FinServ Blog

Dinner Where? Ford and Microsoft Provide a Traveler's Answer

2006-12-19T03:44:00Z

Adweek says Ford and Microsoft are teaming up to offer live mapping that will show you where to find the best pizza, or steak, as you drive into town. <a href=" http://www.adweek.com/aw/iq_interactive/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003522807 " title="Where? Now? ">Where? Now? </a> The Ford Edge Virtual Tour (fordedge.msn.com), due to launch today, lets users in 25 U.S. cities find new places to eat, activities, sites and services through MSN Windows Local Live's virtual mapping technology....(read more)

EDGAR ONLINE Steps Forward with XBRL; Vista Ready

2006-12-04T22:05:00Z

EDGAR Online introduced its latest version of I-Metrix during the XBRL International Conference in Philadelphia. I-Metrix 2.0 is the first platform in the world to combine an XBRL database of over 11,000 companies with new powerful analytical capabilities designed to leverage the unique benefits that XBRL technology can provide. I-Metrix 2.0 enhances the transparency and usability of critical company information to deliver an analysis-ready application designed for the financial and corporate analyst....(read more)

Microsoft Launches Banking Integration Factory

2006-11-26T23:01:00Z

Microsoft has introduced a program to bring standards and best practices to banking applications so banks can turn disparate applications into an integrated composite so customers won't even notice when they are moving from an Internet application to an ATM or talking to a teller. Well, they'll probably notice, since an ATM and a teller don't look the least bit alike, but they will be able to see the same up-to-date information from either source, and more importantly, the bank staff will be able...(read more)

New Vista and Office -- AP Misses the Story

2006-11-26T17:22:00Z

http://www.onelocalnews.com/newhopecourier/ViewArticle.aspx?id=28923&source=2 " BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer, does a quick survey of the upcoming launches of Vista and Office and somewhat vaguely and inconclusively cites Bill Hartnett on security improvements (he doesn't give Bill space to explain what is on offer). From Forrester he gets this:" What‘s the killer app?‘" said Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler. "Somebody else will build a killer app on it, but until you get a killer...(read more)

Vista Should Win Fast Enterprise Adoption -- Microsoft MD for the UK

2006-11-23T20:26:00Z

Gordon Frazer, Microsoft's newly appointed UK managing director, thinks Vista’s new features should win it faster adoption in the enterprise: unseen embedded functionality such as new security mechanisms and embedded search technology allowing users to more easily locate documents or information on their hard drives, writes Emma Nash at Computing. http://www.vnunet.com/computing/analysis/2169374/microsoft-sees-bright-future Reasons to upgrade include power management capabilities and encryption....(read more)

Temenos -- Microsoft Global Banking Partner -- Wins Award

2006-11-20T15:30:00Z

TEMENOS, a provider of integrated core banking systems that offer front to back integration on a Microsoft platform, has won the Financial-i ‘Leaders in Innovation Awards’ for TEMENOS T24, the company’s modular core banking system. The criteria for selecting the winners were: product innovation over the last 12 to 18 months; cost effectiveness of solutions in terms of implementation and deployment; potential business benefits; ease of implementation and the ability to tackle specific business issues...(read more)

Mobile Finance Goes International?

2006-11-19T14:23:00Z

Wizzit and First National Bank in South Africa are developing banking accounts that rely on mobile phones as a way to reach the unbanked population, and clients who just want the convenience of making payment without a trek to the bank. The technology still has a ways to go, and traditional banks need to re-examine their fee structures to make phone finance more attractive, suggests the magazine. But it sees great potential."If the transfer of money by mobile phone -- between countries as well as...(read more)

WSJ Survey of Online Banking

2006-11-18T18:26:00Z

Jane Kim reports that usage is up, "Close to 40% of U.S. households do some banking online, more than double the rate in 2000, according to Celent LLC, a research and consulting firm." Banks are beginning to think like users rather than technologists -- Wells Fargo lets you set up accounts to save for specific objectives, she reports. My own favorite example is Bank of America's plan to round up the amount on any debit spending and put it in your savings account, with some token additional payment...(read more)

Microsoft Search Goes Mobile with Sprint Nextel

2006-11-16T16:32:00Z

Microsoft has signed a deal with Sprint Nextel to put Microsoft search on the Sprint network -- the first big deal to make search mobile. Looks like mobile devices are set to take off. Adam Kornak, the mobility specialist in Microsoft's financial services group, expects that mobile devices will be a key way of making online payments. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003432838_msftsprint16.html...(read more)

Microsoft Standards Support Integrated Delivery for Banking Services

2006-11-14T20:25:00Z

Because Microsoft technology uses Web services, XML, and Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs), Microsoft and partner applications can be tightly integrated to provide a strong, yet flexible multichannel delivery system. For banks, that means that a standardized infrastructure can be employed simply and cost-effectively. Microsoft technologies are designed to integrate with existing bank systems and generate new value from them, not replace them. "In an industry that spends 8 percent of revenue on...(read more)

The Impact of Vista and Office 2007 for Banking

2006-11-14T20:12:00Z

In a white paper, titled "Unified Communications and Collaboration for the Banking Industry," outlines how Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system create a platform allowing banks to unify their business communications, empower teams through workspaces, connect people, processes and information, and enable work on the go. The white paper will be distributed in the Microsoft Meeting Room No. 11 and is also available for download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/industry/finservs/banking...(read more)

Save Sarbox -- it's Good for Business

2006-11-10T14:22:00Z

Annette Nazareth, an SEC commissioner, says SarbOx may need some refining but that it is good for business -- leading to higher company valuatins --and it protects the individual investors who make the US markets the deepest in the world. The slowdown in listings? Blame low interest rates and private equity -- the US share of IPOs has actually increased since 2001, she says. While the US debates SarbOx and pressure builds to change the law, other countries are adopting legalisation similar to Section...(read more)

Barclays -- Serious about Retail Banking

2006-11-06T17:15:00Z

Barclays has hired Helen Dodd from Tesco, where she was in charge of store format and design, to redo the retail branches, right down to the staff uniforms…The bank some months ago hired awayr Deanna Oppenheimer from WAMU to run its UK retail banking....(read more)

NYC Losing to London on Regulatory Costs?

2006-11-06T17:12:00Z

The FT reports that in London City professionals celebrate Sarbanes-Oxley for driving business form New York to the UK ; while SEC Chairman Christopher Cox promises the regulators won’t over-reach. However, the bigger dangers if legislative creep from Congress and the European parliament, the paper warns, in an article by Jeremy Grant. Safe to say the US regulatory regime could use an overhaul, preferably one that brings about at least optional federal regulation for insurance. A little scary, though,...(read more)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)? So What?

2006-10-31T15:42:00Z

From David Margulius at Infoworld: Quick. When was the last time you remember being pleasantly surprised by how effectively a company used data about you to improve your customer experience? ...Personally, I’m amazed that none of the companies I’ve done business with for years — banks, telephone companies, insurance, publishers, and so on — has ever considered it worthwhile to have a real live intelligent customer service rep call me on the phone and just ask me what I want. The problem isn't IT,...(read more)