MEDIA RELEASE PR36114
Microsoft Announces Major Initiative to Support CitiDirect BE, Citi's Next-Generation Institutional E-
Banking Platform
HONG KONG, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --
Two global industry leaders come together to develop the next groundbreaking
app in corporate computing.
Microsoft Corp. and Citi's Global Transaction Services (GTS) today announced their collaboration on a
multiyear initiative to support CitiDirect(R) BE, Citi's newly launched next-generation e-banking platform,
serving its corporate, financial institution and public sector clients and also optimized for the white-label
business model.
This unique collaboration between Citi and Microsoft's product and services teams to build an e-banking
platform takes advantage of proven Microsoft technologies. With a global network spanning more than 100
countries, Citi will benefit from this collaboration because the CitiDirect BE platform will help monetize its best-
in-class service offerings and broad geographic coverage, while taking full advantage of Microsoft's expertise
in platform engineering, development of independent software vendor communities, and product life-cycle
management. By leveraging Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, CitiDirect BE will raise the competitive
bar beyond transactions to include sophisticated analytic capabilities, self-service modules such as Citi's
Electronic Bank Account Management (eBAM) offering, and rich media to provide expert insights on current
trends and economic news affecting clients' business. The new platform has taken a client-centered approach
in its design focusing on providing clients with greater visibility and control over their business processes to
create a richer online banking experience.
"Our institutional clients are demanding banking platforms and technology that gives them greater
transparency and control over their working capital flows, increases their liquidity and improves the efficiency
of their treasury and supply chain processes," said Gary Greenwald, chief innovation officer and global head of
Capabilities and Information Products at Citi. "The challenging global economy and credit-constrained
environment is driving demand for a comprehensive solution addressing these elements. Working with our
best clients, we've created CitiDirect BE to address these needs, both for corporations as well as for banks,
who are able to offer this innovative service to their clients on a white-labeled basis, under their own brand,
reducing upfront IT costs."
"This engagement aligns with our enterprise market strategy of driving integrated customer experiences,"
said Susan Hauser, vice president of Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft. "Our collaboration is a unique
opportunity for Microsoft to help financial services institutions realize a better customer-connected experience
because Citi will have access to a virtual lab of engineering thought leaders, and have direct influence over
enterprise product road maps."
Based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and open standards, the CitiDirect BE platform provides the
following key benefits:
-- Collaborative innovation. Unique engineering collaboration between
Citi's GTS organization and Microsoft product and services teams
accelerates innovation across the global financial services ecosystem.
-- Standards. Microsoft and Citi are actively furthering SOA adoption, as
well as standards in the industry.
-- Agility. Based on Web 2.0 technologies, Citi's portal infrastructure
and modular technology will provide clients with a greater level of
customization and usability. This enhanced flexibility will also allow
for the white labeling of the platform to other banks.
-- Operational efficiency. Citi's white-label offering will enable
correspondent banks to leverage its industry-leading treasury and trade
services platform under their own brand, thereby benefiting from Citi's
geographic footprint, regulatory compliance and back-end processing.
"Global transaction services business units have been investing heavily in portal technology for the past
several years to replace a disjointed, less-than-optimal experience for users with a streamlined, integrated
interface that better aligns with corporate client users' workflow," said Jim Eckenrode, research executive for
Banking at TowerGroup. "These banks are leveraging the scale, expertise and technology investments they
have made to aggressively pursue additional volume through insourcing. TowerGroup believes this is a win-
win story, as midtier banks can extend their wholesale banking product set, allowing them to offer
sophisticated transaction services through an experienced third party while minimizing implementation risk and
capital outlays. For the larger banks, offering white-label products creates revenue opportunities while
spreading the cost of providing the product across a wider client base."
CitiDirect BE will incrementally leverage Microsoft products that are being developed and released to
support a strategic enterprise strategy. Microsoft will contribute an array of services and applications to
CitiDirect BE.
System users will benefit from integration with Microsoft SharePoint Server media capabilities, business
intelligence platform and mobile payment functionality, as well as from technologies that lower the total cost of
ownership of Citi's middle-tier and transactional layers.
CitiDirect BE is currently being launched with subsequent releases being phased in over the next 18 to 24
months, and will include Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 as the gateway, search, analytics, mobility
and rich media, and platform optimization and re-engineering to support the white-label business model and
minimize the total cost of ownership.
Global Transaction Services, a division of Citi's Institutional Clients Group, offers integrated cash
management, trade, and securities and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and
public sector organizations around the world. With a network spanning over 100 countries, Citi's Global
Transaction Services supports over 65,000 clients. As of the second quarter of 2009, it held on average $288
billion in liability balances and $11.1 trillion in assets under custody.
About Citi
Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and
does business in more than 140 countries. Through Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers,
corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including
consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth
About Microsoft in Financial Services
Microsoft's Financial Services Group provides software that helps financial firms transform the customer,
employee and operations experience so they can maximize opportunities for increased market share and
profitability. Microsoft software helps empower people and IT staff within financial firms - and across key focus
areas such as advisor platforms, channel renewal, insurance value chain, enterprise risk management and
compliance, and payments. Through a combination of Microsoft- and partner-provided solutions, customers
enable their employees to turn data into insight, transform ideas into action and turn change into opportunity.
More information about Microsoft's Financial Services Group can be found at
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that
help people and businesses realize their full potential.
SOURCE: Microsoft Corp.
NOTE TO EDITORS: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the
links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For
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CONTACT: Wendy Grover of Microsoft,
+1-425-705-7609,
or Chanda Gathani of Metia,
+44-795-11-63615,
chanda.gathani@metia.com,
for Microsoft;
or Nina Das of Citi,
+1-917-297-9040,
nina.das@citi.com
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