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July 19, 2010 - July 23, 2010
* Better Branches CUSO Launches New Basic Contact Management Solution Better Branches, a San Francisco-based CUSO, announced the release of a Basic Contact Management solution for credit unions built on their Better WorkGroups platform. Its goal is to enable staff to deliver superior service with each service touch, elevating service standards to a level that builds trust, increases sales, and encourages referrals. The solution is designed to improve staff collaboration by filing records of past service events by member name and date in a centralized location, providing an enterprise-wide view of member contact history. Digital Check announced the launch of the TellerScan TS240/TTP (teller transaction printer), a combination unit that incorporates check scanning and thermal transaction printing into one device. The device combines Digital Check's TS240 batch-fed scanner, which scans at 50, 75 or 100 documents per minute, with CognitiveTPG's A799 thermal printer. The company says that the benefit of the TS240/TTP is that it saves up to 50% of valuable teller counter space by combining scanner and receipt printer units, each of which previously required its own space, into one footprint about equivalent to the scanner. The thermal printer can print check images from the member's deposit, as well as variable targeted marketing messages.
VMware has cut in half the price of a virtualization software package geared toward small and midsize organizations, and changed the way it prices management products to let customers avoid unnecessary charges. VSphere Essentials, an entry-level virtualization platform, will now cost $495 for six CPUs, or $83 per processor, down from $995 for six CPUs. VMware is also changing the pricing model of its management products to charge once for every virtual machine, rather than once for every processor.
Shimming is one of the highest tech ATM cons that scam artists are deploying. Shimming works by compromising a legitimate card reader by inserting a very thin flexible circuit board through the card slot that will stick to the internal contacts that read card data. The shim is inserted using a "carrier card" that holds the shim, inserted into the card slot and locked into place on the internal reader contacts. The carrier card is then removed. Once inserted, the shim is not visible from the outside of the machine. The shim performs a man-in-the-middle attack between an inserted credit card and the circuit board of the ATM. It has been reported that effective flexible shims are being mass produced and widely used in certain parts of Europe. 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:
and their client is: Agriculture 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!
According to a new forecast by Juniper Research, the value of physical and digital goods that people buy with their mobiles could reach $200 billion globally by 2012, compared to just less than $100 billion this year. The new study on Mobile Payments for Digital and Physical Goods found that the availability of secure, easy-to-use, payment applications and the growing realization among users that they can make e-commerce purchases by mobile will drive the market for both digital commodities such as entertainment and tickets and physical goods including groceries, clothes, gifts and books. The report notes that “our research showed that the purchase experience has been enhanced by improved mobile commerce transaction processes due to faster mobile networks, more powerful devices and much more user friendly Smartphone apps.” NetSecure Technologies recently announced the availability of their personal credit card reader, SmartSwipe, for credit unions to help protect members’ private information while they shop online. SmartSwipe encrypts the card information while being swiped, rendering it unreadable to malicious programs. The company says that their dynamic SSL technology secures sensitive data at the point of origin, thereby protecting sensitive financial and personal information from endpoint threats such as Keylogging, Spyware and Man-in-the-Browser. Online & Mobile Banking: Driving Member Growth
Many credit unions are struggling with how to deal with the challenges brought on by the new opt-in debit card OD protection changes. One option is to try and recoup the lost revenue with monthly fees in the $4.95 - $9.95 range. The Online Banking Report offers these service suggestions to try and entice members to agree to a monthly fee package:
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 MCIF Services Member Retention Direct Mail Fulfillment Deposit & Loan Growth Strategies Sales/Marketing Consulting Marketing Solutions HMDA, CRA & Fair Lending Software Compliance Solutions 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! Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design Synergistics is reporting that online bill payment has grown to become the No. 1 method of bill payment for Internet-connected households. As many as 73 percent of Internet-connected households are paying bills online in 2010, up from 53 percent in 2004. Further, households with Internet are paying the largest portion of their bills online compared to other methods such as checks, with 41 percent of bills paid online versus 28 percent paid through check. "Online bill payment is clearly extensive among Internet households and is in fact the primary method of bill payment," said William H. McCracken, CEO of Synergistics. "It can no longer be considered an 'extra' or 'value-added' service by financial institutions, but simply one that must be offered as a matter of competitive parity. The focus of financial institutions should be to continue to grow the proportion of bills paid online, as well as to drive as much of this activity as possible to their own sites, rather than billers, as a relationship strengthening tactic." Verizon recently announced VoIP IP Enterprise Routing or VIPER, which may cause a bit of confusion with Cisco's VIPR protocol. Some analysts have suggested that Verizon rename the service to Pure SIP Routing (PSR) because Verizon is simply routing enterprise VoIP calls in an all-IP fashion without touching the PSTN. VIPER is being offered to oeganizations as an opt-in cost-saving feature where business-to-business VOIP calls on the Verizon Business network are directly routed via SIP, eliminating domestic and international per-minute calling charges. If your credit union already has a Verizon Business VoIP service such as IP trunking and hosted IP Centrex, the VIPER feature is available at no charge and does not require any additional customer hardware or software. Measuring the effectiveness of your call center training can be difficult. Some centers use the following methods: 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 November 4-6, Phoenix - Credit Union InfoTECH |
