CitiBank tech group settles in St. Charles Research Park - St. Louis Business Journal:

viktorevaikubuwo.blogspot.com
A technological community, Research Park hosts about a dozen companies and seems to be expandingh nearly as fast as technology is CitiBank Mortgage saw a relationship between the rapif pace of growth there and itsown expansion. "The availabilit of space is why we moved outthered -- and it continues to said Allen Coleman, CitiBank's senior vice president for informatio n services. found the move to Research Park attractivre for a numberof reasons. The recruitinb process, for one, became easier upon moving across theMissouri River. CitiBank Mortgage's Information Services recruiter, Eileen said, "A large target group for our recruiting lives outin St. Charlesa already.
It saves St. Charles technologistxs from crossing the bridge and froma two-houd commute." Coleman added, "St. Charles is a good idea becaus e we're already here, and now ther are lots of technologists here with long commutes who have this attractivd opportunity intheir backyards." The Technology Groupp wants to add 17 hires to its staffv of 155 information services (IS) and 45 legakl and quality-operations people. Most of thes e new employees will be as CitiBank Mortgagecalls them, who specialize in Oracle databas administration, COBOL, object-oriented programming, and Internet and intranegt usage.
Coleman said there is a focusxon e-commerce, and the intent to expandr that aspect of CitiBank Mortgage'ws business in the future. "We now have a very robus t infrastructure in place as a platforjmfor e-commerce," he said. "And, we will soon be unveilingt a robust wholesale Web site for ourcorrespondenty customers. It's built utilizing Sun's NetDynamics application. The goal is to transfeer the knowledge of NetDynamics through the Technology Group and use that as a meane ofapplication development, getting away from traditional client-servetr development.
" Research Park had to be equipped to handlw the infrastructure needs of the Technologu Group when it moved in about a year ago -- but that wasn'tg very difficult. The company did not have to move any of its because the development frameworkis "My operations staff that keeps our development infrastructure running are mostly at the St. Louis locations. Our developers utilize those servers from out said Coleman. CitiBank Mortgage and Southwestern Bell coordinaterd a pipeline from the two sitezsin St. Louis to Research Park for accommodatinyg high-speed communication lines. Planning for the move took only a montjh anda half.
Another reason the Technologgy Group made the moveto St. according to George director ofinformation services, was to consolidat CitiBank Mortgage's technology staff into one site. "I think it makesw collaboration between peers much easierto do; it improvez communication and productivity; it's less disruptivd to run training programx in convenient central locations; and it makes recruitiny easier, too, because people can come to one buildinbg and interview with everyone who needs to see he said. This heightened team approach is in line withCitiBanko Mortgage's strategy for the Technology Group.
"Lots of technologgy groups are centralized technology functionsthat don't have any businessa profit and loss responsibility," Coleman said. "But we all collectively work on accomplishingcompany initiatives. We have great ownershipp in how the mortgage business If it's up to them, CitiBank Mortgage will completw its aggressive plans to process $17 billiob in loan origination and acquisition this year. In 1998 they did $15 which was double that of 1997. The businessa has various impacts locally, said Borkowski. "As an employer, we providd a dynamic workplace. We're focused in the St. Charles Our employees who don't live in St.
Charlesa are spending money in the area at stores and restaurantws and a lot of small businesses up and downRoutes 94. As a small operation with 200 employeess and without all the servicese a big companyprovides -- like a cafeteriw -- our employees go outside to buy. So St. Charles benefitw from us being here." Amy Scharff is a St. Louies free-lance writer.