UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

Form 10-K

 

 

Commission file number 000-02333

 

Open Solutions Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

(860) 652-3155

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

None

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share

(Title of Class)

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  Yes o     No þ

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act.  Yes o     No þ

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  Yes þ     No o

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  o

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer. See definition of “accelerated filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large accelerated filer o     Accelerated filer þ     Non-accelerated filer o

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).  Yes o     No þ

 

Aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based on the last sale price for such stock on June 30, 2005: $382,515,945.

 

As of March 8, 2006, 20,118,126 shares of common stock, $0.01 par value per share, were outstanding.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

 

 

INDEX

 

 

In addition to the historical information, this Annual Report on Form 10-K contains or incorporates forward-looking statements within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the industry and markets in which we operate and management’s beliefs and assumptions. In addition, other written or oral statements that constitute forward-looking statements may be made by or on our behalf. Words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “seek,” “estimate,” and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. We have included important factors in the cautionary statements under the heading Item 1A. Risk Factors that we believe could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make. We do not intend to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

 

Overview

 

Open Solutions Inc. is a provider of software and services that allow financial institutions to compete and service their customers more effectively. We develop, market, license and support an enterprise-wide suite of software and services that performs a financial institution’s data processing and information management functions, including account, transaction, lending, operations, back office, client information and reporting. Our core software and our complementary products access and update real-time data stored in a services relational database, which is designed to deliver strategic benefits to financial institutions. Our software can be operated either by the financial institution internally, on an outsourced basis in one of our outsourcing centers or through an outsourcing center hosted by one of our resellers. Our aggregate revenues increased from approximately $63.9 million in 2003 to approximately $107.2 million in 2004, and were approximately $193.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2005.

 

Our complementary products can be licensed to financial institutions separately or as part of our fully-integrated suite. When combined with our core software, these complementary products provide financial institutions with a suite of applications that operate efficiently and take advantage of the architecture of our core solution, limiting the need for software customization or middleware, which is software that allows two applications to interface. Our complementary products, which are fully integrated with our core, include business intelligence, customer relationship management, or CRM, check imaging, interactive voice response, Internet banking and cash management, general ledger and profitability, loan origination and Check 21 and item processing functions, web hosting and design services, network service, payment solutions, web-based archiving, retrieval and document distribution solutions. We use an open and flexible software architecture to maximize a client’s flexibility with respect to different hardware configurations and third-party software applications that are commonly used by financial institutions, allowing our clients to select our complete suite or third-party products without incurring substantial additional implementation costs. Based on a design that is customer-centric, our software leverages an institution’s customer information through data mining (sorting through data to identify patterns and establish relationships) and collaborative filtering (the creation of recommendations for a customer based on data gathered on similar customers’ actions and preferences) and allows an institution to provide its customers with better service, improve customer retention and identify and pursue potential cross-selling opportunities.

 

In contrast to legacy systems, our technologies are fully integrated, open, flexible, customer-centric and efficient, permitting financial institutions to draw on and deliver consistent information quickly. Our technology allows our clients to access information from disparate sources and then analyze and distribute that information for use at the point of customer contact. We believe that our products and services enable our clients to reduce their overall core processing and operational costs and meet their strategic needs more effectively.

 

With the acquisition of the Payment Solutions Group of Datawest Solutions Inc. in October 2004, now called Open Solutions Canada, we have added products targeted at institutions beyond the traditional definition of a financial institution, but which nonetheless participate in the processing of retail financial transactions in North America and internationally. These include independent sales organizations, large merchants and non-bank transaction processors. The products sold by the Payments Solutions Group of Datawest allow these institutions to drive and manage their own network of ATM and point of sale terminals, as well as connect to national and international transaction processing networks.

 

On March 3, 2006, we purchased the outstanding common stock of the Information Services Group of BISYS, Inc. (“BISYS”) for a total cash consideration of approximately $470.0 million subject to adjustment. This acquisition will expand our product offerings, further increasing our presence in the financial services marketplace and extending our client base to include the insurance, healthcare and other industries. In connection with our acquisition of the Information Services Group of BISYS we incurred $350.0 million in bank financing. (See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Recent Developments, Liquidity and Capital Resources — Cash from Financing Activities and Note 17 to our consolidated financial statements for further discussion.)

Open Solutions Inc. is headquartered in Glastonbury, Connecticut, and has other facilities in Connecticut, New York, Michigan, Georgia, Indiana, New Hampshire, California, Utah, Illinois, Alabama, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts and Ontario and British Columbia, Canada and New Delhi, India. We were founded in 1992 and are incorporated in Delaware. We operate and manage our business as one reportable segment, the development and marketing of computer software and related services and operate primarily in two geographic areas, the United States and Canada. As of March 3, 2006, we had approximately 1,700 employees. Our common stock is quoted on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol “OPEN”.

 

We are subject to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act and will file reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. Such reports, proxy statements and other information, as well as the registration statement and the exhibits and schedules thereto, may be inspected, without charge, at the public reference room maintained by the SEC at 100 F Street, N.E., Room 1580, Washington, D.C. 20549. Copies of such material may also be obtained from the public reference room of the SEC at prescribed rates. You may obtain information on the operation of the SEC’s public reference room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. Such materials can also be inspected on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

 

We maintain a website with the address www.opensolutions.com. We are not including the information contained on our website as a part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We make available free of charge through our website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish such material to, the SEC. We have posted on our website a copy of our code of business conduct and ethics. In addition, we intend to disclose on our website any amendments to, or waivers from, our code of business conduct and ethics that are required to be publicly disclosed pursuant to rules of the SEC and the Nasdaq National Market.

 

Industry Background

 

Financial institutions have historically invested a significant amount of money in information technology systems. Technology research firm IDC estimates that banks, thrifts and credit unions in the United States spent approximately $42 billion on information technology during 2004 and expects spending to grow to over $52 billion by 2007. According to Thomson Financial Inc., a leading provider of industry information, there are approximately 18,200 commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions in the United States, approximately 18,260 of which have an asset base of under $20 billion.

 

We believe that these financial institutions, which have traditionally competed on the basis of personalized service, are facing increasing challenges to improve their operating efficiencies. These challenges include the entrance of non-traditional competitors, the compression of margins on traditional products, significant channel proliferation and the convergence of financial products into a single institution. Recent legislation has allowed non-traditional competitors, such as insurance companies and brokerage houses, to enter the market for traditional banking products. Because these competitors are able to subsidize traditional banking products with the revenues of other, higher-profit products, financial institutions have experienced lower margins, increasing the pressure to reduce costs while continuing to offer an increasing array of consumer products and services. At the same time, the cost and complexity of delivering these products and services has increased as the widespread introduction of new technology has forced financial institutions to expand their distribution channels to include ATMs, telephone banking, Internet banking and wireless devices. Legislative changes have also accelerated the ability of financial institutions to offer wider ranges of products and services to their customers. To distinguish themselves from competitors in this more competitive environment, banks and credit unions must accurately define and understand their specific markets, and be able to launch relevant products and services to those markets over tailored delivery channels. These challenges are forcing financial institutions to examine how to conduct their business and service their customers most efficiently.

 

Financial institutions have traditionally fulfilled their information technology needs through legacy computer systems, operated either by the institution itself or through an outsourcing center. Legacy systems, which operate in large mainframe or minicomputer environments, are generally highly proprietary, inflexible and costly to operate and maintain. Legacy systems often require financial institutions to purchase a specific vendor’s hardware and

software, requiring them to conform evolving business processes and reporting needs to the architecture of the legacy systems, and preventing them from adopting new technologies or launching new products on a cost-effective and timely basis. Most legacy systems employed by commercial banks are designed primarily to batch process a large number of transactions and create centralized financial records, limiting the ability of these banks to offer their customers real-time transaction processing. On the other hand, most legacy systems employed by credit unions are designed for real-time transaction processing, but they limit the ability to conduct high-volume processing or more traditional commercial banking functions. In addition, legacy systems typically store data in non-relational, or sequentially indexed, files. Because the data is not organized by customer, financial institutions often face challenges extracting information from their legacy systems, which are unable to easily provide real-time, actionable customer data to the individuals within the financial institution servicing customers without additional software.

 

We believe that financial institutions today are seeking more integrated, open, flexible, customer-centric and efficient information technology solutions that:

 

 

We believe that a technology solution must meet all of these requirements to enable financial institutions to achieve a competitive advantage in their markets through improved customer service, competitive product offerings and lower costs. In addition, financial institutions are required by federal law to evaluate the effectiveness of their information technology systems periodically. This obligation, together with significant upgrades and phase-outs of certain hardware by hardware providers, creates an ongoing need for institutions to evaluate replacement of their information technology systems.

 

These requirements can be met by information technology systems based on open, industry-standard operating environments and relational databases. Relational and real-time technology can improve information sharing by providing access at each desktop to critical customer and transaction data and business applications, which is restricted or difficult to access in legacy environments. This technology also enables organizations to streamline business practices and reporting to make faster, more informed decisions. Because this technology is based on an open architecture, it is easily scalable by upgrading the server or linking multiple servers. In addition, this open model offers flexibility in that additional functionality can easily be provided through third-party applications. Furthermore, the costs of maintaining a legacy system, which include the costs of upgrading both legacy system software and hardware, are generally greater over time than the costs associated with newer technology.

 

Our Solution

 

Our core software product is a fully-integrated, open, flexible, customer-centric solution that enables financial institutions to service their customers more efficiently and effectively. Our core software operates in Microsoft, UNIX and LINUX environments using an Oracle relational database, supplemented by a suite of complementary software applications, which are fully integrated with our core technology and can also be used with any other vendor’s core software. We also offer our clients a comprehensive set of support services.

The key attributes of our solution are its:

 

Full Integration at the Core Level

 

 

Open Architecture

 

 

Flexibility

 

 

Customer-Centric Architecture

 

 

Efficiency

 

 

Business Strategy

 

Our objective is to be the leading supplier of software and services to our targeted market. Our strategy for achieving this objective is to:

 

 

In the future, we plan to offer all of our products in our outsourcing centers and continue to market our outsourcing services aggressively. Our outsourcing services provide a source of recurring revenue which can grow as the number of accounts processed for a client increases. We continue to seek to expand our client base through licensing arrangements, which we expect to increase the recurring revenues, such as maintenance, that correspond to those licenses.

 

 

 

Technology

 

We design our software to integrate with other products, to allow individual customer data to be easily accessible at all times, and to be able to deliver strategic benefits to financial institutions at a lower cost. We released our initial product in 1995, at a time when technical advancements such as distributed computing, browser-based applications and standards for integrating disparate applications were becoming commonly adopted in the marketplace. To take advantage of these technical developments, we created an open product architecture to maximize a client’s flexibility with respect to both hardware options and integration with other software applications. In addition, we sought to design a single platform that could service all financial institutions, including commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions. We also understood the difficulties financial institutions face in retrieving timely, accurate information with respect to their customers, and therefore designed our software with a single relational database as its integral component, placing an emphasis on access to customer information rather than account data. By creating a core processing solution that is open and customer-centric, we believe we have

minimized the need for financial institutions to purchase costly middleware and additional databases to perform the tasks that our products achieve with only one software application and a single database.

 

Our core software application offers the following benefits:

 

 

We believe that our software provides these benefits through an open architecture that utilizes a relational database, as well as leading graphical user interfaces and report generation tools. Our software operates in an open systems environment, does not require any proprietary hardware components and is currently deployed on a wide range of client and server platforms. Our open architecture also permits our software to interface with a broad range of third-party applications and peripherals that are commonly used in banks and credit unions.

 

We implement our flexible solution through application modules, each of which performs a specific core processing function. All of our modules share and are able to access the data in a single relational database, allowing for consistency of data throughout our product suite. Through database normalization, data is organized in tables that are easily accessible through a variety of query tools as well as through the application modules. In contrast to legacy systems, our architecture allows a financial institution to capture an unlimited amount of data regarding each of its customers without requiring additional software or support. As a result, a higher degree of independence between a client’s business processes and underlying data is achieved and the solution is more scalable and adaptable to changing business needs. New application modules may be developed or existing modules may be altered as required without having to change the underlying data model.

 

Our software utilizes a single, enterprise-wide relational database model, as opposed to a distributed database in which data is spread among two or more components, and typically resides on different computers. The principal benefits of an architecture using a single enterprise-wide relational database is that it virtually eliminates the introduction of redundant data and permits real-time processing so that, for example, transactions are immediately reflected in a bank or credit union customer’s account. This contrasts with a batch processing approach in which all accounts are updated at scheduled intervals, typically at the end of the business day. Our software may also be configured to operate in a hybrid memo batch/ real time mode for those banks or credit unions that prefer to operate using the workflow model.

 

Our payments processing software is designed to run on a scaleable cluster of small processors. This flexible architecture allows these solutions to be viable for very small institutions but also for extremely large transaction processing organizations, like our own payments processor in Canada, POSHnet, which operates the largest network of ATMs in Canada entirely using our own software products. These switching systems operate on a continuous, 24/7 basis and use industry standard and operating system capabilities to deliver ultra-high availability and transaction reliability. We believe that our customers benefit from the ease of use and scalability of the payments processing software.

 

Products and Services

 

We offer core software as well as several complementary products that may be purchased with our core solution or separately. The open and flexible architecture of our core solution is designed to provide our clients with the maximum array of options for complementary applications. While all of our products function independently of each other, financial institutions which use our entire software suite benefit from our fully-integrated platform and the ability to obtain comprehensive real-time information on all of their customers.

 

Core Software

 

The Complete Banking Solution and The Complete Credit Union Solution.  We market our core software in two versions, one directed primarily at commercial banks and thrifts and the other directed primarily at credit unions. The Complete Banking Solution and The Complete Credit Union Solution share a common software

platform that provides a comprehensive real-time open architecture system capable of managing all of a financial institution’s core processing requirements. Our core software permits the financial institution and its customers to view their transactions immediately, whether the transactions occur over the telephone, on the Internet, at the ATM, inside the financial institution or at an external debit location.

 

We believe that our core software is less expensive to install and maintain than most legacy systems. It can be easily integrated with third party applications or our own complementary products to provide a comprehensive solution that can immediately retrieve valuable customer information for specifically targeting customers with cross-selling or up-selling opportunities.

 

Some of the key features of our core software include:

 

 

The features of our core software offer a comprehensive real-time view of each customer relationship, which enables our clients to provide better customer service by having a complete customer profile available to tellers and officers instantaneously.

 

During 2005, in connection with our acquisition of S.O.S. Computer Systems, Inc., we introduced our relationship-base core data processing technology, The Complete Credit Union Solution — standard market edition (“TCCUS-sme”). This is an out of the box implementation with the credit union generalist in mind. TCCUS-sme, also known as The Standard Market Edition, is an open relational core system designed to be a full-featured, robust, easily implemented and competitively priced solution intended for a broad user base of “Generalists.”

 

Complementary Products

 

To enhance our core software, we offer a number of complementary products. All of our complementary products are designed to run on any core processing system. However, when used with our core solution, our complementary products are designed to take advantage of the availability of real-time customer information. These products provide functionality beyond that in any core solution, and include:

 

cView.  cView is an advanced business-intelligence suite designed around two key functional areas: real-time customer contact and knowledge management. cView permits a financial institution to leverage relational technology, customer account and transaction data and instant messaging to gather, convert and analyze disparate customer information into knowledge that can be applied to support timely and responsive initiatives such as promotional offers and make them available immediately through front-line delivery channels, such as Internet banking, tellers and others. cView is designed to operate on any core processing system, whether designed by us or by a third party. The cView suite consists of the following web-based components:

 

 

 

Each component of the cView suite is integrated with the other components, as well as with our core software, allowing clients to focus on the implementation of CRM strategies rather than the support and maintenance of separate software applications.

 

Channel Management Center.  Channel Management Center is a suite of applications and services designed to facilitate the building and processing of interfaces between disparate systems. Channel Management Center is designed to act as a translator between core, business and delivery systems and to centralize the collection and movement of information throughout the financial institution, eliminating the need for multiple types of middleware services.

 

Interaction Management Center.  Interaction Management Center (IMC) is a relationship management complement to our suite of real-time, enabling technologies. IMC is a browser-based application that provides call center and platform representatives with centralized access from multiple CRM and transactional systems in a consolidated environment.

 

eCommerce Banker — Consumer and eCommerce Banker — Business.  Our eCommerce Banker suite provides clients with Internet banking and cash management tools for commercial and retail customers. The modules permit a financial institution to choose from a wide menu of financial services that may be provided to either individuals or businesses, including:

 

 

Our Internet banking application supports the open financial exchange, or OFX standard, which enables the system to interface to financial institution services that use a variety of devices to originate customer transactions. These administrative components include the ability for financial institutions’ customers and potential customers to

submit account applications in a secure environment. Also, financial institutions can automatically generate e-mail responses to customer applications, update product interest rates and terms and receive customer-specific marketing and data analysis.

 

Check Imaging.  This software application enables our clients to create and store digital check images for inclusion in monthly statements and to facilitate their customer support services. This product suite includes item/ image capture, document imaging/computer output to laser disc, or COLD, signature verification, electronic statements, full-service check and item processing and managed services. This product is designed to comply with federal legislation known as The Check Clearing For The 21st Century Act, commonly known as Check 21, and to be compatible with the Federal Reserve’s FedImage Platform. These features are important because when financial institutions exchange checks electronically rather than physically as the legislation will require, they will seek Check 21 compliant solutions. The product is also designed to be web-enabled, to eliminate a large portion of entry keying, and together with remote branch capture, to assist our clients in centralizing electronic image storage. Our clients can choose to purchase these products on an in-house, serviced or managed services basis.

 

Remittance Systems.  Our remittance systems provide the solution for businesses and financial institutions that need to eliminate the inefficiencies of manual payments processing through an automated solution. With a combination of proprietary software tools and third-party check transport equipment, our remittance systems does away with redundant processing steps; automatically captures and archives images of payments and their related coupons; provides for retrieval for research purposes; and can reduce overhead and operating time.

 

Loan Origination.  Our loan origination technologies are designed to provide full-service loan origination processing. Because no two lenders transact business in exactly the same manner, our loan origination products can also be adapted to suit a financial institution’s specific needs. Our software suite provides integrated systems for mortgage, consumer and commercial lending:

 

 

Financial Products.  Our financial accounting software suite is designed to provide fully-integrated back-office financial management technology to financial institutions, including general ledger, accounts payable and fixed assets. In addition, we offer strategic financial management tools such as asset/ liability management, profitability and financial planning:

 

 

 

Interactive Voice Solutions.  Our interactive voice solutions, which we obtained through the acquisition of Maxxar Corporation on February 24, 2004, are designed to provide financial institutions with products that enhance productivity, strengthen customer services and reduce overall operational costs.

 

 

Payments Products

 

To provide a complete operating environment for financial institution and other customers wishing to provide transaction services either in-house, as a service bureau, or using our own service, the Payment Solutions Group develops and markets a number of products. These products are independent of the Core and Complementary products but can be integrated to provide further synergies for their enhanced operation.

 

POSH (Payment Origination Service Handler).  POSH provides customers with the functionality needed for driving ATMs and point of sale terminals, or equivalent devices, at financial institution or retail sites for credit and debit transactions. POSH also provides the capability to operate and manage the customer relationships with merchants and partners in the POS marketplace as well as manage the financial reconciliation and settlement of transaction value and fees. The functionality includes:

 

 

ConCentre Application Monitoring.  ConCentre is a comprehensive software tool designed to detect and manage errors and unusual events in a complex system processing environment such (as but not limited to) a large ATM network. Customers use Concentre to manage the alerts and faults in their network by improving service availability, track and enforce service level agreements, manage support personnel efficiently and use pre-emptive remediation techniques which allow for the automated correction of real-time errors. ConCentre functionality includes:

 

 

Outsourcing Services

 

We have the capability to host a client’s data processing functions at our outsourcing centers, giving the client the benefit of our products and services without having to maintain personnel to develop, update and run these systems and without having to make large initial expenditures. Our outsourcing centers currently host applications for 815 financial institutions, including clients who use our core software and clients who use one or more of our Internet banking, ATM, cView, check imaging, cash management, collections, web hosting and design services, payment solutions, networking services, ACH processing, payments processing, Check 21 and item processing products. Our payments processing services operate over 18,000 terminal devices for over 180 Independent Sales Organizations.

 

Training, Maintenance and Support Services

 

Installation and Training.  We provide comprehensive installation and training services in connection with the purchase of in-house systems and for new outsourcing center clients. The complete installation process of a core system typically includes planning, design, data conversion and testing.

 

Both in connection with installation of new systems and on an ongoing basis, our clients need, and we provide, extensive training services and programs related to our products and services. Training can be provided in our training centers, at meetings and conferences or onsite at our clients’ locations, and can be customized to meet our clients’ requirements. The large majority of our clients acquire additional training services, both to improve their employees’ proficiency and productivity and to make full use of the functionality of our systems.

 

Professional Services.  Our professional service organization provides services on a contract basis such as operational reviews, which leverage the best practices of our clients to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness across our entire client base.

 

Support Services.  We provide immediate telephone response service during normal working hours and on-call support 24 hours a day, seven days a week for all components of our solution. In addition, we offer remote product support services whereby our support team directly connects in a secure environment to our client’s server to troubleshoot or perform routine maintenance.

 

Clients

 

We serve financial institutions of all sizes, however, the majority of our clients are commercial banks and thrifts with under $20 billion of assets and credit unions of all sizes. The majority of our clients are located in the United States and Canada, although we also have clients in several other foreign countries. As of December 31,

2005, approximately 4,500 financial institutions were using one or more of our products. No client accounted for more than 10% of total revenues for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2005 and 2003. One customer, BISYS, accounted for 11.7% of total revenues for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004. On March 3, 2006 we acquired the Information Services Group of BISYS and in conjunction therewith our reseller agreement with BISYS was terminated. (See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Recent Developments, Liquidity and Capital Resources — Cash from Financing Activities and Note 17 to our consolidated financial statements for further discussion.)

 

Sales and Marketing

 

We have established a multi-channel distribution and sales network. We sell and license our products directly to end-users through our direct sales force and indirectly through resellers, including third-party outsourcing centers. In addition, we support our direct and indirect sales efforts through strategic marketing relationships and public relations programs, trade shows and other marketing activities. We operate primarily in two geographical areas, the United States and Canada.

 

Direct Sales

 

We market our products primarily through a direct sales force which is split between our sales personnel who sell our core software and those who sell our complementary products. As of March 1, 2006, our direct sales force was comprised of 68 salespersons, 43 of which were selling our core software, 23 of which were selling our complementary products and 2 of which were selling our payments products. In addition, our sales group is complemented by application specialists, all of whom have extensive experience in banking technology and provide pre-sales support to potential clients on product information and deployment capabilities. Each client is also assigned an account manager who is that client’s primary contact at Open Solutions, recommends complementary products suitable for that client’s business and works with our sales group to generate sales. Our sales group for core software is focused in two distinct areas; the banking industry and the credit union industry. We believe that this distinction facilitates the ongoing effort to design, develop and build better technology products aimed at the specific needs of the banking and credit union industries.

 

Indirect Sales

 

We supplement our direct sales force with a range of resellers who sell our complementary products in conjunction with their own products and services. These resellers include a range of hardware and software vendors and permit us to better address specific geographical markets, including those outside the United States, and potential clients reliant on existing third-party core solutions.

 

Historically, a significant portion of financial institutions have chosen to satisfy their information technology needs through third-party outsourcing centers. In addition to our own technology outsourcing centers, we have entered into software license and marketing agreements with BISYS, COCC and Celero. Under our agreements with these strategic marketing partners, we receive license fees based on the asset size of the financial institution using our applications.

 

On March 3, 2006 we acquired BISYS’s Information Services Group for $470.0 million (See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Recent Developments, Liquidity and Capital Resources — Cash from Financing Activities and Note 17 to our consolidated financial statements for further discussion).

 

Prior to our purchase of the BISYS’s Information Services Group, BISYS had the right to provide outsourcing services using our The Complete Banking Solution software to banks in the United States. Under the amended agreement, BISYS had also agreed to pay us minimum license fees and achieve minimum sales requirements, as well as pay us annual maintenance fees for each of their clients that uses one or more of our products or services. In exchange, we had agreed not to compete with BISYS for the provision of outsourcing services to banks in the United States through June 2006 and thereafter (so long as BISYS continued to pay us the required minimum fees and meet the required minimum sales). Our reseller agreement with BISYS terminated on March 3, 2006 in connection with our purchase of BISYS’s Information Services Group.

 

Our agreement with COCC provides it with the right to provide services using our The Complete Banking Solution software to banks in ten states, primarily in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. In February

2004, we entered into an expanded agreement with COCC, which provides for the license and resale of our e-Commerce Banker suite of electronic banking and cash management products operated from their data center. This agreement was amended in December 2004 and granted COCC the right to additional TCBS modules and ancillary products. The amended agreement has a term of ten years, with an option to renew for another five years at COCC’s option. In addition, COCC will pay us non-refundable minimum license fees related to the achievement of certain minimum sales requirements for both unit sales and license fees and license and maintenance fees for any sales above the minimums.

 

Our agreement with Celero provides Celero a 10-year licensing rights, reseller and maintenance agreement with us for the Canadian version of The Complete Credit Union Solution which grants Celero license to market and use The Complete Credit Union Solution to provide outsourcing services to its credit union clients in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Celero has the right to provide data center services to credit unions in the previously mentioned territories, up to an aggregate member base of 940,000 which may be increased if Celero exceeds the initial member base. Under the agreement, the license fees for these 940,000 members will be paid quarterly over a three-year period. An initial license fee of CAN$3.5 million was paid upon execution of the agreement in December 2005.

 

During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005, BISYS represented approximately $18.0 million, or 9.3%, of our total revenues, COCC represented approximately $2.5, or 1.3%, of our total revenues, and Celero represented approximately $2.7 million, or 1.4%, of our total revenues. During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, BISYS represented approximately $12.5 million, or 11.7%, of our total revenues, and COCC represented approximately $2.0 million, or 1.9%, of our total revenues. During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003, BISYS represented approximately $5.8 million, or 9.1%, of our total revenues, and COCC represented approximately $1.5 million, or 2.4%, of our total revenues.

 

Marketing

 

Our marketing program includes:

 

 

Product Development

 

We plan to continue to invest significant resources to maintain and enhance our current product and service offerings, and we are continually developing new products that complement these offerings. For the years ended December 31, 2005, 2004, and 2003, product development expenses were $19.6 million, $11.0 million and $6.9 million, respectively. We have historically released two upgrades of existing products each year, and, since the beginning of fiscal year 2002, we have introduced a collections system, a safe deposit box system, a web-based business intelligence suite, a web-based imaging system and tools to facilitate the building and processing of interfaces between disparate systems, as well as several smaller modules. The collections system and safe deposit box system were market-driven additions to our core software suite. The business intelligence, web-based imaging systems and the interface tools were designed to exploit the uniqueness of our core architecture, but as with all of our complementary products, they work with other core solutions. We have several new products under development and plan to sell them to both our existing client base and new clients. Our clients also regularly advise us of new products and functionalities that they desire, which we take into account with respect to planning our research and development operations. As of March 1, 2006, we employed a staff of 248 development employees.

Competition

 

The financial services software market is intensely competitive and subject to technological change. Competitors vary in size and in the scope and breadth of products and services offered. We encounter competition in the United States from a number of companies including Fiserv, Inc., Jack Henry & Associates, Inc., Fidelity National Information Services and John H. Harland Company. We also compete against a number of smaller, regional competitors, as well as vendors of products that compete with one or more of our complementary products. Many of our current competitors have longer operating histories, larger client bases and greater financial resources than we do. In general, we compete on the basis of product architecture and functionality, service and support, including the range and quality of technical support, installation and training services, and product pricing in relation to performance and support.

 

Intellectual Property and Other Proprietary Rights

 

We rely primarily on a combination of copyright and trademark laws, trade secrets, confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions to protect our proprietary rights. We seek to protect our software, documentation and other written materials under trade secret and United States and International copyright laws, which afford only limited protection. Our license agreements contain provisions which limit the number of users, state that title remains with Open Solutions and protect confidentiality. We presently have no patents or patent applications pending.

 

Open Solutions Inc., The Complete Banking Solution, The Complete Credit Union Solution, Bank-on-it and We Move Money are registered trademarks, and eCommerce Banker and eCommerce Mart are trademarks of ours, among others. Open Solutions Inc. is also a service mark of ours. All other trade names and trademarks referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of their respective owners.

 

Employees

 

As of March 3, 2006, we had a total of 1,700 employees. Approximately 33 employees in Canada are unionized and subject to a collective bargaining agreement which expired on February 28, 2003. We are currently negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. We have not experienced any work stoppages and believe that our relations with our employees are good.

 

Infrastructure

 

Our communications and network equipment is located in our corporate headquarters in Glastonbury, Connecticut and other offices throughout the United States and Canada. We have preventive maintenance and disaster recovery plans, which include periodic equipment, software and disaster recovery testing, data monitoring and maintaining records of system errors. We have 24-hour monitoring and engineering support and emergency communication lines. In the event of an emergency, we have a contingency plan to provide services through a nationally recognized emergency service provider.

 

 

The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only risks we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that are currently deemed immaterial may also impair our business operations. If any of the following risks actually occur, our financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.

 

We are dependent on the banking and credit union industry, and changes within that industry could reduce demand for our products and services.

 

The large majority of our revenues are derived from financial institutions in the banking and credit union industry, primarily small to mid-size banks and thrifts and credit unions of all sizes, and we expect to continue to derive substantially all of our revenues from these institutions for the foreseeable future. Unfavorable economic conditions adversely impacting the banking and credit union industry could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, financial institutions in the banking and credit union industry have experienced, and may continue to experience, cyclical fluctuations in profitability as well as

increasing challenges to improve their operating efficiencies. Due to the entrance of non-traditional competitors and the current environment of low interest rates, the profit margins of commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions have narrowed. As a result, some banks have slowed, and may continue to slow, their capital spending, including spending on computer software and hardware, which can negatively impact license sales of our core and complementary products to new and existing clients. Decreases in or reallocation of capital expenditures by our current and potential clients, unfavorable economic conditions and new or persisting competitive pressures could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

Consolidation in the banking and financial services industry could adversely impact our business by eliminating a number of our existing and potential clients.

 

There has been and continues to be merger, acquisition and consolidation activity in the banking and financial services industry. Mergers or consolidations of banks and financial institutions in the future could reduce the number of our clients and potential clients. A smaller market for our services could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations. In addition, it is possible that the larger banks or financial institutions which result from mergers or consolidations could decide to perform themselves some or all of the services which we currently provide or could provide. If that were to occur, it could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

 

Our success depends on decisions by potential clients to replace their legacy computer systems, and their failure to do so would adversely affect demand for our products and services.

 

We primarily derive our revenues from two sources: license fees for software products and fees for a full range of services complementing our products, including outsourcing, installation, training, maintenance and support services. A large portion of these fees are either directly attributable to licenses of our core software system or are generated over time by clients using our core software. Banks and credit unions historically have been slow to adapt to and accept new technologies. Many of these financial institutions have traditionally met their information technology needs through legacy computer systems, in which they have often invested significant resources. As a result, these financial institutions may be inclined to resist replacing their legacy systems with our core software system. Our future financial performance will depend in part on the successful development, introduction and client acceptance of new and enhanced versions of our core software system and our other complementary products. A decline in demand for, or failure to achieve broad market acceptance of, our core software system or any enhanced version as a result of competition, technological change or otherwise, will have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

If we fail to expand our outsourcing business and other sources of recurring revenue, we may be unable to successfully implement our business strategy.

 

We can host a financial institution’s data processing functions at our outsourcing centers. Our outsourcing centers currently serve clients using our core software and our Internet banking, ATM, cView, cash management, collections, automated clearing house, or ACH, processing, and check and item processing, telephony products and payment processing. In the future we plan to offer all of our products in our outsourcing centers and continue to market our outsourcing services aggressively.

 

Our outsourcing services provide a source of recurring revenue which can grow as the number of accounts processed for a client increases. We also seek to generate recurring revenue through our licensing model, which generates additional fees for us as a client’s business grows or it adds more software applications, as well as through the provision of maintenance, support and other professional services. Our data center and payment processing services are the largest of these revenue components, and we expect that these revenues will continue to be a significant portion of our total revenues as our client base grows due to their recurring nature. To the extent we fail to persuade new or existing clients to purchase our outsourcing services or we are unable to offer some or all of our products to clients on an outsourced basis, we will be unable to implement our strategy and our revenue may be less predictable.

We have had several profitable quarters, but we may never achieve continued sustained profitability.

 

Although we were profitable for the year ended December 31, 2004, and the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2005, we may not be profitable in future periods, either on a short or long-term basis. As of December 31, 2005, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $3.3 million. There can be no assurance that operating losses will not recur in the future, that we will sustain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis or that our actual results will meet our projections, expectations or announced guidance. To the extent that revenues do not grow at anticipated rates, increases in operating expenses precede or are not subsequently followed by commensurate increases in revenues or we are unable to adjust operating expense levels accordingly, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be materially adversely affected.

 

If we fail to adapt our products and services to changes in technology or in the marketplace, we could lose existing clients and be unable to attract new business.

 

The markets for our software products and services are characterized by technological change, frequent new product introductions and evolving industry standards. The introduction of products embodying new technologies and the emergence of new industry standards can render our existing products obsolete and unmarketable in short periods of time. We expect new products and services, and enhancements to existing products and services, to continue to be developed and introduced by others, which will compete with, and reduce the demand for, our products and services. Our products’ life cycles are difficult to estimate. Our future success will depend, in part, on our ability to enhance our current products and to develop and introduce new products that keep pace with technological developments and emerging industry standards and to address the increasingly sophisticated needs of our clients. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in developing, marketing, licensing and selling new products or product enhancements that meet these changing demands, that we will not experience difficulties that could delay or prevent the successful development, introduction and marketing of these products or that our new products and product enhancements will adequately meet the demands of the marketplace and achieve market acceptance.

 

We encounter a long sales and implementation cycle requiring significant capital commitments by our clients which they may be unwilling or unable to make.

 

The implementation of our core software system involves significant capital commitments by our clients. Potential clients generally commit significant resources to an evaluation of available software and require us to expend substantial time, effort and money educating them as to the value of our software. Sales of our core processing software products require an extensive education and marketing effort throughout a client’s organization because decisions relating to licensing our core processing software generally involve the evaluation of the software by senior management and a significant number of client personnel in various functional areas, each having specific and often conflicting requirements.

 

We may expend significant funds and management resources during the sales cycle and ultimately fail to close the sale. Our core software product sales cycle generally ranges between six to nine months, and our implementation cycle for our core software generally ranges between six to nine months. Our sales cycle for all of our products and services is subject to significant risks and delays over which we have little or no control, including:

 

 

If we are unsuccessful in closing sales after expending significant funds and management resources or if we experience delays as discussed above, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We utilize certain key technologies from third parties, and may be unable to replace those technologies if they become obsolete or incompatible with our products.

 

Our proprietary software is designed to work in conjunction with certain third-party software products, including Microsoft and Oracle relational databases. Although we believe that there are alternatives to these products generally available to us, any significant interruption in the supply of such third-party software could have a material adverse effect on our sales unless and until we can replace the functionality provided by these products. In addition, we are dependent upon these third parties’ abilities to enhance their current products, to develop new products on a timely and cost-effective basis and to respond to emerging industry standards and other technological changes. There can be no assurance that we would be able to replace the functionality provided by the third-party software currently offered in conjunction with our products in the event that such software becomes obsolete or incompatible with future versions of our products or is otherwise not adequately maintained or updated. The absence of, or any significant delay in, the replacement of that functionality could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, delays in the release of new and upgraded versions of third-party software products, particularly the Oracle relational database management system, could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and results of operations. Because of the complexities inherent in developing sophisticated software products and the lengthy testing periods associated with these products, no assurance can be given that our future product introductions will not be delayed.

 

We operate in a competitive business environment, and if we are unable to compete effectively, we may face price reductions and decreased demand for our products.

 

The market for our products and services is intensely competitive and subject to technological change. Competitors vary in size and in the scope and breadth of the products and services they offer. We encounter competition from a number of sources, all of which offer core software systems to the banking and credit union industry. We expect additional competition from other established and emerging companies as the market for core processing software solutions and complementary products continues to develop and expand.

 

We also expect that competition will increase as a result of software industry consolidation, including particularly the acquisition of any of our competitors or any of the retail banking system providers by one of the larger service providers to the banking industry. We encounter competition in the United States from a number of sources, including Fiserv, Inc., Jack Henry & Associates, Inc., Fidelity National Information Services and John H. Harland Company, all of which offer core processing systems or outsourcing alternatives to banks, thrifts and credit unions. Some of our current, and many of our potential, competitors have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger client bases and significantly greater financial, engineering, technical, marketing and other resources than we do. As a result, these companies may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in client demands or to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we can.

 

In addition, current and potential competitors have established or may establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties to increase the ability of their products to address the needs of our prospective clients. Accordingly, it is possible that new competitors or alliances among competitors may emerge and acquire significant market share. We expect that the banking and credit union software market will continue to attract new competitors and new technologies, possibly involving alternative technologies that are more sophisticated and cost-effective than our technology. There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors or that competitive pressures faced by us will not materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

An impairment of the value of our goodwill, capitalized software costs and other intangible assets could significantly reduce our earnings.

 

We periodically review several items on our balance sheet for impairment and record an impairment charge if we determine that the value of our assets has been impaired. As of December 31, 2005, we had approximately $94.1 million of goodwill, $7.4 million of capitalized software costs and $39.4 million of other intangible assets. We periodically review these assets for impairment. If we determine that the carrying value of these assets are not recoverable, we would record an impairment charge against our results of operations. Such an impairment charge

may be significant, and we are unable to predict the amount, if any, of potential future impairments. In addition, if we engage in additional acquisitions, we may incur additional goodwill and other intangible assets.

 

Our quarterly revenues, operating results and profitability will vary from quarter to quarter, which may result in volatility in our stock price.

 

Our quarterly revenues, operating results and profitability have varied in the past and are likely to continue to vary significantly from quarter to quarter. This may lead to volatility in our stock price. These fluctuations are due to several factors relating to the license and sale of our products, including:

 

 

We believe that period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations are not necessarily meaningful. There can be no assurance that future revenues and results of operations will not vary substantially. It is also possible that in future quarters, our results of operations will be below the expectations of public market analysts or investors or our announced guidance. In either case, the price of our common stock could be materially adversely affected.

 

We face a lengthy sales cycle for our core software, which may cause fluctuations in our revenues from quarter to quarter.

 

We may not be able to increase revenue or decrease expenses to meet expectations for a given quarter. We recognize software license revenues upon delivery and, if required by the underlying agreement, upon client acceptance, if such criteria is other than perfunctory, which does not always occur in the same quarter in which the software license agreement for the system is signed. As a result, we are constrained in our ability to increase our software license revenue in any quarter if there are unexpected delays in delivery or required acceptance of systems for which software licenses were signed in previous quarters. Implementation of our core software system typically occurs over six to nine months. Delays in the delivery, implementation or any required acceptance of our products could materially adversely affect our quarterly results of operations. Revenues from software license sales accounted for 26.6% of revenues for the twelve months ended December 31, 2005, 30.8% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2004, 33.5% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2003 and 30.3% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2002. We expect that revenues from software license sales will continue to provide a significant percentage of our revenues in future periods, and our ability to close license sales, as well as the timing of those sales, may have a material impact on our quarterly results. In addition, increased sales and marketing expenses for any given quarter may negatively impact operating results of that quarter due to lack of recognition of associated revenues until the delivery of the product in a subsequent quarter.

 

If we do not retain our senior management and other key employees, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.

 

We have grown significantly in recent years, and our management remains concentrated in a small number of key employees. Our future success depends to a significant extent on our executive officers and key employees, including our sales force and software professionals, particularly project managers, software engineers and other

senior technical personnel. The loss of the services of any of these individuals or group of individuals could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Competition for qualified personnel in the software industry is intense and we compete for these personnel with other software companies that have greater financial and other resources than we do. Our future success will depend in large part on our ability to attract, retain and motivate highly qualified personnel, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to do so. Any difficulty in hiring personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

Our indebtedness could adversely affect our financial health and prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under our senior subordinated convertible notes and our bank financing.

 

We have a significant amount of indebtedness, including approximately $144.1 million in senior subordinated notes and approximately $350.0 million in bank financing. In connection with our bank financing, we are required to maintain sufficient leverage and fixed charge ratios. Our substantial indebtedness could have important consequences to our stockholders and note holders. For example, it could:

 

 

If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds necessary to make required payments, or if we fail to comply with the various requirements of our notes, our bank financing or any indebtedness that we may incur in the future, we would be in default, which would permit the holders of the notes, our lenders and the holders of such other indebtedness to accelerate the maturity of the notes, our bank financing or such other indebtedness, as the case may be, and could cause defaults under the notes, our bank financing and such other indebtedness. Any default under the notes, our bank financing or any indebtedness that we may incur in the future could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, liquidity and financial condition.

 

Our level of fixed expenses may cause us to incur operating losses if we are unsuccessful in maintaining our current revenue levels.

 

Our expense levels are based, in significant part, on our expectations as to future revenues and are largely fixed in the short term. As a result, we may be unable to adjust spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected shortfall in revenues. Accordingly, any significant shortfall of revenues in relation to our expectations would have an immediate and materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, as we expand we would anticipate increasing our operating expenses to expand our installation, product development, sales and marketing and administrative organizations. The time of such expansion and the rate at which new personnel become productive could cause material losses to the extent we do not generate additional revenue.

 

We rely on our direct sales force to generate revenue, and may be unable to hire additional sales personnel in a timely manner.

 

We rely primarily on our direct sales force to sell licenses of our core software system. We may need to hire additional sales, client care and implementation personnel in the near-term and beyond if we are to achieve revenue growth in the future. Competition for such personnel is intense, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to

retain our existing sales, customer service and implementation personnel or will be able to attract, assimilate or retain additional highly qualified personnel in the future. If we are unable to hire or retain qualified sales personnel on a timely basis, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

 

We have entered into and may continue to enter into or seek to enter into business combinations and acquisitions which may be difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value or divert management attention.

 

Since January 1, 2001, we have acquired fourteen businesses. As part of our business strategy, we may enter into additional business combinations and acquisitions in the future. We have limited experience in making acquisitions. In addition, acquisitions are typically accompanied by a number of risks, including:

 

 

If we are not successful in completing acquisitions that we may pursue in the future, we would be required to reevaluate our growth strategy and we may have incurred substantial expenses and devoted significant management time and resources in seeking to complete the acquisitions. In addition, with future acquisitions, we could use substantial portions of our available cash as all or a portion of the purchase price. We could also issue additional securities as consideration for these acquisitions, which could cause our stockholders to suffer significant dilution. Any future acquisitions may not generate additional revenue for us.

 

On March 3, 2006, we purchased the outstanding common stock of the Information Services Group of BISYS, our largest acquisition to date. We expect that the integration of this acquisition will require significant management time and resources and may pose unexpected challenges. Any failure by us to successfully integrate this acquisition would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

 

We receive a portion of our revenues from relationships with strategic marketing partners, and if we lose one or more of these marketing partners or fail to add new ones it could have a negative impact on our business.

 

We expect that revenues generated from the sale of our products and services by our strategic marketing partners will account for a meaningful portion of our revenues for the foreseeable future. In particular, BISYS has accounted for a meaningful portion of our revenues over time. During the twelve months ended December 31, 2005, BISYS represented approximately $18.0 million, or 9.3%, of our total revenues. During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, BISYS represented approximately $12.5 million, or 11.7%, of our total revenues. As discussed under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Recent Developments,” we acquired BISYS’s Information Services Group for $470.0 million on March 3, 2006.

In December 2005, we signed an agreement with Celero. The agreement provides Celero with 10-year licensing, reseller and maintenance rights for the Canadian version of The Complete Credit Union Solution, this agreement grants Celero license to market and use The Complete Credit Union Solution and the right to provide outsourcing services to credit union clients in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Celero has the right to provide data center services to credit unions in the previously mentioned territories up to an aggregate member base of 940,000. Under the agreement, the license fees for these 940,000 members will be paid quarterly over a three-year period. An initial license fee of CAN$3.5 million was paid upon execution of the agreement in December 2005.

 

Our strategic marketing partners pay us license fees based on the volume of products and services that they sell. If we lose one or more of our major strategic marketing partners or experience a decline in the revenue from them, we may be unable in a timely manner, or at all, to replace them with another entity with comparable client bases and user demographics, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, we plan to supplement our existing distribution partners with other national and regional outsourcing centers. If we are unable to identify appropriate resellers and enter into arrangements with them for the outsourcing of our products and services to financial institutions, we may not be able to sustain or grow our business.

 

We rely on internally developed software and systems as well as third-party products, any of which may contain errors and bugs.

 

Our software may contain undetected errors, defects or bugs. Although we have not suffered significant harm from any errors or defects to date, we may discover significant errors or defects in the future that we may or may not be able to correct. Our products involve integration with products and systems developed by third parties. Complex software programs of third parties may contain undetected errors or bugs when they are first introduced or as new versions are released. There can be no assurance that errors will not be found in our existing or future products or third-party products upon which our products are dependent, with the possible result of delays in or loss of market acceptance of our products, diversion of our resources, injury to our reputation and increased service and warranty expenses and/or payment of damages.

 

We could be sued for contract or product liability claims and lawsuits may disrupt our business, divert management’s attention or have an adverse effect on our financial results.

 

Failures in a client’s system could result in an increase in service and warranty costs or a claim for substantial damages against us. There can be no assurance that the limitations of liability set forth in our contracts would be enforceable or would otherwise protect us from liability for damages. We maintain general liability insurance coverage, including coverage for errors and omissions in excess of the applicable deductible amount. There can be no assurance that this coverage will continue to be available on acceptable terms or will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims, or that the insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceeds available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, litigation, regardless of its outcome, could result in substantial cost to us and divert management’s attention from our operations. Any contract liability claim or litigation against us could, therefore, have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, because many of our projects are business-critical projects for financial institutions, a failure or inability to meet a client’s expectations could seriously damage our reputation and affect our ability to attract new business.

 

In August 2005, we became aware that we had not timely filed certain federal tax forms on behalf of some of our clients. Although we do not believe that this instance will result in penalties against us or indemnification obligations to our clients, we cannot be assured that similar instances will not occur in the future and that in the event that they do occur, that such future instance will not result in penalties or indemnification obligations.

Government regulation of our business could cause us to incur significant expenses, and failure to comply with applicable regulations could make our business less efficient or impossible.

 

The financial services industry is subject to extensive and complex federal and state regulation. Financial institutions, including banks, thrifts and credit unions, operate under high levels of governmental supervision. Our clients must ensure that our products and services work within the extensive and evolving regulatory requirements applicable to them, including those under federal and state truth-in-lending and truth-in-deposit rules, usury laws, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, the USA Patriot Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and other state and local laws and regulations. The compliance of our products and services with these requirements may depend on a variety of factors, including the product at issue and whether the client is a bank, thrift, credit union or other type of financial institution.

 

Neither federal depository institution regulators nor other federal or state regulators of financial services require us to obtain any licenses. We are subject to examination by federal depository institution regulators under the Bank Service Company Act and the Examination Parity and Year 2000 Readiness for Financial Institutions Act.

 

Although we believe we are not subject to direct supervision by federal and state banking agencies relating to other regulations, we have from time to time agreed to examinations of our business and operations by these agencies. These regulators have broad supervisory authority to remedy any shortcomings identified in any such examination.

 

Federal, state or foreign authorities could also adopt laws, rules or regulations relating to the financial services industry and the protection of consumer personal information belonging to financial institutions that affect our business, such as requiring us or our clients to comply with data, record keeping and processing and other requirements. It is possible that laws and regulations may be enacted or modified with respect to the Internet, covering issues such as end-user privacy, pricing, content, characteristics, taxation and quality of services and products. Adoption of these laws, rules or regulations could render our business or operations more costly and burdensome or less efficient and could require us to modify our current or future products or services.

 

Our limited ability to protect our proprietary technology and other rights may adversely affect our ability to compete.

 

We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as licensing agreements, third-party nondisclosure agreements and other contractual provisions and technical measures to protect our intellectual property rights. There can be no assurance that these protections will be adequate to prevent our competitors from copying or reverse-engineering our products, or that our competitors will not independently develop technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our technology. To protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information, we require employees, consultants, advisors and collaborators to enter into confidentiality agreements. We cannot assure you that these agreements will provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information in the event of any unauthorized use, misappropriation or disclosure of such trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information. We do not include in our products any mechanism to prevent unauthorized copying and any such unauthorized copying could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We have no patents, and existing copyright laws afford only limited protection for our intellectual property rights and may not protect such rights in the event competitors independently develop products similar to ours. In addition, the laws of certain countries in which our products are or may be licensed do not protect our products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States.

 

If we are found to infringe the proprietary rights of others, we could be required to redesign our products, pay royalties or enter into license agreements with third parties.

 

Although we have never been the subject of a material intellectual property dispute, there can be no assurance that a third party will not assert that our technology violates its intellectual property rights in the future. As the number of software products in our target market increases and the functionality of these products further overlap,

we believe that software developers may become increasingly subject to infringement claims. Any claims, whether with or without merit, could:

 

 

There can be no assurance that third parties will not assert infringement claims against us in the future with respect to our current or future products or that any such assertion will not require us to enter into royalty arrangements (if available) or litigation that could be costly to us.

 

We may not have sufficient funds available to pay amounts due under our senior subordinated convertible notes.

 

We will be required to pay cash to holders of our senior subordinated convertible notes:

 

 

We may not have sufficient funds available or may be unable to arrange for additional financing to satisfy these obligations. A failure to pay amounts due under the notes upon repurchase, at maturity or upon conversion in the event we elect to pay cash in lieu of shares of common stock upon conversion, would constitute an event of default under the indenture, which could, in turn, constitute a default under the terms of any other indebtedness.

 

We face risks associated with our Canadian operations that could harm our financial condition and results of operations.

 

On October 29, 2004, we completed the acquisition of Datawest Solutions Inc., now known as Open Solutions Canada, a provider of banking and payment technology solutions located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Although historically we have not generated significant revenues from operations outside the United States, we expect that the portion of our revenues generated by our international operations will increase as a result of our acquisition of Datawest. As is the case with most international operations, the success and profitability of such operations are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that include, in addition to the risks our business as a whole faces, the following:

 

 

To service our indebtedness, we will require a significant amount of cash. Our ability to generate cash depends on many factors beyond our control.

 

Our ability to make payments on and to refinance our indebtedness, including our notes and the additional debt we incurred in connection with our acquisition of BISYS’s Information Services Group (“BISYS Acquisition Financing”), and to fund planned capital expenditures and product development efforts will depend on our ability to generate cash in the future. This, to a certain extent, is subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, regulatory and other factors that are beyond our control.

 

We cannot assure you that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations or that future borrowings will be available to us in an amount sufficient to enable us to pay our indebtedness, including the notes and BISYS Acquisition Financing, or to fund our other liquidity needs. We may need to refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness, including the notes and BISYS Acquisition Financing, on or before maturity. We cannot assure you that we will be able to refinance any of our indebtedness, including the notes and BISYS Acquisition Financing, on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

 

If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our financial results could be adversely affected.

 

We have expanded our operations rapidly in recent years. For example, our aggregate annual revenues increased from approximately $27.3 million in 2001 to approximately $193.8 million in 2005. As of December 31, 2005, we had approximately 1,100 employees, up from approximately 600 as of December 31, 2003. The acquisition of the BISYS’s Information Services Group will significantly increase the size of our operations. In addition, we continue to explore ways to extend our target markets, including to larger financial institutions, international clients, and clients in the payroll services, insurance and brokerage industries. Our growth may place a strain on our management systems, information systems and resources. Our ability to successfully offer products and services and implement our business plan requires adequate information systems and resources and oversight from our senior management.

 

We will need to continue to improve our financial and managerial controls, reporting systems and procedures as we continue to grow and expand our business. As we grow, we must also continue to hire, train, supervise and manage new employees. We may not be able to hire, train, supervise and manage sufficient personnel or develop management and operating systems to manage our expansion effectively. If we are unable to manage our growth, our operations and financial results could be adversely affected.

 

The requirements of being a public company strain our resources and distract management.

 

As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. These requirements may place a strain on our systems and resources. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls for financial reporting. In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, significant resources and management oversight will be required. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. In addition, we will need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge and we cannot assure you that we will be able to do so in a timely fashion.

 

Failure to continue to comply with all of the requirements imposed by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 could result in a negative market reaction.

 

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires that we establish and maintain an adequate internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting and assess on an on-going basis the design and operating effectiveness of our internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting. Our independent registered public accounting firm is required to audit both the design and operating effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and management’s assessment of the design and the effectiveness of its internal control over

financial reporting. If we do not continue to comply with all of the requirements of Section 404 or if our internal controls are not designed or operating effectively, it could result in a negative market reaction.

 

The design of other core vendors’ software or their use of financial incentives may make it more difficult for clients to use our complementary products.

 

Currently, some core software vendors design their software so that it is difficult or infeasible to use third-party complementary products, including ours. Some core software vendors use financial incentives to encourage their core software clients to purchase their proprietary complementary products. For example, in the past a core software vendor has charged disproportionately high fees to integrate third-party complementary products such as ours, thereby providing a financial incentive for clients of that vendor’s core software to use its complementary products. We have responded to this practice by emphasizing to prospective clients the features and functionality of our products, lowering our price or offering to perform the relevant integration services ourselves. We cannot assure you that these competitors, or other vendors of core software, will not begin or continue to construct technical, or implement financial, obstacles to the purchase of our products. These obstacles could make it more difficult for us to sell our complementary products and could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

 

Operational failures in our outsourcing centers could cause us to lose clients.

 

Damage or destruction that interrupts our provision of outsourcing services could damage our relationship with our clients and may cause us to incur substantial additional expense to repair or replace damaged equipment. Although we have installed back-up systems and procedures to prevent or reduce disruption, we cannot assure you that we will not suffer a prolonged interruption of our data processing services. In the event that an interruption of our network extends for more than several hours, we may experience data loss or a reduction in revenues by reason of such interruption. In addition, a significant interruption of service could have a negative impact on our reputation and could lead our present and potential clients to choose service providers other than us.

 

Unauthorized disclosure of data, whether through breach of our computer systems or otherwise, could expose us to protracted and costly litigation or cause us to lose clients.

 

In our outsourcing centers, we collect and store sensitive data, including names, addresses, social security numbers, checking and savings account numbers and payment history records, such as account closures and returned checks. If a person penetrates our network security or otherwise misappropriates sensitive data, we could be subject to liability or our business could be interrupted. Penetration of the network security of our outsourcing centers could have a negative impact on our reputation and could lead our present and potential clients to choose service providers other than us.

 

We may need additional capital in the future, which may not be available to us, and if we raise additional capital, it may dilute your ownership in us.

 

We may need to raise additional funds through public or private debt or equity financings in order to meet various objectives, such as:

 

 

In addition, we may need additional financing if we decide to undertake new sales and/or marketing initiatives, if we are required to defend or enforce our intellectual property rights, or if sales of our products do not meet our expectations.

Any debt incurred by us could impair our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures or further acquisitions. Covenants governing any indebtedness we incur would likely restrict our ability to take specific actions, including our ability to pay dividends or distributions on, or redeem or repurchase, our capital stock, enter into transactions with affiliates, merge, consolidate or sell our assets or make capital expenditure investments. In addition, the use of a substantial portion of the cash generated by our operations to cover debt service obligations and any security interests we grant on our assets could limit our financial and business flexibility.

 

Any additional capital raised through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities may dilute your ownership percentage in us. Furthermore, any additional debt or equity financing we may need may not be available on terms favorable to us, or at all. If future financing is not available or is not available on acceptable terms, we may not be able to raise additional capital, which could significantly limit our ability to implement our business plan. In addition, we may have to issue securities, including debt securities that may have rights, preferences and privileges senior to our common stock.

 

The price of our common stock may be volatile.

 

In the past few years, technology stocks listed on the Nasdaq National Market have experienced high levels of volatility. The price of our common stock depends on many factors, some of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. The factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our common stock include, but are not limited to, the following:

 

 

In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. Due to the potential volatility of our stock price, we may therefore be the target of securities litigation in the future. Securities litigation could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources from our business.

 

If a substantial number of shares of our common stock become available for sale and are sold in a short period of time, the market price of our common stock could decline significantly.

 

If our stockholders sell substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the market price of our common stock could decrease significantly. The perception in the public market that our stockholders might sell shares of common stock could also depress the market price of our common stock.

 

In addition, as of December 31, 2005, we had options to purchase a total of 3,562,047 shares of our common stock outstanding under our stock incentive plans, of which 1,644,522 were vested. We have filed Form S-8 registration statements to register all of the shares of our common stock issuable under these plans. A decline in the price of shares of our common stock might impede our ability to raise capital through the issuance of additional shares of our common stock or other equity securities, and may cause you to lose part or all of your investment in our shares of common stock.

Some provisions in our certificate of incorporation and by-laws may deter third parties from acquiring us.

 

Our restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated by-laws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult without the approval of our board of directors, including the following:

 

 

These anti-takeover defenses could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other stockholders to elect directors of your choosing and cause us to take other corporate actions you desire.

 

Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law may delay, defer or prevent a change in control that our stockholders might consider to be in their best interest.

 

We are subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law which, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits “business combinations” between a publicly-held Delaware corporation and an “interested stockholder,” which is generally defined as a stockholder who becomes a beneficial owner of 15% or more of a Delaware corporation’s voting stock for a three-year period following the date that such stockholder became an interested stockholder. Section 203 could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control of our company that our stockholders might consider to be in their best interests.

 

 

None.

 

As of March 1, 2006, operations were conducted at the leased facilities described below.

 

 

We are from time to time a party to legal proceedings which arise in the normal course of business. We are not currently involved in any material litigation, the outcome of which would, in management’s judgment based on information currently available, have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition, nor is management aware of any such litigation threatened against us.

 

None.

 

Since November 26, 2003, our common stock has traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol “OPEN.” On March 1, 2006, the closing sale price of our common stock was $29.63 per share. The following table sets forth the high and low sales prices per share of our common stock for the periods indicated as reported on the Nasdaq National Market.

 

 

As of March 1, 2006, there were approximately 61 record holders of our common stock. This number does not include stockholders for whom shares are held in a “nominee” or “street” name.

 

We have never paid cash dividends. We currently intend to retain all future earnings, if any, for use in our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

 

Repurchases of Our Common Stock

 

The following table provides information about repurchases by us of our common stock during the three months ended December 31, 2005.

 

 

 

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

 

The following table provides information as of December 31, 2005 about the securities authorized for issuance under our equity compensation plans, consisting of our 1994 Stock Option Plan, 2000 Stock Incentive Plan, 2003 Stock Incentive Plan and 2003 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. All of our equity compensation plans were approved by our stockholders.

 

Equity Compensation Plan Information

 

 

 

 

The selected financial data set forth below are derived from our audited financial statements. During the period from December 31, 2001 to December 31, 2005, we have acquired thirteen businesses, as more fully described in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These acquisitions have significantly affected our revenues, results of operations and financial condition. The operating results of each business acquired have been included in our financial statements from the respective dates of acquisition.

 

The historical results presented below are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for any future period. The data set forth below should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

 

 

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with, and are derived from, our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition to historical information, this discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, which could cause actual results to differ materially from management’s expectations. Important factors that could cause these differences include those described in Item 1A. Risk Factors and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

We use the terms “Open Solutions,” “we,” “us” and “our” to refer to the business of Open Solutions Inc. and our subsidiaries. All references to years, unless otherwise noted, refer to our fiscal years, which end on December 31.

 

Overview

 

We are a provider of software and services that allow financial institutions to compete and service their customers more effectively. We develop, market, license and support an enterprise-wide suite of software and services that perform a financial institution’s data processing and information management functions, including account, transaction, lending, operations, back office, client information and reporting. Our complementary products and services supplement our core software to provide our clients with fully-integrated business intelligence, customer relationship management, or CRM, check imaging, Internet banking and cash management, general ledger and profitability, loan origination, interactive voice solutions, check and item processing functions and web-based archiving, retrieval and document distribution solutions. Our software can be operated either by the financial institution itself, on an outsourced basis in one of our outsourcing centers or through an outsourcing center hosted by one of our resellers. Substantially all of our historical revenue has been generated through the licensing of our core software and our complementary products and the provision of related services and maintenance to small and mid-size commercial banks and thrifts and credit unions of all sizes. We also derive revenue from payment processing services. We view our operations and manage our business in one reportable segment, the development and marketing of computer software and related services.

 

We derive revenues from two primary sources:

 

 

Our revenues have grown from approximately $27.3 million in 2001 to approximately $193.8 million in 2005. This growth has resulted primarily from strategic acquisitions and internal expansion, through which we have

developed and acquired new products and services and have expanded the number of clients using one or more of our products to approximately 4,500 financial institutions as of December 31, 2005.

 

On March 3, 2006, we purchased the outstanding common stock of the Information Services Group of BISYS for a total cash consideration of approximately $470.0 million, subject to adjustment. This acquisition will expand our product offerings, further increasing our presence in the financial services marketplace and extending our client base to include the insurance, healthcare and other industries.

 

Software license revenue includes fees received from the licensing of application software. We license our proprietary software products under standard agreements which typically provide our clients with a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the software for a single financial institution upon payment of a license fee. We also license certain third-party software products to clients.

 

We generate service and maintenance fees by converting clients to our core software suite, installing our software, assisting our clients in operating the applications, maintaining and updating the software and providing outsourcing services. Our software license agreements typically provide for five years of support and maintenance, with automatic yearly renewals. We perform outsourcing services through our outsourcing centers and our check, item and payment processing centers. Revenues from outsourcing center services and the check, item and payment processing centers are derived from monthly usage or transaction based fees, typically under three to five-year service contracts with our clients.

 

We derive other revenues from hardware sales and client reimbursement of out-of-pocket and telecommunications costs. We have entered into agreements with several hardware manufacturers under which we sell computer hardware and related services. Client reimbursements represent direct costs paid to third parties primarily for data communication, postage and travel.

 

We expect that our revenues from installation, training, maintenance, support services, our outsourcing centers and the outsourcing centers hosted by our resellers will continue to expand as our base of clients expands. Our outsourcing and maintenance revenues are the largest of these revenue components, and we expect that these revenues, due to their recurring nature, will continue to be a significant portion of our total revenue as our client base grows. In addition, in connection with our acquisition of the Information Services Group of BISYS, we expect these components as a percentage of our total revenue to increase during 2006.

 

In the fourth quarter of 2004, we reversed the valuation allowance of $17.9 million against our deferred tax assets because we determined that it is more likely than not that current and future net income will allow for the realization of these assets. As a result, we recorded an income tax benefit directly related to the reversal of the valuation allowance of $8.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2004. The remainder of the valuation allowance reversal was primarily recorded as an increase to equity of $7.8 million. During 2005, we recorded a tax provision against income at our effective tax rate. However, we do not expect to incur significant federal tax payments until all anticipated net operating loss carry forwards are utilized. We had previously provided a valuation allowance for the full amount of the deferred tax asset of our Canadian subsidiary. During the fourth quarter of 2005, we determined that it is more likely than not that the deferred tax asset of this subsidiary would be realized. The reversal of the valuation allowance was recorded as a reduction to goodwill to the Canadian subsidiary.

 

Recent Developments

 

On March 3, 2006, we purchased the outstanding common stock of the Information Services Group of BISYS for a total cash consideration of approximately $470.0 million, subject to adjustment. We expect that this acquisition will expand our product offerings, further increasing our presence in the financial services marketplace and extending our client base to include the insurance, healthcare and other industries. We also expect that this acquisition will increase the recurring portion of our revenues. In addition, in conjunction with this acquisition our reseller agreement with BISYS was terminated. During the fiscal years ended December 31, 2005, 2004 and 2003, BISYS represented approximately $18.0 million, or 9.3%, of our total revenues, $12.5 million, or 11.7%, of our total revenues, and $5.8 million, or 9.1%, of our total revenues, respectively.

We used the proceeds from a $350.0 million bank financing along with $120.0 million of available cash to fund the $470.0 million purchase price. As discussed in greater detail below under “Liquidity and Capital Resources,” this bank financing substantially increased our indebtedness.

 

Results of Operations

 

 

Year Ended December 31, 2005 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2004

 

Revenues.  We generate revenues from licensing the rights to use our software products and certain third-party software products to clients. We also generate revenues from installation, training, maintenance and support services provided to clients, from outsourcing center services and from hardware sales related to the licensing of our software and other third party software products. Revenues increased 80.8% from $107.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 to $193.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. This increase was partly attributable to a $18.5 million increase in licensing revenue from our core and complementary products primarily attributable to sales to new clients, including those clients of our acquired entities, sales of additional products to existing clients and an increase in license fees from BISYS. Of the $18.5 million increase in licensing revenues, $4.3 million related to revenue from those acquisitions completed subsequent to January 1, 2005, which were the U.S. based services to credit unions business of CGI-AMS Inc., S.O.S. Computer Systems, Inc., Financial Data Solutions, Inc. and COWWW Software, Inc. plus the partial period effect from the acquisitions completed during 2004 which were Maxxar Corporation, Eastpoint Technologies, LLC, re:Member Data Services, Inc., Omega Systems of North America LLC and Datawest Solutions Inc. The remaining $14.2 million related to the increased number of license transactions for our core and complementary products, including $6.1 million related to the licensing of The Complete Credit Union Solution to Canadian clients. The increase in revenues was also attributable to an increase of $9.2 million in our implementation and other professional services, $5.9 million of which was from acquired businesses. We also realized an increase of $13.7 million in our maintenance revenue, $10.5 million of which was from acquired businesses, and an increase of $41.7 million in our outsourcing revenues, $39.9 million of which was from acquired businesses. The increases in implementation, professional services and maintenance

revenues not related to acquisitions are directly related to the increase in sales of licenses to new clients and sales of additional products to existing clients. Additionally, hardware and other revenues increased by $3.5 million, which was primarily as a result of the acquired businesses.

 

Cost of Revenues.  Cost of revenues includes third party license fees and the direct expenses associated with providing our services such as systems operations, customer support, installations, professional services and other related expenses. Cost of revenues increased 86.8% from $44.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 to $83.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. The increase in cost of revenues was due primarily to a $23.5 million increase in costs associated with the growth of our outsourcing and payment processing business, $22.3 million of which is from the acquired businesses. There was also a $7.8 million increase in costs associated with implementation and other professional services, $4.3 million of which is from acquired businesses and the remainder of which is primarily related to increased personnel costs as a result of increased implementation activities. Maintenance costs increased $4.6 million, of which $3.6 million is from the acquired businesses and costs associated with hardware and other revenues increased by $2.5 million, which was primarily from the acquired businesses. Cost of revenues represented 41.6% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2004 as opposed to 43.0% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2005. Cost of revenues increased on an absolute basis primarily as a result of the acquisitions completed since January 1, 2005, but also from increased third party license costs and costs of professional services associated with our revenue growth. Cost of revenues as a percentage of revenues increased 1.4% from 2004 as a result of the increase in service, maintenance, outsourcing and hardware and other revenues of $68.1 million, which carry lower margins, partially offset by an increase in license revenue of $18.5 million, which carry higher margins. We expect that service, maintenance and outsourcing revenues as a percentage of total revenue will continue to increase.

 

Operating Expenses

 

Sales and Marketing.  Sales and marketing expenses increased 71.4% from $14.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 to $24.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. This increase was due primarily to $3.4 million in sales and marketing expenses from the acquired businesses, higher sales commissions and commission related bonuses of approximately $2.4 million due to the increase in license revenues and increases in salaries, user group expenses and other marketing costs of approximately $1.6 million. Sales and marketing expenses represented 12.6% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2005 as opposed to 13.3% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2004. Sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenues decreased primarily because sales and marketing expenses did not increase proportionally to our revenue growth. For certain acquisitions, we acquired a wide client base, but did not continue to market the acquired company’s products, as our strategy has been to market our solutions to the clients of these acquired companies, resulting in lower marketing expenses compared to revenues. In the event that we acquire product lines or businesses in the future, we would anticipate that, based on the nature and magnitude of those acquisitions, our sales and marketing expenses would increase as a result of those acquisitions.

 

Product Development.  Product development expenses increased 78.2% from $11.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 to $19.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. This increase was due primarily to a $4.8 million increase in product development expenses from the acquired businesses and $1.3 million related to the internationalization and localization of our products. Product development expenses represented 10.3% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2004 as opposed to 10.1% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2005. Product development expenses as a percentage of revenues decreased primarily because product development expenses did not increase proportionally to our revenue growth. Product development expenses increased on an absolute basis primarily due to our investment in the internationalization of our products, the localization of our products in Canada and the development of other enhancements to our major product lines.

 

General and Administrative.  General and administrative expenses consist of salaries for executive, administrative, and financial personnel, consulting expenses and facilities costs such as office leases, insurance and depreciation. General and administrative expenses increased 72.5% from $21.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 to $36.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. The increase was due primarily to $10.0 million of expense from the acquired businesses, an increase in employee compensation and recruiting costs

of approximately $2.6 million, an increase in rent expense of approximately $0.3 million, an increase in audit and audit related services of approximately $0.5 million, an increase in consulting expenses of approximately $0.4 million and investments in our infrastructure, including increases in depreciation expense from the development of new internal software systems. General and administrative expenses represented 19.7% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2004 as opposed to 18.8% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2005. In the event that we acquire product lines or businesses in the future, we would anticipate that, based on the nature and magnitude of those acquisitions, our general and administrative expenses would increase as a result of those acquisitions.

 

Interest Income and Other.  Interest income and other, increased from $1.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 to $4.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. The increase was primarily due to interest income from the investment of the proceeds from our convertible notes payable offering during the first quarter of 2005.

 

Interest Expense.  Interest expense increased from $0.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 to $4.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. The increase was primarily due to interest expense related to our convertible notes payable offering during the first quarter of 2005.

 

Income Tax (Benefit) Provision.  Income tax provision increased from a benefit of $7.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 to a provision of $11.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. We reversed the valuation allowance on our deferred tax assets as of December 31, 2004, which resulted in an effective tax benefit rate of 42.1%. In the first quarter of 2005, we began recording a tax provision against our income at our estimated annual effective tax rate, which was approximately 39% in 2005. Prior to December 31, 2004, we recorded a tax provision primarily related to state and alternative minimum taxes only. Going forward, we will continue to provide a tax provision based on an estimate of our annual effective tax rate. Factors that may impact our expected rate would primarily include changes in the magnitude and location of taxable income among taxing jurisdictions, including the blended state tax rate based on the mix of states we do business in, any non-deductible expenses and any tax credits we may receive.

 

Year Ended December 31, 2004 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2003

 

Revenues.  Revenues increased 67.9% from $63.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 to $107.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. This increase was attributable to a $11.6 million increase in licensing revenue from our core and complementary products attributable to sales to new clients, including those clients of our acquired entities, sales of additional products to existing clients and an increase in license fees from BISYS. Of the $11.6 million increase in licensing revenues, $3.1 million related to revenue from those acquisitions completed subsequent to January 1, 2004, which were Maxxar Corporation, Eastpoint Technologies, LLC, re:Member Data Services, Inc., Omega Systems of North America LLC and Datawest Solutions Inc. plus the partial period effect from the acquisition completed during 2003 which was Liberty FiTech Systems, Inc. The increase in revenues was also attributable to an increase of $7.1 million in our implementation and other professional services, $2.6 million of which was from acquired businesses. We also realized an increase of $10.2 million in our maintenance revenue, $6.5 million of which was from acquired businesses, and an increase of $12.9 million in our outsourcing revenues, $12.2 million of which was from acquired businesses. The increases in implementation, professional services and maintenance revenues were also directly related to the increase in sales of licenses to new clients and sales of additional products to existing clients. Additionally, revenues associated with hardware and other revenues increased by $1.6 million. The acquired businesses provided $1.8 million of hardware and other revenues.

 

Cost of Revenues.  Cost of revenues increased 54.5% from $28.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 to $44.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. The increase was due primarily to a $4.1 million increase in costs associated with implementation and other professional services, $1.8 million of which is from the acquired businesses, a $3.1 million increase in costs associated with maintenance, $2.6 million of which was from the acquired businesses, and a $6.2 million increase in costs associated with the growth of our outsourcing business, $5.4 million of which is from the acquired businesses. Cost of revenues represented 45.3% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2003 as opposed to 41.6% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2004. Cost of revenues

increased on an absolute basis primarily as a result of the acquisitions completed since January 1, 2004, but also from increased third party license costs and costs of professional services associated with our revenue growth. Cost of revenues as a percentage of revenues decreased primarily because certain of our costs are fixed and our revenues (particularly maintenance, support and data center revenue) grew at a faster rate than our costs.

 

Operating Expenses

 

Sales and Marketing.  Sales and marketing expenses increased 33.0% from $10.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 to $14.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. This increase was due primarily to $1.5 million in sales and marketing expenses from the acquired businesses and higher sales commissions due to the increase in license revenues. Sales and marketing expenses represented 13.3% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2004 as opposed to 16.8% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2003. Sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenues decreased because sales and marketing expenses did not increase proportionally to our revenue growth. In the event that we acquire product lines or businesses in the future, we would anticipate that, based on the nature and magnitude of those acquisitions, our sales and marketing expenses would increase as a result of those acquisitions.

 

Product Development.  Product development expenses increased 60.5% from $6.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 to $11.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. This increase was due primarily to a $3.4 million increase in product development expenses from the acquired businesses. Product development expenses represented 10.7% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2003 as opposed to 10.3% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2004. Product development expenses as a percentage of revenues decreased primarily because our major product lines are largely developed and therefore did not require incremental investment. In the event that we acquire product lines or businesses in the future, we would anticipate that, based on the nature and magnitude of those acquisitions, our product development expenses would increase as a result of those acquisitions. As we increase our international operations, including the business acquired in the Datawest transaction, we expect to increase our product development expenses in order to modify our current product offerings to perform in non-U.S. banking systems.

 

General and Administrative.  General and administrative expenses increased 32.9% from $15.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 to $21.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. The increase was due primarily to $5.3 million of expense from the acquired businesses, professional fees and other costs related to the requirements of being a public company, including the costs of compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley and capital based taxes of approximately $0.3 million, partially offset by a $3.4 million charge in 2003 related to the shares of restricted stock issued to certain employees as a result of our initial public offering. General and administrative expenses represented 24.9% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2003 as opposed to 19.7% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2004.

 

Interest Income and Other.  Interest income and other increased from $0.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 to $1.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. The increase was primarily due to interest income from the investment of the proceeds from our initial public offering in the fourth quarter of 2003 and our follow-on public offering in the second quarter of 2004, as well as a foreign exchange gain of approximately $0.5 million realized in the fourth quarter of 2004, partially offset by a loss on disposed equipment.

 

Interest Expense.  Interest expense decreased to $0.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 from $0.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2003.

 

Income Tax (Benefit) Provision.  Income tax benefit increased from a provision of $0.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 to a U.S. tax benefit of $7.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. The increase was primarily the result of reversing our valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets in the fourth quarter of 2004. As a result, we have recorded an income tax benefit of $8.6 million in the fourth quarter directly related to the reversal of the valuation allowance. The remainder of the valuation allowance reversal was primarily recorded as an increase to equity of $7.8 million.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

 

At December 31, 2005, 2004 and 2003, we had cash and cash equivalents totaling $174.4 million, $49.4 million and $14.9 million, respectively.

 

The following table sets forth the elements of our cash flow statement for the following periods:

 

 

Cash from Operating Activities

 

Cash provided by operations for the year ended December 31, 2005 was attributable to net income of $18.6 million, depreciation and amortization expense of $11.4 million and a deferred tax provision of $11.2 million. Working capital increased by $1.0 million resulting primarily from increases in accounts receivable of $12.9 million and prepaids and other current assets of $6.8 million, partially offset by increases in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $10.6 million and deferred revenue of $10.7 million. Cash provided by operations for the year ended December 31, 2004 was attributable to net income of $25.1 million, depreciation and amortization expense of $6.4 million, partially offset by a deferred tax benefit of $8.1 million resulting primarily from the reversal of the valuation allowance, and an increase in working capital of $4.3 million, primarily due to an increase in accounts receivable. Cash provided by operations in the year ended December 31, 2003 was attributable to net income of $1.3 million, depreciation and amortization and other non-cash items, including restricted stock expense of $7.5 million, and an increase in working capital of $1.0 million.

 

Cash from Investing Activities

 

Cash from investing activities consists primarily of purchases of fixed assets, investments in marketable securities and business acquisitions. Total capital expenditures for the years ended December 31, 2005, 2004 and 2003 were $10.7 million, $5.6 million, and $1.5 million, respectively, and were primarily related to the purchase of computer equipment, computer software, software development services, furniture and fixtures and leasehold improvements. In addition, during 2005, we spent $1.4 million to purchase developed software for resale for our ATM, credit card, debit card, shared branch and on-line banking transactions. The increase in capital expenditures in 2005 relates to the implementation of a new enterprise software system and leasehold improvements at our new corporate facility. We currently have no significant capital spending or purchase commitments, but expect to continue to engage in capital spending in the ordinary course of business.

 

Net cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2005 included $49.6 million used for the acquisition of the U.S. services business of CGI-AMS Inc., S.O.S. Computer Systems, Inc., Financial Data Solutions, Inc. and COWWW Software, Inc. Net cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2004 included $82.0 million used for acquisition of Maxxar Corporation, Eastpoint Technologies, LLC, re: Member Data Services, Inc., Omega Systems of North America LLC and Datawest Solutions Inc. Net cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2003 included $8.0 million used for the acquisition of Liberty FiTech Systems, Inc.

 

At December 31, 2005, we had no marketable securities on-hand. During the year ended December 31, 2005, we purchased $160.7 million of marketable securities and $173.4 million of marketable securities were sold or matured. At December 31, 2004, we held $12.7 million in marketable securities. During the year ended December 31, 2004, we purchased $62.0 million of marketable securities and sold $127.4 million of marketable securities.

Cash from Financing Activities

 

On March 3, 2006, we purchased the outstanding common stock of the Information Services Group of BISYS for a total cash consideration of approximately $470.0 million, subject to adjustment. This acquisition will expand our product offerings, further increasing our presence in the financial services marketplace and extending our client base to include the insurance, healthcare and other industries.

 

We used the proceeds from a $350.0 million bank financing, in addition to $120.0 million of available cash, to fund the $470.0 million purchase price. The bank financing is in the form of two agreements: a $320.0 million First Lien Senior Secured Credit Agreement (the “First Agreement”), which provides for a $290 million term loan (the “First Term Facility”) and a $30 million revolving line of credit (the “Line of Credit”), and a $60 million Second Lien Senior Secured Term Loan Agreement (the “Second Term Facility”). The First Term Facility has a term of 5.5 years and bears interest at LIBOR plus 250 basis points and is payable beginning June 30, 2006 in the amount of $725,000 per quarter through March 31, 2011, with balloon payments of $137.8 million due on June 30, 2011 and September 3, 2011. We may prepay the First Term Facility in aggregate principal amounts of $1.0 million or a multiple of $250,000 in excess thereof during the term of the First Agreement. The Line of Credit expires on March 3, 2011 and bears interest at LIBOR plus 250 basis points. Borrowings under the Line of Credit are required to be in an aggregate amount of $1.0 million or a multiple of $250,000 in excess thereof. We have not currently drawn against the Line of Credit. The Second Term Facility has a term of 6 years and bears interest at LIBOR plus 650 basis points. The bank financing contains both financial and non-financial covenants including maintaining a senior leverage ratio, as defined, a total leverage ratio, as defined and a fixed charge ratio, as defined. These financial covenants are designed to measure our ability to repay our outstanding debt as well as fund the related interest payments borrowings under the bank financing are secured by substantially all of our assets. We believe we will be in compliance with the covenants related to our bank financing for the next 12 months. See Note 17 to our consolidated financial statements for further information.

 

In April 2005, our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $10.0 million of our common stock on or before May 2, 2006. We repurchased 546,134 shares of our common stock for the full $10.0 million that was authorized during 2005.

 

In February 2005, we sold senior subordinated convertible notes due 2035, which we call the Notes, with an aggregate principal amount at maturity of $235 million to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to exemptions from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Act”), afforded by Section 4(2) of the Act and Rule 144A under the Act. We also granted to the Note purchasers an option, which was exercised in full, to purchase additional Notes with an aggregate principal amount at maturity of $35 million. The issue price of the Notes was $533.56 per $1,000 principal amount at maturity of Notes, which resulted in aggregate gross proceeds to us of approximately $144.1 million. The Notes are our general unsecured obligations and are junior to any of our existing and future senior indebtedness, including the indebtedness incurred in connection with the acquisition of the Information Services Group of BISYS. The Notes bear cash interest at a rate of 2.75% per year on the issue price until February 2, 2012. After that date, original issue discount will accrue on the Notes at a rate of 2.75% per year on a semi-annual bond equivalent basis. On the maturity date, a holder will receive $1,000 in cash per $1,000 principal amount at maturity of Notes. We incurred $5.0 million in issuance costs related to the issuance of the Notes, which are being amortized over 7 years.

 

During 2005, we received approximately $3.0 million from the exercise of stock options and $1.3 from the issuance of common stock in connection with our employee stock purchase program, and repaid $2.9 million of long-term debt from customers and $0.7 million in capital lease obligations.

 

In May 2004, we completed a follow-on offering of 4,436,442 shares of our common stock at a price of $21.50 per share. Of the 4,436,442 shares offered, 1,000,000 shares were offered by Open Solutions and 3,436,442 shares were offered by certain of our existing stockholders. On June 8, 2004, the underwriters exercised their option to purchase 665,466 additional shares of our common stock at a price of $21.50 per share. The aggregate net proceeds from the offering were $33.4 million.

 

During the year ended December 31, 2004, we also received approximately $3.9 million of proceeds from the exercise of stock options and $0.8 million from the issuance of common stock in connection with our employee

stock purchase program, and repaid $459,000 of long-term debt from customers and $0.7 million in capital lease obligations.

 

On December 2, 2003, we completed our initial public offering raising proceeds, net of expenses, of $86.4 million.

 

We currently anticipate that our current cash balance and cash flow from operations will be sufficient to meet our presently anticipated capital needs for the next twelve months, but may be insufficient to provide funds necessary for any future acquisitions we may make during that time. To the extent we require additional funds, whether for acquisitions or otherwise, we may seek additional equity or debt financing. Such financing may not be available to us on terms that are acceptable to us, if at all, and any equity financing may be dilutive to our stockholders. To the extent we obtain additional debt financing, our debt service obligations will increase and the relevant debt instruments may, among other things, impose additional restrictions on our operations, require us to comply with additional financial covenants or require us to pledge assets to secure our borrowings.

 

Off Balance Sheet Arrangements

 

We do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements or relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, which are typically established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes.

 

Contractual Obligations as of December 31, 2005

 

 

This table excludes any consideration for the purchase of the BISYS’s Information Services Group, including the $350.0 million in bank financing, as discussed under the heading “Liquidity and Capital Resources — Cash from Financing Activities” above.

 

Income Taxes

 

In the fourth quarter of 2005, we reversed the valuation allowance of $5.1 million on deferred tax assets of our Canadian subsidiary because we determined that it is more likely than not that current and future net income of our Canadian subsidiary will allow for the realization of these assets. These deferred tax assets were acquired as part of our acquisition of Datawest Solutions Inc. in 2004, but were fully reserved due to uncertainty of their realization. The reversal of the valuation allowance was recorded as an increase in current and long-term tax assets and an equal decrease in goodwill.

 

In the fourth quarter of 2004, we reversed the valuation allowance of $17.9 million against our deferred tax assets because we determined that it is more likely than not that our current and future income will allow for the realization of these assets. As a result, we recorded an income tax benefit of $8.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2004 directly related to the reversal of the valuation allowance. The remainder of the valuation allowance reversal was primarily recorded as an increase to equity of $7.8 million. For 2005, we recorded a tax provision against income at our effective tax rate of approximately 39%. We expect our federal tax payments to increase when all our net operating loss carry forwards are utilized.

 

At December 31, 2005, the Company had approximately $38.3 million of federal net operating loss carryforwards that begin expiring in 2020, approximately $31.8 million of state net operating loss carryforwards, which begin to expire in 2006 and approximately $20.3 million of foreign net operating loss carryforwards, which

begin to expire in 2007. At December 31, 2005, the Company had approximately $1.0 million of federal research and development credit carryforwards that begin to expire in 2006 and approximately $1.4 million of state research and development carryforwards with an unlimited carryforward period.

 

As defined in Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code, certain ownership changes limit the annual utilization of federal net operating losses and tax credit carry forwards. We experienced such an ownership change in 1995. Our follow-on offering in 2004 resulted in a second ownership change. We do not believe that the Section 382 limitation with respect to the 1995 ownership change nor the change that resulted from our follow-on offering will result in the loss of any net operating losses or tax credit carry forwards prior to their expiration. As a result of future issuance of, sales of, and other transactions involving our common stock, we may experience an ownership change in the future, which could cause such federal net operating losses and tax credit carryforwards to be subject to limitation under Section 382.

 

Acquisitions

 

Since January 1, 2003, we have expanded our product offerings and client base through the acquisition of eleven businesses. The operating results of each business acquired have been included in our financial statements from the respective dates of acquisition.

 

On March 3, 2006, we purchased the outstanding common stock of the Information Services Group of BISYS for a total cash consideration of approximately $470.0 million, subject to adjustment. We expect that this acquisition will expand our product offerings, further increasing our presence in the financial services marketplace and extending our client base to include the insurance, healthcare and other industries. Purchase accounting for this acquisition is expected to be completed during 2006. (See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Recent Developments, Liquidity and Capital Resources — Cash from Financing Activities and Note 17 to our consolidated financial statements for further discussion.)

 

On August 9, 2005, we acquired COWWW Software, Inc. a provider of web-based archiving, retrieval and document distribution solutions for the financial services industry for cash consideration and acquisition related costs of approximately $8.5 million. The acquisition added web based, archival and retrieval software to our complementary product offerings and increased the recurring component of our revenues.

 

On June 7, 2005, we acquired substantially all of the outstanding operating assets and assumed certain liabilities of Financial Data Solutions, Inc. a company which provides image and remittance item processing, and image statement and rendering services, for cash consideration and acquisition related costs of approximately $9.0 million. This acquisition increased our image and remittance item processing client base and increased the recurring component of our revenues.

 

On April 6, 2005, we acquired substantially all of the outstanding operating assets and assumed certain liabilities of S.O.S. Computer Systems, Inc. a provider of core processing software and related services for credit unions, for cash consideration and acquisition related costs of approximately $11.5 million. This acquisition increased our client base among credit unions and increased license revenues and the recurring component of our revenues.

 

On March 10, 2005, we acquired the U.S.-based services to credit unions business of CGI-AMS Inc. for cash consideration and acquisition costs of approximately $23.8 million. This acquisition increased our core data processing client base among credit unions and increased the recurring revenue component of revenues.

 

On October 29, 2004, we acquired all of the outstanding stock of Datawest Solutions Inc., a provider of core data processing and payment technology solutions in Canada for cash consideration, assumed debt and acquisition costs for an aggregate of approximately US$47.6 million. This acquisition increased our core data processing client base among banks and increased the recurring revenue component of our revenues. This acquisition increased our core data processing base internationally into Canada, increased the recurring revenue component of our revenues and expanded our product offerings to include electronic payment products and services.

On July 23, 2004, we acquired substantially all of the outstanding operating assets and assumed certain liabilities of Omega Systems of North America LLC, a company specializing in remittance and lock box solutions, for cash consideration and acquisition related costs of approximately $2.5 million.

 

On July 8, 2004, we acquired the stock of re:Member Data Services, Inc., a provider of core processing solutions for credit unions, for cash, employee stock options and acquisition related costs of approximately $22.8 million. This acquisition increased our core data processing client base among credit unions and increased the recurring revenue component of our revenues.

 

On June 18, 2004, we acquired substantially all of the outstanding operating assets and assumed certain liabilities of Eastpoint Technologies, LLC, a provider of core processing software and related services for banks, for cash consideration and acquisition related costs of approximately $6.8 million. This acquisition increased our core data processing client base among banks and increased the recurring revenue component of our revenues.

 

On February 24, 2004, we acquired Maxxar Corporation for cash consideration and acquisition related costs of approximately $6.9 million. This acquisition expanded our complementary product offerings to include a comprehensive suite of interactive voice information solutions and computer telephony integration products.

 

On July 1, 2003, we acquired substantially all of the assets of Liberty FiTech Systems, Inc. and assumed certain liabilities and the related future software maintenance and support obligations for consideration of $12.0 million. This acquisition increased our core data processing client base among credit unions and to increase the recurring revenue component of our revenues.

 

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

 

The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, which require that management make numerous estimates and assumptions. Actual results could differ from those estimates and assumptions, impacting our reported results of operations and financial position. Our significant accounting policies are more fully described in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The critical accounting policies described below are those that are most important to the depiction of our financial condition and results of operations and their application requires management’s most subjective judgment in making estimates about the effect of matters that are inherently uncertain.

 

Revenue Recognition

 

We generate revenues from licensing the rights to use our software products and certain third-party software products to clients. We also generate revenues from installation, training, maintenance and support, and other professional services provided to clients, from outsourcing center services, hardware sales related to our check imaging and voice response businesses and fees collected on transactions in our payment processing business.

 

We recognize software license revenue when a non-cancelable license agreement has been executed, fees are fixed or determinable, the software has been delivered, accepted by the client if acceptance is required by the contract and other than perfunctory, and collection is considered probable. The software licenses are sold in conjunction with professional services for installation, training, maintenance and support. For these arrangements, a portion of the total contract value is attributed first to the maintenance arrangement based on its fair value, which is derived from substantive renewal rates. Another portion of the contract value is then attributed to installation and training services based on estimated fair value, which is derived from rates charged for similar services provided on a stand-alone basis multiplied by estimated hours to complete. Our software license agreements generally do not require significant modification or customization of the underlying software, and accordingly, installation and training services are not considered essential to functionality. The remainder of the total contract value is then attributed to the software licenses based on the residual method. The estimated hours and hourly rate for installation and training services affect the timing and amount of revenue recognized from license fees and installation and training services. Due to the uncertainties inherent in the estimation process, actual hours to complete installation and training services or the estimated hourly rate of these services may differ from estimates. If significant customization of our software is required, we recognize all revenue using the percentage-of-completion method.

The complexity of some software license agreements requires us to routinely apply judgments regarding the application of software recognition accounting principles to specific agreements and transactions. Different judgments and estimates could have led to different accounting conclusions, which could have had a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

 

Revenues from software maintenance are typically generated under five-year agreements with automatic renewals and are recognized ratably over the period that maintenance services are provided. Revenues from installation and training services are recognized as services are performed. We calculate revenue recognition for installation and training services based on the ratio of hours incurred to estimated total hours for the project. Accordingly, we must estimate the hours to complete the installation and training, and it is possible that estimates may be revised. These revisions are recognized in the period in which the revisions are determined, and changes in these estimates could have a material effect on our financial statements.

 

Data center revenues associated with allowing customers to utilize our software products on an outsourced basis and payment transaction processing revenues are recognized as services are provided, once evidence of an arrangement exists, fees are fixed or determinable and collectibility is reasonably assured. The Company obtains signed contracts, which indicate the key terms, as well as the fixed and determinable fees, in each arrangement. Revenues and related costs associated with installation of data center and transaction processing arrangements are recognized over the term of the arrangement, typically 3 to 5 years.

 

We are receiving payments under certain license and marketing agreements with resellers. We have provided a master license to our three primary resellers, BISYS, COCC and Celero, and do not have any other continuing obligation to provide additional products or services, other than the provision of client support and maintenance. We recognize revenue when the revenue recognition criteria under SOP 97-2 are met, including when evidence of an arrangement exists, fees are fixed or determinable, collectibility is reasonably assured, and delivery has occurred. We recognize minimum quarterly non-refundable payments and any additional license fees as revenue in the quarter that they are due.

 

We typically recognize hardware revenue upon product shipment. We recognize certain hardware revenue related to our check imaging products on a percentage-of-completion basis because installation services related to these arrangements and the software related to these arrangements are considered essential to the functionality of certain of the hardware.

 

Deferred revenue is comprised of payments received related to product delivery, maintenance and other services, which have been paid by customers prior to the recognition of revenue. Deferred revenue relates primarily to cash received for maintenance contracts in advance of services performed, which is recognized as revenue ratably as services are performed. Deferred costs are comprised of costs incurred prior to the recognition of related revenue.

 

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

 

We maintain an allowance for doubtful accounts for estimated losses resulting from the inability of our clients to make required payments. The amount of our reserve is based on historical experience and our analysis of the accounts receivable balance outstanding. If the financial condition of our clients were to deteriorate, resulting in their inability to make payments, additional allowances may be required which would result in an additional expense in the period that this determination was made. While credit losses have historically been low due to our client base and have been within our expectations and the provisions established, we cannot guarantee that we will continue to experience the same credit loss rates that we have in the past. Such estimates require significant judgment on the part of our management. Therefore, changes in the assumptions underlying our estimates or changes in the financial condition of our clients could result in a different required allowance, which would have a material effect on our results of operations.

 

Stock Compensation

 

We apply the intrinsic value recognition and measurement principles whereby compensation expense is recognized over the vesting period to the extent that the fair market value of the underlying stock on the date of grant exceeds the exercise price of the employee stock option. For periods prior to our initial public offering, the