Having just posted the three Web 2.0 tools to watch for banks, thought it worthwhile to dig down on the one that's least obvious, memetracking. Relevance to Bankwatch: Many powerful tools are appearing, and they will change online banking. In particular, three tools to watch that smart Banks will lever are: ajax tagging otherwise known as folksonomy memetracking such as Digg, Tailrank, Newsvine. I recall back in the heady days of online banking beginning, and pre-dot com crash, one of the aspects we dreamt of was intelligent agents. Those would be technical tools, we thought of as bots, that would … Continue reading Intelligent agents, and memetrackers

Lightbulbs are beginning to appear in traditional business, and William Bland's latest piece at Forrester (subscription) captures the thought well.  You cannot build business strategy (for banks) in a vacuum, and simply implement that in the technology later.  Technology is an implicit part of the strategy creation. Forrester Research: Using Technology To Improve Your Customer Experience Integrate the online experience with other channels. Online interactions are not viewed as a separate part of the customer experience. Vanguard service associates use the company Web site as their desktop. When a retail client or plan participant phones in with a question, the … Continue reading Experience Based Differentiation is critical to successful channels ( Forrester Research )

In a follow up to yesterdays Oyster setback, TfL indicate in The Times that they are still keen to proceed, but can’t get the economics to work.  Again refer to yesterdays commentary here.  Its going to be hard to make this work, no matter how many boffins are stuck into that shed.  That comment is typical of the frustration of big companies who haven’t achieved the right level of integration with their technology groups.  Everyone/ company is in the technology business now, whether they like it or not. TfL’s Oyster-card ambitions hit delays – Industry sectors – Times Online TfL … Continue reading Everybody is a technologist

McAfee makes a clear argument that strategic IT doesn't have to be advanced or sexy, using the Spanish clothing store Zara as an example. Its how you use the right tools that is the key. Andrew McAfee The IT that facilitates such tight synchronization, however, is simple to the point of being primitive. For example: Point-of-sale terminals in stores run on DOS and are not networked One terminal has a dial-up modem, which is used to transfer files (via the ftp protocol) to and from headquarters The same modem is used to transmit digital order forms to and from PDAs, … Continue reading The Slippery Nature of ‘Strategic’ IT

Good IT is key in the war against the enemy within – PKF – Times Online

By Liz Loxton
The challenges facing businesses when they fear they are victims of dodgy dealing
we can only use this for up to 30 days after it was used in the paper

DISCOVERING a fraud would come as a shock to any organisation, particularly when the fraudster turns out to be an employee or colleague. However, more than 80 per cent of frauds are committed by managers or employees, says David Dearman, a partner at PKF.

�Those individuals know the procedures and how the controls can be circumvented. I don�t think any organisation is without risk from employees,� Dearman says.
Continue reading “Good IT is key in the war against the enemy within”