PHILADELPHIA - The concept is simple: provide financial institutions with the technical capability to automatically review customersspending habits one at a time and offer services that save time and money.

Traditionally, financial-service providers targeted products in one-size-fits-all marketing campaigns that resulted in poor responses and almost no personalization. ExpenseAdvisor envisioned a marketing platform looking at needs from a customer perspective and engaging customers, one at a time.

"We had a great concept but knew it would take solid marketing science to make it a reality," said Laks Srinivasan, the company CEO, who has an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and years of experience in the information-technology and related industries.

Enter PenNetWorks, part Penn P2B Ventures Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary created to accelerate entrepreneurial development in the Delaware Valley. PenNetWorks is the technology business accelerator that looks at proposals from entrepreneurs who lack the resources or connections needed to take their concepts to reality. If the PenNetWorks staff thinks the idea will fly, theyl put the money and expertise behind it.

"If someone has a workable idea, we can provide business coaching, professional services, networking, operational assistance and early financing. As the businesses grow, we can introduce them to the venture-capital community," said Craig Markovitz, PenNetWorks COO.

Srinivasan and Abba Kreiger, a professor of statistics and marketing at Wharton, then engineered a new analytic framework that examines an individual behaviors and preferences; it offers a quantum improvement in accuracy and is at the heart of expenseAdvisor technical capability.

With seed money from "angels" and a solid product foundation, Srinivasan team set up shop in Philadelphia Center City to develop a prototype. While the prototype received a lot of interest from top financial institutions, expenseAdvisor needed talent, capital and a local partner who could help them build the right strategies to succeed in the marketplace.

"PenNetworks was our obvious choice," Srinivasan said.

"Wee looking for a dramatically different idea with a foundation in technology, a critical mass of potential customers and the ability to be deployable," Markovitz said.

PenNetWorks is also eyeing proposals from Temple University students, Drexel University Technology Transfer Center and others, he said.

"There are," he said, "three paths to get here: through our P2B marketing, our sponsors network or showing up with an interesting technology to develop."

Another fledgling PenNetWorks business, Secure Building Blox, is a computer-security venture that proved itself worthy of seeding before the management team was firmed up and its business plan was worked out.

In addition to Penn resources, PenNetWorks has assembled a group of sponsors that have helped both expenseAdvisor and Secure Building Blox over such business-related hurdles as staffing, legal issues and marketing. These include the platinum sponsor Andersen, a global leader in professional services providing integrated solutions in consulting, assurance, tax and corporate finance, as well as AppLabs Technologies, ReedSmith LLC, Sun Microsystems, T. Williams Consulting Inc. and The Garfield Group.

Phil Goldstein, P2B chief operating officer, said that potential businesses need not be entirely technology-based.

"Anyone with a good idea should talk with us," he said. "Wee particularly interested in the life sciences and educational ventures."

What in it for the University of Pennsylvania?

"We want to help entrepreneurs develop their businesses faster and to see more businesses that start here stay here," Goldstein said.