Summit Bancorp., Princeton, N.J., will offer its cash management services-which are provided by Automated Data Processing Inc.-in a Windows version, in addition to the current DOS form.
"Our customers wanted Windows," said Kimberly Johnson, vice president at $29 billion-asset Summit.
New software would integrate several Summit services, including same-day balance and transaction reporting, wire transfers, and letter of credit originations. The bank currently uses DOS-based versions of ADP's software.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Summit is among 120 banks that remarket cash management services provided by Roseland, N.J.-based ADP, a computer services company with $4 billion in revenues last year.
ADP recently formed two units-Electronic Banking and Treasury Automation Services-in part to raise its low profile among banks.
"We have increased the emphasis and focus and the investments we are making in this particular area," said Gail Angel, director of Treasury Automation Services at ADP.
A few years ago, "if you talked about ADP, people would have said, 'Oh yeah, a payroll company.'"
"If you talked to major cash management providers now, many would say otherwise."
ADP's behind-the-scenes role in banking has grown in recent years. Officials said the company has a close relationship with 21 of the top 25 banks in the nation and lists more than 1,300 banks as customers.
But bankers are nonetheless uneasy at letting their vendors get too close to their customers. ADP and First Data Corp., among others, could pose a threat to their banking business, observers said.
Rick Weingarten, an analyst at Salomon Brothers, New York, noted that ADP has direct access to the Federal Reserve electronic payment system through its banking charter in Allentown, Pa.
Furthermore, ADP excels in a particular financial service that once was a bailiwick of banks: payroll processing.
But Ms. Angel said ADP is not interested in competing with its banking customers. Her company wants to "complement what a bank does."
"We look for ways to add value to the relationship," she said.
Mr. Weingarten maintains a "buy" rating on ADP's stock, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. He said the company has reported double- digit growth in per-share earnings in "every quarter for more than 35 years."
"I don't think there is any other public company that can claim that," he said. u
