Orygen Offers A Way To Make Money From RivalsOrygen Offers A Way To Make Money From Rivals

Financial institutions will soon have a new way to get ROI on their software applications. Orygen, a software company from Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday will introduce its unusual application development strategy to the U.S. financial markets.

The company builds applications that are customized to meet the needs of financial-services firms. That, by itself, is a standard software business. But Orygen adds a unique twist by then selling a client's customized application to interested competitors. For example, the Bank of Ireland collaborated with Orygen on customer retention software applications. Orygen is now selling that same software to other Irish banks--and the Bank of Ireland gets royalties on the sales. Already, the bank has made $300,000 from sales to European competitors, and as it makes upgrades or additions with Orygen, it will be able to sell those as well.

The way the Bank of Ireland sees it, the competition will eventually have similar products anyway--so why not take its competitors' money as a means of getting ROI on a software development project? The bank isn't worried about losing a competitive advantage because it'll be up and running before other banks get a chance to buy the software. According to one buyer of the software, Allied Irish Bank, it's a good deal. Allied Irish can get good applications that have already been tested at a much lower cost and a faster implementation time than if it had developed them on its own.

This week, Orygen will start selling the products to financial institutions in the United States, and will create any additional custom apps for buyers here with the same promise of royalty deals. Orygen has a similar program for the telecom industry, which it also plans to eventually bring to the United States.

Would you buy your competitor's software to use in your own IT shop? Would you feel comfortable selling your own custom apps to competitors because of the royalty it might generate? Share your opinion in the Listening Post Talk Shop discussion forum.