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Credit Union tech-talk News
February 9, 2009 - February 13, 2009
General News
* COCC Announces Record 2008
* uMonitor Releases New Version of Online Account Opening and Funding Solution
* Canadian Credit Union Extends Relationship with Open Solutions
* CU*South Announces Upgrade of Mass State ECU to CU*BASE
* Two CUs Go Live with Share One’s Capture 21 Solution
COCC, a leading provider of next generation technology services for credit unions, announced record revenue and client satisfaction for 2008. Overall revenue increased by 9% to a record $59.5 million, while average client ratings were firmly in the excellent range for the 23rd consecutive quarter. In 2008, COCC increased its account processing clients by 12, ending the year with 170 financial institution clients. The company also sold 274 strategic products in 2008, which included business intelligence, communications, electronic banking, financial management, payments and risk management solutions.
uMonitor, a financial solution services provider for member acquisition and deposit growth, announced the general release of its latest version of uOpen & uFund, an online account opening and funding solution with switch kit. uOpen & uFund 5.0 provides a more user-friendly experience and includes the uMonitor back office management, branch and call center consoles. Version 5.0 also includes many new and upgraded management capabilities.
Summerland & District Credit Union recently selected The Complete Credit Union Solution: DNA (TCCUS: DNA), the latest version of the relational core processing platform from Open Solutions, a leading provider of integrated enabling technologies for credit unions in the United States, Canada and other international markets. Additionally, the credit union is implementing Open Solutions' Financial Accounting Suite.
Massachusetts State Employees Credit Union recently partnered with CU*South, a credit union-owned cooperative, to convert their data processing to CU*BASE. MSECU has $64M in assets, and has served the Boston and greater Massachusetts area since 1921. The credit union provides complete financial services to over 15,000 members.
Capture 21, Share One’s solution to Check 21 compliance for credit unions, has been implemented by Southern Security FCU, in Memphis, TN., and Jefferson County FCU, in Louisville, KY. Share One, a CUSO with a client base of credit unions to $1 billion, said that Capture 21 is a powerful enhancement to their NewSolutions imaging system that scans deposit items at the teller workstation and links each item image directly to the originating transaction.
Hardware News
Seagate announced a new lineup of enterprise storage drives that aim to cut power consumption. The company is rolling out two new drive models, the 2.5-inch Constellation and the 3.5-inch Constellation ES drives. The 2.5-inch Constellation will have capacities ranging from 160 GB and 500 GB, while the 3.5 Constellation ES comes in 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB. Seagate said that the drives are designed to offer a smaller footprint, cut energy consumption by about half and be more stackable in tight data centers.
SonicWall is putting its Global Management System software onto an appliance to make the platform easier to deploy. Called EM 5000, the appliance contains GMS 5.1 software, which has all the features of the latest GMS version plus software necessary to deploy it on the appliance. GSM is designed for organizations to manage multiple SonicWall security appliances that range from firewall/VPN gear to unified threat management boxes to backup and recovery appliances.
Cisco announced numerous new products designed "specifically for small companies." We will cover all of them in the March issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Software Updates
Microsoft unveiled a plan to release six editions of Windows 7 and said all of them will run on a range of hardware, including netbooks. However, the company is emphasizing two main versions of the forthcoming OS - Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional. In addition to Home Premium and Professional, Windows 7 will come in the following editions that mirror Vista's versions: Windows 7 Starter; Windows 7 Home Basic; Windows 7 Enterprise; and Windows 7 Ultimate.
Silanis Technology introduced ApproveIt Web Server 3.0, an e-signature process management solution designed for financial services. In addition to providing e-signing capabilities, Silanis says that ApproveIt Web Server 3.0 manages the entire execution process, facilitating adoption of straight-through processing (STP) for financial services transactions while supporting industry compliance requirements. It defines, executes, and manages electronic signature transactions, while capturing the intent of the signers, while generating secure records and evidence of the execution process.
Oklahoma City-based Tinker Federal Credit Union, with the assistance of Symitar, has rolled out a virtualized Storage Area Network (SAN) environment for their EPISYS core processing system. Virtualization allows Tinker to run multiple operating system environments on the same computer, isolated from each other. This has resulted in Tinker FCU being able to reduce their server farm from 160 to 40.
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Software Section Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG)
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ATMs/Kiosks
Triton announced plans to produce a new affordable off-premise ATM dubbed the RL1600. The machine features a compact, walk-up design with a color display, TCP/IP communication capabilities and a Windows CE 5.0 operating system. It comes standard with a 60mm printer, a UL 291 business hours cabinet, the Talaris MiniMech dispenser and a customizable back-lit mid-topper graphic sign.
In an effort to fight the growing number of ATM thefts, Wincor Nixdorf is now offering an integrated ink-staining system for their ProCash 4000 series. Ink staining renders the money useless and is triggered when the ATM’s cassettes are removed without authorization or when the ATM is shaken or its position changed.
RBS WorldPay, the US payments processing arm of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, allegedly lost $9 million in a 30 minute period during a global ATM heist that involved 100 cloned cards in 49 cities worldwide. Although only 100 cloned cards were used, the criminals behind the scam allegedly managed to withdraw up to $9 million by lifting the daily withdrawal limits on each card, so that they could be used over and over again.
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Biometric Digest Highlights - WWW.BIODIGEST.COM
The Aegis Bio encrypted hard drive not only has hardware encryption but also is one of the few drives with a built-in biometric fingerprint reader. The reader lets you bypass creating a password for accessing the drive; instead, you register your fingerprint and then swipe your finger across the reader. The bundled software from Upek also lets you scan your fingerprint to log in to Windows. Another tool automatically enters saved passwords (and other data) into forms when you swipe your finger. The Apricorn Aegis Bio runs around $300 for 500GB.
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Wireless World
According to Javelin Strategy and Research, about 42% of smartphone owners have tried mobile banking, nearly four times higher than the 11% of consumers who don’t own smartphones. Security and privacy concerns remain front and center for many consumers. Javelin's research shows that only 10 percent of consumers overall show strong confidence in the security of mobile banking, however those who have used mobile banking show increased confidence. Users of mobile banking are less worried about the safety of the channel, with 30% rating the process as secure.
Cell phone-based payment transactions are widely used in Japan, but the technology's adoption in the United States faces a number of hurdles. Industry observers say that the various companies playing a role in the technology's rollout have yet to define standards and agree on a revenue-sharing model. Also required is a mediator that both the financial institutions and the carriers can trust to activate the virtual credit cards inside the handhelds. University of Massachusetts professor Kevin Fu is less concerned about the risk of account fraud from mobile payments than he is about privacy infringement. However, he is optimistic that in time virtual credit cards "will become one of the best ways to do mobile payments."
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Security Section
According to BeyondTrust, 9 of out 10 critical bugs reported by Microsoft last year could have been made moot, or at least made less dangerous, if people ran Windows without administrative rights. BeyondTrust, which touts its Privilege Manager as a way for companies to lock down PCs, said that of the 154 bugs published and patched by Microsoft in 2008, critical or not, 69% would have been blocked or their impact reduced by configuring users to run without administrative rights.
According to Deloitte Touche, financial institutions are currently exposed to an increased risk of data breaches due in part to tighter budgets. More than half of respondents (56%) to their worldwide survey say that budgetary constraints and/or lack of resources are the leading barriers to ensuring information security. The study suggests that security attacks that exploit human error and breaches caused by distracted or disgruntled employees may be the root cause of information security failures in coming months. The majority of respondents (86%) confirm that human error is the leading cause of information systems failure.
Anonymous Web proxies, also known as proxy servers, anonymizers, and shadow-surfing tools, basically pass user Web traffic via other servers to get around an organization's Web filters. We will detail the various forms that these tools take in the March issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Leaders Roundtable
Security:
Protecting Member Data at Rest and in Motion
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Technology and Marketing
A new report from the Aite Group debunks 10 myths about unbanked and underbanked consumers. Among the myths debunked by the report is the belief that consumers are unbanked or underbanked because of cultural and attitudinal reasons. Instead, it reveals that people are unbanked for very practical reasons, including credit, pricing, cash flow and service issues. Fifty-three percent of unbanked consumers in Aite Group's survey are impeded by credit issues, while an additional 28% face pricing issues with checking accounts, 12% are impeded by cash flow issues, and 7% constrained by service issues.
Basking Ridge, NJ-based Affinity Federal Credit Union announced their GreenSmart Home Equity Loan which will reward members who are planning to reduce their carbon footprints through home improvement projects with a 0.25% APR reduction. Homeowners must provide an Affinity home finance consultant with documentation of eligible home improvements by submitting a written estimate or contractor proposal. As an additional service, Affinity can even help homeowners put together their own “green” plans.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Celent has released a report that states that there are over 46 million US households banking online, a 7% increase over 2007. This represents 41% of all US households and 67% US households in the addressable market (of banked consumers that use the Internet). In their report entitled 'Retail Internet Banking Vendors: Shifting Gears to Optimize', the Boston-based financial research and consulting firm finds that CheckFree (which acquired Corillian in 2007 and is now part of Fiserv) stands out as the clear leader, with Digital Insight (now part of Intuit) again finishing in the top three. Metavante finds itself in the top two position.
According to a marketing research company that provides marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses, consumers are spending less time on traditional online banking sites. In general, engagement at many of the top banking sites declined in Q3 2008 versus a year ago, according to data released by comScore. Marc Trudeau, senior director, financial services, comScore, says: "Americans have less cash, are spending less and have experienced a significant decline in the value of their assets. As a result, we're seeing shifts in the way consumers manage their finances online, such as less frequent and shorter visits to their banking Web site, which has significant implications for marketers trying to reach new and existing customers."
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Internet Access
Digium introduced the latest version of its Switchvox SMB IP PBX, version 4.0, an Asterisk-based phone system designed for small to medium sized businesses. At the core of this new release is the system’s ability to be “Web-aware”, integrating with Web and back office applications. Switchvox SMB 4.0 also adds numerous unified communications capabilities, including support for fax, chat and video calling. Pricing for Switchvox SMB starts at $3,390 for a 10-user system, including hardware, software, a one-year subscription and warranty.
Microsoft has just launched Response Point SP2, the latest version of their IP-PBX. SP2 enhances the feature set by adding after-hours receptionist schedules, one-way paging, two-way intercom, and it now supports out-of-band DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency). Additionally, SP2 adds two other common phone trunk technologies: Digital trunks (T1, etc); and VoIP trunks delivered via an on-premises gateway device. The addition of digital trunks means Direct Inward Dial (DID) support as well.
One vendor claims that four out of five people prefer using fax machines over scanners to send fax documents because it’s simpler and more streamlined than scanning, importing and emailing documents. They offer a solution that permits fax machines to be easily and affordably incorporated into a network - we will explain how this system works in the March issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Call Centers
Smaller contact centers looking for a Workforce Management (WFM) package may want to consider ICMI's low cost product called Easystart. There is not a sample version of Easy Start; however, you can view a detailed description of how it works, including screen shots, on ICMI's website. Larger centers may want to take a look at ICMI Bull’s-Eye Service. Easy Start is a software solution you use to get answers about the schedules that are in place today, but the Bull’s-Eye Service is more sophisticated and actually generates the forecasts and schedules for you.
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Conferences
Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2008:
April 6-8, Park City - 2009 MVi Users Conference
June 4-5, Lake Las Vegas - Credit Union InfoSecurity Conference
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