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Credit Union tech-talk News
July 2 - July 6, 2007
General News
* Eastern CU Selects Open Solutions’ Payment & Banking Technologies
* Golden 1 CU Installs Arcot Authentication Technology
* Postilion Participates in Symitar's Vendor Integration Program
* Ongoing Operations Opens Northwest Area Disaster Recovery Center
* Digital Dialogue Honors Two Credit Unions
Open Solutions, a leading provider of integrated enabling technologies for credit unions in the United States, Canada and other international markets, announced that Trinidad and Tobago-based Eastern Credit Union has signed a five-year agreement with Open Solutions for the international version of the company’s enterprise relational data processing platform, The Complete Credit Union Solution, and other complementary technologies to handle the credit union’s processing needs. In addition to the core banking product, Eastern Credit Union will utilize Open Solutions’ POSH payments solution and cView (CRM/business intelligence) product.
Arcot Systems, a leading provider of multi-factor authentication, risk management and digital signature solutions, announced that The Golden 1 Credit Union has implemented Arcot's multi-factor authentication solution to further protect its members from online banking fraud. Arcot offers authentication risk management, strong authentication and digital signing capabilities completely in software.
Postilion, a division of S1 Corporation, and Symitar, a leading provider of integrated computer systems for credit unions, announced Postilion's participation in the Symitar Vendor Integration Program (VIP). Membership in the program enables Postilion to work directly with SymConnect to tightly integrate Postilion solutions with Symitar's Episys core processing system.
Ongoing Operations, a leader in providing Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Services and Business Recovery Facilities, announced the opening of a new Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) in Portland, Oregon. The 6,000 square foot DRC will offer space for credit unions to purchase as a part of their preparedness plan.
Digital Dialogue, a PSCU Financial Services company, recently presented USA Federal Credit Union, San Diego, Calif. with the call center “Innovation Award” and Silver State Schools Credit Union, Las Vegas, Nev. with the “Leadership Award” for their use of the Financial Service Centers Cooperative's (FSCC) Custom Call Center Outlet services. The awards were presented at the Awards Luncheon held during FSCC's Annual Shared Branching Convention.
Hardware News
Server electricity consumption in data centers has quietly doubled in the past five years, according to a study sponsored by Advanced Micro Devices. Many times IT managers haven’t noticed the steady increase in electricity costs, since in most cases they don’t see those bills. Yet now is the time to make your data center or server rooms "greener." Find out how in the August issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe today.
In a related story, Dell announced a partnership with Emerson Network Power to sell advanced cooling systems and services. One type of supplemental cooling technology from Emerson is called the Liebert XD. The XD consists of refrigerant-filled pipes that snake around the server racks in a data center. According to the company, their liquid system cuts the cooling power load by about 30 percent to 50 percent as compared with other types of cooling systems. Emerson says that cooling can consume about half a data center's electricity. By using a more energy efficient cooling method, IT managers can realize cost savings and, in turn, possibly dedicate more of their budget to servers.
Tape is a slow, unreliable and clumsy media for storing video surveillance, but it is still popular due to its low cost. However, more and more vendors are jumping into the digital surveillance storage market and driving down costs. For example, start-up Pivot3 offers a storage system that uses inexpensive Serial ATA drives. A Pivot3 system consists of one or more network connected hardware nodes called Databanks. Each Databank is an industry-standard server with 12 Serial ATA disk drives which can hold 6TB to 9TB. Pivot3’s competitors include Nexsan, Network Appliance, Cisco and InforTrend, to name a few.
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Hardware Section Sponsored by
MagTek
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MagTek®’s ExpressCard 1000 is the industry’s first “ALL-IN-ONE” instant issuance and complete card personalization platform forCredit, Debit, ATM, and Financial Gift Cards designed to fit securely and comfortably within a branch location.
For the first time, card personalization features such as color card-printing, magstripe encoding, smartcard encoding, card embossing, indent printing, and foil tipping have been combined into a single device which provides both the physical and logical security features required to meet the demands of a branch or retailer’s card issuing environment.
Equipped with MagnePrint® card authentication technology (www.magneprint.com), the ExpressCard 1000 offers the capability to capture the card's reference MagnePrint at the time of card issuance so that reference value may be used in conjunction with complementary risk management analytics with card present transactions. The ExpressCard 1000 can be connected as a peripheral to MagTek’s IntelliCAT and MCAPS 3000 PIN selection and instant issuance software suites creating a complete and secure card issuing platform.
For more information on ExpressCard 1000, go to www.magtek.com or call your MagTek sales representative at 800-788-6835.
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Software Updates
An often neglected security hole in a Windows network is the local administrator password for your employees’ desktop machines. Many organizations synchronize these, so that the same password can be used for each. This makes it much more efficient for IT personnel to maintain and modify those machines. However, it also creates a security issue. Fortunately there are affordable software packages on the market that allow IT Departments to centrally manage unique passwords. We will cover one in the August issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
Workshare, founded in 1999 and now with 6000+ customers, claims that their Workshare Professional 5 creates the world’s most secure PDFs. It can create PDFs of any Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint file via a "Convert to PDF" button in Microsoft Office. It automatically converts to PDF on demand or on outgoing email attachments, which can then be secured using technology from PGP, one of Workshare's partners. The Workshare product can also examine the text in a file, and settings can be configured so that if words such as "confidential" are found, then the document cannot be sent outside of the organization.
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Software Section Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG)
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Register for a live demo More information Testimonials
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The right business decision requires reliable business intelligence.
Whether it's identifying the best audience for your next auto loan campaign or developing a strategy to improve member participation, iNTEGRATOR and RFG's team of Strategic Advisors provide the answers to over 400 credit unions nationwide.
With RFG's evolutionary profitability model, nextPROFIT, iNTEGRATOR offers unparalleled management reporting capabilities based on consistent financials mapped from the credit union's general ledger.
iNTEGRATOR's advanced functionality and industry-leading member intelligence is complemented by a dedicated team of Strategic Advisors who evaluate each client's marketing challenges and opportunities to deliver a custom Earnings Improvement Plan every six months.
If you're not seeing the return on investment you expected from your current MCIF, take advantage of the power and versatility of iNTEGRATOR and the opportunities identified by your Strategic Advisor.
For more information, give us a call at 800.827.3500 or register for a live demo at www.raddon.com/demo. Please use promo code: TT55.
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"iNTEGRATOR has proven to be a worthy addition to our marketing department. With iNTEGRATOR we are able to target market more efficiently which has resulted in higher than average response rates on our campaigns."
-- Kari Hullinger, Marketing Director
Marion School Employees Federal Credit Union
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ATMs/Kiosks
Korea-based ATM manufacturer Nautilus Hyosung recently opened its North American office in Dallas after severing long-time ties to California-based Tranax. Nautilus Hyosung has been in the ATM business since 1993, and their machines have a 33% market share in Korea. They are targeting credit unions with their NH 7040, NH 500, NH 5040 and NH 9030 models, which can come equipped with a depository, and the NH 7070, which can be a walk-up or drive-up unit.
Meanwhile, the Esprit Financial Group announced that they plan to wholesale Chinese ATMs to the North American market. Esprit says that with their direct access to manufacturing capability in China that they can aggressively compete at the wholesale level, offering significant savings to organizations needing basic cash dispensing machines.
According to a new study conducted by BuzzBack Market Research and commissioned by NCR, more than three out of four of the consumers polled said they are more likely to do business with organizations that offer self-service. Plus, 92% said they value combining mobile devices such as mobile phones or PDAs with the Internet, kiosks and ATMs to improve their overall service experience. In terms of banking, the respondents indicated their self-service preferences:
- Transferring funds — 78%
- Printing statements, mortgage or loan documents — 77%
- Dispensing stamps — 75%
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Biometric Digest Highlights - WWW.BIODIGEST.COM
Porticus Technology is touting their voice verification system as a triple-factor authentication solution. That is because they can measure your voice and characteristics of the microphone you commonly use, while also asking you to say a specific known phrase (a vocal password). They believe that they are poised for growth as online banking and e-commerce expand beyond the desktop to mobile devices.
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Wireless World
A company called Tyfone announced the launch of Harmony - a middleware communications gateway that Tyfone says "enables secure, two-way bank-to-mobile-phone interactions, and Over-the-Air (OTA) customization for mobile banking, mobile payments – including card account customization – and on-demand merchant relationship services." They say that Harmony facilitates this secure two-way communication from the credit union to the mobile phone or the reverse, and that members can safely transmit financial information, including wire transfer authorizations, and receive automated confirmation messages.
In its latest Mobile Payments Forecast Report, Javelin Strategy & Research says that contactless cards and mobile phones will function together to change the way everyday Americans and retailers conduct purchase transactions. They predict that chips embedded in consumer mobile devices will replace payments cards and will spur 30 million additional users over the next 5 years. New handsets will provide further motivation for merchants to accept contactless and will allow consumers to adopt technology that replaces wallets with cell phones (so-called mWallets or Wireless Wallets).
Meanwhile Celent is predicting that mobile banking is likely to surge to five percent of online banking households this year. Within three years, service rollouts combined with consumer acceptance - the same ingredients that fueled online banking adoption - should make m-banking mainstream, reaching 35% of online banking households. Because about half of all calls into financial institution call centers are from cell phones, Celent sees a natural transition to mobile Web-based balance inquiries and simple transfers. Celent concludes that recruiting Gen Y users will be most FIs' priority - 90% of the under-25 set already have data capabilities on their phones.
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Security Section
Encryption over Ethernet is emerging as a new solution for powering secure networks. Proponents argue that Layer-2 encryption helps offload complexity and reduce maintenance charges. Encryption has been present in the Layer-3 (IPSec) and Layer-4 (SSL), but now, networking companies are offering solutions that encrypt data right down at the packet level. The companies offering solutions include Aruba Networks (wired and wireless networks), CipherOptics, SafeNet and ECI telecom.
Once installed on a computer, bots communicate secretly with its control center, download active code snippets for a specific attack, and often evade the latest in layered security mechanisms. Personal firewall features are often not catching command and control communications, while signature checking can be faked out by the polymorphic nature of code downloads. But two vendors are coming out with new anti-bot tools. Symantec is beta-testing its anti-bot endpoint software solution dubbed Symantec Anti-bot (with Sana Security contributing technology), and Mi5 Networks is now shipping Webgate, an appliance that seeks out the command and control communications lifeline that active bots require.
A company called 2factor claims to have a solution to MITM (man in the middle) attacks with their new SecureWeb product. 2factor executives say their product prevents such attacks by continuously generating short-lived 256-bit secret keys that authenticate both the server and Web browser without noticeably slowing communications. If a credit union were to offer SecureWeb, members who want extra security would be prompted to download a small program that appears as a desktop icon. Instead of launching a browser themselves, members would click on the desktop icon, which launches the browser and opens to the credit union website. Members would log on with their user names and passwords as they do today, and otherwise would notice no changes, according to 2factor. SecureWeb starts at $1 per user, per month, with volume discounts available.
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Security Section Sponsored by
MAGENSATM
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MAGENSA™ is a trusted verification authority (TVA) that provides real-time remote-hosted credential authentication services. These services enable credit unions, financial institutions, businesses, and government agencies to integrate PCI DSS and FFIEC multi-factor authentication and end-to-end data encryption capabilities into their existing processing environments without the need for substantial financial investments or massive changes to the existing infrastructure.
Specifically tailored to enhance the security of internet banking and ATM applications, MAGENSA delivers unprecedented security and authentication using the familiar magstripe card credentials (secure tokens) that a credit union has already issued to its members. MAGENSA is powered by the trusted and proven card authentication technology known as MagnePrint® (www.magneprint.com). MagnePrint differentiates a members’ authentic magstripe card from an altered or counterfeit version, transforming the traditional magstripe card into a powerful security token.
MAGENSA’s Secure Data Center (SDC), a reliable 24x7 operations center that is maintained 365 days a year, simplifies the integration of data decryption and MagnePrint scoring into existing websites, and allows for data federation across institutional domains.
For more information on MAGENSA, please visit www.magensa.net or call 877.MAGENSA.
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Leaders Roundtable
Online Banking:
Embraced by Members - The Next Steps
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Technology and Marketing
Looking for access to the small- to midsized-business (SMB) market heavily targeted by both Microsoft, Oracle announced Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One (SE One), an all-in-one suite based on Oracle's standard BI software but discounted and bundled for easy installation. SE One is $1,000 per user for five to 50 users and it includes the core Oracle BI Server, BI Publisher for reporting, BI Answers for ad hoc query and analysis and BI Interactive Dashboards. It also includes Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition One and Oracle Warehouse Builder 10g, the latter supporting extract, transform and load as well as relational and dimensional modeling and data quality and data auditing capabilities.
Within the last three months, Pacific Service Credit Union has won ten national awards for excellence in marketing. Pacific Service CU won four Golden Mirror awards from CUES, four MAC awards from the Marketing Association of Credit Unions (MAC), and two Diamond awards from the CUNA.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Some organizations have begun to offer Web-based chat as a way to access customer service, but chat often can’t offer the privacy and responsiveness that some Web visitors demand. That is why some sites are turning to click-to-call which involves technology that lets visitors initiate phone calls by clicking a button on a Web page. This either launches a call to a service rep using PC-based phone, or places a request for callback on a traditional phone line. eStara is one company that offers a click to call solution and they say that it drives user satisfaction. In fact they say that one financial services firm that use their click to call system has received a 91% approval rate by users who say the service makes online banking "easier" or "much easier."
Branch image capture is quickly becoming mainstream. Image ATMs, however, have a long way to go, according to a new report, “The State of Distributed Capture: Imaging in the Retail Channel,” from Celent. Key findings of the report include:
• Branch and teller adoption has grown from 19,000 capture points in 2004 to 103,000 in 2006 and will grow 160% to 272,000 by 2012 behind adoption by more than 90% of US financial institutions.
• Over 2,600 financial institutions have implemented (or are implementing) branch capture corresponding to some 141,000 scanners through March 2007. Based on aggregate vendor activity, Celent expects over 3,300 institutions will have solutions by year end 2007.
Experian has announced a new fraud detection solution that the company says "integrates data authentication with consumer challenge questions to create the most comprehensive approach for detecting fraud and managing the associated risk. The new product, Knowledge IQ, is the first system to merge two essential elements in the fight against fraud." Knowledge IQ resides within, and is powered by, Experian's Precise ID suite of identity authentication and fraud detection tools. Knowledge IQ assesses risk by posing a series of challenge questions to an applicant to enable a client to assess the consumer's identity risk. Experian also announced e-consumerview Version 8, which is a web-based system that allows access to Experian's credit information without the need for an automated application processing system.
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Online Banking Section Sponsored by
MAGENSATM
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Revolutionary Convergence of Security Technology for Secure Internet Banking!
MagneSafeTM P55 is a portable card reader/authenticator with four key technologies for secure online banking: Cardholder Data Encryption, MagnePrint® card authentication technology, Website Authentication and Track 1, 2 and 3 card reading capabilities. In conjunction with MagneSafeTM, the MagneSafe P55 is designed to offer secure, multifactor authentication for Internet banking, empowering consumers with the freedom and confidence of knowing that their transactions are protected anytime, anywhere.
MAGENSA, a Trusted Verification Authority that provides real-time, remote-hosted credential authentication services, allows credit unions to integrate PCI DSS and FFIEC compliant multifactor authentication, data encryption, website authentication, and data federation capabilities without the need for substantial financial investments or massive changes to the existing infrastructure.
For more information about the MagneSafe P55 or MAGENSA, visit www.magensa.net, or call 877.MAGENSA.
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Internet Access
While there are many reasons to implement a VoIP system, branch-office communications is often high on the list of many organizations. Yet, far too many organizations overlook how to monitor and manage the communications capabilities at the branch. We will provide some insights into the reasons why you should always invest in these monitoring tools in the August issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
According to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the US trails other industrialized nations in high-speed Internet access and may never catch up unless quick action is taken by public-policymakers. The median US download speed now is 1.97 megabits per second — a fraction of the speeds in other countries: Japan (61 megabits); South Korea (45 megabits), France (17 megabits) and Canada (7 megabits). "In order to maintain our place in today's global economy — and to create the jobs we need — our government must act," stated a CWA spokesperson.
Verizon recently introduced three new services: Wireless Office, PBX Mobile Extension and Mobile Conference Connection. Announced features include a single phone number that simultaneously rings to an office, home and cell phone; a unified mailbox that consolidates voicemail from multiple devices; and instant conference calls that can be organized and initiated with just a few clicks on any BlackBerry or Microsoft Windows Mobile smart phone or PDA.
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Call Centers
Co-nexus is a company that provides a call recording and quality monitoring solution dubbed Customer eXperience Management (CXM). CXM is designed for small to mid-sized call centers and is flexible and scalable. CXM offers the following modules:
- Call Recording – captures all calls, both predetermined and on-demand
- PC Recording – records PC activity and indexes it for easy retrieval
- Agent Performance Evaluation – lets call center supervisors analyze agent performance
- Agent Coaching – helps supervisors create training material delivered to agents as videos, tests, example calls and bulletins
- Caller Satisfaction Surveys – collects caller satisfaction data via a series of prerecorded questions
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Conferences
Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2007:
August 9-10, Pasadena - Financial Technology Solutions International Technology Forum
October 10-13, Albuquerque - Firefighters' National Credit Union Summit
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