According to IDC, the Securities & Investment Services and Banking industry verticals are projected to spend over USD 39 billion on software in 2007, with an almost 8 percent annual growth rate over the five-year period ending 2010.¹ Multi-threading your applications can better position you to tap into this significant opportunity.

The data-intensive workloads and stringent security requirements of financial services software make for excellent performance improvements from multi-threading. And the continuing drive to increase efficiency in the face of new regulatory requirements puts a premium on that performance. That means a competitive advantage for the providers that can deliver performance and security benefits from multi-core.

Intel has dedicated collaborative resources to help members of the Intel® Software Partner Program capitalize on this opportunity through the Financial Services Initiative.

Software providers for the financial services market segment face significant competitive pressure. Two key sets of customer business requirements that help to create this atmosphere are the drive for increased efficiency and the need to comply with an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Software performance provided by multi-core computing is a key ingredient to solutions that address these needs:

• Performance drives faster results from line-of-business applications, allowing users at the point of service to complete their tasks more quickly, aiding the bottom line. Software solutions that shave off even a small amount of time per transaction can potentially generate huge savings for a large organization.
• Performance enables compliance with regulatory directives such as the Regulatory National Market System (Reg NMS) in the US and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in the European Union. In a recent survey, 77% of survey respondents expected the implementation cost of regulatory compliance to have the greatest impact on their profits in the next three years,² and these measures require substantial performance headroom to accommodate new capabilities in addition to core functionality.

The headroom to satisfy both these families of business requirements is delivered by multi-core processors, and the multi-threading is the means to harness that power. Intel works with software companies like yours, all over the world, to help them build success. As the number of processor cores in mainstream processors continues to grow, the opportunity for added performance from multi-threading will grow along with it. This opportunity also means that the competitive advantage is likely to fall to those software solutions that take full advantage of it.

Successfully threading software to take optimal advantage of multi-core processor-based systems is a complex undertaking, and assistance from Intel is a valuable asset. Worldwide Technical Computing suggests that the adoption of multi-core processors will create a “resurgence in new start-ups entering the market, with point solutions for different workloads and redesigned applications.”³ That analysis predicts that “applications will not just have to be rewritten, but the underlying algorithms and science will have to be changed.”³

Join the Financial Services Initiative, offered through the Intel Software Partner Program, to meet these challenges with confidence. This initiative equips you with business planning, technical development, marketing, and sales resources that will help you produce and distribute powerful software for the next generation of financial-services computing:

• Plan and strategize. You’ll have access to market research for insight into industry trends and challenges. You’ll also have access to Intel’s platform and technology roadmaps, so you can synchronize your development efforts with the introduction of the new hardware your customers will be using.
• Develop and solve. During development, you’ll have access to Intel technical resources such as interactive developer communities and access to development systems to optimize your products for Intel multi-core technology. You’ll also enjoy free trials of Intel® Software Development Products, such as compilers, libraries, and analysis tools.
• Market and sell. Intel provides sales and marketing collateral and assistance tailored to the needs of the financial services industry to help you bring your products to market faster. Listing your solutions in the Intel® Developer Solutions Catalog can increase your visibility, and get you one step closer to selling through the Intel global network of system integrators and value-added resellers in the channel marketplace.

Deliver powerful software to help financial professionals accelerate processes, reduce risk, and operate more efficiently. And deliver the numbers.

Start optimizing your software for the future today ›

1 "Worldwide IT Spending by Vertical Market Forecast: 2005-2010." IDC. December 2006.

2 "Global Financial Services Industry Outlook." Deloitte. 2006.

3 "Top 10 Predictions." Worldwide Technical Computing #205240. January 2007.