S1 Acquires Irish CRM Firm

S1 Corp., a provider of enterprise CRM solutions to banks, credit unions, insurance providers, and investment firms, is moving to strengthen its enterprise family of offerings by acquiring a privately held CRM firm based in Ireland. Atlanta-based S1 Monday said it acquired Point Information Systems of Dublin, which provides sales, service and campaign management solutions to a variety of industries including insurance, banking, telecommunications and retail. This is S1's third acquisition in 12 months. Last summer, S1 bought Software Dynamics Inc., a West Hills, Calif.-based firm that provides banking solutions. In February 2002, S1 purchased Addison, Texas-based Regency Systems, which offers secure online banking applications. Although financial terms of the latest deal were not disclosed, Point will operate as a strategic business unit within S1 and Point's current CEO Keith Holmes will report into Bill James, S1's general manager of Europe, says Mark Pearson, vice president of corporate development for S1. By acquiring Point, which has 100 employees and nearly 100 customers in Europe and Asia, S1 is attempting to fulfill several of its previously stated strategic goals, which include strengthening its multi-channel enterprise solution with Point's call center applications, extending its insurance product family and customer base, and enhancing its position in Europe with Point's strong presence in the UK and Germany, according to S1 officials. "With the acquisition of Point, S1 will house tremendous domain expertise coupled with unparalleled multi-channel solutions for the insurance marketplace," said Steve Ely, senior vice president of S1 Corporation. "By incorporating Point's proven applications into S1's family of Enterprise solutions, we will provide insurance companies of all sizes with the ability to significantly reduce costs, while improving their ability to service their distribution channels and their customers." Point will continue to have a separate sales force but will work close with S1's insurance sales team. Point's ePoint product will also be offered as part of S1's solution. Edify Corp, a subsidiary of S1, will also work with Point to help identify worldwide opportunities, says Pearson. He adds that S1 continues to look at acquiring other companies that fit in with S1's enterprise front office solutions, but declined to provide specifics. "We are looking at acquiring companies that have customer, product or geographic synergies," says Pearson. "Point had all three."