BANK tech-trends News
 

January 2, 2012 - January 6, 2012

• 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

PC World recently surveyed midsize laptops that are affordable and offer more options for hardware and features than smaller laptops, yet are more portable than desktop replacement models. Their top choices for 13-, 14-, and 15-inch laptops included:

- Acer Aspire TimelineX 5830TG

- Dell XPS 14z

- Dell XPS 15z

- Gateway ID47H02u

- HP EliteBook 8460p

- HP Pavilion dv6

- Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420

- Lenovo ThinkPad T420

- Maingear EX-L 15

- MSI X460DX-006US

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ATMs/Kiosks

A recent Celent report finds that image ATM adoption remains measured. The Boston-based research firm predicts that for most financial institutions, the ATM channel will be the last domino to fall in their image migration. They note that some banks will opt out of imaging for on-premise ATMs, choosing to pay branch staff to do the imaging instead. While some observers expect mobile RDC to lessen the enthusiasm for investments in the ATM channel, Celent disagrees. They state that in all cases, the business case is compelling, and ATM users love envelope free ATMs.

Security solutions company Alarm It has added remote capabilities to its MT3000 ATM/kiosk security system. Using their AMS Web portal, ATM owners can now arm and disarm the alarm remotely. The MT3000, available in TCP/IP, dial-up and a stand-alone version, features a panic button for ATM users and a battery backup. ATM deployers can choose how they would like to receive their alerts: SMS, e-mail and through Alarm It's Web portal. Conditions triggering an alert can include: the machine being tilted, a door being opened, disconnection of the power or when the battery needs to be replaced.

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According to a recent KPMG study, mobile phone-based payments will not catch on significantly for another two to four years. Their report found that less than a quarter of consumers were willing to use their mobile phone as a substitute for other payment modes, with 30 percent of younger adults showing more willingness to do so. Doubt among consumers and some businesses that smartphone payments are secure and easier than cash or card payments is one major impediment to its widespread use. Meanwhile consulting firm BillingViews has published a list of key factors that could undermine the widespread use of mobile payments:

- uncertainty and complexity of fees
- the threat of heavy handed regulation
- too many competing technology enablers
- major players failing to commit to a consistent path
- the inability to find a problem for which NFC is actually the best solution
- balancing simplicity and speed with security
- a failure to identify a truly compelling advantage for consumers

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Attack Surface Analyzer is a Microsoft verification tool designed to catalog changes in system state, runtime parameters, and securable objects on the Windows operating system. MSATA scans ports, security event logs, autorun entries, services and firewall settings (amongst others) and consolidates results into a CAB file. The tool runs on the Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 operating systems.

PacketFence is a fully supported, free and open source network access control (NAC) system. PacketFence can be used to effectively secure networks - from small to very large - thanks to its feature set that includes a captive-portal for registration and remediation, centralized wired and wireless management, 802.1X support, layer-2 isolation of problematic devices, and integration with Snort and Nessus. The new version 3.1.0 was recently released and includes many updates and fixes.

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Security:

Compliance and InfoSecurity – Applying the Right Resources

Anitian - http://www.anitian.com Read Andrew M. Plato's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Anitian.pdf

Awareness Technologies - http://www.awarenesstechnologies.com Read Brad Miller's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Awareness.pdf

CSI - http://www.csiweb.com Read Dan Holt's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/CSI.pdf

CTERA - http://www.ctera.com Read Don Fuller's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/CTERA.pdf

DigitalPersona - http://www.digitalpersona.com Read Jim Fulton's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/DigitalPersona.pdf

Easy Solutions - http://www.easysol.net Read David Sylvester's comments:     http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/EasySolutions.pdf

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

Hyland Software - http://www.onbase.com Read Steve Comer's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Hyland.pdf

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

Millennial Vision - http://www.mviusa.com Read Scott Cowan's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/MVi.pdf

Network Box - http://www.networkboxusa.com   Read Pierluigi Stella's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/NetworkBox.pdf

Ongoing Operations - http://www.ongoingoperations.com   Read Robbie Wright's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/OGO.pdf

ProPay - http://www.propay.com Read Dr. Heather Mark's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/ProPay.pdf

Red Rock Information Security - http://www.redrockis.com Read Randy Brinks' comments:     http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/RedRock.pdf

S1 Defense - http://www.S1defense.com Read Bruce C. Smalley's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/S1Defense.pdf

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Consulting and research firm Novantas performed a benchmarking study of about 13,000 branch locations and found that branch employees sold an average of 1.12 products per day in 2010, down from 1.70 in 2003. The New York-based consultancy notes that the most productive banks from a sales perspective require their branch managers to focus more on direct selling themselves as opposed to coaching the rest of the staff on sales performance. Yet they also point out that “observational coaching” has value, as does the approach of employing professional sales coaches to help provide a more consistent and effective sales process in the branches.

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According to a late 2011 report by Javelin Strategy and Research, financial institutions lost at least $873 million in potential revenue last year to online account opening abandonment. They found the following statistics:

- 53 percent of consumers who started the online account opening process were able to complete it and fund their accounts
- 25% abandoned the process entirely before opening an account
- 17% were able to open an account but couldn't fund it
- 5% were rejected as unqualified

In order to boost completion rates, the research firm recommends making it perfectly clear what prospective customers will need to complete the process before they begin. Another best practice is to institute a review process where a real person can review incomplete applications and call and follow up with the person and help them complete the process and verify the account.

Prepaid card loads reached about $460 billion this year, according to the Mercator Advisory Group. They predict that retailers, airlines, utility companies, and government agencies will join financial services firms in offering prepaid credit cards in 2012. More prepaid card issuers will likely add credit-enhancement features to prepaid cards to attract consumers with problematic credit. Mercator expects the amount added to prepaid cards will grow by almost 50 percent to nearly $685 billion by 2016.

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Sprint has unveiled a new SIP (session initiation protocol) Toll Free solution that is designed to permit organizations to take advantage of their SIP trunks and existing communication system to make their own routing decisions. Sprint SIP Toll Free delivers inbound toll-free calls over SIP Trunking. Toll-free calls originate in the PSTN (public switched telephone network) and are transported over the network for delivery via an IP access facility. Sprint says that their service creates an opportunity for savings through elimination of local access lines, premise-based trunking equipment and management of multiple providers, while the single IP connection delivers traffic without costly gateways or bridges.

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Webko Products has made some additions to its line of headset peripherals called Headset Buddy. The new products were designed to provide support for a wide array of telephone training applications that are targeted at both business and consumer phone systems found in call centers. The new Headset Training Buddy is available in three models: dual RJ-9 female inputs and single 2.5mm male connector, dual RJ-9 female inputs and single RJ-9 male connector, and dual Cisco compatible RJ-9 female inputs and single Cisco Rj-9 male connector. All of the Headset Training Buddies have dual channel mute buttons and provide live, dynamic supervisor or training control over the active headset during calls.

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