Deal lets EDS offer cash management.

Electronic Data Systems Corp. reached an agreement last week with a developer of cash management systems to let small banks access the software via a service bureau.

The agreement with San Francisco-based Maxxus Inc., which expands upon a previous marketing pact, enables EDS to offer the full range of Maxxus products and services including corporate-to-corporate payment transmissions, electronic data interchange of invoice or remmittance data, account-balance reporting, and reconciliation.

EDS will market the Maxxus products to its clients under the name EDS OnCall Cash Management.

EDS OnCall is suite of information-based products that also includes client-server computing technology, document imaging, report management, branch automation, collections, and executive information systems.

103,000 PCs

The Dallas-based company already offers Maxxus's PC-based software for initiating payments through the automated clearing house system to its more than 5,000 financial institution clients worldwide.

The move strengthens EDS' offerings in corporate banking technology, where cash-management services are providing banks with more fee income.

The cash management business has generally been dominated by money center and regional banks who can afford to invest in hardware and software to link up corporate clients, according to Ted Shaw, vice president of the EDS financial services division.

But Mr. Shaw said the pact with Maxxus would now enable community banks to offer similar services, while keeping technology costs down via an outsourcing relationship with EDS.

"This alliance marks an important move toward providing community banks with the tools they need to be more competitive," Mr. Shaw said.

"Corporate cash-management capabilities have become one of the determining factors a company considers when reviewing its financial relationship," he noted. "By offering these products and services to our service bureau customers, we're helping them retain valued corporate customers and attract new business."

Mr. Shaw said with EDS OnCall Cash Management, a bank's corporate clients equipped with a PC and modem will be able to dial into an EDS data center either to download information or to initiate payments. The bank can monitor its customers' activity via its own networked PC.

Offerings Strengthened

Community banks have become avid users of PC technology. According to the American Banker/Ernst & Young 1993 Community Banking Technology Survey, there were more than 103,000 PCs installed in banks with less than $1 billion in assets by the end of last year. The survey predicted the number would jump by nearly 50%, to over 150,000 microcomputers, by 1996.

John Fountain, national sales director for Maxxus, said he believed the pact with EDS would help his firm achieve greater market share of smaller banks.

"Small to midsize financial institutions are the next tier we've targeted to provide affordable cash-management services," Mr. Fountain said.

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