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November 23, 2009 - November 27, 2009
General News
* Three Credit Unions Go Live on EPL’s i-POWER
* Pittsburgh Central Federal Credit Union Selects Sharetec
* Bradford-Scott Adds another Upper Peninsula Client
* Cubus Solutions Forms Partnership with CUsource
* Fiserv Unveils Relationship Advance
EPL, a credit union-owned integrated technology solutions provider founded 32 years ago, announced that three credit unions have converted to their core system i-POWER. The three credit unions are: South Carolina National Guard FCU located in Columbia, SC; Bay Media FCU located in San Francisco, CA; and Palace City FCU located in Mitchell, SD.
Pittsburgh Central Federal Credit Union has chosen Sharetec, a full featured core processing solution, for their core data processing system. Pittsburgh Central Federal Credit Union serves 8,668 members and has over $45 million in assets with locations in Sewickley and Pittsburgh, PA.
Bradford-Scott Data, currently supporting more than 160 credit unions in 15 states, announced that it has been selected by Settlers Federal Credit Union to replace their current core solution. Settlers Federal Credit Union, located in Bruce Crossing and Watersmeet, MI, was established in 1932.
Cubus Solutions, a software company that provides cost-saving and green business applications to credit unions, announced that the company has entered into a marketing, implementation and maintenance service agreement with CUsource to cooperatively purchase and distribute products to CUsource credit unions. CUsource is a 21-year old CUSO dedicated to helping credit unions in a variety of ways including operational efficiency through technology.
Fiserv, a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced a new software solution to support its Relationship Advance service that will allow credit unions to offer their members an alternative to courtesy overdraft programs and high cost loan products. Available via licensed or ASP models, Relationship Advance is designed to enable credit unions to manage a short-term, open-end line of credit that is easily linked to a member’s checking account.
Hardware News
Intel is releasing a $120 solid-state disk (SSD) drive positioned as a server "boot drive" with only 40GB of capacity. Intel is also planning a new line of enterprise-class SSDs with 50GB, 100GB and 200GB capacities, which would more closely mimic the capacities of high-end hard disk drives used in servers today.
Hewlett-Packard announced a wide array of new products aimed at delivering affordable and simple computing experiences to the desktop. We will summarize them in the December issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe today.
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Hardware Section Sponsored by
Millennial Vision, Inc. (MVi)
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Software Updates
There are many hardware identification utilities on the market such as CPU-z, Everest, and SiSoftware Sandra. However, some IT professionals think that HWiNFO32's breadth of reporting makes it the best. Even better, this comprehensive hardware diagnostics and inventory tool is free.
EMC is extending its Avamar deduplication technology to laptop and desktop computers, taking it beyond networked servers and data centers. Deduplication not only reduces the amount of time that it takes to back up files but also reduces the amount of space that each backup uses. After the first backup, subsequent backups only record the changes to the file instead of copying the entire file again.
Intel and Spiceworks have teamed up to develop a plug-in that is intended to help IT managers connect some of their routine network and systems management tasks to improve power regulation and management capabilities. Among the features enabled by the plug-in:
• Remote power consumption management (you can use wake on LAN or Intel vPro to power up or down devices)
• Power management dashboard that provides a visual map of what’s on and what’s off
• Estimated dollar savings view, based on the actions that managers take
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Software Updates Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG)
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ATMs/Kiosks
According to the ATM Industry Association, skimming remains the industry’s No. 1 global security concern. ATMIA defines skimming as the unauthorized capture of magnetic-stripe information by modifying the hardware or software of a payment device, or through the use of a separate card reader. Now the trade group is calling for tougher sentences for ATM skimming attacks with the hope that scammers will be deterred by the prospect of longer prison sentences.
ATMs in 7-Eleven stores across the country will continue to be part of the CO-OP Network for at least five more years, based on the contract renewal announced by CO-OP Financial Services and Cardtronics, the operator of the retail ATMs. More than 3.2 million surcharge-free CO-OP Network transactions per month take place at 7-Eleven stores.
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ATMs/Kiosks Section Sponsored by
Code Green
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Credit Union tech-talk readers receive one month of free service and free setup!
Sign up today: http://branchmap.com/cunews.html
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Biometric Digest Highlights - WWW.BIODIGEST.COM
UPEK announced the launch of the EikonTouch USB fingerprint readers, the touch version of their swipe readers. There are two varieties of EikonTouch fingerprint reader: the EikonTouch 700 and the EikonTouch 300. The EikonTouch 700 is designed for government applications requiring FIPS 201 certified image quality as well as for multi-user applications where high biometric performance and easy usability are both critical. The EikonTouch 300 with SteelCoat protective coating is designed for rugged environments and for cost sensitive applications requiring one-touch authentication.
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Wireless World
MasterCard announced the MasterCard Mobile Payments Gateway, a mobile payments processing platform that the company says "enables financial institutions and mobile network operators to deliver end-to-end mobile payments solutions through the MasterCard Worldwide Network." MasterCard is working with Smart Hub to leverage its mobile payments technology to develop the MasterCard Mobile Payments Gateway. MasterCard says that their system will permit consumers to use their mobile phones to make purchases, send and receive money between family and friends, transfer funds between accounts, pay bills, top up mobile airtime, load value to prepaid accounts, get cash from ATMs, and keep track of their balances and activities with mobile alerts. The card company also announced that they plan to use mobile phones to improve security for online transactions. The added layer of security comes from a one-time password that the user is asked to enter when approving a transaction. The password is either sent via an SMS (Short Message Service) or created by an application that runs on a smartphone or a phone that supports Java. The first services to use the improved security will become available during the first half of next year.
In Gartner's top 10 predictions for how consumers will use their mobile devices in the year 2012, money transfer tops the list. Gartner's top 10 consumer mobile applications for 2012 are:
1. Money transfer
2. Location-based services
3. Mobile search
4. Mobile browsing
5. Mobile health monitoring
6. Mobile payment
7.Near-field communication services
8. Mobile advertising
9. Mobile instant messaging
10. Mobile music
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Security Section
Security vendor Tufin Technologies announced it has released a set of 12 plug-ins, extending support of its solution set to a wider set of network devices. Tufin has released plug-ins for switches and routers from industry leaders including Cisco, Juniper and HP. Each plug-in provides Tufin's SecureTrack and SecureChange Workflow packages with the ability to granularly track changes and generate automated reports that improve policy management for each device.
A new company called InZero Systems has launched a security service that promises to protect PCs from possible malware, intrusions, and other types of attacks. The InZero Secure PC service features what the company calls a "little black box" that, when plugged into a PC and attached to Ethernet cable, offers a "hardware sandbox" with its own CPU, read-only memory and stateful inspection firewall and encryption engine. There is also a version of the hardware that would fit inside a PC. The InZero Secure PC service also includes an encryption capability for protecting applications on the PC and a VPN. InZero Systems says it has about 37 clients, with pricing around $70 per month, and lower based on volume discounts.
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Leaders Roundtable
Core Systems:
Helping CUs Focus on Opportunities
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Technology and Marketing
Managing member relationships is no easy task, but it is made even more difficult when credit unions use badly managed databases with outdated contacts or ones that have multiple sources spread across the credit union. We will cover some pitfalls to avoid when managing member relationships in the December issue of Credit Union tech-talk - subscribe now.
Northwest Resources Federal Credit Union is working with Psst Marketing to run mini-marketing campaigns for their downtown Portland branch. The $85M credit union wanted to build awareness through word of mouth viral marketing so Psst Marketing developed some fun campaigns that involved local businesses. They worked with local wait staff, bartenders, cart vendors, hair dressers and barbers to get the word out about their various three to four week mini-promotions.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Visa announced the North American rollout of its new transaction alert service allowing card issuers to provide near real-time alerts to Visa account holders. Alerts are sent on behalf of participating issuers directly from VisaNet, Visa’s global processing network, typically within seconds of a transaction occurring. Alerts are triggered when the transaction meets certain criteria the account holder has selected and are delivered directly to the account holder via email or SMS text message.
United Kingdom-based HSBC is testing a combined debit and credit card in conjunction with Visa. The combined card offers both debit and credit functionality and enables the consumer to choose their preferred payment method at the point of sale using a single PIN. HSBC has worked with smart card manufacturer Oberthur to develop the cards which use Visa's SimplyOne platform to mash up the debit and credit functionality.
Atlantic Financial Federal Credit Union used Code Green’s CU Web Hunt website marketing system to increase page views among its online visitors, reach out to a younger audience, and encourage members and non-members to learn more about the credit union during its recent two month campaign. As a result, the credit union’s website page views increased in range from 102% to 921%, depending on the page – which in turn helped Atlantic Financial experience a rise in loan applications and new members.
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Internet Access
A new free tool, dynaTrace AJAX Edition, can be used to diagnose website slowdowns. dynaTrace AJAX Edition gives you a quick high-level view of where the time is being spent to load a page, including XMLHttpRequest calls and timer callbacks. Giving away dynaTrace AJAX Edition provides dynaTrace an opportunity to plug its commercial edition which is an end-to-end, browser-to-server transaction-centric APM system.
Unified Communications Magazine announced their Excellence Award Winners for 2009:
Company - Product
Agito Networks - RoamAnywhere v3.0
Avaya - Avaya Aura
Brocade - Brocade and ShoreTel Eradicate Communication Bugs for Terminix
Cypress Communications - C4 IP
Ensa Technologies - Telephony Office LinX 7.1
IBM - Converged communications services for Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony
Ifbyphone - Store Locator and Call Routing
IPC - Max Access 1000
Junction Networks - OnSIP hosted PBX
Juniper Media - eCRM
Microsoft - Office Communications Server 2007 R2
Monolith Software - Monolith Software Platform
Nortel - Converged Office Solution
PanTerra Networks - WorldSmart Unified Communications
RADVISION - SCOPIA VC240
Roundbox - Mobile Broadcast Suite 5.0
ShoreTel - ShoreTel 9
Varolii - Interact Platform
Voiceserve-Voipswitch - Voipswitch platform for ITSP
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Call Centers
Some IP-based contact centers are doing away with a costly piece of hardware: the headset. For example, Interactive Intelligence’s new Interaction SIP Station is a simple VoIP network end device that contact center agents plug their headsets into, yet which delivers full telephony features and functionality by way of the PC desktop. The company says that it is “an affordable, reliable and simple alternative to IP desk phones.” It’s also an alternative to softphones, which can be less reliable and tend to be harder to use. Interaction SIP Station sits on an agent’s desk, and has no hand set, display, or dial pad. It works in conjunction with Interactive Intelligence’s Interaction Client, a PC-based call control software application offering call recording, call rules, conferencing, presence management, company directory look-up, queue monitoring, call history and other features.
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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.
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Conferences
Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2009:
February 21-25, Washington - CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference
May 19-21, Las Vegas - Credit Union InfoSecurity Conference
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