Ohio.
CFI officials said Genesys expects to have revenues of $2.3 for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. CFI reported revenues of $26.4 million in 1993.
Ken Olsen, president and chief operating officer at CFI, said the acquisition broadens his company's product line and market reach.
"As CFI has come of age and shown up in more places, we've run across a number of situations where we have been asked by our customers, or even by other software vendors, to become part ' of a total branch automation system where we just put in our compliance engine," Mr. Olsen said.
"So we started to talk to [other bank software vendors] we could partner with or buy. As part of that search we found Genesys."
Mr. Olsen said that while Genesys does not sell a branch automation system per se, its software is closely related, as more and more banks are looking to upgrade their telephone-based customer service call centers as an alternative delivery mechanism to branches.
"We've been trying figure out where customer contact was growing and where it was declining," he said.
"Our conclusion was that while the branch will remain the dominant voice for dealing with customers, its growth would remain relatively stagnant or even decline slightly as most of the simple transactions go elsewhere - to automated teller machines and telephone service centers ."
Mr. Olsen added that another attraction to Genesys' software was its very efficient' method for connecting customer-service PC workstations to a bank's host systems, a technology CFI can take advantage in its compliance software.
"The way they tie into the mainframe can give us some added entry in bigger banks, especially on the loan side," he said.
Mr. Olsen said Genesys is looking at modifying its software for use in branches as well as telephone centers, but that did not preclude CFI from forming alliances with other branch automation vendors or making further acquisitions.
"I think that we are consciously looking to expand our business through acquisitions," he said, adding that CFI would continue to seek out software firms in the compliance and customer service areas.
CFI officials said the company will run Genesys - which will continue to operate out of its Long Island offices - as a wholly owned subsidiary.
