Systematics, Inc

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Systematics Incorporated was a data processing company acquired in 1968 by Arkansas superinvestor Jackson T. Stephens. In 1990 it was sold to Alltel Corporation, and today is a part of Fidelity Information Systems.

Arkansas State of the United States of America

Arkansas is a state in the southern region of the United States, home to over 3 million people as of 2017. Its name is of Siouan derivation from the language of the Osage denoting their related kin, the Quapaw Indians. The state's diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the densely forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River and the Arkansas Delta.

Jackson Thomas Stephens was the CEO of Little Rock, Arkansas-based Stephens Inc., a privately owned financial services company.

Contents

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 is available at the website - www.sireunion.org.

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." [1]

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 (FIS).[ citation needed ]

Affiliations

One of the lawyers Stephens hired to represent the company was Hillary Rodham. After she joined the Rose Law Firm, Stephens employed the firm and engaged its partners — including the now-married Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vince Foster and Webster Hubbell — in several of his ventures. [2]

Rose Law Firm

Rose Law Firm is an American law firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Vince Foster American lawyer

Vincent Walker Foster Jr. was a Deputy White House Counsel during the first six months of President Bill Clinton's administration. He had been a partner at Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was a colleague and friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton and where, as The Washington Post later wrote, he rose to "the pinnacle of the Arkansas legal establishment." At the White House he was unhappy with work in politics and spiraled into depression. Five official governmental investigations ruled Foster's death by gunshot a suicide, but several conspiracy theories emerged.

Webster Lee "Webb" Hubbell is an American author, lecturer, consultant, advocate and Arkansas lawyer who practiced law from 1974-1993 in Pulaski County. He has held executive level positions in government and industry including: U.S. Associate Attorney General, Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, Mayor of Little Rock, Managing Partner of the second largest law firm in Arkansas, and Executive and Chief Counsel for a large Washington based commercial insurance company. While he practiced law he was Mayor of Little Rock from 1979 until 1982, one of the nation's youngest mayors. He also served on Little Rock's City Board from 1978 to 1984. He was appointed by Bill Clinton as Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1984 at age 36. When Clinton became President of the United States, Hubbell was appointed as Associate Attorney General. In 1996, he was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. In 1997, he published an autobiography, Friends in High Places, and in May 2014 his first in a series of legal thrillers, When Men Betray, was published by Beaufort Books. In May 2015 he published book two of the Jack Patterson thriller series, Ginger Snaps.

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References

  1. Case Studies: Systematics
  2. L. J. Davis, "The Name of Rose" (New Republic, 4/4/94)