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August 2, 2010 - August 6, 2010
General News
* uMonitor and Beacon Software Form Partnership
* Open Solutions Acquires Weiland Financial Group
* VSoft Debuts CoreSoft
* T8 Webware Reports Record Year
* 2nd Annual Manny Prupes Memorial Golf Tournament Supports RMJ Foundation
uMonitor, a financial solutions provider for operational excellence with member acquisition and retention, announced that they have formed a strategic partnership with Beacon Software, a company specializing in online banking services and software. uMonitor will provide a full integration of its account opening and money transfer services for the Beacon Internet Banking Platform.
Open Solutions, a leading provider of integrated, enterprise-wide data processing technologies for credit unions throughout the United States, Canada and other international markets, announced that they have agreed to acquire The Weiland Financial Group, a provider of financial account-management solutions for financial institutions and Fortune 1000 companies. For credit unions, Weiland’s Commercial Account Analysis is a billing suite that generates account analysis statements, analyzes member profitability, and drives fee income.
VSoft Corporation, an information and technology provider of process improvement solutions for credit unions, has introduced CoreSoft. VSoft says CoreSoft is scalable to any size of financial institution and “meets an industry need to replace legacy systems with a technology that can provide seamless, real-time, high-volume and high-performance transactions across multiple channels supporting all the deposit and lending activities.”
T8 Webware, a provider of Web development, management and hosting services for credit unions, ended the first half of 2010 with record revenue and customer growth compared to 2009’s midyear mark. In all, the company has provided more than 190 financial institutions with non-template driven websites, all of which are mobile-optimized.
The Manny Prupes Memorial Golf Tournament returns September 17, 2010, to San Diego’s Torrey Pines Golf Course. This year’s 2nd annual golf tournament, honoring the memory of Manny Prupes, will benefit the RMJ Foundation which was established in 1958 as the California Filene Foundation. The organization supports the financial education efforts of credit unions in California and Nevada, with a special focus on youth financial education.
Hardware News
Lenovo introduced three new dual processor ThinkServers targeted at smaller organizations. The machines feature built in advanced RAID, Web-enabled remote management tools and hot swappable hard drive storage. Lenovo ThinkServers RD230, RD240 and TD230 are priced between $829 and $1399.
Cisco says that the new power management features in its Catalyst 3750-X stackable access switch can reduce electric bills. StackPower offers a means of pooling power supplies within a stack and making wattage available to any switch as needed. The 3750-X offers other new features, such as MACSec encryption, Smart Operations deployment software, and support for PoE+, a new method of powering devices that require more electricity than the old PoE standard can supply.
There are a number of advantages to selecting blades for your server platform. But what about mini blades vs. full blades? We will explain the pros and cons of each in the September issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe today.
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Hardware Section Sponsored by
Millennial Vision, Inc. (MVi)
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Software Updates
If Windows users want to create PDF files, they need to install an additional program. One such program is doPDF, a freeware PDF converter that can create PDF files from virtually any type of printable document. Although there many other free PDF converters, such as ActivePDF's PrimoPDF, most of them require downloading additional software, such as Ghostscript or the Microsoft .NET Framework. The doPDF converter doesn't require any additional programs, which means you can install it in seconds.
The inclusion of BitLocker by Microsoft in Windows 7 is helping to bring encryption closer to being a "commodity." However, Microsoft is not the only infrastructure vendor to embed encryption in its products. We will cover encryption trends in the September issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Software Updates Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG)
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ATMs/Kiosks
Barnaby Jack, director of security testing at Seattle-based IOActive, brought two ATMs onto the Black Hat conference stage in Las Vegas and proceeded to force them to disgorge cash. Jack's exploits - one involving physical access to the ATM machine using a master key available online, and the other dialing in remotely to gain access - focused on ATM machines from Triton and Tranax. However, the issue is not necessarily limited to these two ATMs. Jack explained to his audience that he has yet to find an ATM machine that he couldn't crack and retrieve cash from. He said both Tranax and Triton had patched these two security vulnerabilities since he brought them to the companies' attention a year ago.
While many small to mid-sized financial institutions are reluctant to invest in envelope-free ATMs in the current economic state, NCR is touting that they are making progress selling the machines. NCR says that FIs benefit from envelope-free ATMs because they increase deposits and can reduce a financial institutions’ yearly operating expenses by up to 75 percent. The Duluth, Ga.-based manufacturer recently announced that they have deployed more than 600 intelligent deposit ATMs with community FIs.
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CU Success Stories
Here is a chance to learn about real life credit union success stories from various technology vendors through the words of their clients. This week's vendor is:
GrooveCar
and their client is:
People’s Alliance Federal Credit Union
Credit Unions - if you have a vendor that you are happy with then please let us know!
Vendors - if you have a credit union that is happy with your solutions then please let us know and we will give you a $100 discount on your Case Study!
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Wireless World
China is leading the world in the uptake of mobile finance, with 77% of consumers using their phones to conduct financial transactions, according to a global survey carried out by KPMG. Compared with only 18 months ago, the global percentage of respondents who have used their mobile device for banking has more than doubled from 19% to 46%, while the percentage that have used it to buy goods and services has risen from 10% to 28%. Reasons for not adopting in the US were similar to online banking holdouts: 52% cited security and privacy. Lack of availability is also a major inhibitor - nearly three-quarters of respondents said that their current financial institution either does not offer banking through a mobile device or that they did not know if they offered this service.
Women's World Bank of Ghana is using digital pens and cellular communications to streamline their account opening process. The microfinance bank uses digital pens that look like large ballpoint pens and imaging technology to capture handwriting. Their staff completes account application forms with a digital pen when meeting with rural customers, and the handwriting captured on the form is routed to their core system via wireless mobile devices. The new account holder receives the paper original.
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Security Section
TrustWave's Spider Labs research group said that so-called "advanced persistent" attacks are becoming more common and target even midsized organizations. Advancements in malware authoring and testing before deployment, more automation of functionality, and anti-forensics features are allowing remote attackers to stay on their victims' networks for an average of 156 days. The researchers note other troubling trends: cyber-criminals are gravitating to rootkit-style applications that can disguise their presence from operating systems, modifying stolen data to fool DLP filters, and using common ports and protocols to get data out of networks.
The 2010 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, just released by Verizon Business and conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Secret Service, says that 2009's breaches of electronic records involved more insider threats, greater use of social engineering and the persistent, troubling trend of organized crime involvement. "Most organized criminal groups hail from East Europe, while unidentified and unaffiliated persons are often from East Asia," the report said. The good news: most of the breaches were considered "avoidable" if only security basics had been followed. Verizon Business investigative experts found that only 4 percent of breaches required difficult and expensive protective measures.
CA Virtual Privilege Manager provides host access control and privileged user management for virtual machines. In other words, it enables management of root- and systems administration-level users with password management and access-control mechanisms as well as auditing and reporting of those privileged user IDs. It also provides a variety of other capabilities, including the ability to harden the hypervisor service console, and restrict user access by time of day and segregate duties on a fine-grained basis.
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Security Section Sponsored by
TruShield Security Solutions
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TruShield Security Solutions was founded by CU IT Executives for CU IT Executives.
Contact us today to see how we can help affordably secure your CU:
703 879 2979
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Leaders Roundtable
Online & Mobile Banking:
Driving Member Growth
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Technology and Marketing
StrategyCorps has developed a member friendly/relationship based checking solution that they say restores recurring monthly service charge revenue based on the bundling of traditional and non-traditional benefits and doubles debit card usage. They help credit unions tackle checking challenges like opening too many free checking accounts, selling ineffectively, and having a complicated or undifferentiated line-up.
PSCU Financial Services has launched the first in a series of social media tutorials to help credit unions tap into the promotional potential offered by social media formats on its Facebook page. The new “social media” tab on the CUSO’s Facebook page presents information that credit unions can use to learn how to leverage current and emerging social media tools to engage with their existing and prospective members. The first lesson sets the foundation by presenting facts and figures about consumers’ online and social media habits. Future postings will provide lessons for using popular social media sites as well as downloadable best practices and resource guides.
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Technology & Marketing Section Sponsored by
MARQUIS Software Solutions
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MARQUIS guarantees results with MCIF Software, MCIF Services, CRM, and Consulting. We are so confident that we will make you successful – We Guarantee it! The risk is ours. The results are yours to keep.
MCIF Software Onboarding/Matrix Mail
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Direct Mail Fulfillment Deposit & Loan Growth Strategies
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Over 750 MARQUIS clients worldwide are receiving measurable results with MCIF, CRM, marketing consulting, direct marketing creative and fulfillment. As you seek results with member retention, on-boarding, cross-selling and CRM – MARQUIS doesn’t just offer it…we guarantee it, or your money back!
Contact Information:
John Kassing johnk@gomarquis.com gomarquis.com 800-365-4274
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
MasterCard announced that their 8,500 U.S. Debit MasterCard issuers will have the option of offering Acculynk’s PaySecure service to their cardholders for online purchases. Online PIN-debit is just emerging as a viable payment option for electronic commerce, and the Acculynk system presents the buyer with an on-screen floating PIN pad in which they enter their PIN with mouse clicks, never leaving the e-commerce site. MasterCard, which in 2009 had 27% of debit card purchase volume versus 73% for Visa, is hoping to gain incremental transaction volume should Acculynk’s product catch on with card issuers and ultimately consumers.
Some analysts believe that many consumers will only embrace alerting when they can choose the level of detail provided in email alerts. The problem is that many consumers simply don't find much value in alerts if they don't include some detail on the transaction. On the other hand, some consumers that are concerned about privacy are not comfortable with actual transaction data being included in an email and won't use alerts if that is the only choice. That is why it is advisable to offer a flexible alerting system that delivers varying levels of alert detail depending on the account, balance level, which email address is used, etc.
Trusteer announced that it has added financial malware disinfection to its Rapport service. In addition to helping prevent Trojans and zero day malware from tampering with website communications and transactions, Rapport now removes malicious code that attempts to attack browser sessions. This new capability is being provided at no additional cost to all Rapport customers and end users. Trusteer will also submit any new (zero day) malware it discovers to all anti malware vendors in an effort improve low detection rates for crime ware.
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Internet Access
my1voice is a virtual phone service for small organizations that provides features of a professional-quality telephone service without the overhead of installing and maintaining special equipment. You can connect teams under one business phone number that directs to unlimited extensions and enhanced voicemail regardless of location or phone type. Other features include a virtual receptionist, a toll free number, dial by name directory, professional greetings, and customized extensions. The latest version now features more auto-attendant flexibility that allows users to select the number of times the auto-attendant message plays before an information message occurs.
BT recently announced the expansion of its hosted Internet Protocol telephony service to business customers in the U.S. Now BT and Polycom are developing a full range of solutions that will be built on BT’s “UC Ready” networked IT, voice and professional services for implementations of Microsoft UC technologies. The offerings from BT and Polycom can be deployed in traditional, on-premise, managed service and cloud scenarios.
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Call Centers
Avaya announced a suite of new and enhanced products and services based on Avaya Aura that are designed to improve real-time, multi-media communications. The company says that their Aura Contact Center is central to the new offerings with a multimedia work assignment application targeting midsize contact centers designed to connects callers and their information to the right agent using voice, video, e-mail or chat; the solution complements Avaya Aura Call Center Elite, serving as a multimedia extension. Also, Aura Call Center Elite 6.0 is a new version of Avaya's call routing software for large contact centers that offers greater capacity along with adaptive, predictive routing capabilities.
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Conferences
Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at these upcoming conferences:
October 3-6, San Antonio - Firefighters National Credit Union Summit
October 28, St. Louis - Green IT Summit: Risk Management & Cloud Computing
November 4-6, Phoenix - Credit Union InfoTECH
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