TSG Quick Insight Blog

Data Management Strategy Tops IT Initiatives

2007-10-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Bank Technology News | Monday, October 1, 2007.

The growth explosion of unstructured data has vaulted improved data management to the top of the 2008 strategic IT initiatives forecast by Financial Insights for banking, insurance and global capital markets. The old focus was on the management of the data infrastructure itself, Financial Insights reports. Current initiatives however indicate that banks approach has matured. They are striving to implement an information management lifecycle approach.

Also taking center stage for CIOs next year is the never-ending quest to add flexibility to existing legacy systems, without large-scale systems replacements (technology “refresh,” as its termed). Third on the list is data security, which FI notes gets more challenging to institutions as they “struggle with managing security with channel expansion, real-time processing, geographic dispersion, outsourcing/offshoring…[a] mobile workforce and customers.”

TSG Comment
Small community banks face the same IT challenges as those in larger financial institutions. Despite the press of daily events, bank management will benefit from setting aside a portion of its annual business planning time to review IT issues and investments that may be needed to match competitive pressures within the bank's business footprint. If no IT plan exists, develop one as soon as possible and integrate it with the annual planning and budgeting process. IT is one of the most effective performance levers available to management.

Western Union Developing Mobile Remittance System

2007-10-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

American Banker | Thursday, October 18, 2007, by Daniel Wolfe.

Western Union Co. is adapting its international remittance system to let people send and receive money through mobile devices, further advancing the role phones are expected to play in supporting electronic payments. In this case as a way to reach the unbanked.

The Englewood, Colo., remittance company said Thursday that it is working with the GSM Association, a Dublin trade group for 700 mobile phone manufacturers, to define a standard that carriers could use to develop payment applications linked to the Western Union network on the back end.

Matt Dill, Western Union's general manager of mobile, said in an interview Thursday that it expects carriers to develop applications for both receiving remittances and using their phones as "mobile wallets" for making purchases.

"The key thing to look at is not just the sender's experience, but also the receiver's experience," he said.

Many people who receive remittances lack bank accounts, and in many developing countries it may be difficult or inconvenient to travel to a place where they can receive cash, Mr. Dill said.

A mobile wallet function built into a phone would let people receive, and use, funds more easily, he said. By envisioning the cell phone as a spending tool and not just an end point, Western Union is "taking a much more global perspective on mobile remittances."

http://www.americanbanker.com/article.html?id=20071018RGS3N3G5&email=y

Mobile banking is coming. Is it right for your bank?

2007-10-17T10:19:00.001-07:00

Bank Technology News - October 1, 2007.

Mobile banking and payments vendor Firethorn Holdings added Verizon Wireless as its second carrier partner to carry the Firethorn mobile application on handsets. Already in league with AT&T, Firethorn now has the nation's top two carriers signed on its platform that is already in place at institutions like Wachovia, SunTrust Bank, Regions Financial, BancorpSouth, and Synovus. The deal aligns with Firethorn’s key differentiation with other mobile platforms like mFoundry, in managing the ecosystem of standards, interfaces and platforms between the normally vinegar-and-water setups between banks’ mobile offerings and carrier control over network and handset capabilities. While Firethorn operates a base set of account view, funds transfer and bill pay features, CEO Tripp Rackley says the platform will eventually encompass loyalty program management, reloading gift cards and eventual point-of-sale contactless payments.

TSG Comment
Mobile banking may well follow the path of the ATM and, just now, remote deposit capture in becoming widely accepted and used technologies. If it does, every bank will need to deploy it just to "be in the game." How banks deploy this technology and to which of their customer segments will determine whether the investment is a profit or loss generator. Mobile banking is a timely topic 2008 for strategy and budget planning sessions.

Are you fully leveraging your remote deposit capture investment?

2007-10-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

Remote Deposit Capture's Uneven Growth Spurt - Bank Technology News, 10/11/2007.

Remote deposit capture adoption has been described as so profoundly swift and broad that by the end of 2007 it is expected to be on the menu of more than 4,000 financial institutions, according to a new report by Celent. But there is a catch: there are still very few banks prepping the kitchen.

While Wells Fargo last week noted single-day milestones of $2 billion in deposit volume and one million cleared check images for its 4,300 RDC clients (“Not bad for just three years,” boasts Stephanie Sturgis-Griffin, svp of Wholesale Internet Solutions), the Celent report counts only 112,000 client deployments to date throughout the industry. That’s an average of 38 per bank, which itself is also distorted: it’s only 19 when you omit the average 4,200 live customers signed up by top 10 banks.

“Why have so many banks adopted RDC at breakneck speed,” the report states, “only to seemingly drag their feet to fully leverage it?”

TSG Comment
Our recent community bank survey on remote deposit capture indicates that banks are implementing RDC to "be in the game," with respondents equally devided on whether or not they expected RDC to be a net revenue generator. RDC's benefits to business and retail clients can be readily calculated. At least in the initial stages, it might be good business to offer RDC only where benefits accrue to the customer and to the bank.

The more things change, the more things stay the same...

2007-08-06T20:41:00.000-07:00

New technology is never easy ....

Check out this fun - but insightful - short video about the introduction of the 'Book' :)

BAI Online | Banking Strategies Retail Delivery Insights | AUGUST 1, 2007 VOL.2 / NO.23 | Mobile Banking: Picking Up the Pace?

2007-08-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Mobile Banking: Picking Up the Pace?

According to a recent article in BAI, mobile banking services are finally being deployed. Bank of America, Citibank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo and ING. Direct all are launching mobile banking services. While still in its infancy, the lure is that a certain customer segment, perhaps those that were early Internet banking adopters, will use the service. Since research shows that Internet banking use tends to make customers more loyal, mobile banking may be a valuable service.

As community banks consider engaging with mobile banking, here are some questions to consider:

1 - Are you commercial or retail?
2 - How would ‘mobile banking’ help your best customers? (those that are profitable for you)
3 - What will it cost, and how will you calculate your ROI?
4 - What is the simplest level of mobile banking you could provide that would respond to your high value
customer needs?
5 - Do you have a mechanism to know that your high value customers want this service?
5 - Is mobile banking a good fit for your current and future business model?

For more discussion, click on the following BAI Online article: Banking Strategies Retail Delivery Insights | AUGUST 1, 2007 VOL.2 / NO.23 | Mobile Banking: Picking Up the Pace?
http://www.bai.org/NL/v2/N23/articles/v2_N23_01.asp?WT.mc_id=BSRDI_v2_N23_Quote

Facebook and Banking - Attracting the Younger Client

2007-07-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

If you don't know about

Facebook

, it's a 'Myspace like' social network that started off in colleges - but now those students are not the only members. I recently picked up on this through my nephew who's studying computer science at Bristol University in the UK and who is writing such applications. This is an interesting article since it highlights the methods and ways that young people are using social networks - and shows how banks could add added value in targeting these groups through web based applications.... thanks for reading, Prem.

The Aging of Facebook Makes it a More Appealing Platform for Financial-Services Firms

By Jim Bruene on July 13, 2007 7:25 PM

Due to

Facebook's

roots as a college-only social networking site, as recently as last year you had to use a .edu email address to gain admittance, it has remained a young person's playground much longer than

MySpace

. However, much to the chagrin of my college-age niece and her friends (

note 1

), Facebook has aged rapidly this year.
As you can see in the inset, in May, comScore reported that more than half of Facebook visitors were 25 or older (

see

full press release

here

and note 2).

Using this chart, we estimate the median age of a Facebook visitor was about 23 a year ago and now it's closing in on 30 (

I'd guess 27 or 28 based on the comScore data

). Even more frightening for the younger set: last month there were 2.6 million more unique visitors over age 35 than in the 18-24 category. We noted this trend at

MySpace

last year (

here

Significance for Banks

As you consider your social networking strategy, don't think it's only for the under-25 crowd. Some of your prime customers, the 30-somethings with new families, new cars, new homes, and accelerating careers, also keep in touch with friends via social networks. Refer to

Online Banking Report

Social Personal Finance

, for a long-term forecast and strategic options for financial institutions. Also, see our earlier post on the Top-10 Banking & Money apps on Facebook

here

VMcasting Specification Formed for Automatic VM Deployments

2007-05-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

Virtualization and virtual appliance vendors, Enomaly Inc, virtualappliances.net, and JumpBox announced the creation of what they are calling the "VMcasting specification".

They describe VMcasting as an automatic virtual machine deployment mechanism based on RSS2.0 whereby virtual machine images (also known as virtual appliances) are transferred from a server to a client, securely delivering files containing a technical specification and virtual disk image format Extensible Virtual Machine (XVM). VMcasting together with virtual appliance formats such as XVMs eliminate the need to separately install, configure and manage interdependencies between virtualized operating systems and applications. Rather then updating single virtual machines, large groups of virtual machines can be delivered at once using a standard definition and process.
"VMCasting for automating delivery and updates of Virtual Appliances snaps in perfectly with delivering instant infrastructure and applications." says Stephen Dennis, president of VirtualAppliances.net, "Smart re-use of existing RSS technology model combined with the delivery encapsulation of XVM will make it easy to implement and use."

The concept of VMcasting is based on the similar concept of Podcasting, the popular trend of audio content delivered via an RSS feed presenting a downloadable or streaming file (often an MP3). With VMcasting, a developer publishes a secure RSS 2.0 feed where each item describes a release of a particular Virtual Machine Image or Virtual Appliance. The items descriptions may contain release notes or other information about what's new in a particular release. Therefore developers can easily be informed of upgraded versions using a virtual server management system such as the The Enomalism Virtualized Management Dashboard (see www.enomalism.com).
VMcasting is perfectly suited to a variety of virtual machine package formats allowing for a standard mechanism for delivery of virtual appliances. Formats include Open Virtual Appliance (XVM), Amazon's EC2 (AMI), Xen, Vmware, Parallels, Windows Virtual Server (VHD), and Qemu (Qcow).

According to Reuven Cohen, Chief Technologist at Enomaly Inc, "Virtualization technology and in particular virtual software appliances are quickly changing the way enterprise software is deployed. By creating a pre-installed and pre-configured application and operating system environment, system administrators, programmers and IT support staff are able to more efficiently deploy software." Reuven goes on to say "Using VMcasting, system administrators can quickly and easily define parameters and policies for updating a heterogeneous virtual server environment using a standard specification and methodology."

VMcasting was developed to create an industry-standard specification as a secure & uniform definition for the deployment and management of virtual machines (or appliances), independent of any one vendor's virtual infrastructure product suite.
To learn more about VMcasting, visit either

Enomalism's Web site

VMcasting.org

Getting Things Done!

2007-04-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

Why is it so Hard? and What's the Solution?

Most of us this face this challenge both in our personal lives and at work. Best selling author David Allen has developed a system that works very, very well for many people, and can improve a bank's performance as well. Interested? Then read on for the next 6.5 minutes!

Process Audit Matrix

2007-04-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

Michael Hammer, the 'father' of process reengineering, published an excellent article in the April 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review on process optimization. In our Quick Insight 'Getting Things Done' we reference this worksheet.

Are virtual desktops in your future?

2007-04-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

Once a drab, also-ran solution for call centers, schools and other undemanding environments, virtual desktops are suddenly hot, with vendors touting products aimed at mainstream corporate information workers. Not only are the latest wares more powerful and flexible than previous offerings, but vendors say they're also cheaper and easier to integrate.

The recent releases of Windows Vista and Office 2007 have some companies rethinking how to deploy future upgrades. Others are in a receptive mood after positive experiences with first-wave virtual desktop products such as Microsoft Corp.'s Terminal Services and Citrix Systems Inc.'s Presentation Server, as well as server virtualization software from VMware Inc.

TED Videos to watch!

2007-04-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

We love the TED video podcasts - cutting edge discussions that link business and technology issues. TED (Technology Engineering and Design) .

TED, known for its annual invitation-only summit of the "world's brightest minds," today made high-resolution videos of more than 100 full-length TED talks available free on its new website. ...

http://www.ted.com

CIOs need to focus!

2007-04-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

Report: CIOs, Stop Squandering Your Time

A Gartner report identifies six time-wasting tendencies CIOs should avoid in order to improve their performance and demonstrate their value.

[...]

Virtualization Survey

2007-03-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

You read the article - now take our survey and get a complimentary invitation to our next Quick Insight Seminar in Los Angeles.

Virtualization Survey or if you just want give us your quick opinion click here to vote in this months Quick Poll about Virtualization!

Excel Survey

2007-03-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

Is your organization over-run with Excel and are you losing control? or are you a master at organizing all those spreadsheets around the company?

Let us know in our Quick Vote about Excel!

Execution

2007-02-12T21:36:00.000-08:00

You spent hundreds of hours on developing your strategy -but now how do you execute on your strategy? In this months Quick Insight we discuss how to Execute on your strategy.

Execution Survey

2007-02-12T21:35:00.000-08:00

Please take our Quick Poll to tell us where you will be focusing most of your efforts in your bank this year. You will see your answer compared to everyone else!

The Ultimate Question

2007-01-15T21:36:00.000-08:00

Read our latest article - The Ultimate Question - and find out if your customers would refer your bank - and why.

The Power of Blogs

2007-01-13T21:32:00.000-08:00

Not that we're big bloggers at TSG, but some people are. For a fascinating look into the world of economics that one man created and communicated to the world by blogging, check out the book The Long Tail

IT Trends 2007

2007-01-01T16:17:00.000-08:00

Nice Summary of IT Trends in 2007 by Computerworld

Do you need Vista - just yet?

2006-12-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

Good summary of XP's existing benefits

Parallels - Windows on Mac

2006-12-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

You did know that you can run windows on a Mac - didn't you?

Welcome to Quick Insight

2006-12-29T21:37:00.000-08:00

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