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March 22, 2010 - March 26, 2010
General News
* uMonitor Announces P2P Money Transfer Service
* Hickam FCU Adds Open Solutions’ Outsourced Imaged Payment Technologies
* Great Plains FCU Partners with T8 Webware
* Continuity Control Adds IBS to Alliance Program
uMonitor, an innovative financial solution services provider for operational excellence with member acquisition and retention, has introduced person-to-person (P2P) money transfer services. The solution is a standard feature of uTransfer Release 5.0, which is currently being deployed. Its new P2P service enables members to send and receive money electronically via email and mobile phone to and from any third party with a U.S. credit union account.
Hickam Federal Credit Union of Honolulu has selected Open Solutions Imaged Payment Technologies Group’s outsourced services to better integrate with its existing core platform, Open Solutions’ DNA (formerly The Complete Credit Union Solution). Open Solutions’ image-enabled item processing system drives a wide range of check-processing transports and helps optimize workflow.
T8 Webware, a provider of Web development, management and hosting services for credit unions, announced the successful launch of Missouri-based Great Plains Federal Credit Union’s new website. The site was built to establish online brand equity within its market, ultimately improving current member relations while attracting the financial business of younger individuals.
Continuity Control, the creator of an on-demand, Web-based software foundation for financial controls that automates the regulatory compliance process for credit unions, announced the addition of Intelligent Banking Solutions (IBS), a premier provider of debt management solutions to the financial industry, to its Control App Alliance partnership program. The partnership will combine IBS’ expertise to simplify the governance, compliance, and risk management requirements associated with the collections process within Continuity Control’s App (application) software.
Hardware News
Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and IBM just rolled out new servers based on Intel's latest Xeon 5600 microprocessors, which promise better performance and power consumption. The companies are launching new rack, blade, and tower servers that incorporate Intel's Xeon 5600 quad-core and six-core processors. Dell said it would offer PowerEdge blade servers (M710, M610), four rack servers (R710, R610, R510, R410) and three tower servers (T710, T610, T410) with Intel's latest chips. IBM will offer two new rack servers, the x3650 M3 and the x3550 M3, and two enterprise tower servers, the x3500 M3 and x3400 M3, with Xeon 5600 processors. IBM also announced the "virtualization-optimized" BladeCenter HS22V blade server, which the company said could fit 30 percent to 50 percent more virtual machines on a single blade server. Finally, HP launched 16 Proliant G6 servers, including blade rack and tower servers with Xeon 5600 chips.
VideoIQ recently announced the availability of a family of iCVR dome cameras. The company claims that their iCVR dome cameras are the world's only cameras with adaptive analytics, onboard NVR and an advanced Video Management System (VMS). With up to a half terabyte of intelligent, onboard NVR storage within each camera, iCVR dome cameras can help eliminate the need for centralized storage. VideoIQ says that their embedded, adaptive analytics automatically calibrate in minutes which delivers forensic evidence at no additional cost.
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Hardware Section Sponsored by
Millennial Vision, Inc. (MVi)
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Software Updates
Looking to replace Microsoft Excel as a lending analysis tool, WebEquity has come out with a risk management dashboard. The loan management software hosting provider's solution will allow executives to monitor, stress-test and perform what-if analyses on their loan portfolios. Senior managers can filter the numbers by date, loan amount, loan type, geographic locations, prepayment propensity and other parameters. The SaaS solution charges an annual subscription fee based on number of members with loans that need to be analyzed and charted.
While Microsoft recently discontinued its Windows EBS (Essential Business Server), IBM is moving forward with its own pre-integrated package called Lotus Foundations for small and medium-sized businesses. New versions of Lotus Foundations will now include a copy of DB2 Express-C database server. Available in three editions, Lotus Foundations comes in the form of an appliance that can be installed in a small office and provide applications and services, such as e-mail and calendaring, to the local desktop computers. A range of IBM applications are packaged so they can be automatically installed and updated to Foundations. The available editions are Lotus Foundations Start, Lotus Foundations Branch Office, and Lotus Foundations Appliance Hardware. Lotus Foundations starts at about $3,400 for five users.
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Software Updates Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG)
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ATMs/Kiosks
According to Retail Banking Research Ltd., ATM software provider KAL is the world’s leading independent multivendor ATM software company. The study found that the top three vendors now dominate the market for "true multivendor software," holding more than 66 percent market share between them. NCR is in first position with 24 percent, while KAL and Wincor Nixdorf are tied for second with 21 percent each. KAL is the only company in the top three whose focus is exclusively on ATM software.
MasterCard has launched the MasterCard ATM Hunter application for BlackBerry smartphones. The MasterCard ATM Hunter uses the BlackBerry platform's location awareness technologies to pinpoint the search and locate ATMs. Users without GPS-enabled BlackBerry smartphones, or those who are out of GPS coverage, can still search for nearby ATMs using MasterCard's database of ATM locations.
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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:
MerdianLink
and their client is:
Security Service 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!
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Wireless World
J&B Software, a provider of enterprise-wide transaction and payment solutions, announced the availability of its new software-as-a-service (SaaS) mobile deposit solution. J&B’s SaaS and on-premise mobile deposit solutions combine the Mobile Deposit application, developed by Mitek Systems, with J&B’s workflow, risk management and Check 21 clearing solutions. The solution captures check images through a mobile smartphone and prepares them for transmission to the credit union as Check 21-compliant images using Mitek's mobile IMagePROVE technology. For security purposes, a complete audit trail of where, when and how each check was captured is logged. No data or images are stored on the smartphone, and all communication is 128-bit encrypted.
First Data, which for the past couple of years has been offering its Go Tag contactless-sticker technology, recently announced that they will promote a new contactless technology for mobile phones based on Secure Digital memory cards. First Data is partnering with Tyfone to roll out the micro SD cards which can fit into the slots found in more than 60% of mobile phone shipments. The cards effectively bypass the need for NFC to be tied to a handset's SIM card or other medium controlled by mobile carriers. The new micro SD card, which Tyfone calls Sidetap, will have e-wallet capabilities, allowing handset users to store financial data as well as personal identification information. However, First Data emphasized that they would support both contactless stickers and micro SD form factors in tandem going forward.
A new vendor is entering the United States with their mobile two-factor authentication platform for online and mobile banking. We will tell you how it works in the April issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Security Section
Hard drive imaging is usually a standard part of any security incident response process. Many professionals prefer to use a hardware-based imaging device because it is often much faster than software tools and can image disk-to-disk and disk-to-file, perform disk hashing, format and wipe disks, and more. Some prefer to use the Tableau TD1, but there are other products available such as the Voom HardCopy.
Passlogix announced v-GO Universal Authentication Manager (v-GO UAM) which they say is the first strong authentication solution that will enable Windows to accept any identification device for logon including door access (RFID) badges, government-issued citizen identity cards, standalone or built-in laptop biometrics, one time passwords via mobile phones, and question and answer sequences. v-GO UAM eliminates the need to maintain a separate infrastructure with proprietary authentication servers because it uses Active Directory for data storage and administration. Organizations that are already using authentication devices such as proximity badges for door access can now use these same badges for secure network access.
According to a large research firm, sixty percent of virtual servers are less secure than the physical servers they replace. Virtualization itself is not inherently insecure, but there are many issues that are not being properly addressed. We will cover them in the April issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe today.
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Security Section Sponsored by
William Rogers & Associates
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CU InfoSecurity Conference
The CU InfoSecurity Conference is the original and premier conference dedicated solely to credit union security. Here are just some of the topics that will be covered in this two and one half day security summit:
Social Networking
Phishing & Malware
Vendor Management
Virtualization Security
Security Best Practices
Controlling Admin Rights
Protecting Online Banking
Website Risk Management
Member Security Education
Controlling Employee Access
All paid attendees receive 2 complimentary room nights at a 5 star resort as part of the low conference price - the only conference in the credit union movement that makes this generous offer!
Plus multiple attendees from the same credit union attend at no charge!
More Info & Register Now ~ 800.808.2188
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Leaders Roundtable
Security:
Managing Risk and Security Efficiently and Affordably
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Technology and Marketing
A new report from Aite Group sheds light on the differences between high-performing credit unions and their less successful peers in terms of membership growth, loan and net growth, and market share. According to a January 2010 Aite Group survey of 54 credit unions, high performers share three attributes: tolerance of IT risk, strong commitment to IT from senior management, and excellent coordination between IT and the business. Over the past two years, credit unions that demonstrate these attributes have grown their membership base three times higher than that of other credit unions. In addition, their growth in market share has remained 20% higher over the same time frame, and their loan growth is nearly twice as high as that of other credit unions.
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Technology & Marketing Section Sponsored by
MARQUIS Software Solutions
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Contact John Kassing @ johnk@gomarquis.com to learn more.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Trusteer announced a service called Flashlight that lets credit unions analyze their members' computers for signs of foul play. When a member contacts the credit union to complain about fraud, the credit union asks the member to download Trusteer Rapport security software. Once that download is completed, the credit union can ask the member to click on buttons that generate a report about the attack that is sent directly to credit union. If the software detects a new brand of malware, that report goes to Trusteer, which reverse-engineers the mechanism used by the malware to commit fraud so that the credit union can block further attacks. Flashlight has two pricing options, credit unions can pay per incident or pay a flat monthly fee.
According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, U.S. citizens lost more than $550 million due to online fraud in 2009, doubling the total from 2008. The center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, said that the greater use of the Internet helped contribute to the rise in online fraud losses because it increased the number of cybercriminals as well as the number of potential victims. More complaints were reported by California residents than by residents of any other state, the report said. Common frauds included the non-delivery of merchandise ordered through websites and "advance-fee scams," in which victims were persuaded to make small payments to receive windfalls that never arrived.
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Online Banking Section Sponsored by
Code Green
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Credit Union tech-talk readers receive a 10% discount!
Sign up today: http://www.codegreen.org/cuwebhunt
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Internet Access
Verizon Communications announced three new VoIP packages through their Global Wholesale division. Verizon says that the new VoIP Internet packages make it possible to offer small to mid-sized organizations the support they need as VoIP usage grows and as demand increases for high-speed Internet connections. One new package, the “SIP Gateway,” transports VoIP traffic between packet-based IP networks and the PSTN. Also, the “Dedicated T1” service that Verizon is offering brings together a discounted service and hardware so 30 or more users can have the high capacity connection necessary for high volume email usage, large file transferring and Web hosting. The third promotional offer includes Internet access with an Ethernet connection at either 5 Mbps or 10 Mbps. This service package is targeted at organizations looking to consolidate voice, video and key business applications onto a converged IP network.
CloseMegaPath announced the release of its Duet hosted IP-PBX. The offering, aimed at smaller organizations (both single and multiple locations) is delivered over its fully managed MPLS Virtual Private Network (VPN). It includes either T1 or Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL) access service, with Ethernet coming soon. The company notes that their hosted solution which is delivered over a managed MPLS network offers important QoS (quality of service) and security features not found with "bring your own bandwidth" solutions.
State-of-the-art auto attendant systems can make even the smallest credit union sound like a Fortune 500 company. Hosted turnkey solutions can be installed and operational in one day. We will cover the benefits in the April issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Call Centers
Initial IVR greetings can be difficult to efficiently configure. Some call centers break down the IVR message in three ways:
1 ) Welcome Message
2 ) List the top 3 FFPs (frequently faced problems)
3 ) Then list other departments, services and options
Others recommend that if you have the time and resources, the best approach would be to route a small percentage of calls to a test system where you can test a few different prompts and menu choices, and measure the results. That is because even small wording changes can have a big difference in caller behavior, and the effort can pay off big if you can boost your automation rates by even a few percent.
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Call Centers Sponsored by
Telecom Recovery
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Inbound Telecom Disaster Recovery
Nothing is more important than serving your members. Telecom Recovery, which protects the communications for dozens of credit unions across the US, has a very powerful - and low cost - technology that protects your inbound calls during any kind of outage including:
• equipment failure
• carrier failure
• network congestion
• line-cuts
• disaster
• pandemic (employees forced to work remotely)
• complete evacuation
• and more…
During any of these events your members' calls would still ring to the right people - with just a few clicks on the mouse to re-route all incoming calls and faxes.
All we need is 5 minutes of your valuable time to discuss whether there’s enough of a fit to arrange a brief Web demonstration at a later date.
Sign up now for a 5 minute consultation.
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Conferences
Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2009:
May 19-21, Las Vegas - Credit Union InfoSecurity Conference
October 3-6, San Antonio - Firefighters National Credit Union Summit
November 4-6, Phoenix - Credit Union InfoTECH
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