Headlines:
VSoft and Unisys in Combined Offering Harland Ups Guidance for Quarter, Year Bisys Renews Networking Deal with AT&T
VSoft and Unisys in Combined Offering
VSoft Corp. announced Tuesday that it will offer its check processing management software in conjunction with an image analysis system from Unisys Corp.
VSoft, of Atlanta, makes software for regional and community banks. It said one of its customers, the $808 million-asset Farmers National Bank Corp. of Canfield, Ohio, is beta-testing the combined system, which links Unisys' Image Usability Analysis software with VSoft's Genesis Image Quality Manager.
Murthy Veeraghanta, the president of VSoft, said the system could be used at a bank's central clearing center or in a branch.
The check scanning system from Unisys, of Blue Bell, Pa., includes software that examines image quality when a bank converts paper checks into digital files and can flag potentially problematic checks, which may not produce a good image. The VSoft software enables an operator to rescan those items automatically.
"These kinds of decisions have to be made at the branch level, because the items will be truncated there," Mr. Veeraghanta said. The agreement expands an existing relationship between VSoft and Unisys.
Harland Ups Guidance for Quarter, Year
Citing stronger-than-expected operating results and one-time balance-sheet adjustments, the check printer and software developer John H. Harland Co. has raised its earnings guidance.
The Atlanta company said Tuesday that it now expects a fourth-quarter profit of 75 cents to 80 cents a share. In October, the last time if offered an outlook, the projection was 65 to 70 cents. For all of 2004, Harland projected profit of $1.96 to $2.01, against $1.86 to $1.91 in the earlier guidance.
Harland also offered a preliminary guidance for 2005 of $2.38 to $2.43 per share, and said final 2005 guidance would be included with its fourth-quarter results, which are scheduled to be released Feb. 3.
Bisys Renews Networking Deal with AT&T
AT&T Corp. has won a three-year contract renewal to provide networking services to Bisys Group Inc., a provider of financial services outsourcing.
AT&T said the multimillion-dollar contract expands a longstanding relationship with the New York company, which serves more than 1,000 domestic and international customers in banking, insurance, and investment services.
