Will Lead ACORD's Reinsurance & Large Commercial Program ACORD (www.acord.org) announced that Puneet Bharal has been elevated to Program Director for its Reinsurance and Large Commercial (RLC) standards program. He formerly served as the RLC Program Manager. Puneet Bharal, Program Director, Reinsurance & Large Commercial Program at ACORD In this new position, Mr. Bharal will manage the RLC standards program worldwide from ACORD's office in London. He will also be involved with cross domain initiatives such as the ACORD Standards Framework and working with ACORD's other two standards domains - Property & Casualty/Surety and Life & Annuity. Since 2001, ACORD has been maintaining and advancing the development of data standards for the reinsurance sector. In that time, ACORD standards have been identified as a key component of the London Market reform initiative to improve claims handling, accounting and settlement, and placing. The announcement was made prior to the official launch of ACORD Video on Demand (www.acordtv.org) in London being held October 4, 2006 at their office in the London Underwriting Centre. Mr. Bharal is also involved in the ACORD Video on Demand within the reinsurance sector as well as for the London Market and he will be working to help develop video in response to market needs.

About ACORD: Based in New York, ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) is a global, nonprofit insurance association whose mission is to facilitate the development and use of standards for the insurance, reinsurance and related financial services industries. With offices in London as well, ACORD accomplishes its mission by remaining an objective, independent advocate for sharing information among diverse platforms. ACORD Standards and services improve efficiency and expand market reach. Affiliated with ACORD are hundreds of insurance and reinsurance companies, and thousands of agents and brokers, related financial services organizations, solution providers, and industry organizations worldwide.

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GigaSpaces’ EVP Geva Perry to Share Spotlight in Presentation on Multi-Thread Applications Capabilities

GigaSpaces, the enterprise infrastructure software company that is revolutionizing application development, announced its EVP of Business Development Geva Perry will participate in the Tech Insights presentation of Intel Senior Fellow Richard Wirt to be given September 28th at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco. Wirt, an Intel Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Software and Solutions Group, invited GigaSpaces to showcase its Space-Based Architecture as a non-programmatic approach to multi-threading and parallel processing.

“GigaSpaces enables developers to leverage the parallel processing capabilities of multi-core platforms without the need for writing multi-threaded code,” said Perry, “saving significant development time and complexity. This allows our customers’ development efforts to focus on what truly adds value to them: their unique business logic.” According to Perry, GigaSpaces’ middleware applies parallelization at run-time, both at the thread and process level within multi-core CPUs and across multiple CPUs and servers. This, he said, enables users of GigaSpaces to leverage the power of multi-core and distribution.

The Director of Initiative Marketing for Intel Corporation, Jim Pappas, added, “The new Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor-based platform, based on Intel’s power-optimized micro-architecture, offers significantly improved performance. The combination of greater performance and reduced power consumption provides a strong foundation for enterprise applications that use GigaSpaces’ middleware solution.”

Since 2003, Intel has hosted a series of global IDF events in multiple venues around the world providing unique opportunities for computing and communications professionals to meet and exchange leading edge technology information. The September 26-28 event in San Francisco is at Moscone Center. Wirt’s keynote and Q&A session on the 28th will occur in the Main Hall from 10am to 11am. GigaSpaces will be exhibiting in booth #513 in the Digital Enterprise Zone.

About GigaSpaces
GigaSpaces provides a single platform for end-to-end scalability of high performance and stateful distributed applications. GigaSpaces’ unique approach enables developers to Write their business logic Once and then seamlessly Scale out the application linearly anywhere, and on-demand. It is targeted at applications characterized by high-volume transaction processing and low-latency requirements and provides an alternative to web-services for implementing high performance and scalable service-oriented architectures. GigaSpaces customers include leaders in the financial services, telecommunications sectors, and government institutions, including: Nortel, Societe Generale, Hutchinson 3G, Virgin Mobile, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Dow Jones where the need for mission-critical high-performance, low-latency, reliability and scalability necessitates an alternative to traditional approaches.  GigaSpaces was founded in 2000 and has offices in New York, San Francisco, London, Paris and Israel. It is a privately held company, funded by BRM Capital, Intel Capital and is an affiliated company of the Formula Group (NASDAQ: FORTY). For more information, please visit http://www.gigaspaces.com.

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Companies partner to provide advanced software for printing and managing IRDs and image cash letters

Open Solutions Inc., (NASDAQ: OPEN) a provider of integrated enabling technologies for financial services providers across the United States, Canada and international markets, and Rosetta Technologies Corporation, Tampa, Fla., a leader in secure enterprise printing solutions, announced they will partner to provide enhanced software and MICR laser printers for the printing and management of image replacement documents (IRDs) or substitute checks for the new Check 21 initiative.

With the addition of the Rosetta Technologies functionality to Open Solutions’ imaging and item processing product mix, banks and credit unions processing items in-house can print cash letter and IRDs—giving Open Solutions’ clients the best of either alternative. “This relationship is unique in that Open Solutions is not only going to resell Rosetta Technologies solutions in a traditional value-added reseller capacity, but Open Solutions is already an end-user of our IRDPrint ™ solutions in their item processing sites,” said Rob Hullar, president of Rosetta Technologies. “We believe Open Solutions is a powerful business partner and they have demonstrated a proven ability to leverage this type of relationship to offer the market solutions both as a value-added integrator and as a service provider for its clients who choose to outsource item processing to them.“

“Imaging has the power to dramatically reduce operating expenses for community financial institutions,” said Mark Ryan, vice president and general manager, Open Solutions Imaged Payment Technologies. “Institutions have to be advanced enough to leverage image solutions to reduce cost, improve quality and service. Yet they have to be flexible enough to process paper, data and images. Open Solutions offers our clients the options they need to clear items – via paper or electronically – no matter what stage of technological evolution an institution may be in.”

Mike Nicastro, Open Solutions’ SVP and chief marketing officer, said, “Check 21 is changing long-standing operational strategies within our industry. For those clients looking to stay in front of the competition, our products, services and partnerships give them that choice. Our relationship with Rosetta Technologies allows our clients the opportunity to move even further into the electronic payments world. We believe our technology offers community financial institutions the options and the confidence to adopt new strategies and product offerings at their own pace.”

About Open Solutions Inc.
Open Solutions Inc. offers a fully featured strategic product platform that integrates core data processing applications built on a single centralized Oracle relational database, with Internet banking, cash management, CRM/business intelligence, financial accounting tools, imaging, digital documents, Check 21, interactive voice response, network services, Web hosting and design, and payment and loan origination solutions. Open Solutions’ full suite of products and services allows banks, thrifts, credit unions and financial services providers in the United States and Canada to better compete in today’s aggressive financial services marketplace, and expand and tap their trusted financial relationships, client affinity, community presence and personalized service. For more information about Open Solutions, or its financial product line, contact Mickey Goldwasser by email at mgoldwasser@opensolutions.com, by phone at 860.652.3153 or via fax at 860.652.3156. Visit Open Solutions’ Internet site at www.opensolutions.com.

About Rosetta Technologies
Rosetta Technologies Corporation has been developing MICR printing solutions since the early 1990s. As a total solution leader for enterprise check printing, the Company delivers a full-service product set for business-critical applications such as check printing and secure documents. The Company’s offerings include a complete family of MICR laser printers from 37 to 276 IRDs-per-minute engineered by Rosetta Technologies for ANSI compliant MICR output, software packages for electronic document creation, output management and disbursement, post processing equipment, supplies, and electronic document creation services. On the Web: www.rosettatechnologies.com.

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Persistent group messaging leader and customer highlighted in new book

Microsoft is crediting Parlano Inc.’s MindAlign product with creating “a new paradigm for collaborative software” in a book called “Innovation Starts Here,” published this week by Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team (EBT).

The book also features Parlano customer Canaccord Adams, a global independent investment dealer, which is using Parlano’s MindAlign persistent group messaging software to help support significant growth and improve client service worldwide. “MindAlign is a powerful communication tool,” says Mark Maybank, COO for Canaccord Adams, as quoted in the book. “Our ability to share information in real time and further integrate our global team has been an important element in Canaccord Adams’ growth.”

The book is a look at how emerging companies have worked with Microsoft to increase revenue, reduce costs, and improve their businesses. These success stories from the Microsoft Emerging Business Team demonstrate how companies have successfully built on the Microsoft foundation.

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to work closely with partners like Parlano to enhance the value of the Microsoft platform and deliver more value to our customers,” said Don Dodge, director of business development for the Emerging Business Team. “Parlano is an exciting business to watch, and it’s great to be a part of their success.”

Designed to work in conjunction with Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and Microsoft Active Directory^®, MindAlign provides persistent group chat, intelligent messaging management, and advanced content-filtering capabilities for real-time communications and information flow. Through LCS Federation, MindAlign can connect to other LCS deployments and also support all three major public IM networks, including AOL AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN^® Messenger.

While some have described MindAlign communication as a powerful form of chat, Microsoft sees it as something entirely new, as indicated in this excerpt from the book:

MindAlign’s approach blurs the distinction between e-mail and [instant messaging] and is creating a new paradigm for collaborative software. A MindAlign chat is persistent, like e-mail, and need not be synchronous. A [MindAlign] chat session may involve a number of people, but not all of them have to be present at the time the conversation takes place. Those not present will simply see the record of the chat — like an e-mail — in MindAlign the next time they log in. This is persistent chat. So is it e-mail or instant messaging? Perhaps both.

“We have enjoyed a close alliance with Microsoft since our founding,” said Nick Fera, Parlano’s chairman and CEO. “Our products and platforms complement each other, consistently delivering new benefits for customers who need to cut costs and increase profits by extending competitive advantages in an increasingly fast-paced and fluid business environment.”

The Microsoft EBT works with venture capitalists (VCs) and start-up companies worldwide to enable innovation and accelerate the software ecosystem. The Microsoft EBT mission is to identify and facilitate opportunity for start-ups and VCs, acting as the single point of contact and accountability to Microsoft. Since its inception in 1999, the EBT has helped connect thousands of start-up companies with technical assistance, sales and marketing opportunities, venture capital support and other assets to give them a competitive edge.

To view or obtain a copy of “Innovation Starts Here,” visit www.parlano.com.

About Parlano, Inc.

Parlano is a leading provider of persistent group messaging solutions. Parlano's MindAlign solutions deliver instant, intelligent and persistent group and topic-based messaging to securely connect employees, customers and partners with the right people, information and context to execute business processes more efficiently. Companies including ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Cantor Fitzgerald, Cargill, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, UBS and others rely on Parlano to utilize messaging as a strategic business tool. Backed by Longworth Venture Partners and Oak Investment Partners, Parlano supports its customers and partners from its worldwide headquarters in Chicago, Ill. and EMEA headquarters in London. For additional information please visit www.parlano.com or contact us at our HQ in Chicago at +1 (866) 727-5266 or +1 (866) PARLANO or at our EMEA office on +44 (20) 7743 6480.

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Corillian teams with Cydelity to provide M&T Bank with comprehensive protection against online fraud and identity theft

Corillian Corp. (NASDAQ: CORI), the top provider of online banking, payment and security solutions to the financial services industry, announced that M&T Bank, a $56 billion bank headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y., has selected Corillian Intelligent AuthenticationT to provide strong online authentication services to both its consumer and small business online banking  customers.

Corillian Intelligent Authentication will be integrated with Cydelity's eSentry online fraud solution, already deployed at M&T Bank, to provide end-to-end monitoring and protection of the entire online banking session, along with risk based authentication by transaction and individual user.

"We are continually looking for ways to enhance our online security programs and add additional layers and methods of  protection for our online customers," said Matthew Speare, CISO of M&T Bank. "The combination of Corillian Intelligent Authentication with Cydelity's eSentry solution gives us a powerful combination of technologies for protecting the online channel and to combat the evolving online threats in the industry today."

Corillian Intelligent Authentication employs a behavioral approach to authentication by building a history of "access signatures" for individual users. This is accomplished by collecting and validating information about each user's computer and method of Web site access without collecting personally identifiable information or requiring participation of the end user in the data collection process. Corillian Intelligent Authentication provides a platform for completing a behavior risk analysis and challenging users when their access behavior falls outside of their typical patterns.

Cydelity eSentry's risk based progressive scoring system tracks all authorized and unauthorized activity from the point of a user's arrival at a banking web site to point of departure. All activity monitored by eSentry is aggregated into end-to-end incidents tying all suspicious activity - such as identification information, tampering attempts, and service breaches along with fraudulent transactions - into a holistic, actionable view.

"As the online threats in the financial services industry continue to grow and expand, financial institutions are looking for ways to proactively detect online fraud and prevent unauthorized access to online accounts," said Greg Hughes, chief security executive of Corillian.  "Together, Corillian and Cydelity give M&T Bank an extended, multi-layered, comprehensive fraud protection solution to protect online accounts without disrupting the ease and convenience of the online banking experience."

"In order to fully protect consumers and meet evolving regulatory requirements, financial institutions need to make sure they have both 'locks on the doors' to ensure authorized access, and 'motion sensors' that can flag fraudulent or suspicious activity once a user is granted access to online services," said Bob Ciccone, CEO, Cydelity. "By working in conjunction with Corillian, we can deliver to M&T Bank a long term protection strategy in time to meet upcoming FFIEC deadlines."

About M&T Bank
M&T Bank is the principal banking subsidiary of Buffalo-based M&T Bank Corporation ("M&T")(NYSE: MTB). M&T has more than $56 billion in assets and over 650 branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia.

About Corillian
Corillian is the market leader of online banking, payment and security solutions to the financial services industry. With 29 of the top 100 U.S. banks and 21 of the top 100 U.S. credit unions as customers, Corillian serves over 30 million online banking end users. Corillian provides the most flexible, scalable and secure set of online banking applications across multiple lines of business, integrating best-practice functionality developed for some of the most innovative financial institutions in the world. Corillian features integrated applications across Consumer Banking, Small Business Banking, Wealth Management, Credit Card Management, and Corporate Cash Management, as well as enterprise wide solutions, including Fraud Detection, Payments Warehouse, Alerts, eStatements, and OFX.  Corillian's fraud prevention solutions use Preemptive ForensicsT to protect web sites from phishers, hackers, and fraudsters. Corillian's strong authentication solution provides a low-cost solution for multi-factor authentication while maintaining high user satisfaction. Empowered by Corillian solutions, some of the world's most visionary financial institutions provide their customers with the tools to manage their finances more effectively and securely. For more information about Corillian Corporation, visit the company's web site at http://www.corillian.com/.

About Cydelity
Cydelity, Inc., founded in 2003 offers patent pending real time frauddetection and management technology based on years of research and development by experts in online behavior and security systems. Providing web channel integrity - for every transaction and every user - Cydelity's technology provides financial institutions and their consumers protection from online fraud and sensitive data theft, while preserving convenience and high levels of customer experience. Interoperable with any multi-factor authentication solution, eSentry is deployed at leading financial institutions and service providers. Cydelity is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA., and privately funded.

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Fincentric Corporation and Verafin, a provider of anti-money-laundering and fraud detection solutions for financial institutions, have signed an agreement to provide Fincentric Wealthview Banking™ customers with automated compliance reporting capabilities in Canada. This strategic partnership offers banks and credit unions a comprehensive new software solution that seamlessly integrates retail banking systems with anti-money laundering and fraud detection resources.

Fraud detection capabilities address growing industry concerns such as debit card and cheque fraud. Fincentric Wealthview Banking™ will extract and transmit information directly into Verafin software. This information includes suspicious activity identification such as large cash transaction reporting, terrorist list checking and fraudulent activity exposure.

“This is an important strategic relationship for us,” said Robert Nygren, President and CEO of Fincentric. “Our core retail banking solution is already an undisputed market share leader in Canada. With this Verafin partnership, we have achieved another significant milestone that enhances Wealthview Banking™. By integrating Verafin software, our system will improve efficiency in banks and credit unions and lower the costs of compliance.”

Fincentric and Verafin will participate together in new product development, align development processes, like integrated quality control environments, coordinate product releases and allow each other to take advantage of new product functionality. In addition, Fincentric and Verafin will conduct joint marketing and sales initiatives for Canadian financial institutions.

"This partnership combines Fincentric’s extensive experience in implementing core retail banking systems with our expertise in providing customer intelligence solutions,” said Jamie King, President, Verafin. “The combined strengths of our teams can help financial institutions achieve their strategic objectives, such as deploying state-of-the-art anti-money-laundering and fraud detection capabilities and increasing profitability across all segments of our customer-base.”

About Verafin
Verafin is a software company that specializes in anti-money-laundering and fraud detection solutions for the financial services industry.  Their product suite is an innovative solution that combines advanced artificial intelligence technologies with sophisticated pattern recognition techniques. It facilitates compliance with international anti-money laundering laws and protects financial institutions against banking fraud. Verafin has customers in both the United States and Canada, where it is the market leader for Canadian credit unions. Visit Verafin online at www.verafin.com.

About Fincentric Corporation
Fincentric Corporation is a leading provider of core retail banking and customer value management software to the global financial services industry. Fincentric’s Leadbuilder enables financial institutions to leverage customer knowledge to deliver personalized service and product offers, and develop profitable customer relationships. Fincentric has strategic alliances with Microsoft and Intel, and supports financial institutions in over 20 countries. For more information about Fincentric, please visit www.fincentric.com.

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ISO and PMSC Sales Veteran to Lead Duck Creek’s Sales and Services

Duck Creek Technologies, a provider of software and services enabling the insurance industry to design, develop, and deliver insurance products faster than ever, announced that insurance industry software, services, and outsourcing business veteran Lee Fogle has joined the company as senior vice president, Field Operations, responsible for Duck Creek’s Sales and Services functions.

Fogle has more than 20 years of experience, most recently serving for five years as president of the Claims Outcome Advisor (COA) division of ISO and corporate vice president of ISO.  Earlier in his career, he held sales and management positions with Policy Management Systems Corporation (PMSC) from 1983 until 2001, when he oversaw the divesture of PMSC’s COA product from Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) to ISO prompted by CSC’s acquisition of PMSC in 2000.

“Lee Fogle brings us a depth of sales experience that will help Duck Creek continue our rapid growth,” said CEO Doug Roller.  “His background will be invaluable as we continue to provide insurance carriers with solutions and services to help them design, develop and deliver new insurance products.”

With Fogle’s hiring, Wendy Corman – who had been running Sales, Marketing, and Business Development at Duck Creek – has been named senior vice president of Marketing and Business Development.  In this role, she will continue to drive Duck Creek’s corporate marketing efforts and will now focus on the growing demands for partnerships, strategic accounts, emerging business opportunities, and customer/vendor development partnerships.

About Duck Creek Technologies

Duck Creek Technologies is a software and services company that is changing the rules of the insurance business by accelerating the ability to achieve the industry vision of “Product in a Day.”  The EXAMPLE Platform® enables insurance carriers to rapidly define, develop, deploy, and manage their insurance products and services – for any line of business.  Duck Creek’s customers use the Platform’s flexible Service-Oriented Architecture for product definition, rating and underwriting, submission processing, policy administration, and legacy migration.

Duck Creek is on Duck Creek is one of America’s fastest growing private companies, appearing on the Inc. Magazine “Inc. 500” list for the past two consecutive years.  Founded in 2000, the company is headquartered in Bolivar, Missouri, and has offices in Farmington, Connecticut, and Columbia, South Carolina.

For more information, visit http://www.duckcreektech.com or call 800-889-8401.

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Technology company issues first TAM, Vision general releases in new product development cycle

Applied Systems makes a CSR’s work more efficient with bar coding to enhance the batch scanning document management function in the company’s newest agency management system major releases issued.   

The bar code addition to batch scanning in The Agency Manager^® (TAM) 8.0 and The Agency Manager^® Vision Series™ 4.0 further advances a paperless culture for independent insurance agents and brokers. The technology allows a CSR to make necessary notes on incoming mail or printed documents, generate a bar code with client information, then pass on the documents to be scanned and attached directly to client files.

“This new standard feature allows a CSR to touch a piece of paper only once before it becomes part of the client file,” said Applied Systems Product Manager Tracy Ustinov.  “The time savings proves dramatic for the largest part of our customer base. Our beta testers were wholly enthusiastic about the addition of bar coding, which allows them to convert administrative time to customer-service time.”

The TAM and Vision general releases are the first since Applied Systems announced a revised product development process that generates major product releases on a regular annual schedule. With the new process, executives said, the software is continually improved, and customers know when to expect new versions. Applied Systems also released the newest version of 24/7 customer service solution InScope®.  Desktop faxing solution fax@vantage® 5.0 will be released very soon.

Broker download now available

With the new TAM and Vision releases also comes the availability of broker download, allowing for download traditionally sent by carriers to brokers or carrier service centers to also be sent simultaneously to corresponding retail agencies.  

“With this functionality, the many efficiencies provided by traditional policy download are now attainable by all parties to a transaction,” said Applied Systems Product Manager Kathie Tomachek-Cox. “This is another significant advancement in our ongoing enhancement of carrier-agency communication.”  

Vision 4.0 also allows users to import a client’s list of certificate holders directly into the agency management system, eliminating the need to re-key data. Users can also export the list at renewal for ease in updating certificate holder information.

In addition, Vision 4.0 provides for producer/broker reconciliation by way of a component that delivers a new reconciliation program. The component, not part of standard Vision software, is available as add-on functionality for Vision 4.0. 

Applied Systems, Inc. is the world leader in insurance agency and broker management system software. The company develops and supports products and services for accounting, customer, policy, claims management, and all related agency functions. More than 125,000 users in 10,000 agencies of every size and complexity level use Applied Systems technology and services. The company leads the industry in agency/carrier real-time and batch communication solutions. Applied Systems automates insurance transactions at every distribution level from consumer through carrier, providing technical support and professional services to maximize customers’ return on investment. www.appliedsystems.com

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- Tenth office opened due to local demand and expansion plans
- Calypso to demonstrate system at the Risk India Congress, 19-20
September

Calypso Technology, Inc., a leading provider of capital markets trading software solutions for global financial institutions, announced the opening of its Mumbai office, and the incorporation of its Indian subsidiary.

The Mumbai office will comprise individuals in sales and support roles, as well as developers who will complement the existing development teams in San Francisco, New York, Paris and London. Calypso has increased headcount globally in the last 12 months and, by opening an office in India, the company plans to continue to drive its hiring plan forward.

The new office is headed by Manohar Uchil, who joins Calypso from JPMorgan Chase, bringing over 20 years of financial markets experience. Mr. Uchil spent six years at JPMorgan where his roles included Chief Business Technologist, India, for the investment banking division. Prior to JPMorgan, he also gained extensive capital markets IT experience from Citicorp Overseas Software Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services.

"In Mumbai, we have identified a pool of talented individuals in the field of financial software technology, as well as an appetite in the banks for capital markets trading, including derivatives and structured products," said Kishore Bopardikar, President of Calypso Technology, Inc. "This provides an excellent setting in which to grow Calypso and, with Manohar's knowledge and experience, we expect to successfully recruit a great local team that will enrich Calypso in several ways.  Furthermore, we are excited about the opportunities presented to us in the Indian market and look forward to welcoming new clients in the region."

The Mumbai office is the tenth Calypso office. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calypso Technology also has offices in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Johannesburg. Calypso Technology will exhibit at the Risk India Congress taking place in Mumbai on 19-20 September.

ABOUT CALYPSO TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Since inception in 1997, Calypso's focus is to provide financial institutions with a solid infrastructure for automating their trading desks. Based on robust, flexible, modern software technology that can be deployed rapidly and is capable of supporting a range of asset classes, Calypso's software is designed to provide the extensibility to meet the growing demands of an institution's  business while also allowing the user to customize the Calypso software according to their needs. Calypso Technology, Inc. is an expanding organization with offices in ten locations worldwide.

For further information, please visit www.calypso.com.  Calypso is a registered trademark of Calypso Technology, Inc.

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Insurance Software Industry Veteran Prepares Duck Creek for Significant Growth; Company Opens Columbia, SC Regional Office

Duck Creek Technologies, a provider of software and services enabling the insurance industry to design, develop, and deliver insurance products faster than ever, announced the appointment of G. Larry Wilson as chairman of its Board of Directors.  The company also announced the opening of a new regional office in Columbia, South Carolina.

Wilson is the former chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of Policy Management Systems Corporation (PMSC), which merged with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in 2000.  With over 6,000 employees worldwide, PMSC was recognized widely as a leading provider of application software, related automation support, and outsourcing services for the global insurance and financial services industries.  PMSC was a publicly held corporation, listed on the New York Stock Exchange and named by Business Week magazine as one of the top 100 information technology companies.

Wilson currently is a venture partner with Pequot Ventures, the venture capital arm of Pequot Capital Management which has $1.8 billion in committed capital.

“Larry Wilson’s experience will benefit Duck Creek tremendously,” said CEO Doug Roller.  “His leadership abilities and industry insight have already led one insurance software company through rapid growth and great success.  We look forward to leveraging his experience, vision and skills to guide us through our next period of significant growth.”

“I am excited to be back in the insurance industry,” said Wilson. “After studying all the major players in the insurance software market, I realized that Duck Creek has the right people, the right products, and the right company culture to become the premier provider of insurance software solutions and services.”

As chairman of Duck Creek’s Board of Directors, Wilson will work closely with Duck Creek’s management team in both the planning and execution of Duck Creek’s business strategy. “Larry will be much more than a sideline coach,” Roller stated. “We plan to have him in the game.”

About Duck Creek Technologies

Duck Creek Technologies is a software and services company that is changing the rules of the insurance business by accelerating the ability to achieve the industry vision of “Product in a Day.”  The EXAMPLE Platform® enables insurance carriers to rapidly define, develop, deploy, and manage their insurance products and services – for any line of business.  Duck Creek’s customers use the Platform’s flexible Service-Oriented Architecture for product definition, rating and underwriting, submission processing, policy administration, and legacy migration.

Duck Creek is one of America’s fastest growing private companies, appearing on the Inc. Magazine “Inc. 500” list for the past two consecutive years.  Founded in 2000, the company is headquartered in Bolivar, Missouri, and has offices in Farmington, Connecticut, and Columbia, South Carolina.

For more information, visit http://www.duckcreektech.com or call 800-889-8401.

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The re-architected module delivers a highly adaptable solution to address volume CDS and structured credit markets

Misys Banking Systems, a global leader in banking software and solutions, announces the launch of a new platform for its credit derivatives module for Misys Summit FT.  The original credit derivatives module for Misys Summit was launched in 1998 and the market has since seen huge changes in both volume (a 27-fold increase since 2001 [1][1]) and complexity. Instruments that were then thought of as exotic are now vanilla and the market continues to innovate. The new module has been designed to meet today’s needs and address tomorrow’s possibilities. It has been extended to address both the current high volumes in the CDS market and also to deliver an adaptive platform to handle more complex instruments such as synthetic CDOs and ABS CDS. In addition, the ability to build hybrids meets the needs of the market to develop new product inventions in the future and for Misys Summit customers to keep a competitive edge.

Misys has leveraged its award winning[2][2] Summit MUST technology to provide the flexible platform for its new credit derivatives module.  In addition to effortlessly handling the very latest credit derivative innovations, it also adapts “on the fly” as the market evolves, enabling customers to create structured hybrid products, selecting from a full range of asset classes, including bonds, FX, equity, interest rates and credit.

Currently being rolled out to a number of clients, the new module provides Misys Summit customers with a strategic platform to gain a competitive advantage in this dynamic and profitable market.  Misys Banking Systems announced its integration with DTCC in July 2006 and with its new platform it will enable integration with Markit’s  Reference Entity Database (RED) the industry standard for reference entity and reference obligation identifiers used throughout the CDS market, and its independent, benchmark pricing for the credit derivatives market.

Dan Cohen, product manager for Misys Summit, explains further, “We’ve tracked the development of the credit sector closely from the early days in the mid- to late-1990s; supplying solutions for trade processing that by today’s standards seem like very simple structures, such as total return swaps and CDS.  We now see a range of more complex synthetic CDOs, CDS on ABS or any other loan, hybrid structures with credit as an underlying, combined with bonds and other instrument classes.  With our new architecture for credit derivatives, we are providing the means to handle all these products within one integrated solution.  This gives our customers the means to control their risk exposure fully across asset classes and automatically interact with the likes of DTCC, SwapWire and Markit within a single STP environment, thereby improving operational efficiency.”

About Misys Banking Systems

Misys Banking Systems supplies over 1,200 customers in over 120 countries, among them 49 of the world's top 50 banks, with software and solutions for retail banking, wholesale banking, treasury and capital markets and risk management. It has 2,500 people around the world, over 70% of whom are outside of the United Kingdom, and sales, implementation and customer support teams in over 28 countries. Misys Banking Systems is part of Misys plc.

About Misys plc

Misys plc (FTSE: MSY.L), the global software company, is one of the world’s largest and longest-established providers of industry-specific software. Founded in 1979, Misys serves the international banking and healthcare industries, combining technological expertise with in-depth understanding of customers’ markets and operational needs. In banking Misys is a market leader with over 1,200 customers, including 49 of the world’s top 50 banks. In healthcare Misys is also a market leader, serving more than 110,000 physicians in 18,000 practice locations, 1,200 hospitals and 600 home care providers. Through Sesame, a wholly-owned subsidiary, the company is also a leading provider of support services to financial advisers in the UK. Misys employs around 6,000 people who serve customers in more than 120 countries. For more information, visit www.misys.com.

[1][1] 27-fold increase – according to ISDA, credit derivative outstandings were $631bn in 2001 and have now risen to $17,300bn by the end of 2005.

[2][2] Summit MUST was voted Innovative product of the year by Wilmott Magazine and Structured Products Magazine in 2005 and achieved the top position in the structured products category of Risk Magazine’s annual vendor technology survey.

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Open Solutions Inc.® (NASDAQ: OPEN), a provider of integrated enabling technologies for financial services providers across the United States, Canada and international markets, announced that executive management will present at the following investor conferences in September:

• Piper Jaffray’s Software & Business Services Investor Conference on Thur., Sept. 7, 2006
• A.G. Edwards' Emerging Growth Conference on Wed., Sept. 20, 2006

Open Solutions’ executive management will present at the Piper Jaffray’s Software & Business Services Investor Conference in New York City on Thur., Sept. 7, 2006, at 3:05 p.m. Eastern Time; and at the A.G. Edwards' Emerging Growth Conference in New York City on Wed., Sept. 20, 2006, at 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

About Open Solutions Inc.
Open Solutions Inc. offers a fully featured strategic product platform that integrates core data processing applications built on a single centralized Oracle relational database, with Internet banking, cash management, CRM/business intelligence, financial accounting tools, imaging, digital documents, Check 21, interactive voice response, network services, Web hosting and design, and payment and loan origination solutions. Open Solutions’ full suite of products and services allows banks, thrifts, credit unions and financial services providers in the United States and Canada to better compete in today’s aggressive financial services marketplace, and expand and tap their trusted financial relationships, client affinity, community presence and personalized service.

For more information about Open Solutions or its financial product line, contact Mickey Goldwasser by email at mgoldwasser@opensolutions.com, by phone at 860.652.3153 or via fax at 860.652.3156. For Investor Relations issues please contact David Henderson by email at ir@opensolutions.com or by phone at 860.652.3155. Visit Open Solutions’ Internet site at www.opensolutions.com.

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Open Solutions joins Ceto’s Client Referral Program

Open Solutions Inc.^® (NASDAQ: OPEN) and Ceto and Associates, a national consulting firm specializing in developing solutions to provide financial institutions the ability to increase profitability, announced that their two companies have formed a strategic partnership that will enable Open Solutions to offer Ceto’s programs to its more than 4,500 clients throughout North America. Open Solutions is a provider of integrated enabling technologies for financial services providers across the United States, Canada and international markets.

Douglas Ceto, executive vice president of Ceto and Associates, said, “More than 1,000 financial institutions nationwide have currently implemented Ceto’s Deposit Reclassification program. In today’s environment, it is important to provide financial institutions with products that will help them remain competitive. The opportunity to further our reach through a strategic partnership with a leading industry provider such as Open Solutions is exciting.”

Deposit Reclassification enables financial institutions to restructure transaction accounts, thereby, converting non-interest earning reserve requirements into interest earning assets. The process increases pre-tax profits by an average of $1 million. Ceto Cash Calculator (C³), a Web-based branch tool that enables financial institutions to better manage vault cash, especially in a low-reserve environment, is another valuable program in today’s high-interest marketplace. When combined with Deposit Reclassification, C³ helps branch managers keep vault cash at an optimal level and increase revenues.

“Open Solutions’ is pleased to offer our clients a recognized and established revenue enhancement program,” said Open Solutions’ SVP and Chief Marketing Officer Michael D. Nicastro. “At Open Solutions, we continually seek value-added partnerships that will further enable our clients to manage their business more efficiently and effectively. We believe our clients can benefit from Ceto’s programs by identifying multiple ways to increase revenue and cash flow without cutting costs; they are easy, self funding programs that can increase an institution’s competitive posture in the marketplace.”

Ceto’s Referral program has accounted for more than 40 percent of its client base since it was founded in 1994. CheckPMate, an overdraft protection program, and Ceto’s Revenue Enhancement Program (REP), a service that identifies opportunities to increase revenue across all areas of a financial institution, will also be offered to Open Solutions’ clients.

“We thrive on our dependable reputation and the referrals we receive from trusted industry partners,” Ceto continued. “Providing financial services in today’s business environment is very competitive and we look forward to working with Open Solutions, its clients and future clients to provide financially focused programs to help them operate more productively.”

About Ceto and Associates
Founded in 1994 as a national consulting firm in the financial industry and headquartered in Atlanta, Ceto and Associates specializes in developing solutions to provide financial institutions the ability to increase profitability through the implementation of revenue enhancement programs. Ceto and Associates places their clients’ needs in the forefront and designs solutions tailored to their culture, goals and objectives. Ceto and Associates has earned the trust and improved annual revenues of more than 1,000 financial institutions across 50 states. For more information about Ceto and Associates, please visit their Web site at www.ceto.com.

About Open Solutions Inc.
Open Solutions Inc. offers a fully featured strategic product platform that integrates core data processing applications built on a single centralized Oracle relational database, with Internet banking, cash management, CRM/business intelligence, financial accounting tools, imaging, digital documents, Check 21, interactive voice response, network services, Web hosting and design, and payment and loan origination solutions. Open Solutions’ full suite of products and services allows banks, thrifts, credit unions and financial services providers in the United States and Canada to better compete in today’s aggressive financial services marketplace, and expand and tap their trusted financial relationships, client affinity, community presence and personalized service.

For more information about Open Solutions or its financial product line, contact Mickey Goldwasser by email at mgoldwasser@opensolutions.com by phone at 860.652.3153 or via fax at 860.652.3156. Visit Open Solutions’ Internet site at www.opensolutions.com.

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Of Nearly 200 Active Managers, PsiTrade Is First, TimingEquity Second

TimerTrac.com, the leading third-party benchmarking service that objectively reports market timing performance based on daily market recommendations, announced today its top performers in shorting the CBOE NASDAQ 100 Index (NDX) for the first eight months (through August 31) of 2006.

Short Trades ONLY
Rank Name *Gain/loss
1 PsiTrade.com 12.51%
2 TimingEquity.com 11.13%
3 KT-Timing.com (QQQQ-a) 8.20%
4 TacticalTradingSignal.com (NASDAQ 100) 7.77%
5 FundBuster.com (F5NSF) 7.34%
Gain/loss calculation does not include long trades, which added significant
additional gains.

Topping TimerTrac.coms list of nearly 200 equity market timers sending daily recommendations for the NDX100 is PsiTrade, which through its shorting strategy alone beat the NDX100 by over 16 percent. The Index itself was down almost 4 percent for the period.  Next is TimingEquity, which also beat the index by over 15 percent during the same period.

The buy-and-hold method of investing, as more and more people are realizing, will not help investors and those planning for retirement to preserve their capital, as has often been touted, said Bob Ripley, principal of PsiTrade Investor Services. Our clients have come to see the benefits of active money management in ways that have had a considerable impact on their portfolios.

We are pleased for these investment strategists success as we are to have them participate in TimerTrac.com, said Dave Garrett, principal at TimerTrac. Because of TimerTrac.coms flexibility, investors are able to view a variety of performances and their rankings based on these strategists daily recommendations in a way thats completely objective and reliable and, in this particular case, who the champions have been in shorting one of the most volatile of equity indexes. This study looked only at short trades while ignoring long trades, which in all cases added even greater gains.  TimerTrac allows our subscribers to see which timers can make shorting work.


About TimerTrac.com
Salt Lake City-area TimerTrac.com provides performance rankings, charts, and market commentary of participating analysts and advisors daily market recommendations, both intra-day and at the markets close. TimerTrac.com subscribers are self-directed individual investors, financial planners, investment advisors, and academics in finance that study investment advisory performance against indexes, exchange-traded funds, and a select group of actively managed mutual funds. TimerTrac.com tabulates only actual real-time buy/sell indicators from investment advisors and market analysis commentators that communicate to TimerTrac.com via email, direct web-site entry, and other secure methods.
For more information (or to subscribe free to TimerTrac Broadcast, its market commentary) visit http://www.timertrac.com/.

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Whitehill Technologies, Inc. announced that several insurance customers are upgrading to IStream Publisher 3.2, part of the InSystems product line which focuses on speed-to-market.

Whitehill's InSystems line of software helps insurers get new products off the drafting board and out the door more quickly. The InSystems line manages the product lifecycle from initial drafting of contract language, through regulatory approval, to sales and policy issuance. As part of that process, IStream Publisher 3.2 gives insurers complete control over document production and fulfillment, allowing for faster, more efficient creation of complex documents.

SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Company, Inc., a New York-based insurer with more than $1.5 billion in assets, is upgrading to IStream Publisher 3.2 from Calligo Dispatcher. Empire Life, a Canadian provider of individual life, investment and group benefits, and Fort Dearborn Life Insurance Company, one of the leading group life & employee benefits providers in the U.S., are both upgrading to Publisher 3.2 Express.

"We see this product as being a critical support to our business," says Paul Belshaw, Director of Information Services and Development Process Management, Empire Life. "We look forward to it being a low-maintenance, lights-out solution for us. We've been pleased with InSystems products in the past, and we appreciate the high quality of service their team has always provided."

Eric Bulis, Senior Vice President of Information Technology, SBLI USA, says his company values the way Publisher allows for personalized communications with customers. "We also like all the different options it gives us for distribution, such as e-mail, fax and so on; and we appreciate the service that comes with the InSystems product line."

"Document automation is an important area for insurers who are focused on streamlining operations and improving agent and customer experience," says Matthew Josefowicz, Global Insurance Group Manager, Celent. "These new deals underscore that Whitehill, and the InSystems product line, continue to be significant players in this space."

Paul McSpurren, President & CEO, Whitehill Technologies, Inc., echoes that sentiment. "We're very gratified to see our customers adopting this recent release. Whitehill has worked hard to earn a reputation for customer satisfaction in the insurance sector, and we intend to improve upon that record. Our goal is to help our clients do business faster and more efficiently. We want to make every single customer a delighted customer."

About Whitehill Technologies Inc. (www.whitehilltech.com)
Whitehill Technologies, Inc. develops and implements document and compliance automation software that helps insurance companies and legal firms accelerate key business processes. Whitehill's InSystems product line helps get new products to market faster by speeding up development and regulatory filing processes. More than 1,000 customers in 45 countries, including more than half the largest 100 insurers in North America, have used Whitehill software to personalize and accelerate the way they communicate with customers, getting the right information into the hands of the right people at the right time. Whitehill is a privately held company with more than 200 employees in Canada, the United States and the UK. Whitehill is headquartered in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

About Empire Life (www.empire.ca)
In business for more than 80 years, The Empire Life Insurance Company (Empire Life) provides financial security and wealth management solutions for the changing needs of Canadians. Through a nationwide network of professional financial advisors, managing general agents, brokers and group producers, Empire Life offers competitive individual and group life and health insurance, investment products and segregated funds. The Company's success comes from a commitment to being approachable and responsive to the needs of its clients and business partners, consistently solid investment performance, and faith in its employees as future leaders of the Company.

About SBLI USA (www.sbliusa.com)
SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Company, Inc. is a financial services company that is committed to value-conscious  consumers.  The Company is dedicated to building lifelong relationships with customers and empowering them with the
education and tools they need to take control of their financial destinies.

SBLI USA and its subsidiaries are licensed in 49 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.  With more than $17.6 billion of insurance in force, $1.5 billion in assets, $120 million in surplus capital, 250 associates and approximately 380,000 policyholders, the company is committed to offering affordable, flexible and easy-to-access
products through a variety of integrated channels, including direct mail, telemarketing, a bilingual Web site, licensed agents, and new Customer Centers, as it expands nationally.

SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Company, Inc. is the parent company to SBLI USA Holdings, Inc., which owns subsidiary companies S.USA Life Insurance Company, Inc., and SBLI USA Diversified Services Company, Inc.

About Fort Dearborn Life (www.fdl-life.com)
With more than 35 years experience, Fort Dearborn Life is among the country's leading providers of employee benefits. Fort Dearborn Life markets group life, short- and long-term disability, group dental and individual annuity programs. Fort Dearborn Life has $1.7 billion in assets and $125 billion of life insurance in-force. Fort Dearborn Life is rated "A+" (Superior) by A.M. Best Company, affirmed August 10, 2006, and is rated "A" (Strong) by Standard and Poor's for financial strength in its most recent report.

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