The Future of Banking - still on track?

This is 2 years old now - is it still relevant? Or just fantasy?

Microsoft, somehow, tells us how to be human in the year 2020

'Computer technologies are not neutral – they are laden with human, cultural and social values. We need to define a new agenda for human-computer interaction in the 21st century – one that anticipates and shapes the impact of technology rather than simply reacts to it.' Download this interesting presentation here.

Rising use of Internet challenges its capacity

From IHT:

"Caution: Heavy Internet traffic ahead. Delays possible.

For months there has been a rising chorus of alarm about the surging growth in the amount of data flying across the Internet. The threat, according to some industry groups, analysts and researchers, stems mainly from the increasing visual richness of online communications and entertainment — video clips and movies, social networks and multiplayer games.

Moving images, far more than words or sounds, are hefty rivers of digital bits passing through the Internet's pipes and gateways, requiring, in industry parlance, more bandwidth. Last year, by one estimate, the video site YouTube, owned by Google, consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000."

Article continues...

New MacBook Air

I'm one of those annoying 'Mac people', although recently I've been 'transitioned to XP' and now use a PC for pretty much everything. If I had the $ I'd still have a nice Mac Book. And I'd probably have this, the new MacBook Air. This is the worlds thinnest notebook, and like everything Apple does, is a thing of beauty and style.

Technology Trends & Financial Reflection from McKinsey

2 interesting articles from McKinsey Quarterly:

Eight business technology trends to watch
Eight emerging trends are transforming many markets and businesses. Executives should learn to shape the outcome rather than just react to it.

Taking stock : Ten years after the Asian financial crisis
The Asian financial system could become a full-fledged partner in the global triad of economic powerhouses, alongside Europe and the United States—but only if its regulatory systems, economic ministries, and financial institutions improve dramatically.

Catalysts for Change – Setting the Growth Agenda for 2015

From FST Media:

"The theme for this roundtable is innovation and the way in which innovation will transform the Australian banking environment by 2015. Participants include representatives from all major banks and the technology community.

...

There are important shifts occurring in the market as new entrants, new technologies and new channels come to the market. The competitive landscape is becoming more and more challenging. There is a new level of transparency being demanded today. Consumers and corporate clients are better informed; they are better able to compare offers and they shift their business more freely than before. As a result, we find in our dialogue with our banking customers that everyone is feeling incredible pressure to innovate at a faster and faster rate. This is especially true in this ANZ market where the majors are largely dependent upon systems that are now more than 20 years old and where the skills needed to maintain them are in ever scarcer supply."

Great article continues...

Citi's 7-year core banking programme

From Finextra:

"Citibank has standardised its core banking systems worldwide on the Flexcube product from i-flex. The implementation of the product at Citi's markets and banking divisions in 67 countries is the culmination of seven years of work.

Steve Randich, chief information officer, Citi markets & banking, hailed the implementation as "an unparalleled achievement in scope and impact", which has enabled the bank to realise great operational and cost benefits while preserving its investment in several hundred highly specific point solutions.

Overall, there are more than 2500 products serviced and Flexcube processes more than seven million transactions per day. To get there, i-flex had to build more than 1500 product-specific interfaces to interact with hundreds of Citi front-office systems worldwide.

Analysts at Celent Communications believe Citibank will, ultimately, be able to save close to $110 million annually through reduced maintenance costs as well as more rapid development times as a result of the transformation.

The sheer magnitude and scale of the programme illustrates the enormous effort required by global Tier 1 banks in transforming their legacy operations, and Citi's achievement in reaching this milestone deserves our unreserved admiration.

But I wonder, when the project was initially scoped out, did Citi have a seven-year timeframe in mind? And would any other bank enter into a similar project in the full knowledge of the true investment costs - capital, labour and blood, sweat and tears - required to meet its goals. "

Good effort Citi.

Technology & Internet Trends from Morgan Stanley

Thanks to NetBanker for bringing this to attention, here is a pdf presentation from Morgan Stanley outlining some global trends in tech, internet and related investment. Some great info and data on usage by country, region, the state of the US economy, leading countries in categories such as gaming, mobile payments, online advertising, info on 2.0, personalisation, music, it goes on. Really useful report.

Communications & devices converging, says Gates

In his latest executive email, Bill Gates has some interesting comments on the variety of devices and the movement towards a single identity or number, (remember we discussed eNums):

"A fundamental reason that communicating is still so complex is the fact that the way we communicate is still bound by devices. In the office, we use a work phone with one number. Then we ask people to call us back on a mobile device using another number when we are on the go, or reach us on our home phone with yet another number. And we have different identities and passwords for our work and home email accounts, and for instant messaging.

This will change in the very near future. As more and more of our communications and entertainment is transmitted over the Internet thanks to email, instant messaging, video conferencing, and the emergence of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and other protocols, a new wave of software-driven innovations will eliminate the boundaries between the various modes of communications we use throughout the day. Soon, you'll have a single identity that spans all of the ways people can reach you, and you'll be able to move a conversation seamlessly between voice, text, and video and from one device to another as your location and information sharing needs change. You'll also have more control over how you can be reached and by whom: when you are busy, the software on the device at hand will know whether you can be interrupted, based on what you are doing and who is trying to reach you.

....

It would be hard to overstate the magnitude of the changes that are coming. Standardized, software-powered communications technologies will be the catalyst for the convergence of voice, video, text, applications, information, and transactions, making it possible to create a seamless communications continuum that extends across people’s work and home lives. This will provide the foundation for new products, services, and capabilities that will change the world in profound and often unexpected ways."

Read the whole email here.

Have a look at this page on the Micosoft site too - Unified Communications. Bill gives a webcast on the topic there.

Fox and its new Channel; Ebay and its old Skype problem

2 interesting articles on Economist.com:

Squawk boxes - A new channel is about to be born
"Nobody really knows for sure how Fox Business will differentiate itself. It does not help that Mr Ailes by his own admission has been spreading “disinformation” to confuse the Germans—sorry, CNBC. Rupert Murdoch, News Corp’s boss, claims that CNBC dwells too much on failures and scandals and that the new channel will focus on innovation and success." With that comes this new site from Fox Business.

The Skype hyper - Meg Whitman's career at eBay suffers “an impairment write-down”
"Ms Whitman does not even seem to have remembered her own lessons. In terms of the first, eBay's “execution” in integrating Skype with its main business has been poor. Skype's service has deteriorated: it collapsed completely for two days in August. The second lesson—bid early and high—was observed to a fault. As for the third lesson, the mistake has now been admitted, but not fixed."

Smartcompany has a smart site

Smartcompany.com.au, a great new media source here in Aus, has created a site so rich in interesting content - their Trends and ideas provides a daily dose of interesting business and technology ideas, and their blog list is around 30 strong with industry experts; and entrepreneurs tell their story of how they made good and lunch with an entrpreneur. A powerful resource for the modern professional.

Iain Blacklaw, CIO of BoQ talks to FST

Iain Blacklaw, CIO of BoQ talks to FST in this interview, another of their interesting series, some points from the interview:

- Bendigo is no longer on our radar screens
- As a bank we spend about 18 per cent of non interest expenditure on IT on a recurring basis
- It is unlikely another India with the same language, population and education mix will come along in the near future
- I’ve heard some consumers ask why banks are sending more and more of our jobs offshore.

Michelle Tredenick, CIO from NAB, takes the hot seat

FST Media have interviewed the CIO of NAB. She talks about key challenges, off shoring, NABs IT agenda for the next 3 years, Basel and Sarbanes-Oxley, trends and leadership. Some samples:

"The main issues when I arrived were the fact that technology had become very internally focused and lost its engagement with the business, and secondly that the financial investments were being poorly governed (technology and business)."

"Our credibility rests on our ability to deliver to the commitments we make and to work as a partner to the business in solving business issues. It's been rewarding to see us deliver on a huge investment agenda (publicly reported at $1.3 billion over 3 years) and have had an influenced in both shaping and executing that agenda together with the business."

"A key trend driving our thinking is customer expectations of their interactions with us as an organisation. New competitive shock and ‘change the game’ plays are also driving our thinking terms of technology advances enabling new business models. Without a doubt, the way consumers interact with technology and their expectations from what they know technology can do is changing and the wise business tries to stay at least even with what the customer wants!"

Couldnt have put it better myself - great work Michelle.

The New Apple iMac

The new iMac has arrived. Need I say more?

IBM e-Readiness Rankings

From IBM, they've released their e-Readiness Rankings report, with Denmark in 1st, US in 2nd, Hong Kong in 4th, Australia in 9th and New Zealand in 14th.

"Since 2000, IBM and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) have worked together to build an e-readiness rankings model of the world’s largest economies. It evaluates the technological, economic, political and social assets of almost 70 countries and their impact on their respective information economies.

E-readiness is the state of play of a country’s information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and the ability of its consumers, businesses and governments to use ICT to their benefit.

The rankings allow governments to gauge the success of their technology initiatives against those of other countries. They also provide companies that wish to invest in online operations with an overview of the world’s most promising investment locations."

ANZ CIO, Peter Dalton talks

FST Media has interviewed Peter Dalton on all things IT - offshoring, compliance, security, best practice, technology trends, mobile banking and the role of the CIO. Very interesting reading.

Extract from final para: "Technology has a tremendous role to play in the future of ANZ and banking in general and I would like my legacy to be that technology has enhanced people’s experience with banking and finance, making banking more convenient and more simple. At ANZ, the people in the technology department love using great technology, but more importantly they use it to create a better experience for our customers, for our staff and for the businesses who use it. Now we want to continue that journey so that the experience of the technology you have at ANZ is and remains outstanding." This focus on customers is not new, but excellent practice.

Speaking of FST, they have an interesting conference coming up - The Sydney Technology & Innovation for Banking and Financial Services Conference, 23 & 24 October. Like the interview above, this covers a range of challenges faced by technology and direct channels right now.

ACCC takes Google to court

OK so it begins - I've often wondered about the deliberately blurred line between organic and paid.

From The Age:

"Australia's consumer watchdog has launched a world-first court action accusing internet giant Google of misleading web users by misidentifying sponsored links on its search engine.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it wanted Google to stop publishing search results that fail to distinguish between paid advertisements and "organic" search results.

The ACCC said the case arose in 2005 when Google's search engine listed two car dealerships from the New South Wales city of Newcastle as sponsored links, which are paid for by companies to attract Internet users."

Amazon and TiVo threaten to take PC out of the picture

With TiVo due to launch in Aus very soon, what impact will this have on the PC as a delivery vehicle of TV content?

From ITWire:

"Most of us realize that watching movies on computers is the pits. That's why the video streaming features of Apple TV and Xbox 360 have caused a stir. However, Amazon and digital video recording provider TiVo have conspired to take the PC out of the picture with a new service that enables viewers to download movies direct to their TiVo PVR.

The tieup between Amazon's Unbox service - which offers over 10,000 items for immediate download - and TiVo means users can browse and select movies and TV shows directly from their TV screens. The content downloads onto the TiVo, where it shows up in the Now Playing list for playback on the TV."

Article continues.

By 2012, today's teens will rule

From The Age:

"WHO is Citizen 2.0? More powerful and influential than generation X or Y, harder for business and government to reach and a spearhead for workplace change, Citizen 2.0 is already subverting established business practice and will be a major force by 2012.

Citizen 2.0 is today's teenager, born in a connected world, accustomed to rapid change and possessing unique information-age skills. Citizen 2.0 will challenge any organisation selling products, services or ideas in the future.

To understand Citizen 2.0 is to embrace the concept of extended identity, an identity that transcends usual limitations of location, age and upbringing. Teenagers again provide the clue through their interest in using and being recognised for their blogs, gaming avatars, online friends and photos. This is not a recreation. It is an extension of who they are and establishes them as members of dozens of tribes and subcultures transcending many old barriers and norms.

We will not reach this new citizen through traditional methods of communication. Consider the filters we have in place to ignore the marketing information we do not want, and then consider the filtering power of a 21-year-old in 2012.

The smart money is banking that "market of one" approaches, targeting individual preferences, and pull-based marketing, in which consumers "opt-in" to receive content, will cut through."

Article continues.

Reminds me of this. Dick from Sxip.com delivers a compelling and dynamic introduction on Identity 2.0 and how the concept of digital identity is evolving. Even though this is 2 years old, its is one of the best presentations you'll see.

Chinese gamers rake in the cash

From The Age:

"It all takes place in cyberspace, where earning credits for online gamers who are too busy to do it themselves has become a handy source of extra income for the 21-year-old - and a full-time job for thousands of other Chinese.

When (Zhao) earns extra credits and online commodities, such as online gold and magic potions, he often sells them to other players so they can take a shortcut to virtually enhanced reputations. "In just five hours playing one time... I made 2000 yuan ($US260)."

China, with its cheap labour and low operational costs, has become a hub of such gold farms that export the online credits to South Korea, the United States and other developed nations. On the website of an American company, IGoldC, 10,000 golds for EverQuest II can be bought for $US154.70. Having your World of Warcraft level raised from level one to 70, the highest, costs $US450 - more than an average worker in Beijing can earn in a month.

Estimates of the number of Chinese gold farmers vary from 500,000 to over one million, as teenage drop-outs and jobless 20-somethings from poor villages or underdeveloped cities flood into the mushrooming gold-farming factories."

This is a new economy emerging where virtual credits and currencies are being created and exchanged. At the end of the day, its the gaming companies who'll make this money through increased interaction and users, but new cash from one company to a group of gamers may create new revenue into developing countries - can China's services ecport market now include internet gaming services as a sector?