2009-10-30

Megasol and IDEALINVENT creates joint venture company for the development of Corniche 5
The IDEALINVENT Group and Megasol Technologies KB announce that they have reached agreement to form a new jointly-owned company, Corniche Development Company KB.

The new company will own the rights to and manage future development of a java-based version of Megasol’s successful Corniche Banking System. IDEALINVENT is contributing its front end suite ProcessMate consisting of workflow management, Consolidated Channel Framework, Teller. CRM, Internetbank and sales support which will be seamlessly interfaced with Corniche, empowering complex task management for the banking front-end and enhanced CRM and KYC to meet compliance standards.

First release to selected early adopters running the current version of Corniche will begin in Q2/2010 with first deliveries to new contracts occurring in Q3/2010.

At a celebratory function at Stockholm’s World Trade Centre on Thursday 29th October 2009, Premkumar Bhagwatsaran, group CEO of IDEALINVENT said “It was important to us to establish a partnership which matched at both the personal and the product level. Megasol is known for the personal attention paid by its management to its customers’ staff at all levels. Its expertise in managing the rapid development of complex financial software combined with the talents of our Bangalore programming team guarantee that we can make promises which we can keep. And the close personal rapport which has built naturally between the top management of IDEALINVENT and the partners of Megasol ensures success for Corniche Development Company.”

Mårten Törnquist, President of Megasol Technologies KB noted “The development of the Corniche java version will be greatly accelerated by this joint venture. The application will set new standards for function, flexibility and form. Our experience in working with innovative customers at the sharp end of private banking together with the years of traditional banking experience which the management of IDEALINVENT brings to the development process will enable the Corniche java version to quickly become the standard by which all new banking software must be measured.”

The Corniche java version will be offered as ASP or SaaS services or through on-site licensing. Its design is both platform and database neutral allowing the use of existing systems capable of supporting Java, HTML and SQL-structured databases.

IDEALINVENT, an ISO 9001:2000 company, is a product and solutions provider to the Banking Financial Service Industry sector based out of Bangalore, India, with offices in Sweden and Lithuania. Over the last years IDEALINVENT has been developing and implementing solutions catering to the specific requirements of the BFSI sector. IDEALINVENT also has wide expertise in Consultancy & Implementation of Core Banking Systems across geographies. IDEALINVENT has 100+ employees across 3 countries. The company web site is at: http://www.idealinvent.com/.

Megasol Technologies KB is a privately owned Swedish company based in the university city of Uppsala. It specialises in leading edge software for the private banking industry through its Corniche product and its associated CornicheNet on-line banking system. It operates hosting facilities in Stockholm and Amsterdam for clients making use of its Corniche application through ASP services. The company’s web site is at: http://www.megasol.se/.

For further information contact:
Premkumar Bhagwatsaran, Group CEO, IDEALINVENT: premkumar.b@idealinvent.com
Mårten Törnquist, President, Megasol Technologies KB: info@megasol.se

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2009-03-13

Computer Sweden features Megasol
In an interview with Computer Sweden, Mårten Törnquist, President of Megasol Technologies explained the unique positioning of the company to meet today's demand for secure, cloud-based banking. He noted that large banking software suppliers can fail to meet expectations and that Megasol has been invited to step in with a solution. Although not a significant growth factor in Sweden, small banking is growing internationally as people have lost faith in large banks. A wide range of financial institutions require a cost-effective banking platform to handle the accounting and customer interfaces for imaginative new markets. The Computer Sweden article can be found here: http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.217748/han-slass-med-konsultjattarna-om-smabankerna.

An English translation of the article follows:

He fights with consulting giants over small banks

Businesses & Companies: Small Swedish company Megasol competes with the giants in a new market which has arisen in which bank services are located in the cloud.

It has become much more common to offer complete bank systems as cloud services. Small company Megasol competes against big consultant companies - and has won clients like Akelius Spar, Gothia and recently Capinordic, whose bank Megasol built up last autumn.

- The finance crisis has shown that the big banks are not necessarily safe harbours, and in many cases it can seem that smaller banks are safer. We are noticing that especially in the international market, people are looking for alternatives to the larger banks, says Megasol's CEO and founder Mårten Törnquist.

Megasol with just eight employees has to compete with considerably larger companies. CEO and founder Mårten Törnquist mentions Logica, that provides one the world's biggest bank systems, Tieto, that has three of its own systems, and Ålandsbanken, that has its own system which it also sells. Computer Sweden has earlier also reported how EDB initiated a big bank investment.

- Obtaining advanced security technology is not a disadvantage to smaller players. On the other hand, companies are inclined to think that it is safer with a bigger supplier, says Mårten Törnquist.
- We have lost possible contracts to large suppliers who in the end could not deliver. Then the client has ended up coming to us despite everything.

One advantage of Megasol's solution is that its system handles commodities as if they are currencies.

- it means that one can to have a bank account in gold or silver. Gold is especially interesting now, it is considered safe.

Should there not be more competitors in line with the growth in the number of small banks?

- it may be so, but many years of programming is required in order to produce a good system so it is a quite high threshold.

According to Mårten Törnquist, in this market, A & O is a good and safe internet bank.

Which types of companies starts a bank?

- There are two groups: First, companies that have a financial interest, that have big organisations behind them and want to enter new markets. They can have application in such markets as debt collection companies, real-estate companies or a local branch of a foreign bank like our customer, Capinordic. Secondly there is the entrepreneurial groups that are run on imaginative ideas and a large portion of scepticism against big banks.

Last year, four new banks started in Sweden. This market, like the entire financial market have been in turmoil in the footsteps of the economic crisis.

Mårten Törnquist thinks however that the market is more sluggish in Sweden than internationally.

- globally I see a bigger interest in starting banks today than last autumn. Sweden has not followed this trend as yet.

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2009-02-01

Corniche CheckMate offers fast OFAC/SDN compliance checking
Megasol Technologies announced today that the first phase of customer testing of its new Corniche Checkmate module have been successfully completed. CheckMate provides update of OFAC and SDN notices to a searchable local database. In phase one of the implementation, banks and other financial institutions can search the database during the due diligence processes for new client applications and during the examination of requests for payments to verify whether the named person or organisation appears on the list. CheckMate incorporates soundex techniques which allow close matches to a name to appear on the list of matches. Clicking on a match allows the Corniche user to examine the whole record as supplied by OFAC/SDN.

Paul de Freitas, Director of Customer Services, said “Privacy is under attack globally and using a third-party validation service to which a name is sent for checking is just another loss of privacy for existing and prospective clients. The fact that the OFAC/SDN lists are imported into the local environment means that Corniche customers can assure their clients that their privacy is being safeguarded to the maximum extent permissible.”

Mårten Törnquist, President of Megasol Technologies, noted that CheckMate is another element which proves that Megasol is determined to provide leading edge tools to Corniche users for security, compliance, business management and client accounting. He noted “Megasol is in the business of anticipation. Our job is to develop new technologies for our customers before they even recognise the need for them. The toolset provided in Corniche is unmatched by any comparably priced private banking system available today. The very fact that Corniche is in use today supporting such diverse industries as international payment gateways, pooled cash investment clubs, and other diverse financial institutions is an indicator of the flexibility built into the Corniche application”.

Megasol Technologies is a leading producer of financial software and is based in Uppsala, Sweden. For further information, contact Paul de Freitas, Director of Customer Services on +1.800.969.7415 or +46.18.604930 or send an e-mail to info@megasol.se.

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2008-09-09

Capinordic Bank A/S chooses Corniche banking system for its Swedish operations
Megasol Technologies is pleased to welcome Capinordic Bank A/S to its customer list. From September 1st 2008, the Swedish branch of Capinordic Bank will be operating on the Corniche banking platform including CornicheNet, the associated online banking solution.

A rigorous selection process between competing vendors led to signing of contracts between Megasol and Capinordic in May 2008 followed by production of certain new service elements including facilities to allow interchange between the Danish and Swedish Capinordic platforms.

Mårten Törnquist, President of Megasol Technologies noted that the addition of Scandinavian automation features such as Bankgirot, with its autogiro and payment services, when combined with the extraordinary flexibility of Corniche gave financial institutions in Scandinavia a new cost effective choice for totally integrated financial management solutions. He said "Megasol prides itself in the capabilities of its flagship product, Corniche. Besides offering a wide range of tools for account management, pooled investments, commissionable agents and true multiple currency operations, its CornicheNet online banking module is one of the most complete in the global marketplace. It is not good enough to provide superb facilities for the back-office if the client interface is neglected. Megasol pays attention to both, being driven by our customers to lead the market."

Capinordic spokesperson, Ulrika Nathhorst Jener, commented "It was important to Capinordic Bank A/S that its Swedish branch be fully equipped to perform in its marketplace offering the full range of services required by our customers. On the other hand, we needed to ensure communications with our Danish HQ and with third-party financial transaction automation services such as other banks. Corniche offered the performance and services we required at an excellent price."

Ulrika Nathhorst Jener continued "We required certain enhancements to meet existing data transfer needs and new service options. In all cases, the Megasol team was helpful and the resulting extensions to Corniche were delivered on time and within budget. I can best describe our relationship with Megasol as a partnership of friendship since that is the way in which Megasol operates its customer relationships."

Megasol Technologies is a leading producer of financial software and is based in Uppsala, Sweden. For further information, contact Paul de Freitas, Director of Customer Services on +1.800.969.7415 or +46.18.604930.

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