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Credit Union tech-talk News
December 1 - December 5, 2008
General News
* Affinion Group Announces Insurance Enhancements
* Open Solutions Names New President
* Stratus and INETCO Form Partnership
* OneBridge Works with Harland Financial Solutions
Affinion Group, a leading provider of insurance programs, announced expansion and enhancements to its online functionality for the marketing of Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) group insurance. Affinion, which has provided over half a billion dollars in benefits to insurance policyholders since 2005, is targeting these online capabilities to credit unions seeking to improve the enrollment of their depositors and account holders into AD&D group insurance programs.
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 the addition of Stephen J. Cameron to its executive leadership team, as president. In this newly created position, Cameron will report directly to Louis Hernandez, Jr., Open Solutions chairman and CEO.
Stratus Technologies and INETCO Systems announced that Stratus will resell the INETCO Insight and BankLink software products to credit unions. INETCO Insight captures end-to-end transaction flows between member-facing applications and back-end hosts, providing visibility and intelligence into the performance of real-time applications and complex network infrastructures. INETCO BankLink converts legacy protocols to TCP/IP, enabling cost effective migration from the Stratus Continuum to the Stratus V Series platform.
OneBridge, a credit and debit card processor for credit unions nationwide, announced that it has converted a long time client to a real-time interface with Harland Financial Solutions' UltraData Enterprise, a core processing solution for credit unions. As part of their conversion to the UltraData Enterprise solution, Capital Credit Union, headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota, went live with the interface for their in-house Visa credit card program.
Hardware News
CTS North America announced the LS150 which is their newest check processing device. The LS150 is well suited for front and back-counter processing as well as retail, commercial, remittance and remote deposit capture. The unit features 2 speed options: 75 documents per minute (DPM) and 150 DPM, and there is an option for stamp and ink jet endorsements.
In a related story, Panini has added new capabilities to its Vision X check scanners. The devices now include ultrasonic double document detection technology. Panini says that traditional infrared technology often reports false double feeds, unnecessarily halting the transaction and requiring user intervention, while their ultrasonic technology is able to accurately discern true double feed conditions, resulting in a smoother workflow with fewer interruptions.
IT Departments looking to cut down on workstation maintenance issues and costs often turn to thin clients. Others are looking at desktop blades or virtualization solutions. But now there is another option from a large computer manufacturer and we will cover it in the January issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Software Updates
Unisys is offering organizations their Real-Time Infrastructure Business Continuity family which includes the Unisys SafeGuard Duplex and Unisys SafeGuard 30m solutions. The SafeGuard Duplex solution delivers Point-in-Time Recovery while also reducing the required network bandwidth up to 20 times. Meanwhile, the Unisys SafeGuard 30m solution enables organizations to reduce the recovery time for mission-critical, Intel-based applications to 30 minutes or less. With their fully automated failover and data recovery capabilities, Unisys says that this package is the only Microsoft-certified failover solution that spans distances of thousands of kilometers, compared to previous 300-kilometer limitations. They also claim that compared to storage-based replication solutions, the SafeGuard 30m solution can cost up to 70 percent less.
RiskVision 4.0 is a new risk and compliance management platform from Agiliance. San Jose, CA-based Agiliance is a provider of governance, risk and compliance software and says that RiskVision automatically aggregates and correlates data and compliance controls across systems, people and processes.
Desktop virtualization - aka virtual desktop infrastructure or VDI - is receiving more attention these days. It promises lower overall costs, improved efficiency and enhanced security. We will cover VDI in the January issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Software Section Sponsored by
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ATMs/Kiosks
Sagem Denmark, a unit of Ingenico Group, has introduced Remote Key Load, a means for automated exchange of Triple DES master keys used in ATM security. The requirements for using their automated system include: the ATM, host-ATM protocol, ATM's EPP and the host's HSM must all support RKL; the host must have a host key pair and a suitable certificate on the public key; and the EPP must have two key pairs with corresponding certificates. The company says that it will assist with a correct and efficient implementation of the RKL solution.
Creative Card Solutions has signed two new credit unions — Pasadena FCU and Midwest Operating Engineers FCU — for its CU-labeling/ATM-placement program. Under the CU-labeling/ATM-placement model, once a credit union agreement is signed, Creative Card Solutions solicits local independent sales organizations to place the ATMs in the community where the credit union is located; those ATMs are then surcharge-free for that credit union’s members.
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Biometric Digest Highlights - WWW.BIODIGEST.COM
At the recent BAI Retail Delivery Show, Diebold was demonstrating how a teller, using a mobile tablet PC, can complete a member's CD renewal through one-on-one interaction, while simultaneously preparing the back office for another member to cash a check at a self-service terminal. The teller's mobile PC is equipped with biometric technology to capture the member's fingerprint "signature," which enables immediate identification of the member at the self-service terminal, expediting the transaction.
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Wireless World
The PELORUS Group projects that in the United States, the number of daily uses of mobile banking services by consumers will skyrocket going forward, increasing 30-fold in just five years to 9.1 million daily uses. They point out that the number of American mobile subscribers now exceeds 262 million, comprising nearly 85 percent of the total U.S. population. The research firm notes that the benefits from the credit union's perspective include decreasing the use of more expensive member service channels such as call centers; a greater ability for the credit union to combat and control fraud; the opportunity for opening reduced numbers of branches; and the potential to reduce member churn and increase member loyalty.
Using mFoundry’s extensible mobile wallet solution, Alltel Wireless plans to create the Alltel Wallet which will initially provide access to a consolidated mobile banking experience, providing consumers with access to a wide variety of U.S. financial institutions. With mFoundry's technology, which combines mobile banking, mobile payments and mobile commerce capabilities, Alltel can plug in enhanced financial solutions and other advanced functionality from select third party developers. In addition, special modules incorporated into the mFoundry's mobile wallet platform enable peer-to-peer remittances and other payment services.
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Security Section
According to a new report from Symantec, criminals who specialize in credit card and financial institution account theft have ready access to a global underground marketplace with an estimated total fraud value of $8 billion for the year ending in July 2008. Credit card information accounted for 31% of the total inventory observed with the potential worth of all credit cards advertised during the reporting period being set at $5.3 billion. The second most common category of goods and services advertised was financial accounts at 20% of the total. While stolen account information sells for between $10 and $1000, the average advertised stolen account balance is nearly $40,000. Symantec puts the total worth of the FI accounts advertised at $1.7 billion.
Generation-Y, people under the age of 28, has been taking a beating recently from several surveys that claim that they are one of the biggest cybersecurity threats to organizations. An Intel study found that half of IT professionals believe Generation-Y employees are a serious security concern because of their tendency to use non-sanctioned applications and social media tools while at work. In addition, a recent ISACA survey found that 40 percent of Generation Y employees plan to spend up to five hours doing holiday shopping from their work computers this holiday season. Finally, an Accenture study shows that younger employees like to use technologies that are not supported by their employers for work-related tasks, including social networking sites, open source technology, and online applications.
A company called PineApp has introduced its first full email encryption solution dubbed PineApp Mail Encryption. It provides centralized management for email security that requires no training for users, who simply send and receive emails as normal. PineApp Mail Encryption Solution is integrated with PineApp's Mail-SeCure appliance that also provides perimeter security and anti-virus, content filtering and email management tools. System administrators who use PineApp Mail Encryption define a set of rules that determine what gets encrypted. The encrypted emails are sent to named recipients who need to register as authorized PineApp Mail Encryption users in order to open the encrypted message. All message encryptions are performed in a central encryption and certificate management platform called PineApp Secure Email System (SES). The SES automatically handles the creation, issuing and management of encryption keys and digital certificates.
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Leaders Roundtable
Core Systems:
Core Systems – Collaborating to Better Serve Members
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Technology and Marketing
A recent SYNERGISTICS survey entitled, 'Enhancing Cross-Selling Strategies' revealed that the opening of the first account is a critical juncture for cross-selling. Among the seven in ten consumers who have additional accounts with their main checking provider, four in ten say they opened another account or service at the same time that they opened their first account. One in eight indicate opening another account within three months of opening their first account. William McCracken, CEO of SYNERGISTICS, stated, “Our survey findings clearly reveal the critical nature of the time of account opening and onboarding during the first three months of new relationships. Providers should make sure that their marketing strategies include tactics for cross-selling activity at the point of account opening, as well as soon after.”
Dynamic Marketing Systems announced that Totowa, N.J.-based North Jersey Federal Credit Union has selected the company's Web-enabled Micro Merchant to support the credit union's marketing programs. Micro Merchant includes a variety of design templates for many marketing and sales activities and can be customized by financial professionals to meet the needs of specific markets or branch locations. Each template gives staff the ability to create a variety of marketing collateral materials such as banners, posters, inserts, advertisements and other sales materials.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
According to a report released by Javelin Strategy & Research, financial institutions have made good progress in fighting identity fraud over the past year but still lag in preventing the crime by using technologies such as mobile alerts. The research firm recommends letting members define thresholds and then notifying them when transactions exceed those limits. Other alerting possibilities include: a change to a physical or e-mail address; online transfers; foreign and card-not-present transactions; and a PIN change.
Erie Federal Credit Union has a new financial literacy website: www.teachmeaboutmoney.org. It is an addition to Erie FCU’s existing financial literacy program and is designed to provide financial education to members of all ages and backgrounds.
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Internet Access
C4 IP is a hosted VoIP and unified communications solution from Cypress Communications. It includes integrated voice and data access, desktop phones, PC-based phones and unified messaging. The firm recently introduced new multiple failover solutions for C4 IP: VoIP failover, VoIP and public data network failover, and VoIP and private data network failover. They say that in the event of a voice access disruption on the network, the VoIP failover solution will redirect voice traffic to a separate data access line, without active calls dropping.
Sipera Systems VIPER Lab released UCSniff, a free application that allows organizations to determine if their VoIP networks are vulnerable to targeted eavesdropping. The UCSniff tool is available now for SIP and SCCP signaling protocols, while the company has plans to release a new version for testing VoIP Video calls on Windows in the future.
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Call Centers
A recent report by the Direct Marketing Association revealed that SMS generated far more responses – 70 percent – compared with 41 percent to surveys and 30 percent to e-mail offers. That is one of the main reasons that Interactive Intelligence is adding SMS to its multi-channel contact center software suite, Customer Interaction Center. The new SMS features are designed to help contact centers increase consumer retention and satisfaction by: enabling mobile users to use SMS to communicate with contact centers; routing, recording and reporting on SMS on the same way as other media types; enabling contact center agents to reply using SMS; and enabling consumer alerts via SMS.
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Conferences
Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2008:
June 4-5, Lake Las Vegas - Credit Union InfoSecurity Conference
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