UCS is a real-time system that includes a fully integrated view of a customer across the enterprise. Additionally, it provides an extensive inventory of well-defined business services and processes covering business functions such as customer acquisition, fulfillment, case management and contact management. It is one of the industry's first standards-compliant transactional hubs that works with multiple core processing systems, multiple lines-of-business and multiple customer databases. It is also the first in a series of hub applications that Fidelity will offer its clients to provide a central processing facility for similar application and business functions.

UCS is pre-integrated with other existing Fidelity customer and core banking systems, and maintains consistency between the databases in real time by providing direct updates, as well as a data synchronization engine between the Fidelity systems. These systems include the Fidelity Relationship Management system, the Profile banking system (U.S. real-time corebank system) and the Corebank banking system (Fidelity's real-time corebank system for financial services institutions outside the U.S.).

When used in conjunction with Xpress Enterprise Services, Fidelity's service-oriented architecture and business process management facility, UCS enables financial institutions to target responses to customer inquiries, proactively manage customer accounts and increase cross-selling opportunities by offering products tailored to the customer's requirements across all channels. These features allow an institution to use customer information to more effectively manage sales and service interactions, and provide a common customer experience.

Fidelity's UCS complies with available standards-based protocols, such as the Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) standard to ensure maximum interoperability across channel applications and with third-party applications.

"This enterprise-wide customer hub is a great addition to Fidelity's suite of solutions for financial services organizations because it provides a cost- effective solution and tremendous business value for clients who are looking to achieve an integrated processing environment," said Frank Sanchez, president of leveraged product development for Fidelity Information Services. "Fidelity believes that streamlined operational abilities, enhanced sales and servicing opportunities, and a consistent customer experience across channels are key benefits to a financial institution's integration strategy. With UCS, our clients will be able to provide a more consistent experience to their customers through any interaction channel, enabling them to lower new customer acquisition costs and provide a superior level of service."