Systematics Incorporated was a data processing company acquired in 1968 by

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

superinvestor Jackson T. Stephens. In 1990 it was sold to

Alltel Corporation Alltel Wireless was a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before acquisitions by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, it served 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition ...

, and today is a part of Fidelity Information Systems. Fidelity Information Systems still uses the name 'Systematics' as the name of a retail banking software product suite. Systematics employees have held two reunions, most recently the 40th Anniversary Reunion in 2008. Pictures from both reunions and current information about former employees were available for a while at the website “www.sireunion.org,” which no longer exists.

Beginnings

Systematics was founded in 1968 by University of Arkansas graduate Walter Smiley, who learned of the high software costs and other difficulties faced by small banks in trying to use data processing software from his experiences working with IBM and in the banking industry. Smiley recognized a niche that could be filled for medium-sized banks in this space, and sought funding to start his own company. Through Jon Jacoby, Smiley was introduced to the Stephens family, who agreed to invest $400,000 in Walter and Systematics in return for 80% equity stake. Systematics distinguished itself early on from other players in the industry. "In the data processing business," according to Walter, "it’s real easy to get yourself in a position where you’ve got to sell for tomorrow for the sake of today. The Stephens people were just the opposite. They always encouraged us to prepare for the long term, to do it right."Case Studies: Systematics
/ref> Walter quietly expanded his business over the next 12 years, eventually finding a way to license its software to banks, and ultimately going public. In 1990 it was sold to Alltel Corporation. The name was changed to Alltel Information Services (AIS) in 1994. The Stephens family remained an investor, acquiring Alltel stock in the transaction. In 2003, Alltel sold the Information Services subsidiary to Fidelity National Financial. This business is known today as

Fidelity National Information Services Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) is an American multinational corporation which offers a wide range of financial products and services. FIS is most known for its development of Financial Technology, or FinTech, and as of Q2 202 ...

(FIS).

Affiliations

One of the lawyers Stephens hired to represent the company was

Hillary Rodham Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...

. After she joined the

Rose Law Firm Rose Law Firm is an American law firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. It dates its origins to November 1, 1820, sixteen years before Arkansas statehood, when Robert Crittenden, born 1797, and Chester Ashley, born 1791, entered into an a ...

, Stephens employed the firm and engaged its partners — including the now-married Hillary Rodham Clinton,

Vince Foster Vincent Walker Foster Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was an American attorney who served as deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration. Foster had been a partner at Rose Law Firm in Littl ...

and

Webster Hubbell Webster Lee "Webb" Hubbell (born January 18, 1948) is a former United States Associate Attorney General from 1993 to 1994 who as part of the Whitewater controversy pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of failing to disclose a conf ...

— in several of his ventures.L. J. Davis, "The Name of Rose" (New Republic, 4/4/94)

References

{{reflist Defunct software companies of the United States Defunct companies of the United States Alltel