If you aim to really own the financial services industry (financial services news) as a tech vendor, you had better be more than a product pusher--a simple reseller. It's all about subscription revenue and solutions these days.

IBM (IBM news) is hip to this. In September, it announced its Banking Industry Framework, which it bills as "an organizing principal for us and the next decade's view of how we will deliver solutions." It amounts to a software backbone through which they can funnel the broad spectrum of their solutions in four areas: Risk management; customer care and insight; payments and securities; and core banking transformation. So it would appear they'd like to be a one-stop shop for all a company's financial technology needs.

We've noted the many deals the behemoth has struck to fill out its service line: Cognos, SPSS, Gaurdium and others. These are key building blocks for IBM solutions. For now, the company appears to have carved out its space in the industry to a deeper degree than the likes of HP and Oracle. The top guns in Armonk seem to understand that the industry is one in which it has to excel. In some ways, as a bank, you can't go wrong buying its brand, which is seen as high-end. You have to wonder if it will ever start targeting smaller banks. 

For more:
- here's the Bank Technology News article

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