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United Solutions Company Taps ENACOMM for AI-Powered Conversational Banking and Intelligent IVR
United Solutions Company (USC), a CUSO with 70 credit union customers, and ENACOMM announced a partnership whereby ENACOMM’s conversational voice banking and intelligent IVR will be available to USC’s credit union customers.
CUNA Strategic Services Selects Eltropy as the ‘Best Text Messaging Solution’ for CUs
Eltropy, a messaging-based platform that enables credit unions to communicate with members via text, has been selected as the newest CUNA Strategic Services (CSS) alliance provider.
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Server Hardware Makers Shift Production
The supply chain of vendors that build servers and network communication devices is accelerating its shift of production out of China to Taiwan and North America. The big three branded server makers are all largely immunized against tariffs. HP Enterprise, Dell, and Lenovo all have U.S.-based assemblies and their contract manufacturers are in Taiwan.
NSS Labs Test Exposes Weaknesses in NGFW Products
NSS Labs announced the results of its 2019 NGFW Group Test. Twelve of the industry’s NGFW products were tested to compare NGFW product capabilities across multiple use cases. Test results showed that block rates for simple clear-text attacks remain strong (over 96%) for nine out of twelve products. However, while known/published exploits were frequently blocked, test engineers were able to bypass protection in all devices with minor modifications to known and blocked exploits.
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Enzoic for Active Directory Offers Real-Time Blocking and Monitoring of Unsafe Passwords
Enzoic has released the latest version of Enzoic for Active Directory. They claim that it is the only Active Directory plugin to meet NIST 800-63b requirements for real-time blocking of unsafe passwords at set-up and provide continuous monitoring of those same passwords to ensure they don’t become vulnerable later.
Expert Advice from Analytics Debuts and Do-Overs
Data science and business intelligence have become must-have tools at many CUs. In this article, 5 CU leaders offer their thoughts on two important questions: What’s your best advice for credit unions just starting in analytics? And, if you could start all over, where would you begin?
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How Ready Are Deployers for the Next Big Operating-System Conversion for ATMs?
Microsoft will stop supporting its Windows 7 operating system next January, and that’s set off the latest dash by ATM deployers to convert to the next OS while there’s still time. ATM experts estimate it takes 12 to 15 months to upgrade to Windows 10. Given that timeline, ATM deployers waiting until the 11th hour or moving too slowly to convert to Windows 10 could wind up blowing the deadline by months because of a backlog of availability for technicians to complete the conversion.
Contactless Cash Cards and the Future of ATMs
The author posits that the ATM can shift from dispersing notes to loading value on stored value cards. This would allow consumers to spend e-dollars just like they spend paper bills, only faster and easier, with no loose change in their pockets.
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Contactless Cards Key to Digital Wallet Growth? Maybe Not, Says Study
Research released by the Auriemma Consulting Group indicates that contactless may not serve as the training wheels for mobile payments, after all. In fact, new contactless plastic could tempt mobile-phone users away from using their devices for purchases. While consumers are enthusiastic about the experience of contactless connectivity at the point of sale, it’s unclear whether that sentiment will translate into greater use of mobile wallets, the study found.
Mobile Money Transfers to Exceed 200 Billion Transactions in 2024
New data from Juniper Research has found that the volume of domestic money transfers via mobiles will exceed 203 billion in 2024, up from 130 billion in 2019. Domestic P2P payments will drive this growth; accounting for 80% of all domestic transfers in 2024. According to the new research, Digital Money Transfer & Remittances: Domestic & International Markets 2019-2024, domestic transfers are being driven by increasingly easy mobile payment systems.
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Mobile ID Schemes Take the Lead over Digital Identity Cards
The number of people using government-issued digital identity credentials will grow by over 150% from an expected 1.7 billion in 2019 to over 5 billion in 2024, according to Juniper Research. Blockchain and the self-sovereign identity movement are part of this future, but will be a small piece of the puzzle, despite average yearly growth of 35%; less than 10% of dedicated identity apps are expected to be blockchain-based by 2023.
Perimeter 81 Launches Zero Trust Application Access
Perimeter 81, a Zero Trust Secure Network as a Service provider, announced that it has launched Zero Trust Application Access. The service is designed to help ensure fully secured, isolated and agentless access to an organization’s critical web applications, secure shell (SSH), remote desktop (RDP), virtual network computing (VNC) and Telnet.
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Most Companies Don't Get What It Means to Deliver a Great Customer Experience
The author contends that many companies are still struggling to move from a "next best offer" i.e. a sales and marketing dominated mindset to a "next best action" i.e. customer focused/centered mindset. He concludes that there are only two possible explanations: 1. People just don’t get what is means to deliver a great customer experience, or 2. Much of the talk is just that: talk.
Understanding Predictive Analytics
In this article, Pyramid Analytics delves into what predictive analytics is, why it is significant, the process of developing predictive models, and some of the methodologies commonly used.
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Debit Cards Set New Market Share Record
For the first time since 2011, debit cards gained market share in 2018 in terms of U.S. purchase volume, according to new data from The Nilson Report. Debit cards accounted for 40% of purchase volume in 2018, it said. Credit, debit and prepaid cards in the United States together accounted for about $6.7 trillion of spending on goods and services in 2018, the company said. Credit cards were 54.9% of all purchase volume, down from 55.07% in 2017.
The ACH Posts Its Highest Growth Rate Since 2008
The nation’s automated clearing house network notched its highest growth rate since 2008 thanks to double-digit growth for key categories like Internet payments and business-to-business transfers. Total volume for the quarter came to 6.1 billion transactions, an increase of 7.7% from the same three months last year.
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MPLS Is Hanging on in This SD-WAN World
While SD-WAN is much better suited for the job of cloud connectivity, 50% of network traffic is still staying within the corporate firewall. So while SD-WAN can solve the connection issues, so can MPLS. Plus MPLS can guarantee performance while SD-WAN, at the mercy of the public Internet, cannot. Many experts state that for the foreseeable future there will continue to be a very viable role for both.
Survey Finds SD-WANs Are Hot, but Satisfaction with Telcos Is Not
Cato Networks' Telcos and the Future of the WAN in 2019 survey found that the majority of respondents believe SD-WAN alone can’t address all challenges facing the WAN. A whopping 85% stated they would be confronting issues not addressed by SD-WAN alone. This includes secure, local Internet breakout, improved visibility, and control over mobile access to cloud apps.
The Latest in Innovation in the SD-WAN Managed Services Market
In one recent IDG survey, 91% of organizations that implemented SD-WAN technologies saw an increase in network speed. SD-WAN managed services have come to the forefront as a choice that allows organizations to capture the benefits of SD-WAN, along with the expertise to make the most of the technology. Solutions offer access to the knowledge needed to design, deploy and manage SD-WAN networks, while letting the organization maintain visibility and control as desired.
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Chatbots in banking weren’t always an eloquent, behind-the-scenes solution that improved a consumer’s experience. But the author is convinced that the days of uncertainty for chatbots in banking are coming to an end - thanks to the rise of data and artificial intelligence (AI), a new era of sophisticated conversational banking is arriving. He goes on to cover three reasons this new wave of conversational banking and AI is a win.
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