A Norwegian vendor has teamed up with a bank and a payroll software provider to develop a product, which it hopes to market in the United States, that combines online banking and office management.
ICT Group AS' 24SevenOffice Ltd., a Trondheim provider of online back-office management software, said last week that it had developed the integrated banking and "administrative hub" with help from the Oslo payroll software provider Bluegarden AS and Fokus Bank Strandkaien, a Trondheim subsidiary of Denmark's Danske Bank Group.
The product includes accounting, payroll, and customer relationship management tools, all accessed online by logging in to a single Web site, 24SevenOffice said. The site links users' accounts receivable software with their online banking accounts, and enables people to manage their balances and keep track of funds moving in and out of the account, in real time.
The vendor has started offering the software to its 4,300 customers in Europe but did not say when it plans to offer the product in the United States. It said partnering with Fokus Bank will give it access to the banking company's 200,000 Norwegian customers, and possibly the customers of its Danish parent.
Morten Bjornsen, a Fokus Bank director, said in a 24SevenOffice press release that the combination of online banking and office management software is a "world first" and will help his company "attract new customers away from our competitors."
In an e-mail, 24SevenOffice's chairman, Andreas Arnesen, said it is "continuing to pursue new growth opportunities, including in the United States, where we have had initial discussions with potential partners and investors."
