Kirsten Davis/peopleimages.com
Temenos, a Swiss core banking software provider, opened a new innovation hub for U.S. bank clients in Central Florida on Tuesday.
“One of our key focus areas is in the U.S. market, specifically with [smaller community banks], for our end-to-end core banking suite,” Barb Morgan, chief product and technology officer at Temenos, told American Banker. “With our larger bank clients in the United States, we’ll be focused more on either point solutions, like digital or payments as a standalone, or in the modular space such as upgrading corporate lending.”
Recent Temenos investment into research and development is supporting projects such as the new U.S. innovation hub.
“The Temenos innovation hub is a game-changer for Temenos and our U.S. clients,” Morgan said. “With our relentless focus on innovation, investing around 20% of revenues in R&D, this center will be a powerhouse for building the future of banking.”
Although
“Opening our innovation hub in Orlando also makes it so people who are in the same time zones can work directly,” she said. “We’re bringing in that expertise to accelerate, versus trying to take an international team and have them learn the U.S. systems. It’ll be a blend of taking people who know our core with people who have the experience and knowledge of the U.S., and creating the team from there.”
Morgan described the new innovation hub office space as an open-desk working environment.
“I have this vision of what I want it to look like as very much a modern facility in the sense of there’s no offices. No one’s sitting behind closed doors. There’s very open working spaces, with a lot of modularity in our desk setup so that we can move and change. What I’ve seen in my experience is that open work spaces really allow people to connect with the other teams,” she said.
To facilitate that collaborative working environment, Morgan said that the hub is focusing on in-person work days, following a growing
“In that hub, we want people to be in there every day, or hybrid every day,” Morgan said. “Call that three days a week, or whatever a new normal is. We want them to be excited to come in and work together and utilize the whiteboard walls and the design center, where we can turn it into whatever client is coming to visit us.”
The “design center” element is where Temenos employees recreate a client’s branch and test or develop new products “on-site.”
“We want our bank clients to feel like they’re walking into their own branch by replicating what it’s like,” Morgan said. “There’s a unique space in the building where we’re building out that kind of branch feel. We’re focused on creating an experience where if we’re working with a client on, let’s say, a copilot tool for their product managers or coming up with new products for their customers as they walk in, we want to replicate that area. If they are a bank that has a coffee shop feel, or if it’s a more traditional branch that has more of a loan center desk, we can replicate that environment as well.”
Temenos decided to build the innovation center in the greater Orlando area for access to bank clients, proximity to talent for local recruitment and opportunities for tech investment, according to Morgan.
“There’s quite a few banks in the Florida region, and we have some of our competitors in the Florida region as well,” she said. “We’re working closely as well with colleges, and I want to invest in the talent that’s near to our hub. There’s a really great university system here in Florida, and it’s a really great investment in the local area.”
Temenos partnered with the Orlando Economic Partnership (OEP) to facilitate the opening of the new innovation hub. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the hub was hosted at the OEP headquarters in Orlando on Tuesday afternoon.
“With strong infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and an expanding tech ecosystem, Central Florida is a prime location for tech companies looking to grow and innovate,” said OEP president and CEO Tim Giuliani. “We are pleased to see Temenos expanding in our region, and our team at the Orlando Economic Partnership is proud to continue supporting their expansion by connecting them to the right locations and resources. The investment in its innovation hub will create hundreds of high-skilled jobs and further strengthens our reputation as the destination for innovation in financial services.”
“The OEP does a fantastic job bringing together technologists around Orlando,” Morgan said. “There’s events where we can go and share, we can recruit, we can give back to the community. Sometimes it’s even having some of my key leaders who know AI really well go out and talk about AI, and people from the community can actually come in and be a part of it. That’s where the partnership is key for us as well. They support companies like us investing in the Orlando area.”
The partnership with OEP will also help Temenos access incentives such as training grants, according to a press release.
Other banks and financial institutions have opened in-person office spaces dedicated to technology and innovation. Maspeth Federal Savings, a community bank in a suburb of New York City,