|
January 31, 2011 - February 4, 2011
General News
* Harland Financial Solutions & Harland Clarke Announce New Direct Marketing Solution
* Landmark CU Installs IMM's Totale Automated Systems
* FaceTime Rebrands as Actiance
* CUMAnet Hires Joseph Herbst as President
Harland Financial Solutions and Harland Clarke, both part of Harland Clarke Holdings Corp., have launched enCompass, a marketing strategy and multi-channel campaign execution program for credit unions. The solution integrates Harland Financial Solutions’ business intelligence offering with Harland Clarke’s Marketing Services. These capabilities include business intelligence, analytical services, multi-channel integration, as well as direct marketing design, production and fulfillment.
Integrated Media Management(IMM), a document output management and automation technology provider, announced that Wisconsin-based Landmark Credit Union has simultaneously implemented its Teller Item Capture, TotaleChecks and TotaleReceipts solutions throughout its 18 branches to drive increased efficiencies and reduce operational costs. IMM tailored the entire install strategy to Landmark CU’s comfort level and availability, rolling out two of its 18 branches at a time.
FaceTime unveiled its new corporate name - Actiance which better reflects its focus on "active compliance" for next generation communications in the enterprise. The company also announced record growth of 60 percent during 2010 while launching new capabilities in 2010 such as adding support for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and multiple UC and collaboration applications.
CUMAnet, (Credit Union Mortgage Alliance Network) a credit union-owned Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) that provides mortgage origination and servicing, is set to expand nationally and has brought in leading industry expert Joseph P. Herbst to spearhead the effort as its new president. CUMAnet originally began with a northeast regional presence, but has since expanded to Washington, DC, Chicago and other markets.
Hardware News
EMC's data storage systems can easily cost more than $1 million, but now they are targeting more modest sized organizations with an appliance that starts at under $10,000 and comes with an interface the company touts as so intuitive that even non-technical users can quickly learn how to operate it. The VNXe should help EMC compete in an area dominated by NetApp, Dell, and HP. The machines have a special feature that allows them to "phone home" for support to resellers of EMC products.
Cisco introduced the Catalyst 3560-C and 2960-C Compact Series Switches that have small footprints and feature Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology. The Compact Series are PCI compliant to meet security regulations - packets at the switch and end device are encrypted at the source. The Compact Series range from $745 to $1,995 per box.
|
Hardware Section Sponsored by
Millennial Vision, Inc. (MVi)
|
Back to Top
Software Updates
IBM is working through resellers to roll out a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) package that costs $150 per user annually. IBM partners could install the equipment and software on the customer's premise, or manage it internally as a hosted service. No minimum number of users is needed to sign up, though the service requires a one-year contract. For desktop OSes, the package can run Windows XP and Windows 7 - each employee's desktop can have access to personal data, as well as personal preferences such as bookmarks for their browsers. IBM estimates that 200 desktops can be run from a single IBM server.
Nmap, a free and open source utility for network exploration or security auditing, has been updated to version 5.50. Nmap can now query all sorts of application protocols, including web servers, databases, DNS servers and FTP. Since Nmap 5.21, the Nmap Scripting Engine has doubled the number of NSE scripts, while NSE libraries have jumped from 30 to 54.
|
Software Updates Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG)
|
Back to Top
ATMs/Kiosks
Wincor Nixdorf announced that they have captured a 10 percent share of annual U.S. ATM shipments in 3 years. The German ATM manufacturer said that they will now focus on Tier 2 institutions, which own 500 to 3,000 ATMs. The company also wants to sell its ATMs to Tier 3 financial institutions, which own 50 to 100 ATMs.
BBVA, a Madrid-based bank, plans to roll out NCR's new concept ATM in more cities across Spain. The ABIL ATMs attempt to "humanize" the ATM to meet cardholder needs, which NCR said is a dramatic departure from traditional machines. They feature an iPad-style touch screen that rotates 90 degrees to protect cardholder privacy. The machine has a single slot that accepts cash and checks - and the same slot dispenses cash and receipts. Plus, the ATM recognizes users based on past usage, not just by information contained on their cards.
Back to Top
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:
SecureWorks
and their client is:
Mid-Atlantic Corporate 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!
Back to Top
Wireless World
According to the Mercator Advisory Group, mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments is a promising service and a logical expectation for smartphone users accustomed to the "app for that" approach, however today's mobile person-to-person payments fail to deliver on key performance criteria for consumers, especially in the areas of speed to spend, ubiquity and convenience. Here are some highlights of their recent "US Person-to-Person Mobile Payments Market: Gee Whiz or Gee Why?" report:
- Mobile person-to-person payments are in their infancy and are unlikely to crawl out of the crib until smartphone and NFC ubiquity is reached.
- Smartphone adoption's accelerated growth will fulfill a necessary precondition for mobile P2P payments within three years.
- The arrival of NFC in 2011 and its swift growth opens up a payment modality for mobile, proximity-based P2P market that closely replicates the passing of cash. Provided interoperable settlement is available, a big barrier, NFC could accelerate mobile P2P.
Apple will reportedly embed Near Field Communications-based mobile payment services into the next iteration of its iPhone and iPad devices, enabling consumers to make retail purchases by swiping their smartphone or tablet in front of a point-of-sale digital reader unit. Some observers predict that the mobile payment service, slated to go live in mid-2011, will also introduce a loyalty points program. Plus, Apple is considering heavily subsidizing or even giving away payment terminal hardware to small businesses in an effort to accelerate the expansion of NFC technology.
Back to Top
Security Section
Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are increasing, but it is difficult to determine how many APT attacks actually occur - mainly because victim organizations aren't required to report them as long as consumer data isn't breached. Since the goal of these types of attacks is to maintain access over a period of time undetected, these attackers typically begin with a spear-phishing email attack that infects a workstation, rather than a server. From there, they can transfer data packaged as an RAR, ZIP, or CAB file. Many times the pilfered data is sent out via an outbound FTP connection or HTTP-S in an effort to blend in with other traffic.
Security vendor Seculert says that Carberp, which is banking malware that targets computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system, is adding more sophisticated capabilities to stay hidden on victims' PCs. In addition to disguising itself as legitimate Windows files and removing antivirus software, the software can now use a randomly different encryption key to communicates with a command-and-controller (C&C) server using encrypted HTTP Web traffic. Previous versions of Carberp encrypted that traffic using RC4 encryption but always used the same encryption key. This new feature will help it evade network-based security solutions that are using traffic signatures to detect bots.
Back to Top
Leaders Roundtable
Security:
Securing the Credit Union from the Inside to the Outside
Back to Top
Technology and Marketing
Lithium Technologies acquired Scout Labs last year and recently updated their social media monitoring software. The platform now includes real-time monitoring and analysis of an organization's Facebook pages, comparing comments to those on other channels including Twitter, Flickr, blogs, and forums; enhanced social media data search tools; and PDF reports that can be used to share social media metrics and trends with fellow employees. For contact centers, the company also includes a Reputation Engine that can automatically route certain questions to experts in-house and/or on social networking sites.
|
Technology & Marketing Section Sponsored by
MARQUIS Software Solutions
|
Back to Top
Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
According to Javelin Strategy and Research, almost 44 percent of households made at least one online P2P transfer in 2009, up from 27 percent in 2008. Douglas A. King, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed, is recommending that in order to provide consumers a friendlier P2P online and mobile service, credit unions could consider the development of a P2P solution that leverages the extensive ACH network in a manner similar to a person-to-business transaction. Much like mobile banking or bill payment, consumers could opt into the P2P service and transfer or receive funds between any financial institution on the ACH network without having to register with and provide confidential data to a third-party P2P service provider to access the service.
SafetyPay offers an Internet payment system that consumers can use to pay for items in lieu of credit cards. SafetyPay teams up with financial institutions and retailers to let consumers pay for online purchases directly from their accounts. SafetyPay touts Nike and Sears as clients, and vies with PayPal and Secure Vault for e-commerce customers, as well as with credit card firms.
PhoneFactor announced support for ISO 8583, the standard protocol that financial institutions use to process credit and debit card transactions. Both MasterCard and Visa base their authorization communications on the ISO 8583 standard as do many ATMs. By supporting the widely used ISO standard, PhoneFactor says that they can authenticate card transactions in any channel, including point-of-sale, ATM, and online transactions, through a single technology implementation. By adding PhoneFactor to the transaction path using the ISO 8583 protocol, card issuers can authenticate transactions with a phone call or text message.
Back to Top
Internet Access
Xorcom, a provider of IP-PBX hardware utilizing the Asterisk open source development platform, announced enhancements to their product offerings including a hardware echo cancellation module, a redundant power supply device, and a PRI interface solution supporting up to 16 E1/T1 ports in a single chassis. They are also launching their new XE series of IP-PBX for smaller organizations. These systems feature an integrated touch panel and components that are optimized for high density applications.
In Akamai's recently released quarterly "The State of the Internet" report, the United States fairs poorly. Only San Jose, CA made the top 100 cities for fastest average broadband speeds. In terms of overall average broadband speeds by country, the United States lags behind eight others. South Koreans enjoy average connection rates of 14Mbps; the people of Hong Kong enjoy 9.2Mbps on average; Japan's average speed is 8.5Mbps; Romania's is 7.0Mbps; and the broadband providers in the Netherlands deliver average speeds of 6.3Mbps. The United States is tied for ninth place with such countries as Taiwan and Denmark with an average speed of 5.0Mbps.
Back to Top
Call Centers
Parlance claims that their auto attendant solution, nameConnector, can decrease up to 90 percent of calls requiring operator intervention. Calls are answered on the second ring with a professional voice, and callers can simply state the name of the person they wish to reach. As for cost savings, the c ompany points to research from Forrester Research that shows that it costs $6 for every call handled by an actual person, while a call handled by an auto attendant costs between 5 and 25 cents.
Back to Top
Conferences
Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk, at these upcoming conferences:
June 15-17, Las Vegas - Credit Union InfoSecurity Conference
Back to Top
|
