BANK tech-trends News
 

October 4, 2010 - October 8, 2010

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

Complimentary Webinar

Maintaining Telecommunications & Meeting Auditor Requirements

It can be extremely difficult to maintain telecommunications with your staff and customers after a disaster. This point is evidenced by the fact that the Post-Katrina reports from all of the governmental agencies regulating financial institutions placed restoring communications quickly at the top of their lists. The FFIEC reports said that banks must:

"Anticipate disruptions in communications services, possibly for extended periods of time." 

The report also noted that "communications outages made it difficult to locate missing personnel." 

Therefore banks must develop affordable ways to quickly restore their telecommunications infrastructure. This complimentary Webinar will demonstrate how your bank can be prepared for telecom disasters without having a telecom person on staff or spending thousands of dollars on redundant phone systems.
 

What You Will Learn:

- How to inexpensively satisfy telecom disaster requirements
- How to show auditors that you can provide a backup telecom system with just 1 phone call
- How you can successfully answer every telecom disaster preparedness questionnaire on the auditor's forms.

BONUS: Every attendee will receive a sample Telecommunications Disaster Recovery Plan.

Who Should Attend:

IT staff, telecom staff, Audit and Compliance personnel, Managers, and anyone interested in maintaining telecommunications.


Date: Schedule a 30-minute live demonstration at your convenience that could one day save your business. If this isn't the easiest to use, most affordable, and most powerful inbound telecom disaster recovery system that you have ever seen, we will send you a free gift - seeing is believing!

To Register: http://www.banktt.com/webinars.htm  

Costs: Free

~ This Week's News is Sponsored by MARQUIS Software Solutions ~

Profitability Referral Tracking Full-Contact CRM

MCIF CRA/HMDA Compliance

MARQUIS delivers proven solution to over 750 financial institutions worldwide that are truly Easy, Complete, and Affordable. 

 

What the nation’s leading consultants are saying about Marquis!

“I was absolutely blown away the first time I saw ReferralTrax. Its sheer simplicity of operation masks an unbelievably sophisticated CRM engine that has no rival in the commercial marketplace. ReferralTrax chops the competition off at the knees…”

Randall Putala
SDMI

“Marquis is consistently listed by my clients as the best in class for MCIF software, support and service. I recommend Marquis to any marketing department looking for robust functionality in an MCIF - backed by world-class service.”

Constance Anderson
Consultant/Speaker

“The folks at Marquis truly know what they're doing! And, they are a class act."

Mike Neill
Michael Neill & Associates

Please contact John Kassing @ johnk@gomarquis.com, or call 800-365-4274 to learn more about MCIF, referral tracking or CRM solutions that you can and will actually use!

Hardware News

CTERA launched a new Cloud Attached Storage appliance that supports server backup and bare metal recovery. The CTERA C400 supports as much as 8TB of local storage and has four hot-swappable drive bays. Each CTERA C400 has RAID 5 and 6 capability. In addition, CTERA has enhanced the software that ships with its appliance. CTERA 2.5 now includes incremental, disk-level backup of live servers and workstations, agents for Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server and Active Directory and the ability for users to collaborate on file and folders stored either in the cloud or the local appliance.

While some people may not call a computer weighing 10 or 12 pounds a "laptop," desktop replacement laptops feature fast processors, lots of RAM, 3D graphics, and large screens (16 inches or higher). PC World has come out with their top 10 desktop replacement laptops:

- Acer Aspire 8940G-6865

- Alienware M17x

- ASUS G73Jh-A2

- AVADirect Clevo X8100 Core i7 Gaming Notebook

- Dell Studio 17 (model 1747)

- HP Envy 17

- iBuyPower Armada Touch MT20X

- Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds

- Micro Express KHL9070

- MSI GT660

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ATMs/Kiosks

Wincor Nixdorf, the second largest supplier of ATMs in the world, announced it has expanded its U.S. customer service and technical support network, with a 98 percent increase in the number of Wincor Nixdorf employed service technicians since 2009. Wincor Nixdorf now services 49 of the top 50 major metropolitan areas in the U.S.

MasterCard and ATM network operator Cardtronics announced a deal in which issuers of prepaid MasterCard cards can make their cards usable on Cardtronics’ Allpoint surcharge-free ATM network. Allpoint links 32,000 U.S. ATMs. MasterCard said the deal would help issuers of government, tax, and payroll prepaid card programs that require cardholders have access to free ATMs.

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Obopay announced new functionality for its Mobile Money for Banks offering, broadening the scope of mobile transaction capabilities. The new functions for Mobile Money for Banks include:

• Instant Debit Card Networks: Facilitates the ability for people to send and accept mobile payments instantly via any supported debit card or to reload a supported prepaid debit card.


• Account Transfers: Real-time account-to-account FI transfers via debit card networks and one-to-four business day transfers for ACH transactions. Obopay users link accounts by entering the account debit card number or account and routing number.


• Get Paid Tools: Text-to-Donate and Text-to-Pay capabilities and other new get paid tools allow organizations or individuals to establish a keyword to receive text donations and payments from any mobile phone user in the US.


• Get Paid Checkout: Enhanced checkout services for mobile and web-based transactions allow Obopay users to accept card payments from anyone in the US without the payer needing to register for the Obopay service.

Jack Henry announced the addition of mobile remote deposit capture to its portfolio of remote deposit capture solutions provided by its ProfitStars division and marketed under its Alogent brand. ProfitStars will be integrating its Alogent Mobile Remote Deposit Solution with the patented mobile RDC system provided by Mitek Systems.

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Many enterprises believe Web 2.0 technology could be an aid to business, but they are putting it on the back burner because of concerns about security, according to a study by the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) at Purdue University. About 60 percent of respondents are concerned about the loss of reputation that might occur through the misuse of Web 2.0 applications, which include such technologies as social media, microblogging, collaborative platforms, Web mail, and content sharing tools. Companies' top four perceived threats from employee use of Web 2.0 are malicious software (35 percent), viruses (15 percent), overexposure of information (11 percent), and spyware (10 percent). Many organizations block Web 2.0 rather than put policies in place, the study says. Worldwide, 13 percent of organizations block all Web 2.0 activity, while 81 percent restrict the use of at least one Web 2.0 tool because they are concerned about security.

During second quarter of 2010, roughly 1,146 robberies and incidental crimes affecting financial institutions were reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of those, 85 or 7% were at credit unioms. Commercial banks were hit by 1,013 instances, said the FBI's report. bCredit unions were second highest with the 85, followed by savings and loan associations with 26 robberies, then mutual savings banks, with 11. Friday was the most active day, while Monday was the second most popular day for the crimes. Regardless of the day, the most popular time of day for robberies occurred from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Oral demands and demand notes were the most common method used by the culprits.

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Core Systems:

Helping with Regulatory Issues and Compliance Pressures

Fiserv - http://www.fiserv.com Read John Filby's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Fiserv.pdf

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

Fiserv - http://www.opensolutions.com Read David Mitchell's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/OSI.pdf

Software Management Associates - http://www.smausa.com   Read Michael W. Taylor's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/SMA.pdf

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According to Celent, even though the majority of financial institutions surveyed indicate that improving branch sales and service performance is their top branch channel priority, few have invested in technology to help realize that goal. In a new report, Branch Banking in a Multichannel World, Celent finds that less than a third of surveyed financial institutions (28%) have operational CRM systems, and fewer still have analytic CRM (23%). Account opening remains largely manual, with just 29% enjoying automated, paperless systems. Loan origination is similarly manual and relies on the movement of paper, with just one in five institutions having automated systems. Cash handling requires dual control, largely manual work at most financial institutions. Only a fourth of surveyed financial institutions use teller cash recycling.

Profitability Referral Tracking Full-Contact CRM

MCIF CRA/HMDA Compliance

MARQUIS delivers proven solution to over 750 financial institutions worldwide that are truly Easy, Complete, and Affordable. 

 

What the nation’s leading consultants are saying about Marquis!

“I was absolutely blown away the first time I saw ReferralTrax. Its sheer simplicity of operation masks an unbelievably sophisticated CRM engine that has no rival in the commercial marketplace. ReferralTrax chops the competition off at the knees…”

Randall Putala
SDMI

“Marquis is consistently listed by my clients as the best in class for MCIF software, support and service. I recommend Marquis to any marketing department looking for robust functionality in an MCIF - backed by world-class service.”

Constance Anderson
Consultant/Speaker

“The folks at Marquis truly know what they're doing! And, they are a class act."

Mike Neill
Michael Neill & Associates

Please contact John Kassing @ johnk@gomarquis.com, or call 800-365-4274 to learn more about MCIF, referral tracking or CRM solutions that you can and will actually use!

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Some observers believe that the shrinking price gap between signature and PIN debit transactions will enable PIN to attain a dominant stance due to its lower incidence of fraud. However, Auriemma Consulting Group notes that not all merchants have adopted PIN debit, while few stores have barred customers from using signature debit altogether. "New laws will accelerate retailers' use of software that automatically routes the transaction along the cheapest route," and the distinction between signature and PIN "may cease to matter, especially as new technologies like contactless cards continue to grow," states an ACG spokesperson.

NACHA announced that Secure Vault Payments (SVP) will move into full commercialization following a pilot designed to assess the feasibility of SVP. Supported by eWise’s Online Banking ePayments (OBeP) platform, financial institutions, merchants, billers, payment gateway providers, and core payment processors will be able to utilize SVP as a payment solution. SVP enables consumers to initiate private and secure payments for purchases and bill payments through their banks’ online banking platforms, using the ACH Network.

Survey research commissioned by Deluxe Corp., the big check printer, says 75% of consumers insist they should have the right to pay at merchant locations with any payment method they want, including checks. Some 38% of respondents said they would consider walking out of, or not returning to, a store or restaurant that refused to accept checks. Deluxe has created a consumer-advocacy program it calls “Stand Up For Your Right To Write Checks.”

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Microsoft is in the process of introducing its next generation unified communications software solution, known as Lync 2010. The platform will be the first of its UC solutions packaged and positioned as direct alternatives to third party IP-PBXs. Lync 2010 and Lync Server 2010, the products formerly known as Office Communications Server (and even further back, Office Live Communications Server), are a communications and conferencing software suite that unites enterprise voice calling, IM, group chat, audio and video conferencing, and screen sharing under a single interface, and allows for integration into enterprise deployments of Office, SharePoint, and Exchange. Trial versions of these software are now available for download for XP, Vista, and Windows 7, with general availability expected later this year.

The Arkeos VoIP honeypot is designed to expose and blacklist networks hosting VoIP attacks against organizations' VoIP PBX servers. The VoIP Abuse Project uses a honeypot to gather as much data as it can from incoming VoIP attacks, including the IP address and a recording of what the call was sending. VoIP attacks have been on the upswing as hackers victimize organizations' servers to place expensive overseas calls, all the while saturating their network bandwidth resulting in dropped calls and poor call quality. Plus they can use the compromised VoIP PBX for targeted attacks, many aimed at pilfering credit card or other financial information.

ADCs take over where server load balancers leave off

In the last decade, server load balancers were hailed as the solution to website scalability and availability problems. These devices balanced traffic across servers to ensure the site was available and could handle traffic spikes. If one server went down, the load balancer redirected traffic. When a site got "slashdotted" you could add more servers transparently.

Flash forward to 2010; Web servers aren't just delivering static content, they're delivering Apps. Businesses are using Web-based applications to deliver mission critical functionalities to employees and customers. Simple load balancing is no longer sufficient.

Fortunately, load balancers have evolved into Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs). This new species understands application specific traffic and can optimize application server performance by offloading many of the computer intensive tasks that would otherwise bog down CPUs that could be better occupied elsewhere. This article will discuss how ADCs have taken over where server load balancers left off.

Click Here to Download the White Paper "ADCs take over where server load balancers leave off"

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There are various opinions when it comes to the correlation between wait times and abandon rates. Many observers believe that if you have low wait times and low abandon rates, then you are staffed just right. While other call center experts think that it is acceptable to have somewhat higher wait and abandon ratios due to understaffing, because the labor cost savings directly benefit the bottom line. You can measure your own caller tolerances by running ACD reports on when customers abandon showing various increments such as 10, 30, 60 and 90 seconds.

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