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General
News
* CUNA Endorses Strohl Systems
* IntegraSys Enhances Wisdom Financial Management Suite
* COCC Helps HarborOne CU Adopt Photo IDs
* Digital Insight Partners with Metavante In Bill Pay/Presentment
* Open Solutions Unveils Paperless Document Delivery
Through a recently announced three year agreement, CUNA & Affiliates will market Strohl Systems' PLANet to its affiliates. PLANet for Credit Unions is the industry’s only Internet-based tool designed specifically for credit unions to help meet regulatory requirements for business continuity planning (BCP) and disaster recovery. In addition, CUNA will endorse and recommend the following consulting services from Strohl Systems: plan development, plan testing, plan evaluation, plan conversion, facility evaluation, and recovery readiness and review.
IntegraSys, a business unit of Fiserv, announced it has added new database, investment management and asset and liability management (ALM) capabilities to its Wisdom Financial Management Suite. During the last two years, more than 80 new credit union customers have started using Wisdom to handle their back office accounting or to manage their asset, liability or investment portfolios. Developed specifically for credit unions by former credit union executives, Wisdom has three primary applications - ALM; investment portfolio management; and general ledger and sub-ledger accounting.
Brockton, MA-based HarborOne Credit Union has deployed ID scanners in its 12 branch locations that make member photos available to staff throughout the credit union for identification purposes. The scanning technology was recently introduced by HarborOne’s data processor, Avon, CT-based COCC. It only takes a few seconds to scan the driver’s license or other form of picture ID and the credit union is encouraging all members to take advantage of the scanning program to help prevent identity theft.
Digital Insight, a leading online banking provider to the credit union movement, announced the launch of Bill Payment and Presentment by Metavante. The Bill Payment and Presentment solution should provide credit union members with increased flexibility with payment schedules, e-mail notifications and reports. The solution features an easy-to-use interface and single sign-on technology.
Sound Software, Open Solutions' loan origination business unit, announced the availability of a solution designed to enable paperless loan processing. Sound Delivery allows Sound Software users to process loans in a nearly paperless manner, according to the specific needs of the credit union. Sound Delivery users have the ability to print either just the final, signed documents or to print the entire hard copy loan package at any point during the lending process.
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Hardware
News
Smaller credit unions have more choices this Fall in regards to affordable servers. Hewlett-Packard announced its ProLiant ML150 G2 with prices starting at $1,129 for a system with a single 3GHz Xeon processor and $1,678 for dual processors. They can be purchased with a remote management system to aid in troubleshooting or configuration from afar. Meanwhile, Dell announced two servers for small customers, the PowerEdge SC420 with a starting price less than $500 and the SC1420 with a starting price of $799. The SC420 uses a single Pentium 4 processor and can accommodate 4GB of memory, while the SC1420 accommodates dual Xeon processors and as much as 8GB of memory. Dell also offers installation, setup and training services with the products.
Small and medium-sized credit unions’ most serious fear when exploring networked storage is that of getting involved with a complicated, expensive, and difficult-to-manage solution. Fortunately, networked storage is becoming faster, easier to install and manage, and much more reasonably priced. Learn about one such system in the December issue of Credit Union
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Software
Updates
Maintaining a credit union's back-up system - checking logs, dealing with errors, restarting failed backups - can be time consuming. One analyst estimates that as much as 65% of storage management time is spent on backup and recovery. A company called Sepaton announced a synthetic full backup application for its S2100-ES Virtual Tape Library, which they claim reduces the back-up window to minutes from hours and speeds the restore time. They say that synthetic backups meld smaller backups into one full backup and reduce recovery time and tape media usage. The application starts at $3,000.
Executive Software has released Undelete 4.0, a file-recovery utility that replaces the Recycle Bin with a Recovery Bin. The Recovery Bin captures all deleted files, and users can restore their own files from it without administrator intervention. Undelete features a Secure Delete feature that the firm says erases confidential files permanently and an Emergency Undelete feature that lets users retrieve files that were deleted before Undelete was installed. Undelete 4.0 costs $39.95 for the workstation edition, and $299.95 for the server edition.
Credit unions that use Outlook as their e-mail client may want to take a look at Sherpa Software's offerings. Their Mail Attender Enterprise application gives you the ability to automatically manage PST files (network accessible and local), Public Folders and Mailboxes from a central location. Plus, you can perform keyword searches to retrieve information, implement retention policies, address compliance issues, compress attachments, compact PSTs, archive data to a secure storage device and view e-mail statistics across your credit union.
Software Section Sponsored by
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ATMs/Kiosks
The University of Delaware claims to be the first university in the nation to offer image-based ATM deposits to its students. Working with Personas M Series ATMs and Cash Connect, a provider of ATM services, the university provides "no envelope" deposit technology to its students. In this scenario, one or more checks, or a stack of cash, are placed directly into a slot on the ATM. An image of deposited check(s) appears on the screen and is also printed directly on the receipt. A tally of deposited cash is also listed by denomination.
October was World Blindness Awareness Month so it is important to note than many ATM manufacturers are making good progress in helping the visually impaired. For example, Diebold worked with the National Federation of the Blind on the design of their Opteva family of ATMs. The NFB helped them place the audio jack that enables those who are blind to use headphones and voice guidance at the ATM on the same plane as the keypad. Optevas also include primary and secondary transaction functions grouped by location, pronounced bezels for the card readers and headphone jacks to aid identification, Braille signage, a telephone-style keypad with raised key tops and text-to-speech capabilities.
CO-OP Network introduced its new remote ATM graphics service to member credit unions. Known as ATMContent Manager, the web-based service allows users to build and download customized ATM screen presentations from their offices, providing credit unions with direct remote control of the screen graphics on their ATM fleet. The CO-OP Network says credit unions using the system can control all aspects of implementing ATM screen changes, eliminating the need for expensive onsite visits, development and long lead times.
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The Fall 2004 Biometrics Summit just wrapped up at a conference room in the Millennium Hilton that overlooks the site of the World Trade Center. Attendees heard about the challenges and benefits seen by those who have implemented biometrics, including some financial services firms. Learn more about their interesting experiences in the December issue of Credit Union
tech-talk - subscribe now.
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Wireless
World
The benefits of 802.11 wireless LAN (local area network) connections are easy to see from the mobility of untethered workers quickly and conveniently connecting to the network from a conference room. Of course, security is a huge concern for credit unions so they often turn first and foremost to encryption to protect their data over the airwaves. While encryption is certainly a critical aspect of securing WLANs, it is not the end-all, be-all solution. Learn more about WLAN security in the December issue of Credit Union
tech-talk.
Hewlett-Packard is working on a "smart rack" that incorporates radio frequency identification (RFID) systems to make data centers easier to manage. The racks would be able to instantly take stock of servers and alert staff to problems such as overheating. Each shelf in the rack is equipped with an RFID reader designed to read high-frequency signals from servers with special chips storing the machine’s unique ID number. The technology could help streamline the servicing and maintenance of gear by keeping better work records for each machine, plus the temperature sensitive RFID chips would help quickly spot heat problems and avoid outages.
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Security
Section
While a majority of companies are increasingly concerned about the growth of spyware on their employees' desktops, few are using anti-spyware technology, according to a survey by Equation Research. The vast majority of executives and IT managers surveyed, 96 percent, feel that their existing antivirus and firewall software protect them from outside threats. However, 82 percent of those surveyed said their desktops are currently infected with spyware. A third of respondents said that spyware has been on the rise in the past six months.
Robert Graham, chief scientist of security company Internet Security Systems, believes that 2004 is witnessing the rise of the professional cracker/hacker. Attacks are now far more coordinated, and they no longer merely rely on copycat tools and random attacks. What's more, he detects a dangerous intent to profit financially from hacking. He notes that it is not just the thrill of breaking into other systems now, but that they can now earn money from their exploits and endeavors.
One Chief Information Officer commented that passwords are "a nightmare for our employees to remember and to keep them synchronized. It is a challenge for both employees and IT." Find out what his organization did to resolve the problem in a secure and cost effective manner in the December issue of Credit Union
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Leaders
Roundtable
Core Systems - Deploying New Features/Functionality Effectively
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Technology
and Marketing
Kaihan Krippendorff is an author, former consultant with McKinsey & Company, and past holder of various senior management positions in the banking, consulting, and retail sectors. His latest book is The Art of the Advantage: 36 Strategies to Seize the Competitive Edge and it provides some interesting insights for marketing and other senior executives. He offers some advice for financial institutions: 1) move up upstream into your members' decision process by thinking about what steps your member takes as he/she moves toward a buy decision, then find a way to position yourself further upstream; 2) look for long term loyalty and not immediate profit - find ways to establish a co-dependent relationship; and 3) look for ways that a non-FI would approach your member - think in terms of other businesses and their strategies such Starbucks, the Gap, a supermarket, etc.
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Online
Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
As the Check 21 bill came online last week, research by Celent predicts that paper check processing will virtually disappear by the end of the decade when more than 93% of checks will be image-exchanged. According to the research, image exchange of transit checks will grow from more than 14% in 2005 to 61% by 2007. Alenka Grealish, co-author of the report and manager of the banking group at Celent, says: "Given the sheer volume of checks and the number of financial institutions involved in the switch to image exchange, the transition period is expected to last at least six years."
Visa USA's payment network - the largest in the world processing 100 million transactions a day - just underwent its semi-annual upgrade. Last month's upgrade, the largest ever, included enhancements to speed the credit-card dispute-resolution process, simplify currency conversions and update Visa's loyalty-points program. The upgrades are designed so that no more than one data center (1 in Tokyo, 1 in London and 2 in the US) is taken down at a time. Each center has enough capacity to run the entire worldwide transaction load and is designed to be able to easily handle last year's peak on Dec. 24 of 5,200 transaction messages a second.
eCU Technologies, a CUSO of Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union, now has two other credit unions - Deere & Company Credit Union and Southland Credit Union - using their UPost solution. UPost is an electronic deposit product that gives members immediate access to funds they deposit online via home banking before providing the credit union with an actual check. During the pilot, Southland's members have made more than $100,000 in deposits without a single loss to $320 million credit union, which gets the physical check on average within three days.
Online Banking Section Sponsored by
Digital Insight |
New Solutions To The Online Lending Challenge
in a few short years online lending has taken the banking industry by storm, bringing with it the promise of a more efficient and profitable loan process for financial institutions, while changing consumer expectations that can be impossible to meet without the right back office systems in place. With more and more consumers applying online, the immediate future of online lending is bright, but requires sufficient technology and an integrated business strategy to deliver on its promise.
Static online applications are now commonplace in the banking world, often put in place as a defensive strategy to answer consumer demand. While they may appear to be current technology, stand-alone products that are not part of an integrated lending platform can create more problems than they solve, proving frustrating for institutions and consumers alike. For instance, static online applications may not be effective in capturing compliance-related data at the time of application. In addition, static applications do not return an immediate decision to the consumer, thus often losing the loan origination opportunity to a competitor.
Click Here to Read the Whole Article
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Internet
Access
SBC, the nation's second largest local telephone carrier, will pay Alcatel $1.7 billion over five years to build a next-generation fiber optic network that will deliver every service you can imagine over an IP (Internet Protocol) network - from IP-based television to IP voice, to associated wireless LANs, and a whole host of new services. Some telecom analysts believe that we are now on the brink of a new generation of innovative high-speed services on a converged globe-spanning network that can be managed more simply than the tangle of multiple networks businesses must deal with now.
Natural and man-made disasters and government regulations have put pressure on larger financial institutions to back up data farther away from their main data centers than they do now, but achieving that goal can be quite pricey. Dedicated networks can replicate data over a WAN (wide area network), but at a bandwidth price. In their quest for affordable alternatives, some organizations are turning to a still-developing option: storage over Internet Protocol. Learn more about this option in the December issue of Credit Union
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Call
Centers
The Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI) research shows that the state of call center supervisor training in contact centers, while showing promise, still leaves much to be desired. ICMI's survey indicates that contact center supervisors are not receiving the training necessary to be successful in their overall responsibilities, such as motivating/retaining and recruiting/hiring agents. The report found that 30% of contact centers have no supervisory training program in place. 70% of contact center managers said that recruiting and hiring is a necessary component of the supervisor's job, but only 58% offer training on how to find and select high-quality performers. On the positive side, well over half of respondents (58%) expect their supervisory training to increase over the next year. Nearly 90% said they plan to increase their supervisor training in leadership skills, and 87% plan to increase training in coaching and performance management
skills.
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Call Center Section
Sponsored by
Apropos
|
"Best Practices In Call Center Communications - Optimizing the Interaction Lifecycle"
Most member service centers have phones on the desktop, probably the ability for people to leave voice mail, maybe an e-mail address. Many even have an ACD to manage simple call routing and an IVR to ask the caller which department is needed. Assuming there's a business application to track issues or orders or requests, that ought to be enough to run an effective operation. Or is it?
To learn more and receive your FREE COPY of our WHITE PAPER entitled "Best Practices In Call Center Communications - Optimizing the Interaction Lifecycle" visit us at
www.apropos.com.
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Conferences
Catch
Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union
tech-talk at the following conferences in
2004:
May
11 -13, New Orleans, LA - Credit Union
InfoSecurity Conference
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