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Credit Union tech-talk News
May 4, 2009 - May 8, 2009
General News
* SimpliFi Wins Best of Show Honors at FinovateStartup 09
* iThryv and iPay Strike Online Bill Pay Partnership
* Open Solutions and uMonitor Announce Client Successes
* Ongoing Operations Offers Swine Flu Tips
* Cubus Solutions Automates the Deferred Payment Process
SimpliFi, a free online financial planning and advice service that lets anyone plan for their financial future, was awarded Best of Show honors at FinovateStartup 2009, an annual conference that showcases innovative financial technology products and services. SimpliFi replicates the same financial planning process used by 95% of Certified Financial Planners, and the company itself is a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC.
iPay Technologies announced a strategic partnership with iThryv. iPay Technologies' bill payment solution will become an integrated part of iThryv's online banking platform, touted as Online Banking for the Next Generation. iThryv incorporates an interactive online banking environment allowing users to personalize their online banking experience, including choosing themes, adding pictures, assembling the layout, and offering dynamic tools to promote financial literacy.
Open Solutions, a leading provider of integrated enabling technologies for credit unions throughout the United States, Canada and other international markets, and uMonitor, a financial solution services provider for member acquisition and retention, announced that more than 20 financial institutions have selected their integrated services. CDC FCU and Meritrust CU (formerly Boeing Wichita Employees CU) are two credit unions that recently deployed solutions such as uOpen & uFund, uSwitch and uTransfer.
Ongoing Operations, a Disaster Recovery CUSO based in Maryland, is recommending that credit union revisit their disaster recovery plans in light of the current swine flu situation. Some of their tips include: 1) send staff with flu symptoms to the doctor's office or urgent care centers, then have them stay home until well; 2) have N-95 masks, nitrile gloves, and waterless antiseptic cleaner on-hand at each business location; 3) tellers (and anyone handling cash) should use waterless antiseptic cleaner; and 4) be prepared to sponsor tamiflu treatment because current research indicates that tamiflu is at least partially effective against the swine flu if delivered within 2 days of the first symptoms.
Cubus Solutions, a software company that provides cost-saving and green business applications to credit unions, announced the launch of CUSkipAPay, a software solution that integrates into a credit union’s core banking system to “de-manualize” the deferred payment service which many credit unions offer their members on credit cards and other debt instruments. CUSkipAPay automates the process of qualification, advancing the due date, scheduling payments and charging fees, all functions that were necessary to complete manually in the past.
Hardware News
Monitor maker Eizo Nanao has announced the inclusion of an "EcoView Sense" feature into their FlexScan monitors: the 20-inch EV2023W and the 23-inch EV2303W. The EcoView feature allows the monitors - using motion detectors - to detect if a person is sitting in front of it. If it senses for 40 seconds that no one is there, it puts the monitor into sleep mode. It then resumes normal operation when the user returns. Other energy-saving features include an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display's brightness according to the amount of light in the room plus each monitor includes a power switch that allows them to turn off completely and not draw any power whatsoever.
The PatchSee system from Mitsubishi International Corp. aims to clean up the tangle of Ethernet cables in your server room or data center. PatchSee cables feature optical fiber that runs inside the cable — you shine light into one end of the cable using a special tool, and the other end lights up. Mitsubishi offers a variety of PatchSee cables, including phone, Category 5e, and Category 6a cables. The lights identifying the cables are small but clearly visible in most viewing conditions.
Typically, a router or a firewall comes as an appliance, while other applications such as databases are more popular as software running on top of standard servers. But there is trend for more and more software packages to be delivered as appliances. We will provide some examples in the June issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe today.
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Software Updates
Microsoft just announced that it was cutting the price of its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) – the Microsoft-hosted bundle of its Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online and LiveMeeting Online services — through the end of June. EDS has begun to integrate BPOS into EDS Workplace Services Offerings. EDS and Microsoft will jointly deliver services based on Microsoft’s stable of hosted service offerings, Microsoft also announced.
Hitachi Data Systems announced the release of three new software products to provide enhanced monitoring of business applications, virtualized servers and the storage they use. The Hitachi IT Operations Analyzer is an application aimed at midsize organizations that provides a single-pane view of data center servers and IP networks, as well as the storage hardware attached throughout those networks. Hitachi said the application provides performance and availability monitoring across heterogeneous servers, networks and storage systems. The software features automated root-cause analysis and network visualization, runs off an agentless architecture, and has a Web-based interface.
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Software Section Sponsored by
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ATMs/Kiosks
Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has unveiled the first functioning prototype of its new Instant Issuance Kiosk for payment cards. G&D says that their new Instant Issuance Kiosk will enable financial institutions to offer payment-card issuance services independently of their branches' working hours. The entire issuance process for payment cards can now be carried out without the need for any staff. Consumers will be able to acquire a ready-to-use prepaid, debit, credit or contactless card any time, any place, and use it to shop in retail stores and online.
According to independent market analyst Datamonitor, credit unions should carefully analyze the current and future total cost of ownership of their ATMs, and evaluate their outsourcing alternatives. With a widespread lack of capital for costly upfront investments, renting ATM hardware and associated services becomes an attractive, and in some cases the only feasible, option says Datamonitor. Overall ATM management goes well beyond the simple purchase/renting of hardware and the maintenance involved. It also includes management of hardware installations, cash handling, communication, occupancy, and processing. They conclude that credit unions need to carefully analyze the total cost of ownership that is associated with their ATMs, and benchmark it against vendors' rates for outsourcing services, and if possible against peers.
Credit Union 24 has added four credit unions to its network and 12 long-term contract renewals in the first quarter of 2009. The credit union-owned ATM and point-of-sale network has added these new clients: Avestar CU in Bloomington, MN; Dade County FCU in Miami; O.U.R. FCU in Eugene, OR; and Toro Employees FCU in Bloomington, MN.
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ATMs/Kiosks Section Sponsored by
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Biometric Digest Highlights - WWW.BIODIGEST.COM
Dell's Studio One 19 features a 19-inch LCD display with 1366 x 768 resolution and optional multi-touch capabilities. The all-in-one Studio also comes with a stylish aluminum, glass and fabric design and is available in an array of colors, including white, red, blue, pink and charcoal. Optional features include integrated 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a 1.3-megapixel web camera, a microphone and facial recognition security.
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Wireless World
NCR is allowing consumers to deposit checks from wherever they can get reception on their data-enabled mobile phones, such as an iPhone or Blackberry. The company announced an agreement with Mitek Systems to integrate Mitek's ImageNet Mobile Deposit software into NCR's APTRA Passport family of remote deposit capture solutions. This software allows members to deposit checks by using their mobile phone's camera as a scanner, capturing an image of both sides of the check and transmitting those images to their credit union for deposit. The new NCR APTRA Mobile Passport solution complements the APTRA Commercial Passport which is remote deposit capture software that allows members to make deposits using check scanners from their businesses directly to the credit union via online banking.
ExSafe announced the launch of its new mobile application for BlackBerry smartphones. ExSafe says that their system reduces the cost of managing Microsoft Office content (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets) and PDFs, while providing a full audit trail and versioning of user activity. ExSafe enables users to find, access, and sync edited documents that are saved on a hosted network.
A South African company has come out with a "universal personal authenticator" that they say turns any mobile phone into a convenient and powerful self-contained, one-time-password generator to enable secure VPN access and online transactions. We will explain how it works in the June issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Security Section
Alpine Consulting announced Alpine IdentityInsight which is a new fraud and collusion detection service. IdentityInsight is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that analyzes a client's existing data sources to uncover the inappropriate relationships and obscured identities that indicate fraudulent activity. The firm says that the service allows investigators to define their fraud search criteria and compile a qualified list of actionable investigative leads. IdentityInsight is available as a one-time "ad-hoc" service, and can also be purchased under a number of subscription programs.
nCircle announced that its Configuration Compliance Manager (CCM) configuration auditing solution now audits the full VMware virtual infrastructure, from virtual machines to the hypervisor. nCircle CCM discovers virtual machines and hypervisors through agentless discovery technology and is then able to continuously audit the configurations of the virtual infrastructure through agentless configuration auditing.
Remote video monitoring and surveillance (RVMaS) solutions are rapidly gaining in popularity with smaller organizations who want high end surveillance features on a budget. We will tell you more about RVMaS in the June issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe today.
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Leaders Roundtable
Security:
Protecting Member Data at Rest and in Motion
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Technology and Marketing
Despite the difficult economic conditions, many marketing experts are convinced that now is not the time to cut back on you marketing campaigns and advertising efforts. They believe that unless your credit union is in a perilous financial situation, you must continue to spread the positive news about your credit union. The marketing proponents like to quote from a recent Harvard Business School research article: "It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times."
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Delta Community CU has become the first customer for Wesabe’s Springboard suite of applications, including account management, goal setting/tracking, community forums, widgets, and merchant tips and comparisons. Wesabe Springboard is a web-services-based version of Wesabe's money management site, and gives members a "smart" dashboard view of their account data and personal finances. Credit unions can implement Springboard through either a web services architecture or as a fully hosted web personal finance management solution. Springboard works with a wide variety of enterprise platforms, including .Net and Java. The web services option uses API-based integration to work with the credit union's existing online banking system.
Debit card usage is soaring past credit card usage as U.S. consumers spend more conservatively due to the economic recession. Visa says its debit card transaction volume surpassed credit cards for the first time during the last three months of 2008. Debit accounted for slightly more than half of Visa's total transaction volume in the period, up from about 40 percent in 2003. Also underpinning the trend toward debit is lenders' reduction of credit limits on credit card users and a spike in credit card purchase fees.
SeerGate, a developer of e-debit systems for real-time online bank payments, announced that the company is introducing the first payment solution for credit unions to offer their members a direct peer-to-peer (P2P) payment service in social networking environments, including Facebook. The company says that their Secured Lock e-Debit System enables buyers and sellers to securely and conveniently complete P2P payment transactions in social networking environments. Using a free application provided by SeerGate, the seller generates a personal invoice, which is immediately verified by the seller’s financial institution and sent within the social network to the buyer. After approving the invoice, the buyer is then authenticated by their financial institution and the payment transaction is completed in real-time directly between the accounts of the buyer and seller. The payment transaction is completed without any sensitive financial information being exchanged or transmitted over the Internet.
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Internet Access
FreedomVOICE, the creators of the FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP PBX system, is now offering some free resources for any organization looking for a hosted VoIP phone system. These resources include: a VoIP speed test; VoIP E911 information; VoIP phone comparison chart; hosted VoIP PBX features; and a frequently asked questions section. The FAQ covers the basics of hosted VoIP and making the transition to a hosted VoIP PBX.
WatchGuard, a Seattle-based security vendor, has come out with a list of emerging threats to VoIP services. They include:
- VoIP DoS (denial of service) attacks
- Spam over Internet Telephony (SPIT)
- VoIP service theft
- SIP (session initiation protocol) registration hijacking
- eavesdropping
- VoIP directory harvesting
- Voice phishing, or vishing
One of the biggest obstacles organizations face in deploying VoIP across their networks is that all too often, their LAN (local area network) isn’t capable of supporting it. However, one vendor has come out with an appliance that they claim changes the VoIP deployment 'paradigm'. Learn about this affordable system in the June issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Call Centers
NICE has come out with its new NICE Perform 3.2 solution that includes SIP-based recording and enhanced virtualization. SIP-based recording supports teleworkers and is less costly than TDM for archiving and storage, plus it can more easily support value-add solutions such as workforce optimization. NICE Perform 3.2 can also analyze many aspects of contact center interactions via functions such as flagging interactions from irate callers, helping in analyzing campaigns effectiveness, and identifying operational inefficiencies.
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Conferences
Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2008:
June 4-5, Lake Las Vegas - Credit Union InfoSecurity Conference
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