Three area firms with ties to the financial industry have received Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist's Technology Award.
Honored were Seritis Corp. at 324 E. Wisconsin Ave., Sun Tzu Security/Prism Security, also at 324 E. Wisconsin Ave., and Metavante Corp., 4900 W. Brown Deer Rd. Metavante is the technology division of M&I Bank.
The choice of three growing firms in the financial sector reflects Milwaukee's leadership in serving the technology needs of banks, insurers and investment firms, the mayor said. "In high-tech circles, our association with financial software and processing is almost as strong as our assocation with brewing," said Norquist. "It's an increasingly significant part of our employment base and our future."
According to Norquest, signs of Milwaukee's strength in the area include:
Of the five major firms providing account processing for banks, two of them are based in the Milwaukee area - Metavante (formerly M&I Data) and Brookfield-based Fiserv. Together, these two operations handle account-processing for approximately 14,000 of the nation's 21,000 banks, savings banks and credit unions. Of Metavante's 3,700 employees, about half are engaged in software production and engineering.
Among younger firms, Seritis is seeing a growing number of banks and other firms use its software to draw information instantly from a range of databases for handy viewing on the Web. That is intended to create an easy, common way to view everything from historical customer information housed on old computer systems to up-to-the-minute stock quotes. Seritis is also a Future 50 company this year. The Future 50 is a program of the Metropolitan Association of Commerce to honor fast-growing companies.
Sun Tzu Security and Prism Security help banks deal with their special security concerns on the Web.
August 31, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
