"The increasing drive to streamline global banking practices means our software needs to manage highly complex and rapid transactions across platforms and different banks. By using Informatica, rather than continually creating bespoke data interfaces, we can enable a faster ROI while freeing our professional services teams to provide more value to customers," said Neil Vernon, head of SmartStream's Product Management Group. "We selected Informatica to power TLM BI following an evaluation where they scored highest against our key criteria of usability, reusability and performance. In addition, it was critical that TLM BI have the focus and support of a recognized best-of-breed vendor such as Informatica."

Previously, SmartStream took a custom approach to addressing the data integration needs of each customer. But with banking becoming more globalized, legislated, and focused on achieving operational efficiency, SmartStream solutions have increasingly needed to embrace multiple data formats, utilize data from many more platforms, and meet the requirements of an expanding transaction lifecycle. In turning to Informatica, SmartStream is now able to meet these needs through a standard platform approach to data integration that can keep pace with customers' escalating processing requirements, and has avoided having to build and sustain advanced integration capabilities on its own.

As the data integration engine for TLM BI, Informatica PowerCenter serves as the data hub for a growing number of SmartStream customers with complex data environments. PowerCenter provides these customers with a highly scalable and codeless development environment to facilitate the integration of data from literally hundreds of disparate source systems and applications. This includes handling data from proprietary and legacy banking systems as well as industry standard libraries including CHAPS, SWIFT, NACHA and FIX. Consequently, Smart Stream has reduced both its own development costs and those of its customers, sped up customer time-to-value, and redeployed its professional services teams from data integration tasks to providing higher-value business process management consulting.

"Powerful data integration is pivotal in today's banking environments, from managing risk to knowing the customer to providing visibility into transaction processes like the way SmartStream does it," said Harry Gould, senior vice president, Worldwide Alliances, Informatica. "Informatica-powered data integration is a key resource in more than 800 financial institutions worldwide. And it is also an increasing strategic advantage for ISVs and SIs serving the financial and other industries, who can turn to Informatica to address technical challenges that lay outside of their core expertise. This keeps them and their customers perpetually on the cutting edge of data integration performance and functionality."