FinServ Blog

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

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. The Ford Edge "collection" is also soliciting user contributions for "ideas on the edge" in its five categories: eat, see, trek, play and indulge.

EDGAR ONLINE Steps Forward with XBRL; Vista Ready

 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. I-Metrix 2.0 is open to beta testers and will be available to EDGAR Online customers during the first quarter of 2007. Additionally, I-Metrix is fully compatible with the newly released Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061204/nym172.html?.v=64

Microsoft Launches Banking Integration Factory

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 to access information that customers have submitted on-line and help them understand their choices on a mortgage application, for instance. (see http://www.microsoft.com/industry/financialservices/banking/businessvalue/siarticle.mspx ) From the customer's standpoint, this all seems pretty obvious, but within a bank, the various channel systems can operate on different hardware, software, networks, and within departments that don't necessarily talk to each other. As Warren Lewis, Microsoft banking industry managing director, says, "As customers began to use the new delivery channels, their expectation was that they would get the same service everywhere. But banks built these new channels on a technology house of cards. As customers' expectations grew, banks' capability to meet those expectations diminished." Greg Haislip, director of banking industry solutions for Microsoft, says the Factory "establishes a set of guidance and tools to provide consistency in service implementations at retail banks – covering interfaces, compliance with WS-I profiles for increased interoperability and cross-cutting aspects like security, confidentiality, configuration, exceptions and logging."  ( http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/nov06/11-15Banking.mspx) Partners who have signed up include ARGO Data Resource Corp., Corillian, Getronics, Harland Financial, and Jack Henry, Portrait Software, Fair Isaac Corporation and AdviceAmerica. 

New Vista and Office -- AP Misses the Story

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 app, you don‘t see the power of the platform." The killer app right out of the box is Excel in a powerful desktop improvement and even more importantly in a server version that permits the enterprise-level control that financial services firms want. Fully XML-enabled Office apps are a big advantage as well. See our coverage in Windows in Financial Services.http://www.windowsfs.com/TheMag/tabid/54/ArticleType/ArticleView/ArticleID/1179/PageID/922/Default.aspx"

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

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. Fraser says that a CIO at a large financial services firm may lose 100 notebook computers a month. Vista enables encryption of the hard drive, which protects the inforomation on it, even if it is removed and plugged into another computer.  

 

Temenos -- Microsoft Global Banking Partner -- Wins Award

 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 or problems. TEMENOS T24 offers a single client view across the enterprise and can support large numbers of users with true non-stop resilience. Its fully-integrated architecture enables it to offer a significant cost advantage compared to other competing products. The company, which competes with i-Flex, scrambled to make its system available with Microsoft SQL Server after Oracle acquired a significant share of i-Flex. TEMENOS now offers its fully integrated banking system on an entirely Microsoft platform.

Mobile Finance Goes International?

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 within them -- takes off, it could have implications far beyond the salons of Soweto. In 2005, according to the UNited Nations, global migrants remitted $232 billion, if which 20 percent was lost on the way, mostly in bank charges or fraud. If ceullular transfers could slash that figure mobile banking would prove a good call." Hmm, bank charges and fraud in the same sentence as major causes of loss.

 

WSJ Survey of Online Banking

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 from the bank. When I saw early editions of Money it looked as if the world's dullest accounts had met the geekiest programmers and devised a program that assumed people handle their money rationally and have nothing better to do that enter all their spending and budget planning in minute detail. It's taken a few years, but online finance is showing signs of life.

www.wsj.com

Microsoft Search Goes Mobile with Sprint Nextel

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

Microsoft Standards Support Integrated Delivery for Banking Services

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 IT—the highest amount of any industry group—Microsoft's capability to integrate is significant," says Warren Lewis, bank industry marketing director at Microsoft. "That's especially true because banks are under increasing pressure to reduce costs and get more value from their current systems."

http://www.microsoft.com/industry/financialservices/banking/businessvalue/siarticle.mspx  

A standardized infrastructure based on Microsoft technology can help banks improve the customer, employee, and operations experience while building capacity for continued innovation. Because the Microsoft technology platform is designed for easy integration, banks can rapidly implement new solutions as needed to meet their changing business needs.

The goal: Affordable banking solutions with lasting value. As Lewis explains, "In the old days when banks built a new system, they locked it down for years. Today, the industry needs what we call sustainable transformation. This really means built for change." Lewis continues, "Change has to be an integral part of the design. That's a key element of a standardized infrastructure that uses industry standards and Web services."

The Impact of Vista and Office 2007 for Banking

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. Microsoft will demo the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista alongside the company's branch teller/seller scenario, which highlights how bank branch employees can leverage Microsoft technology to provide more efficient customer service.

Save Sarbox -- it's Good for Business

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 404. "This suggests thatSarbox has not harmed our ability to compete but rather is viewed bu other countries asproviding valuable investor protections."

<a href="https://www-secure.businessweek.com/tms-subs-s/bin/auth.cgi?H03a3adb24b0c344a75aea56b1eba155b:url=http:Zb2fZb2fwww.businessweek.comZb2fpremiumZb2fcontentZb2f06_46Zb2fb4009126.htmZb3fchanZb3dsearch&ear=0&ipr=0&grp=1Zc6Zc51&fmt=si32&oip=75.193.239.135&rc=iv&kid=400001.220&ss=env" title="Protects Individual Investors">Protects Individual Investors</a>

Barclays -- Serious about Retail Banking

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.

NYC Losing to London on Regulatory Costs?

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, to think that the any change would have to be overseen by a Congress that seems to have little understanding of economics and far more concern about television face time.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)? So What?

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, says Margulius. Based on surveys it appears that corporations have simply not decided to make good use of customer data a priority, mostly because no single person or part of the organization owns the issue. 71 percent of execs said their customer data was potentially very valuable but only 43 percent said they had been effective in using it. No wonder CRM vendors go into weird contortions trying to find some other moniker for their software.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/27/44OPanalysts_1.html