Next week, I will present first results of Forrester’s 2009 global banking platform deals survey. A total of 17 banking platform vendors submitted their 2009 deals for evaluation. One year ago, the same set of deals would have represented at least 19 vendors: In the 2009 survey, FIS’s deals include those of acquired US-based Metavante, and Temenos’ deals include those of acquired French Viveo. These theoretically 19 participating vendors submitted a total of 1,068 banking platform deals to evaluate, a steep increase compared with the about 870 submitted deals for 2008.

We had to classify a large share of these 1,068 banking platform deals as extended business or even as a simple renewed license — if the vendors did not already submitted them with the according tag. Forrester’s “rules of the game” did not allow us to recognize further deals, for example, because a non-financial-services firm signed a deal. Overall, Forrester counted 269 of the submitted deals as 2009 new named customers, compared with 290 for 2008. In the past, Forrester sorted the vendors into four buckets: Global Power Sellers, Global Challengers, Pursuers, and Base Players. The Pursuers and in particular the Global Challengers saw only minor changes in the previous years. 2009 has shaken this stable structure, and we will see many vendors in groups they haven’t been in before.

From a regional perspective, there has been change, too — albeit not as much as with the vendor groups. Asia Pacific has remained a highly active region. Europe and North America showed less activity than in years before, dropping back to 2005 levels or below. Africa remained stable, while the Middle East accelerated significantly ahead of Africa. South America shows the highest number of counted deals since 2005. There are multiple reasons for this development: Some of the surveyed vendors show a strong focus on selected regions, for example, the Middle East. However, the impact of the financial crisis is also clearly visible, with Asia Pacific being a less impacted region.

Interested in the final results? Please join my Forrester Teleconference Global Banking Platform Deals 2009 on April 8, 2010, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern time.