Integrated financial services platform

A system for integrating a plurality of financial services, the system comprising:

• a server including a server-based processing function defining the business rules and applications available to the system;
• a plurality of workstations with each workstation including a client-based processing function that is loaded from the server and is an image of at least a portion of the server-based processing function;
• and
• a plurality of other devices, each such device having access to the server and operable to execute one or more applications available on the server and utilize the business rules when providing financial services,
• whereby the financial services are made available to each of the plurality of workstations and each of the plurality of other devices with each such financial service relying on the applications and business rules defined in the server-based processing function.

A system for providing ASP type operation to a plurality of devices while integrating the provision of financial services, each of the plurality of devices being communicatively coupled to a server, the system comprising:

• a server including a server-based processing function defining as set of applications and rules necessary to provide the financial services;
• a first class of devices of the plurality of devices being a workstation class of devices with each workstation class of devices including:
• a user interface;
• an interface to the server;
• an offline manager that interacts with the server when the server is online;
• and
• a client-based processing function is loaded from the server and includes an image of at least a portion of the server-based processing function, the client-based processing function being operable to interact with the user interface and the offline manager by:
• receiving function requests from the user interface;
• generating a process flow to perform the requested function;
• performing the requested function and providing a transaction to the offline manager;
• and
• a second class of devices of the plurality of devices being a thin-client class of devices with each thin-client class of devices including an interface to the server thereby allowing the server-based processing function to:
• receive function requests from the thin-client class of devices;
• generate a process flow to perform the requested function;
• perform the requested function;
• whereby the financial services are integrated in that they are provided from a common set of applications and rules that are maintained in the server.

A method for providing integrated financial services to a plurality of diverse access points, the method comprising the steps of:

• creating server processes to run on a server, the server process including applications and rules necessary to provide the financial services;
• communicatively coupling a plurality of workstations to the server;
• loading an image of the server processes into each of the workstations;
• receiving a request for a financial service at a workstation;
• fulfilling the financial service request at the workstation based on the loaded image of the server processes;
• the workstation providing a report of the fulfillment of the financial service to the server;
• communicatively coupling a plurality of non-workstation devices to the server;
• receiving a request for a financial service at a non-workstation device;
• fulfilling the financial service request at the server;
• whereby financial service requests received by workstations or non-workstations are fulfilled using the same applications and rules thereby integrating the financial services.
• transmitting the transaction to the server;
• and
• loading the changes incurred in an upgrade of one or more of the processes to each client device.