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Carreker
Corporation and Majesco Software Launch Carretek LLC for Offshore
Outsourcing of Banking Processes and IT Services
New
Company to Improve Banks' Payment Processing Costs, Productivity,
and Quality
DALLAS
(May 1, 2003) - Carreker Corporation (Nasdaq: CANIE), a leading
provider of technology and consulting solutions for the
financial industry, and Majesco Software Inc., a subsidiary of
Mastek Limited (National Stock Exchange, India: MASTEK), a leading
global outsourcing company, today announced the formation of a
new company, Carretek LLC. The new entity will enable financial
institutions and their processors to realize the benefits of business
processing outsourcing (BPO) and offshore IT: cost savings, productivity
and quality. Carreker owns 51 percent of Carretek; Majesco owns
49 percent.
Carretek will initially focus on payments-related business processes
and IT services such as custom software development and application
management. Within this area of expertise, the Carretek offering
will include a flexible array of offshore outsourcing services
to financial institutions, including:
- global sourcing strategy development services (consulting, methodology,
and tools) to help banks understand their offshore outsourcing
opportunity and optimal decisions;
- outsourcing of selected payment processes to India through a range
of business models to suit different banks' needs; and,
- application development and support.
Carretek
will draw on Carreker's expertise in payments systems and associated
business processes to help banks rationalize the
business case for transitioning some of these processes to cost-efficient
offshore locations and improving banks' return on investments in
payments technologies. Carreker's image-related technologies, already
in place at many large U.S. banks, will enable such transitioning
and leverage the banks' previous investment in these systems.
By
outsourcing selected processes to state-of-the-art facilities
in Mumbai, India, Carretek expects to reduce banks' net costs for
outsourced payment processes by 35 to 40 percent, in addition to
improving the productivity and quality of the processes.
Subhash
Mukerji, president of Carretek and managing director of Carreker
Corporation, said, "Our offerings are not intended to
compete with onshore outsourcers, but to assist those who seek
the benefits of offshoring and need a partner who understands financial
services operations and can help them access global offshore resources.
Our research shows that U.S. banks, facing a decline in check volumes,
will need to reduce related costs by $1.85 billion over the next
four years just to maintain current per item costs. To achieve
this level of savings, they must consider offshore processing options
and invest in the enabling technology, initially for the savings
but ultimately to streamline and improve these processes."
He
added, "We found that Mastek shares our values, particularly
in their full commitment to client satisfaction, which has enabled
them to compile an enviable track record in quality offshore services
to financial institutions and FORTUNE 500 companies, supported
by excellent IT credentials."
Ketan
Mehta, member of the Mastek Board in charge of strategic alliances,
said, "Through Carretek, we aim to do for banks' back
offices and IT departments what Mastek has independently been doing
for FORTUNE 500 companies for more than 20 years: offering them
a cheaper, faster, and higher quality development, management and
support option for some of their IT applications, in an entirely
transparent, low-risk environment. As in the past, we expect to
be successful because our reputation as an employer and the relative
economics of the geographies in which we operate give us access
to a large pool of highly skilled, highly motivated, highly rewarded
employees who nevertheless earn a fraction of what U.S. banks currently
pay for equivalent levels of skill and productivity."
Atul
Vohra, president of Majesco Software, Mastek's wholly owned U.S.
subsidiary said, "There's a qualitative difference between
outsourcing applications development and outsourcing business processes,
such as payments. For the latter, it is critical to have deep content
knowledge in the processes being transitioned so that the outsourcer
can continuously transform and improve the processes in line with
changing market conditions. We chose Carreker as our partner because
of their expertise, and because they have a market leading position
in many of the technologies that permit payment processing work
to be performed offshore while reducing the cost of mitigating
fraud and the incidence of fraud itself. This all adds up to significant
value for our banking clients."
Ashank
Desai, chairman and managing director, Mastek Limited, said, "The
association with Carreker is in line with our strategy to focus
on the banking sector, which is one of the heaviest users
of IT and BPO. This venture also reinforces our belief in win-win
approaches to alliances. Mastek's best-in-class BPO offshore capability
and expertise in IT offshore outsourcing along with Carreker's
domain expertise in the banking sector will provide unique leverage
to Carretek's customers."
J.
D. (Denny) Carreker, chairman and CEO, Carreker Corporation,
said, "Carretek is a key business in our strategy to be
the premier provider of payments solutions to financial institutions.
Our offering
is timely. Over the next five years, the top 100 global financial
institutions expect to offshore more than $356 billion of operating
processes, capturing savings in the range of 39 percent, according
to Deloitte Research. India is expected to get the lion's share
of this business."
"As
for our shareholders," Carreker added, "The offshore-centric
BPO outsourcing model is in a rapid growth mode in a large market
with no dominant player, where the deep expertise of our two companies
will let us carve out a highly defensible position within our primary
customer base. This model will also provide us with opportunities
to leverage our strengths in targeted IT services areas. It provides
for early revenue visibility, recurring revenues, and sustained
cross-sell opportunities."
Carreker
also plans to leverage Carretek to expand production capacity
of its critical software product development operations.
John Carreker, president of Carreker's Global Payments Technologies
Division, said, "Carretek's complimentary IT skills will enable
us to quickly expand our capacity to meet growing customer demands
for high-quality, personalized solutions and accelerated ROI timetables." The
initial plan is to leverage Carretek's IT skills on targeted software
enhancement and custom development opportunities.
About Carreker Corporation
Carreker Corporation improves earnings for financial institutions
around the world. The Company's integrated consulting and software
solutions are designed to increase clients' revenues and reduce
their expenses, while improving security and increasing the value
of their customer relationships. Carreker provides products and
services to more than 250 clients in the United States, Canada,
the United Kingdom, Ireland, continental Europe, Australia, New
Zealand, and South Africa. Clients include the full range of community,
regional and large banks, among them more than 75 of the largest
100 banks in the United States. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas
since 1978, Carreker Corporation also has offices located around
the world including London, Toronto, and Sydney. For more information,
visit www.carreker.com. For additional information, read the Carretek
business overview paper: Everyone's Back Office is Someone Else's
Front Office: a Carretek Perspective on Offshoring of Back Office
Business Processes or attend the Carretek Forum for Offshore Outsourcing
of Payment Processes on May 15-16, 2003 in Dallas, Texas.
About Mastek
Mastek Limited, a publicly held, global IT solutions company,
has over 7,000 person-years of experience, achieved through execution
of more than 700 projects worldwide. The company employs over 1,700
people worldwide and is ISO 9001, SEI CMM Level 5 and P-CMM Level
3 assessed. Established in 1982, Mastek is today providing software
solutions to Fortune 1000 companies. Forbes named Mastek one of
its '200 Best Small Companies in the World' for 2002. For more
information, visit http://www.mastek.com.
Carreker Forward Looking Statement
Except for historical information, the statements in this release,
including statements regarding the Company's restatement of its
financial statements, the timing of its SEC filings and the Company's
continued listing on Nasdaq, are forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are
subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially, including but not limited to the
risks and uncertainties associated with the restatement (which
could include material changes in the Company's financial statements,
and volatility in the Company's common stock price) and related
litigation, as well as the risks and uncertainties arising out
of economic, competitive, governmental and technological factors
affecting the Company's operations, markets, services, products
and prices. For further information concerning certain of these
risks and uncertainties, see under the caption "Business — Risk
Factors" in the Company's most recent Form 10-K for the year
ended January 31, 2002. We assume no obligation to update or revise
any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
Carreker Contacts:
Ann Cain, Senior Vice President, Director, Strategic Communications
and PR
972 371-1748 PH (Dallas)
972 458-2567 FX
Email: acain@carreker.com
Mastek
Contacts:
Stewart
Lytle
Metro Global, Inc.
214-215-2299 PH (Dallas)
Email: sylytle@anet-dfw.com
Hitesh Danak
Investor Relations Manager
+91-22-28247893 PH (India)
+91-22-56951331 FX
Email: hiteshd@mastek.com
Sanjay Mudnaney
Sr Manager PR & Communications
+91-22-28247745 PH (India)
+91-22-56951331 FX
Email: sanjaym@mastek.com
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