INNOVATOR: John Landis
FIRM: Corelation
TRIPLE PLAY: This is the third core processing system Landis' has had a hand in building
It's not often that core systems sprout from the ground up, but John Landis, has created three in his 30-year career in the credit union industry. Landis founded Symitar in 1984, which was acquired by Jack Henry & Associates in 2000. Since he left Jack Henry he launched Corelation, a startup with a new core system, KeyStone, that already has a handful of customers. With Corelation, Landis offers credit unions something banks ought to be craving: a core system organized around the individual and not the account.
Q: What's the greatest innovation in the KeyStone system?
A: The new Keystone system has been built from the ground up with the focus on the member or the client. All previous legacy systems have been account centered, where all activities on the system are based on an account and account number. This system from the very beginning has been based around individual human being, where all you need to know is who you're dealing with and the system then lifts out every account they have a relationship with, every activity that's going on in the institution that is concerned with that member or customer.
Q: What will it take for the entire financial services industry to switch to a customer-centric architecture?
A: It really takes starting from scratch on a data processing system. There are a number of vendors with existing systems attempting to retrofit this approach into their systems, it's extremely difficult to do it well without starting from the ground up. However I do believe that Corelation is only the first system that will be written from the ground up with this approach, there will be more systems written from the ground up to replace these legacy systems as I believe there is a need and a market for this sort of thing.
Q: What advantages will go to the early adopters?
A: They will be able to know their members much better than those who do not have these sorts of systems, track activities of their members, be able to pinpoint delivery strengths and weaknesses, know exactly who is using their services and what services and be able to tailor them accordingly.
Q: This is the third core platform you've developed. How many more do you have in you?
A: This is definitely the last.
