AMACIS, a Northern Irish software company founded by technology entrepreneur, Mr Tom Montgomery, has clinched a deal with one of the world's largest banks to provide software which handles large volumes of Internet interactions for all its UK customers.

The Belfast-based company beat off competition from several multi-billion dollar Silicon Valley-based firms to secure the contract with HSBC and will begin installing its Amacis Visibility software solution in stages.

HSBC will use the software to build closer relationships with customers communicating with the bank via digital television and the Internet.

The Amacis Visibility software product utilises artificial intelligence to speed up customer interaction. It is capable of handling one million interactions per day - 10 times the capacity of traditional systems.

The company did not disclose the value of the contract due to commercial sensitivity. Amacis is understood to be chasing a major global contract with HSBC which would be a multi-million dollar contract.

Mr Jeffrey Peel, global marketing vice-president of Amacis, said HSBC was impressed by Amacis' guarantees on security as well as its partnerships with Baltimore Technologies and IBM.

Mr John Rendle, Internet Services Manager at HSBC, said in the end the decision to choose Amacis came down to technology.

"It was the only product that could handle the message volumes we proposed," he said.

The HSBC deal is likely to increase the visibility of Amacis and could open the doors to international work for multi-nationals such as banks, insurance firms and mobile phone networks.

The founder of Amacis, Mr Tom Montgomery, is one of Northern Ireland's most prominent technology entrepreneurs. He founded Lagan Technologies and Kainos Software before setting up Amacis in February last year.

Amacis currently employs 55 people in Northern Ireland but is recruiting another 75, and has sales offices near London and in Boston, Massachusetts. It has raised $4.5 million (€4.98 million) in venture capital.

HSBC has 5,000 offices in 80 countries and assets of $5 billion.