BANK tech-trends News
 

June 29, 2009 - July 3, 2009

• 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

QNAP introduced its SS-839 Pro Turbo NAS, the “world’s smallest 8-bay, Intel Atom network attached storage” device, which supports eight 2.5-in. hard drives or solid state drives. Intended for business users who are looking for high performance, stability, scalability, low noise and low power consumption, the SS-839 Pro offers a low-power Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU, disk on module (DOM) architecture, and 2GB DDR2 memory. Total storage capacity for the unit is 4TB, and the device also features 2 eSATA and 5 USB ports for storage expansion and external storage backup. Power consumption of the NAS with 8 hard drives installed is about 34W, which the company says is almost 60 percent less than general 8-bay, 3.5-in. NAS.

Dell's Data Center Solutions group is building a low-cost, low-power mini-server that uses a netbook chip. The mini-server, known as the XS11-VX8, almost fits in a 3.5-inch floppy case and requires a fraction of the power of a typical enterprise server. Dell can fit 12 servers in a 2U rack, allowing for a higher density of servers per data center cabinet, without appreciably increasing the power consumed.

QLogic just launched the 10Gbit Ethernet adapters, which they call Intelligent Ethernet adapters. The firm differentiates them from so-called 'dumb' Ethernet adapters that only handle a single protocol (Ethernet) and don't perform any TCP offload processing. In contrast, the 10G Ethernet adapters QLogic provides handle multiple protocols (Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet and iSCSI) and also perform protocol offloads, which reduce CPU utilization.

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ATMs/Kiosks

Diebold is launching their newly developed Enhanced Note Acceptor (ENA), a cash-accepting device for ATMs. The ENA enables the deposit of up to 50 mixed-denomination notes in an envelope-free transaction that authenticates and validates deposits. Diebold said that the ENA module further enhances the flexibility of thier full-function Opteva terminals and is offered as a standard feature or as an onsite field upgrade.

A British FI, Nationwide Building Society, is giving thanks to Acketts Group Limited for preventing the theft of one of their ATMs. One of their branch ATMs was recently attacked by a large forklift, but the machine could not be removed. The ATM was protected by the Acketts ATD (Anti-Theft Device), which absorbed all the stresses generated during the attack, with the steel stretching and absorbing the impact and force.

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Windows 7 will include biometric APIs that will make it easy for third party developers to add their applications to the OS. Makers of fingerprint sensors, such as AuthenTec, worked with Microsoft to develop the APIs. In Windows 7, biometric devices will be easily managed through a control panel applet.

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Minnesota-based Veritec has unveiled security technology that enables users to turn their debit card on and off with their mobile phones. Under the program, card issuers can provide Veritec's MTC (Mobile Toggle Card) branded debit or gift cards which users can toggle on and off with their mobile phones to prevent fraudulent use. In addition, cardholders can also elect to receive various alerts on their mobile phones about activity on their card.

Microsoft is putting the finishing touches on the next major Windows Mobile release, to be known as Windows Phones. This new generation of Windows Phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and will feature devices with a new finger touch screen interface and rich browsing experience. In addition, Microsoft is introducing two new services: one called Windows Marketplace for Mobile, a new online shopping tool for mobile phones that will be accessible via Windows Phones and the Web; and Microsoft My Phone, a service that synchronizes text messages, photos, videos and contacts with a central site on the Web.

Download this complimentary White Paper today!

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Vamosa, provider of software and solutions for Enterprise Content Governance unveiled Check & Fix, which they say is the first website content monitoring service that checks and automatically fixes errors. The website monitoring application will be delivered to customers as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) through Vamosa's Check & Fix Portal.

According to independent testing company AV-Test, Microsoft's free security software passed a preliminary antivirus exam with flying colors. They put it up against nearly 3,200 common pieces of malware culled from the most recent WildList, a list of threats actually actively attacking computers. AV-Test also measured Security Essentials against a set of in-house false positives to see whether the software mistakenly fingers legitimate files, and none of the clean files were flagged as being malicious. AV-Test also examined the program's anti-rootkit skills and its ability to scrub a system of malware it finds with a limited number of samples and "found no reasons to complain." Observers say that it is likely that Microsoft will deliver Security Essentials before it ships Windows 7, which is slated to debut Oct. 22.

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Online & Mobile Banking:

Saving Costs and Increasing Marketshare

eEminder - http://www.eeminder.com   Read Thomas Utsch's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/eEminder.pdf

Fiserv - http://www.fiserv.com Read Dave Selina's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Fiserv_Selina.pdf

Fiserv - http://www.fiserv.com Read Steve Shaw's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Fiserv_Shaw.pdf

Harland Financial Solutions - http://www.harlandfinancialsolutions.com   Read Jeff Marshall's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/HFS.pdf

MShift - http://www.mshift.com Read Pamela Livingston's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/MShift.pdf

Syphr - http://www.syphronline.com Read Chris Langeley's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Syphr.pdf

TowerGroup - http://www.towergroup.com Read Charul Vyas' comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/TowerGroup.pdf

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

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A new report from Aite Group identifies why customer relationship management (CRM) efforts have failed to help many financial institutions achieve their marketing goals thus far. After years of CRM investments that have failed to improve consumer loyalty, Aite Group believes that banks' spending on CRM will stagnate until the end of 2009. According to the CRM vendors interviewed for the report, improving cross-channel marketing capabilities is the highest business priority for banks' CRM investments, followed by improving campaign response rates. Ron Shevlin, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of the report, concluded that the "Aite Group believes that the next generation of CRM will be focused on building what we call a 'sense-and-respond' marketing capability: The ability to sense consumers' needs and intentions based on their behavior, and respond with the appropriate advice, guidance and offers."

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A new service by CashEdge lets users send money to friends and family through a text message or email. The new service, called POPmoney, will let consumers “Pay Other People” through their bank’s online or mobile banking application by providing the recipient’s email address, cell phone number or account number. Once users enter their friends’ information online, they would be able to send the person-to-person payments directly from their cell phones. However, whereas PayPal and some other money transfer services can be used by persons without bank accounts, POPmoney won’t work unless both sender and receiver are banked.

Security vendor Gemalto has unveiled a combined one-time password generator and screen capture authentication reader for online banking that enables users to identify themselves by reading data displayed on their computer screen. Online bankers put their ATM card in the reader to check the PIN before placing the tool in front of their PC screen. The reader displays the transaction data for the customer to sign. Finally the reader displays a one-time password code for the user to enter.

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SIPfoundry announced the latest launch of its open source enterprise IP PBX unified communications solution, sipXecs. The sipXecs UC solution offers unified messaging, click-to-call, find-me/follow-me, personal auto-attendant, personal conferencing and assistance for high definition audio, and instant, live information exchange for voice, video, instant messaging, conferencing and telepresence. The software also binds smoothly with other solutions available in the market today, like Microsoft Outlook, Active Directory and Exchange. The latest version release 4.0 brings on board new features like SIP trunking, Web Services, assorted new applications and cluster management which is primarily aimed at cutting down maintenance costs.

Qwest and IBM have signed a five-year agreement that will give Qwest customers access to several IBM managed services targeted at medium-sized organizations. The services offered break down into three categories: managed security services, network management services and advanced unified communications services. Essentially, Qwest will handle the network connectivity side of the equation while IBM will tackle the managed services themselves.

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eGain Communications has come out with eGain® IVR. The California-based company says that it is a first-of-its-kind voice self-service solution that enables superior phone self-service experiences by adding human-like intelligence to IVR and unifying it with other interaction channels, including web self-service. eGain IVR comes in two flavors:

- eGain IVR (Standard) helps handle informational and transactional customer service queries, using the capabilities of the eGain CIH platform, such as the common multichannel knowledge base, interaction records, customer database, and integration with backend systems.

- eGain IVR (Advanced), in addition to the standard solution, includes the Guided Help module, which uses their CBR technology of eGain Inference Reasoning Engine. By enabling interactive dialogs that simulate customer conversations with the best human agents, the module allows organizations to offer self-service for complex interactions that would usually need the intervention of experts. Examples of these interactions include troubleshooting, offering expert advice, and cross-selling and upselling within the context of service.

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