BANK tech-trends News
 

June 9 - June 13, 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

Google's Mini search appliance for small and midsize businesses has been updated and features a new set of capabilities for crawling and categorizing documents. It can index up to 300,000 documents, compared to its stablemate, the Google Search Appliance, which is geared for larger enterprises and can handle up to 30 million documents. Pricing for the Mini begins at about $3,000, including two years of support and the necessary hardware. 

The VersaCharger Pro from BoxWave Corp. is handy for charging many of your devices while on the road. It comes with a flip-out AC plug, a car cigarette-lighter connector and an optional short cable to convert the car connector to those small round airplane-seat power outlets. Output is a standard USB connector, so if your devices connect to and charge from Universal Serial Bus, you already have the cable you need. If they don't, BoxWave also sells a miniSync cable with the proper connector. The VersaCharger Pro with airplane charger is $35, and extra miniSync cables, if you need them, start at $14.

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ATMs/Kiosks

ATMs are gradually migrating from basic cash dispensers to advanced units that handle envelope-free deposits and other advanced functions. However, in Portugal they have moved way beyond check imaging and cash recycling at most of their ATMs. The country is leading the world in advanced ATM functionality as evidenced by the fact that they boast the ability to process 90 different transactions on their ATMs. Certainly it helps that nearly all of the country’s ATMs are run by one organization. 

VISA has extended its card fraud recovery protection to ATM and PIN transactions, effective on November 1st. The new policy will extend their Account Data Compromise Recovery to fraud damages on ATM transactions conducted over Visa's Interlink ATM network and Plus point of sale network. This marks the first time that the same fraud protections have been extended to transactions which are validated with personal identification numbers as well as with signatures.

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Pretec has unveiled a new flash drive at Computex that sports a huge 48GB capacity and features biometric security. Pretec also announced a new high capacity SSD at the show that holds 192GB of data. The flash drive is called the i-Disk Touch S660 Databank. A fingerprint is used to gain access to the data stored on the drive. The surface of the drive is waterproof, scratch proof and can endure heavy impacts.

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Laptops embedded with 3G are likely to become a must-have for the business world starting next year because new technologies and better pricing plans are making them more attractive, says research group Gartner. The firm said the high cost of hardware and expensive monthly charges have so far kept the enterprise from investing in 3G-enabled laptops. Gartner says the advent of new chipsets that combine multiple technologies and frequency bands to offer better coverage would make 3G laptops a good proposition for even occasional or moderate travelers in 2009. In addition, 3G operators are beginning to see the value in moving beyond the standard two year contracts to include daily and monthly rates, much like WiFi providers offer today. 

The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) announced an initiative "to examine the various technology models supporting mobile payments today and to make recommendations on an approach that would facilitate an interoperable mobile payments infrastructure in the future." The numerous sponsors, which include NACHA and The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, believe that interoperability is essential to realize the promise of mobile payments, which is for a consumer to be able to make a payment from any financial institution, on any mobile phone, using any carrier.

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Secure Computing Corp. recently announced the results of an IT director survey that showed that more than 80% of the IT directors surveyed prioritize insider threats (defined as either unintentional data leakage or deliberate data theft) as their greatest threat. Less than one in five respondents (17%) feel the external threats posed by hackers are more dangerous. E-mail was identified as the biggest current security risk to respondents’ organizations (34%). Interestingly VoIP comes second (25%) and is deemed a bigger threat than Web surfing (browser-related threats), which only 21% of IT directors feel is the biggest threat. 

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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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A company called CallFire, a provider of voice broadcast solutions, has some advice for banks that are interested in doing outbound automated call campaigns. First, they advise to keep the message short. When a message is kept between 20 and 30 seconds, a customer is much more likely to listen without frustration. Also important in a successful calling campaign is to provide a clear call to action. This rule is especially important for ‘press-1’ style campaigns. The call to action must be presented early in the message where it can take the form of a question or a directive. Finally, CallFire recommends that the campaign offer some level of emotion and avoid a monotone reciting of a prepared script.

Serverside is offering banks a new entry-level version of their card personalization technology called AllAboutMe. Both the entry-level and the full version of AllAboutMe provide banks’ customers with a website where they can design their own cards. Cardholders can either customize their cards with a personal image or photo, or choose from a range of galleries. The firm says that customized cards have been proven to build loyalty, ramp usage rates and boost balances.

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New research has found that around half of Facebook users would use Web 2.0 applications for online banking, while a quarter would even consider switching financial institutions to obtain Web 2.0 services. A poll of 1000 Facebook users aged between 18 and 34 by Web 2.0 specialist WorkLight found that 48% of respondents would take advantage of online banking with Web 2.0 gadgets if their financial institutions offered the service, while one in four would consider leaving their financial institution in order to obtain online banking through networking widgets. 

The CheckImage Collaborative announced it has created a Universal Companion Document, which establishes a uniform industry approach for populating and validating check image files. The goal is to establish an efficient and consistent approach to processing check image files. Important players - such as the Federal Reserve, Endpoint Exchange, SVPCO and Viewpoint - have committed to the UCD standard which should go live over the next 12 to 18 months.

S1 Enterprise announced the availability of S1 Electronic Vault which allows online bankers to securely upload, store and manage files via a bank's online portal. S1 Electronic Vault can help eliminate this risk of lost or destroyed documents by allowing customers to electronically copy important files to a storage location at the bank, as well as serve as a convenient alternative to physically placing copies of files in a traditional safe deposit box. 

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Internet Access

AT&T unveiled a new set of managed encryption services designed to help organizations prevent data loss and stay in compliance with electronic storage regulations. The service package, dubbed AT&T Encryption Services, includes encryption for e-mail and attachments for Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes, BlackBerry and Webmail; an e-mail gateway that enforces enterprise encryption policies and uses standards such as PKI, X.509 and S/MIME; an encrypted e-mail exchange that lets organizations create different groups to help secure messages sent among customers in individual departments; tools to encrypt entire folders or network drives; and a document delivery application that uses a trusted e-mail standard to securely send sensitive documents. AT&T says it will centrally deploy and manage the services, and it will integrate with anti-virus, anti-spam and archiving services. 

Microsoft Response Point, an easy-to-use voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone system designed for the needs of small businesses (one to 50 employees), is now available to purchase on Costco.com. Costco.com will offer the Syspine Digital Operator Phone System from Quanta Computer featuring Microsoft Response Point phone system. The phone system features a voice-recognition system that can be linked with an organization's internal phone directory, as well as an individual's Microsoft Office Outlook address book. The Syspine Digital Operator A50 is a single-solution device that will connect up to eight standard telephone lines, and also features a high-end, server-grade, fan-less design.

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Call Centers

If your bank is hit with a large volume of calls on certain days of the month, there are some options for handling them besides hiring more call center employees. Some call center experts recommend that you try these three options: 

1. Try to find anyone else at the bank who could help out on those days, or part of it (10:00-2:00 might help when your agents are at lunch). 

2. Give some reps shorter lunch time (30 minutes) on those days and give them the other 30 minutes off on other days. 

3. Next time you have an opening, hire 2 part time (20 hour/week) reps instead of one full time because this gives you more flexibility in scheduling.

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