Oracle is keeping I-flex independent, and Hukku and his team will continue to run it--for now.
For several years I-flex's parentage also prevented its full-blown entry in the U.S. market.
Now I-flex has taken the next big step to helping Hukku sell to other big U.S. banks.
The winners came from Bangalore and Chennai, firms such as I-flex Solutions, Mphasis BFL Group, Infosys Technologies and SlashSupport.
Citigroup is now a loyal customer--it contributes over 40% to total revenues--and has renewed its contract with I-flex for another five years.
Being a foreign vendor tends to further stack the odds against I-flex.
"Oracle owns the relationships with banks, and that will give I-flex a competitive edge, " says Virginia Garcia, research director at TowerGroup, a consultancy.
Yet for the longest time I-flex was more successful in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa than in the U.S., a major market.
The big breakthrough was when Citigroup signed up I-flex to centralize its back-office processing in Europe and subsequently to roll out Flexcube in 97 countries.
"We do 36 Flexcube deals every year--that's about one deal every nine days, " boasts I-flex's chief communications officer, Dennis Roman, who was hired from Hewlett-Packard.
The winners came from Bangalore and Chennai, firms such as I-flex Solutions, Mphasis BFL Group, Infosys Technologies (nasdaq: INFY - news - people ) and SlashSupport.
As I-flex began to train its sights on big banks, some potential customers were hesitant, forcing the firm to dump the Citi tag altogether five years ago and rename itself.
Other I-flex products handle more specialized banking needs.
As a single young professional in my 20s at Merrill Lynch, I never considered reviewing the policies that would affect my work-life balance, such as parental leave, flex time, telecommuting policies, or retirement benefits.
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