BANK tech-trends News
 

June 30 - July 4, 2008

• Hardware News
• Software Updates
• ATMs/Kiosks
• Biometric Digest Highlights
• Wireless World
• Security Section
• Leaders Roundtable
• Technology and Marketing
• Online Banking/E-Commerce/
  Website Design
• Internet Access
• Call Centers

Hardware News

Dell and Lenovo have come out with some new laptops targeting smaller organizations. The Dell Studio series includes models with 15.4-inch and 17-inch displays. The Dell Studio 15 starts at $800 with the 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750; 2GB of memory; a 160GB hard drive; Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics; a slot-loading DVD burner; and Windows Vista. The Dell Studio 17 starts at $1,000 with nearly identical specs. Meanwhile, Lenovo's new ThinkPad laptop line, the SL series, is priced from $699 to $1,199. These laptops will come with online backup services and LoJack technology to track down stolen laptops. 

Lantronix’s SecureLinx Spider KVM (keyboard video mouse) device is a “zero U” KVM, meaning it takes the form of a USB or PS/2 KVM dongle on one end and a dual-port Cat 5e plug on the other. It includes advanced KVM-over-IP features, and each dongle can support as many as eight simultaneous users. The units run approximately $1,000 each.

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ATMs/Kiosks

PSI Corp. is rolling out E-Banking Kiosks that enable users to purchase gifts cards, phone cards and debit cards; to obtain standard ATM services; and to permit bill paying and payroll check cashing. Each Kiosk will have a 32 inch digital screen with advanced program capability. The PSI Cash Express Kiosks/ATMs will be undergoing ninety-day field tests in selected areas. 

ABI Research predicts a bright future for wireless ATMs. The firm states that the clear advantages of cellular connectivity are proving persuasive - it allows greater flexibility in deployment and better functionality with faster service and better management. 

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When an Illinois driver gets his or her photo taken at a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the picture is sent to an enormous database and compared to other photos to find potential identity fraud. The Illinois DMV's biometric-based facial recognition technology is part of a growing trend that has spread to approximately 20 states. In the past 10 years, Illinois DMV's facial recognition program has nabbed more than 5,000 fraudsters: 4,600 involved people with one fraudulent identification, and 600 cases involved people with two or more fraudulent identifications.

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Several wireless technologies are contending to become the next-generation high speed transport systems: WiMAX, Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB). Many wireless observers contend that the frontrunners for wide area networks are WiMAX and LTE. Despite Qualcomm’s aspirations to have UMB run at more than 200Mbps, more than twice the eventual intended speeds of LTE and WiMAX, many predict that its chances of success are slim. Meanwhile, an Intel executive has said that he would like to see the competing standards WiMAX and LTE be unified into one standard. Sean Maloney, an EVP at Intel, says that two standards should be harmonized because they are about "80 percent" similar but that WiMAX is a couple years ahead of LTE.

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If your bank would like to deploy data loss prevention (DLP) tools, but haven't found the time or the budget, then you may want to consider some free open source applications. Some widely used discovery tools include Cornell’s Spider, Virginia Tech’s Find_SSN (and Find_CCN), the University of Texas’ Sensitive Number Finder (SENF), and the University of Illinois’ Firefly. These tools are primarily used for finding SSNs and credit card numbers stored on computers and servers. Unfortunately, none of these freely available "discovery" tools can yet identify sensitive data in transit because they are only designed to work with data at rest.

Google, Microsoft and PayPal are among a group of technology firms that are joining forces to promote the use of virtual online identity cards - rather than user names and passwords - for conducting transactions via the Web. The founders of the Information Card Foundation, which also include Equifax, Novell and Oracle - say the non-profit organization aims to promote "simpler, more secure and more open digital identity on the Internet". The foundation aims to "promote the rapid build-out and adoption of Internet-enabled digital identities using information cards" - which will be similar to real world IDs like physical drivers' licenses - that can be used instead of usernames and passwords when conducting online transactions or entering sites.

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Online Banking:

Online Banking... Catering to Your Most Desirable Customers

Digital Resolve - http://www.digital-resolve.net Read Dennis Maicon's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/DigitalResolve.pdf

Exstream - http://www.exstream.com   Read Jerry Driscoll's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Exstream.pdf

Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com Read Marley Gray's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Microsoft.pdf

Open Solutions - http://www.opensolutions.com   Read Michael D. Nicastro's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/OSI.pdf

Piraeus Bank - http://www.piraeusbank.gr   Read Sotiris Sirmakezis' comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Piraeus.pdf

uMonitor - http://www.umonitor.com   Read Dinesh Sheth's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/uMonitor.pdf

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Despite billions of dollars being spent each year on BI (business intelligence) software, the tools remain largely in the hands of a limited number of power users and business analysts. Many industry observers think that will change as more vendors strive to make their applications more affordable and easier to use. For example, the third version of open source BI vendor Jaspersoft's Business Intelligence Suite has a new Web 2.0-style browser interface and functionality that enables business users to make ad-hoc queries in a point-and-click fashion. Meanwhile, Datawatch is putting their Monarch BI Server into beta. It takes data from static reports and business documents, such as PDFs, and pushes it into spreadsheets, summaries, and charts. The company positions the product as an alternative for organizations without the resources or desire to deal with more complex BI implementations. Pricing will start at $10,995.

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A new crop of non-bank online personal finance sites such as Banzai, Mint, and Wesabe are combining traditional account aggregation services with Web 2.0 concepts. These sites are garnering considerable attention from the media and gaining users. However, new TowerGroup research finds that they are often missing one critical component – adequate fraud prevention capabilities to protect both the consumer and their banks from account takeover and identity theft. TowerGroup believes that these nonbank online personal finance sites will likely become the next target of phishers and other fraudsters looking to gain easy access to consumer banking data to commit fraud.

CheckFree is looking to upgrade their Web RXP system to allow banks to offer their customers the option of paying their bills online via the bank's credit or debit card. This option could drive additional interchange revenue for the bank, as well as increase customer convenience. However, some observers point out that card-funded transactions have many barriers and challenges to overcome, and that banks may find that charging for expedited bill payments will be more straightforward and lucrative at least in the short term.

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Internet Access

Founded in 2005, FastSoft aims to speed file transfers across the WAN by working around TCP's packet-loss limitations. When its FastTCP protocol detects congestion on a link, it makes adjustments to avoid throttling transmissions back dramatically. The company employs a single-appliance model, so customers have to install an appliance only on one end of a WAN connection. 

Esnatech recently announced that its Telephony Office-LinX won a 2007 Product of the Year Award from Communications Solutions magazine. The Telephony Office-LinX version 7.0 creates a infrastructure that supports local mobility, and also scheduling and filtering. Esnatech says that their design allows for call screening, find me/follow me and broadcast functionalities. Their system enables employees to access all messages such as voice, e-mail, and fax from one inbox via any device — be it a desktop, Internet, cell phone or any wireless device.

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Call Centers

Call centers are inherently fast-paced and challenging places to work, and thus it is not surprising that they suffer from high levels of agent turnover, absenteeism and burnout. To counter such ongoing problems, many centers implement some form of incentive program. For example, Snowfly is an HR consulting firm that develops customized game-based performance reward solutions for workplaces. Whenever agents achieve certain performance goals — all of which focus on improving the customer experience — they are immediately rewarded with eTokens that can be used to play quick online games, each of which yields a random number of points. These points, in turn, are instantly transferred to a Visa debit card for each agent, who then can redeem their points anywhere that accepts Visa.

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