For DeAddio, who holds a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, letting the market decide what it thinks of software he helped develop is a thrill he never experienced at Morgan. At a bank, a tech center is a cost. The idea that you build it and they will come is rubbish. Translating technobabble into business solutions may be more important than building the technology in the first place. Now his chief occupation is soothing concerned prospective clients, or new ones, such as Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama, that Cygnifi can deliver.
Security is clients' other big worry.
If the financial data flowing out of a client's firm ended up in a rival's hands, the rival could use it to trade against them. The software Cygnifi relies on is critical. An option is a contract that gives its owner the right to take a stipulated action under conditions specified and agreed to in advance. Options contracts do not oblige the owner to act unless he wants to do so. People who use options are either risk takers who are seeking a high return or are more conservative types who are seeking to hedge their risks.