The former Liberty Lake-based banking software division of Dutch computer-services giant Getronics has a new owner, Dallas-based CompuCom Systems Inc.

It also has a revised strategy that its new director says should help bolster its global presence.

"We are focusing on product development," says the director, David Hampton, head of CompuCom's Financial Business Solutions unit, which provides banking software to mostly large financial institutions around the world.

That change in direction means the operation here henceforth will devote its energies largely to refining the company's main software application and creating new features and add-ons for it, Hampton says. It will phase out the longtime "implementation" part of its services, which involves installing the software for financial institutions and integrating it into an institutions' computer network, turning those tasks over to its expanding network of distributors, he says.

"We've made that change now in our business model," Hampton says, with the intent of "being the best we can be in terms of a software company. It's a big change for us."

The division occupies about 60,000 square feet of space on the second floor of a 305,000-square-foot, two-story building at 22425 E. Appleway. It employs about 90 people overall, a little over half of them here, which is down from about 130 two years ago. Safeco Corp. occupies much of the same building.

The software operation has remained at its current employment level since last spring, though, and Hampton says it even has added some software developers since August, when CompuCom acquired the North American operations of Getronics.

Hampton says he doesn't expect the company's Spokane-area work force to grow a lot more, but adds, "We certainly are committed here. One of the biggest assets is our people. You can't just go out and find somebody on the street who has that kind of knowledge. Our focus has been on continuing to improve the Spokane core of our business. The intellectual property is here and will continue to be here."

Product Manager Norm Carpenter, who has worked at the Liberty Lake facility for 15 years, says the change in ownership also has changed the workplace culture and improved morale there.

"The attention CompuCom pays their employees is pretty impressive so far," he says. Roughly an employee a month was leaving the Liberty Lake operation up until about a year ago, largely due to job dissatisfaction or concerns about its long-term viability, but that exodus has ceased, he says.

New signs bearing the CompuCom name haven't been installed there yet, but are expected to go up soon.

As was the case with the $3.5 billion-a-year, Amsterdam-based Getronics conglomerate, the unit here is a small, self-contained part of CompuCom, now a roughly $2.1-billion-a-year enterprise that employs about 11,000 people overall.

CompuCom didn't disclose what it paid for the North American operations of Getronics, but said in a news release that the transaction involved "acquiring more than $450 million of outsourcing services revenue." The purchase price included cash and equity issued by CompuCom, with Getronics acquiring a minority stake in CompuCom and representation on its board.

The Dallas Business Journal reported that CompuCom also formed a partnership with Getronics under which each company will refer business to the other for work in geographic areas where one or the other has a large presence. Getronics is strong in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, while CompuCom is strong in North America.

Hampton, a native of Britain who has 30 years of experience in the information-technology industry, joined CompuCom in mid-2007 and was named top executive of the Financial Business Solutions unit after the CompuCom-Getronics transaction was completed. He succeeds Art Smalley, who took a job here as chief operating officer at Storhaug Engineering Inc.

Hampton lives in Pennsylvania, but spends a couple of weeks a month here, working the rest of the time from an office in his home.

The Financial Business Solutions division has derived its revenue by licensing, installing, integrating, and maintaining the banking software it has developed. By focusing more intently on product development, it expects to stay abreast of technology advances and market needs better, while relying on its growing distributor network to market and install its software.

Hampton says one of the reasons for the strategic shift is, "We have a mature network of distributors for our software outside of the U.S. That's a very attractive business model that we would like to use in the U.S. as well. We're looking for people who sell 'financial solutions' to banks."

As the distributor network expands, it should have a "multiplier" effect on marketing and sales of the division's software, he says. As part of the transition, the division now is working to package its software more appropriately for distributors rather than for end users, he adds.

Carpenter says, "We're getting back to our roots," focusing more on the product and less on the delivery of it, an area it has strayed into over the years as it has gone through various ownership changes.

The division's current flagship software, called Globalfs, is a customizable suite of software applications that automates financial business processes for bank branches, call centers, and home banking. It's designed to work with a range of other vendors' products and offers centralized-server operating capability and security and training enhancements over the product it succeeds, called Mosaic OA. Mosaic still is used widely in the banking industry.

The latest operating system is sold worldwide and is designed to be adapted to a variety of languages, currencies, and regulations. Carpenter says, "There are several enhancements planned for this year, as well as a 'reference' application," meaning a full-featured version of it that the banks can customize themselves as needed to suit their needs, he says.

The chaos that has swept the financial industry over the last year raises questions about whether the Liberty Lake operation also might see a sharp downturn, but Hampton is relatively upbeat.

"In general, as companies are looking to decrease costs, outsourcing begins to look better," which could benefit the CompuCom division as more banks seek to outsource their software needs, he says.

"If this (industry turmoil) had to happen, there probably couldn't have been a better time for it to happen," coming as the operation here is refocusing on product development and de-emphasizing support services for which market demand has weakened, he adds. The sales cycle in the conservative banking industry traditionally has had about a two-year lag, anyway, from the point when a bank begins considering buying new software or hardware until it makes a decision, he says, "So what we're doing now is positioning ourselves for the future."

The operation here dates back more than three decades, but has undergone vast change over that period. It was founded in 1977 as International Systems Corp., later shortened to ISC Systems Corp., and initially made computer hardware as well as software for the banking industry. In 1984, ISC developed the sprawling structure where CompuCom now is a tenant, and later in that decade it employed as many as 700 people on its 46-acre campus there.

It merged in 1989 with Bunker Ramo, a U.S. subsidiary of Italy-based Olivetti S.P.A to form ISC/Bunker Ramo. The company changed its name to Olivetti North America Inc. about two years later, then to Olsy North America Inc. in 1997. Olsy merged with Wang Laboratories Inc. in 1998 to create Wang Global, and Getronics bought U.S. rival Wang Global the following year.

During that transformation, it ceased all on-site manufacturing and moved some functions to the eastern U.S., where most of the nation's largest banks are located. Getronics still had about 350 full-time equivalent employees here a decade ago, but closed a call center at the Liberty Lake facility in 2000 and since then has seen a steady decline in its Spokane-area work force.