BANK tech-trends News
 

August 29, 2011 - September 2, 2011

• 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

Voice Recovery & Business Continuity Insurance

This program will educate and demonstrate how to comply with FDIC emergency preparedness guidelines by protecting the communications of your community bank in the event of a communications outage. This new, easy-to-use technology ensures restoration of incoming calls and faxes soon after a natural disaster or other telecom outage. The service is affordable for large or small banks, and satisfies all FDIC compliance requirements for communications emergency preparedness.


What You Will Learn:

- How to rapidly recover from outages
- How to regain complete control of incoming calls and faxes
- How to reroute up to thousands of phone numbers in minutes or even seconds
- How to broadcast recorded messages to small or large groups of people

Who Should Attend: This program will benefit senior managers, IT Directors, VPs of Operations, and anyone at the bank who is interested in telecommunications, disaster recovery or business continuity.

Presented By: Telecom Recovery is an industry pioneer in the rapid recovery of communications after a telecommunications outage, with a unique focus on the restoration of the incoming calls to existing phone numbers.

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  
 

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

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

Toshiba has come out with a 2-megapixel IP camera that uses 802.11n wireless connectivity which frees it from using coaxial or CAT cables. The company says that the unit delivers superior image clarity via a CMOS progressive scan sensor that delivers 30 frames-per-second color video. It has 4x zoom capabilities, offers motion detection, auto-pan and tilt, and two-way audio. The camera can stream video in MPEG-4 or MJPEG formats.

Iomega has introduced a 12-bay, rack-mountable top-tier network-attached storage (NAS) array. The new StorCenter px12-350r comes with up to four 2TB or 3TB 7,200rpm SATA drives. The 2U (3.5-in high) form factor rack-mountable NAS array has a maximum of 12 slots for drive expansion. The unit has multiple RAID levels and hot swappable drives. The system is available in two versions: an 8TB model that sells for $5,999; and a 12TB model that sells for $6,999.

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ATMs/Kiosks

The Cisco Integrated Services Router 819 Machine-to-Machine Gateway is the smallest customer of the ISR family of branch and remote office routers and is designed to withstand outdoor environments with extreme temperatures. Target markets for the device include ATMs, but it can also serve as a conventional router in a remote office. The 819 relies primarily on cellular data to reach the Internet, weighs only 2.3 pounds, and starts at $1,600.

Broadridge Financial Solutions announced the launch of new functionality within its PROactive solution suite for the reconciliation and automated exception handling of ATM activity. Examples of ATM reconciliations covered by the new functionality include cash replenishment, individual ATM transactions, balances, float cash, ATM networks and cash deposit machines (CDM). The company touts the fact that because reconciliations run overnight that means that business activity reports and analysis can be available first thing every morning and the more serious issues prioritized automatically.

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Some mobile banking enthusiasts believe that it will be the death knell of the branch, while many others are not convinced that the branch will ever go away. The Smart Card institute believes that it will not make traditional branches obsolete, but that mobile banking will usher in major branch changes. According to the institute, "the role of the future branch will be primarily as a marketing and new account indoctrination center. Smartphone use will eliminate most face-to-face financial transactions, as well as paper checks, paper currency and plastic cards - not to mention the costs associated with those media. Card interface devices, check, currency and coin security and handling devices such as change makers, bill counters and ATMs will also disappear. All of these will be replaced by electronic messages, sent via the Internet, which smartphone customers initiate themselves and which provide the same information as the replaced media."

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Many organizations are leery of hosted email solutions out of the fear that people could potentially read or tamper with their email. To ally these fears, Microsoft has taken a number of visible steps to reduce the security risks associated with hybrid or pure-hosted Exchange deployments:

• Microsoft's cloud operations are certified to meet the SAS 70 and ISO/IEC 27001:2005 standards for security.
• Exchange 2010 Role Based Access Control (RBAC) gives you and Microsoft an effective means of separating access to objects. You can manage things that belong to you, such as users, contacts, and some access settings, and Microsoft gets exclusive access to manage things such as servers, mailbox databases, and Client Access server URLs. Neither side can touch objects they shouldn't.
• Exchange 2010 also includes a robust set of tools for auditing changes made to the environment by administrators.
• The links between you and the Office 365 installation are encrypted. This goes for mail transport, directory sync, and client access.

One Package for Your Back-up Data Center Needs

Take advantage of our world-class data centers for equipment co-location, benefit from the unique OGO Replicator solution for your data backup and failover requirements, and leverage our existing infrastructure for your connectivity/bandwidth needs.

Key Features:

• Redundant private 10GBs connectivity*
• Isolated from other businesses • Secure facilities with motion activated cameras and 24/7 monitoring
• Clean power facilities – UPS and diesel generator protected to ensure maximum uptime
• High Availability Temperature controlled data center space
• State of the art infrastructure and backbone to support key IT infrastructure
 (*Hagerstown, MD facility only)

Contact us at info@ongoingoperations.com or by calling 877-552-7892 to learn more. Take advantage of the complete package for $1,600 per month in any of our four data center locations including our new Middletown, Virginia facility.

Backup bundle includes:

- 1 Rack for Equipment Co-location
- OGO Replicator solution
- Connectivity/bandwidth

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Online & Mobile Banking:

Lowering Channel Costs & Enabling More Self-service

Bluepoint Solutions - http://www.bluepointsolutions.com Read Andrew Tilbury's comments: http://www.banktt.com/Bluepoint.pdf

CIC - Communication Intelligence Corp. - http://www.cic.com Read Yasmine Tabatabai's comments: http://www.banktt.com/CIC.pdf

Confident Technologies - http://www.confidenttechnologies.com Read William Goldbach's comments: http://www.banktt.com/Confident.pdf

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

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

Integrated Media Management - http://www.immonline.com   Read Nish Shah's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/IMM.pdf

Javelin Strategy & Research - http://www.javelinresearch.com Read Mark Schwanhausser's comments: http://www.banktt.com/Javelin.pdf

Online Banking Solutions - http://www.onlinebankingsolutions.com Read Joe Spatarella's comments:     http://www.banktt.com/OnlineBanking.pdf

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According to FDIC data, an estimated $169 billion in income never flows through a financial institution. Researchers from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business found that the rapidly growing Latino population is particularly underserved. They say that the Latino population is particularly attractive due to the fact that Latino households often feature more than one adult generating income, and the group's workforce participation is high. They suggest that banks hire more employees who speak Spanish, educate staff customers on cultural issues, help new customers with paperwork, and educate the public on the safety benefits of using a bank.

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Some analysts believe that banks have been slow to catch on to the personal financial management trend and have had difficulty understanding how PFM fits into the online banking universe. Here are some findings from a new report, 'Personal Financial Management: The Devil Is in the Details,' from Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm, and the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI):

• PFM is going to go through three phases. Phase three is where the industry will eventually end up; however, it will take three to five years to get there. In phase three, PFM becomes the cornerstone of online banking whereby transactional features and functions will be built around the PFM dashboard. It is important to note that the tablet experience and smartphone touchscreen interface go hand in hand with PFM/online banking dashboards.

• Several areas need to be worked on - online banking user experience; the definition of user roles and preferences; categorization accuracy; online banking dashboard customization; and relevant and targeted user education that is embedded in online banking.

• The convergence of PFM and online banking will accelerate over the next few years. Celent predicts that, by 2014, 52% of the total online banking population will have signed up for PFM, with 12% being 30-day active.

Total System Services is marketing its TSYS Hybrid debit/credit card to banks, touting that it encourages more credit card usage which brings higher interchange fees. The product features a line of credit and the ability for a consumer to affix up to five demand deposit accounts. Another option are the high-tech plastic cards from Dynamics that come equipped with buttons a card holder can press to choose which account to make a purchase with.

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By some estimates, 25% of organizations are already using desktop virtualization technologies to serve remote/branch workers, 22% plan to do so in the next 12 months, and 20% plan to do so in the next 24 months. Many observers think that desktop virtualization represents a new use case for WAN optimization vendors. The primary job of WAN optimization controllers is accelerating Sharepoint, Exchange, and file access. While many vendors excel at this, desktop virtualization requires new protocol support and may open the market for new equipment or new vendors. Meanwhile, Citrix claims to have already improved its streaming protocol, HDX (High Definition User Experience), so that long-range streaming is now possible.

CenturyLink, a provider of broadband, data networking and voice services, announced two new VoIP services, CenturyLink Hosted VoIP and CenturyLink SIP Trunking, which they say will enable organizations to access advanced features that enhance connectivity and mobility in the workplace. CenturyLink SIP Trunking offers the following benefits: convergence of voice and data traffic on a single connection; ability to keep existing phone system and network infrastructure; and freedom to manage your own PBX.

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Gila, LLC has recently launched the new SmartDialz service for targeted dialing campaigns. Designed exclusively for Gila's bank clients, the service involves advanced, integrated outbound dialing algorithms that can consistently predict best available contact times. This technology enables the development of company-specific strategies and allows each bank to maximize RPC (right-party contacts) to delinquent customers.

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