The acquisition will create technology designed specifically to meet the needs of smaller ambitious and off-shore institutions, says Misys. Idom's front-end technology will be bundled with Misys' Bankmaster LAN product to create Bankmaster Plus. Available immediately, the software will use a Windows interface and flexible reporting capabilities to enable existing users to add all of the new front-end modules when required.

Misys has also signalled the introduction of a new software architecture, Equation Plus, based on the porting of its existing Equation product to a new standards-based open Java platform. Due in Q1, 2005, the multi-channel software has been designed to help banks respond to the shifting boundaries between retailing and banking.

This will provide more choice on hardware and software systems and should make integration project faster through access to a far wider skills pool, says the vendor. In addition to running on an IBM iSeries, Equation plus will also run on open Unix systems using a choice of DB2 or Oracle 10g database technology.

Explaining the rationale behind the new Misys strategy, Andrew Derrer, CEO of Misys Retail Banking says: "Banks of all sizes have to adapt to a very different market where customers expect more sophisticated products from more channels in more ways. The only way banks can succeed is by either cutting costs and competing on price, or, more profitably, by out-retailing their competition as well as out-banking them."

"Banks need to have the right architecture in order to make this move. Equation Plus streamlines commodity services, delivers every product through every channel, enables the bank to truly understand its customer and still provides room for innovative, differentiated new services," he adds.

In addition, the Equation Plus architecture will also introduce a business process management component and rules engine through which banks can configure the system to meet their particular business demands going forward.