Headlines:
Cognizant Starts Project with IndyMac Md. Bank Switching to Fiserv System Wis. Credit Union Picks Open Solutions
Cognizant Starts Project with IndyMac
IndyMac Bancorp Inc. has hired Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. of Teaneck, N.J., to provide a range of information technology services.
Gulshan Garg, an executive vice president and the chief technology officer at the Pasadena, Calif., mortgage lender, said that one early goal is to use the outsourcing provider to consolidate the three loan origination systems used by its principal subsidiary, IndyMac Bank.
"We have a lot of other technical initiatives we need to do that we need to provide resources for," Mr. Garg said in a recent interview. He said IndyMac plans to complete the consolidation by early 2006.
Cognizant has its headquarters in the United States, but many of its 15,000 employees are in India. Mr. Garg said the time difference enables IndyMac to "leverage the clock" so that its technology experts can perform their programming duties during U.S. business hours and to do the testing of the outsourcer's work at night.
As part of its agreement, IndyMac is using Cognizant for application development, integration and management, infrastructure outsourcing, help desk, testing, business and technology consulting, and business analysis services.
Cognizant is also supporting many of IndyMac's core applications, including loan origination and underwriting; its PeopleSoft Corp. financial and human-resources applications; and its customer-relationship management system from Siebel Systems Inc.
Despite this extensive arrangement, Mr. Garg emphasized that he plans to retain an in-house technology staff at IndyMac.
"We will never outsource jobs. We are looking to augment our resources in an expedient, cost-effective manner to address our resource requirements for growth opportunities," he said. By outsourcing these support functions, "our current employees get to spend more time on higher-value tasks."
Frank D'Souza, Cognizant's chief operating officer, said the IndyMac project "is actually well under way." The vendor announced the contract only in mid-February but has been performing the services since mid-2004, Mr. D'Souza said in an interview. "We think it's a validation that offshoring has become a legitimate business concept."
Md. Bank Switching to Fiserv System
Fiserv Inc. announced that Baltimore County Savings Bank plans to convert its core account processing this year to the Brookfield, Wis., vendor's Vision system for outsourced transaction processing.
The $765 million-asset Baltimore County Savings also hired Fiserv to provide check processing, electronic funds transfer, risk management, data warehousing, and document imaging services.
Gary C. Loraditch, the bank's president and chief executive, said in a press release issued Friday by Fiserv: "We plan to grow, both in assets and in the products and services we offer our customers. We needed a technology provider who could take us there."
Baltimore County has 15 branches in the Baltimore area. It has opened two new branches this year and plans to add a third this year.
Fiserv said its Vision system is used by more than 350 clients in 43 states.
Wis. Credit Union Picks Open Solutions
Open Solutions Inc. announced Monday that Royal Credit Union of Eau Claire, Wis., had selected the vendor's Complete Credit Union Solution software for core account processing.
The $650 million-asset credit union also bought several other products from the Glastonbury, Conn., software maker. Those products are for accounts payable and general ledger, interactive voice response, consumer and mortgage lending, customer relationship management and business intelligence, cash management, and Internet banking.
The credit union has 11 branches in northwestern Wisconsin and the seventh-largest business lending portfolio among credit unions, Open Solutions said.
Jim Watts, Royal Credit Union's chief information officer, said Open Solutions' business offerings and cash management products would provide the same functionality and services that the credit union's member businesses could find at a commercial bank. Royal has not yet implemented the software.
"This is an opportunity for us to bring new products to market much faster than we could on our previous, legacy platform," Mr. Watts said in Open Solutions' press release. "Shaving time off the product to market and product development timetables is important to us."
