Just tracking the public changes being made at Rogers. The complete network failure occurred July 8th. 13 days later a new CTO was installed. ByDerek Decloet 21 July 2022, 11:20 GMT-4 Cable and wireless firm Rogers Communications Inc. installed a new head of technology after the company suffered a nationwide network failure that’s expected to cost more than $125 million. Ron McKenzie was named Rogers’ new chief technology officer, replacing Jorge Fernandes, who has left the company, a Rogers spokesperson said in a message. The change was first reported by the Globe and Mail newspaper. Today Rogers announced steps to … Continue reading Tracking the Rogers Jul 8th network failure

Celent reports at Finextra on the likely agenda for Bank IT investment in 2009.  No real surprises as Banks expected to think about rich internet [think Ajax] and social features.  However no surprise on the qualification that few such web 2.0 things will appear in 2009, so it might more of an experimential year. North American bank IT spending to grow in 2009 – Celent | Finextra Unsurprisingly risk management is expected to be the top trend this year, as banks look to get more use out of their systems in the wake of the crisis. Banks will stop viewing … Continue reading North American bank IT spending priorities – Celent | Finextra

HSBC recognise the inherent problem with multiple systems and disparate, complex, mainframe based processes – and they are doing something about it.  The presentation is worth the read.  It describes a situation that is not unlike most large Banks, and their approach to solve it is refreshing in that it recognises the fundamental role technology plays.  In particular it recognises the role the web, and web methods play in driving simplicity.  HSBC on the value of IT | Finextra More details on the project can be found in a Webcast and PDF presentation made to analysts on 28 October, and … Continue reading ONE HSBC offers a plan to reduce complexity and cost in IT

George at Forrester highlights the results of their research, that technology spend will reduce.  The relevance to Bankwatch is the data on spend by financial services.  In particular as much as we feel ‘owned’ by IBM their revenues from US are only 6% – fascinating! Forrester: mild tech slowdown ahead Some IT vendors focus on financial services, and could find their business mildly tightened. Tata Consultancy (TCS) gets 43% of its revenues from financial services; Infosys 34%; IBM 29% (but only 6% from US financial firms). … The financial services sector (investment banks, regional banks, local banks, mutual fund companies, … Continue reading Forrester: mild tech slowdown ahead

Further to my post back in April, its time to re-evaluate the Banks that do in fact get the web lifestyle, and are trying different things.  Offerring online banking does not get any mention in this.  Others, including especially netbanker do a great job at evaluating the latest online banking offerrings.  I am interested in how Banks are broadly embracing the web lifestyle. Its not a long list, so suggestions are welcome. There are a few Credit Unions doing interesting stuff with blogs, and social media, and I will be looking to see if its clear that the conversations are … Continue reading Which Banks get the Web Lifestyle | RBC

Thought I would try out Office Live, despite the poor reviews today.  Microsoft Office Live Workspaces misses the mark – Yahoo! News OLW also requires Internet Explorer for full functionality. Well, it turns out I can’t use it with Firefox, since IE is not available in my Linux OS.  MS just don’t get it.  I want to try it out, and they want to force me into Windows.  Nice try. PS … Google Docs is working just fine Technorati Tags: office+live Powered by ScribeFire. Continue reading Microsoft misses the mark again with Office Live

Wordy, but interesting article on technology trends, that is quite deep, and highly relevant.  I found it useful to help sort through the relevance of peer to peer, and get a bit more granular on the benefits. business technology trends – Eight business technology trends to watch – Information Technology – Applications – The McKinsey Quarterly Technology alone is rarely the key to unlocking economic value: companies create real wealth when they combine technology with new ways of doing business. Through our work and research, we have identified eight technology-enabled trends that will help shape businesses and the economy in … Continue reading Eight Business Technology trends | Mckinsey

Fascinating interview from the thoughtful JP, now Managing Director, Design (was CIO) at British Telecom.  Note, BT has 150,000 employees worldwide.  This wide ranging interview speaks about converting BT to a platform based. networked company.  This is no different than a Bank, when you consider the multiple branch nodes, thousands or tens of thousands of employees, and billions of transactions annually.  Watch for start ups to figure this out too.  The CTO role gets in the way of effective customer experience design. » CIO BT Design: JP Rangaswami – Transcript | CIO Sessions Vision Series on ZDNet.com Dan Farber: Now you’ve been … Continue reading Part of the reason to get rid of the CIO title was …. customer | JP Rangaswami, BT