Going back to its roots as database provider to Wall Street companies Sybase Inc yesterday opened the doors of what it promised would be the first of several multimillion dollar technology centers aimed at helping companies in the financial services sector to better plan, test and implement enterprise systems. The Emeryville, California company has chosen the heart of New York’s financial district, the World Trade Center, as the venue for its Interactive Technology Expo (inSITE) Center: a high tech laboratory environment where customers and partners can jointly develop, test and implement enterprise systems before rolling them out. Dr Raj Nathan, Sybase’s SVP worldwide marketing, said the purpose of the labs was to reduce the complexity for customers by enabling Sybase and its partners to work more closely together to introduce integrated solutions. It will be a vertical [financial] domain of expertise, he said, which brings together multiple hardware and software vendors to enable them to evaluate and validate prototype solutions. Nathan refused to give any details as to the size of the investment other than to say it was around seven figures. Jack Acosta, EVP and CFO, told ComputerWire the center was the first of a series that Sybase and its professional services organization will provide for customers and partners to develop customized solutions. He said the company would unveil other financial centers, perhaps in London and Tokyo, and then add centers for different vertical markets starting with telecoms and healthcare. Companies won’t be expected to pay for using the center, Acosta said, and Sybase hopes to recoup its investment in successful sales. The financial sector has always been very important to Sybase and this further demonstrates our commitment.