Author Archive

Brian R. Geisel Executive Vice President, Enterprise Payments Goldleaf Financial Solutions, Inc. Many financial institutions have gotten back to the basics and retrenched a bit during the economic downturn. Cost cutting is certainly advisable and represents a good defensive stance, but you can't let the pendulum swing too far. In many respects the best time to invest ... Full story

Kathleen Khirallah Managing Director, Banking Practice TowerGroup The waning months of 2009 are an interesting time for financial institutions around the globe. All banks are operating under economic pressure of varying degrees, but some institutions are proactively positioning themselves for an eventual recovery. They are investing in their individual markets and moving ahead with programs to re-establish trust ... Full story

Frank D'Angelo Sr. EVP Metavante Corporation President, Payment Solutions Group Following years of aggressive build-out, United States financial institutions are facing more pressure than ever to improve efficiency ratios, streamline operations and do more with fewer resources. One way to reduce expenses is to outsource increasingly expensive operational functions, such as back-office processing. The advantages of outsourcing are ... Full story

Bindia Hallauer CTO, WW Financial Services Microsoft Corporation We are seeing that banks, capital markets firms and insurance companies absolutely want to reduce costs, at the same time they are under a lot of pressure to manage risk and deliver innovation. To gain competitive advantage banks need to - • Build the bottom line through cost cutting and ... Full story

Hal Tilbury Chairman, President and CEO Bluepoint Solutions Community based financial institutions are looking for ways to improve and/or maintain margins. One approach is to grow deposits, but a more promising method is to focus on cost-reduction areas. One area is the institution's electronic document management system.Thousands of institutions are saddled with first-generation document management systems. These legacy ... Full story

David Foss President ProfitStars For the past year or so, many financial institutions have been in defensive mode, but we are beginning to see a positive turnaround. There are many reasons for cautious optimism and many institutions are feeling better about the economy. Slowly the defensive strategy of strictly controlling expenses and managing risks is giving way to ... Full story

In spite of the current economic malaise, quite a few financial institutions are still growing - principally those willing to play offense and defense. In many respects the glass is more than half full, and there is an abundance of opportunities for financial institutions of all sizes to help their existing customers, and bring in ... Full story

Tony Kleckner Director, Financial Services Industry Practice Avaya To help stretch scarce resources banks need to take a look at technology, such as Unified Communications (UC), to improve employee productivity, increase customer satisfaction and provide rapid ROI. CIOs, however, also need to avoid technology trials that don't have pre-identified compelling business benefits. A recent Forrester analysis entitled ‘UC ... Full story

Tom Berdan Vice President, Product Management Harland Financial Solutions In many respects, an economic downturn is a perfect time for banks to take a closer look at their operations and find ways to increase efficiency without adding headcount. In our experience with banks across the country, the biggest return comes when three areas are considered in concert: people, ... Full story

Jerry Driscoll Regional Director of FSI, IPG Enterprise Software Exstream Software by HP Reducing costs is a priority for financial services firms of any size during these trying economic conditions. Electronic document delivery is one area where every institution can realize immediate cost savings in expensive printing and postage expenses. It can also be ... Full story