Bill Neville, president of Davis + Henderson's USA group, has amessage about the meaning of the D + H acquisition of Harland Financial Solutions: “Forus it is all about revenue. It's not about cost savings.”

Neville's point is that D + H is acquiring the business – “weexpect to close in three to four weeks,” said Neville in aninterview — because Toronto, Canada-based D + H wanted to grow itspresence in financial services in the United States. “Thisacquisition gives us a lot more scale.”

Possibly good news for credit unions running on HarlandFinancial Services core systems – some 385, according to Callahan& Associates data, with most on UltraData – is that D + H'sintent, suggested Neville, is to grow the core system business, atechnology that had not been in the D + H portfolio.

“A core is so important to the financial industry. Keeping itmodern requires investment,” said Neville.

“We absolutely will invest in the Harland cores, UltraData andPhoenix. Both are strong, both are impressive,” said Neville.

Industry reaction to the announced acquisition so far has beenguarded, as experts attempt to parse the meaning of a largeCanadian player seeking to expand its U.S. footprint.

Brad Smith,CEO of Austin, Texas-based consulting firm Abound Resources,offered his perspective: “D+H is a strong company in lendingtechnology. They have an integrated commercial–consumer mortgageloan origination system that is much higher tech than Harland'sCredit Quest and Decision Pro.

“But D&H has traditionally been geared toward large banksfrom a price and tech resources standpoint. I would love to seethem come down-market with it. One of our consultants actually hadthat discussion with them recently and the sales rep said that itwas on their roadmap, so we'll see if that's where this isgoing.”

Smith added: “But I'd be worried that the Phoenix core willcontinue to remain in no man's land with yet another owner thatdoesn't know the core processing business.”