Archive for the ‘Special Features’ Category

I just got off the phone with a Sprint call center. Helpful man, he went through my account and transferred the billing address in just a minute or two. Before ending the call, he asked if he could interest me in Sprint PCS service. And then the inevitable, “Have I provided satisfactory service to you today?” or something like that. You’ve probably heard it a ... Full story

Alenka Grealish is the manager of Celent's banking practice. Her research focuses on the automation of the financial supply chain, B2B payments, check imaging, and retail Internet banking. Prior to joining Celent, Ms. Grealish worked for The Boston Consulting Group and for the Federal Reserve Bank, where she was an associate economist. Which banks ... Full story

Forget focus groups. Instead, watch what your customers are doing. That’s the thinking behind Synapse Technology’s Event Based Marketing solution (EBM) and the concept of Right Time Selling. Every night, its application, built on SQL Server and .NET, reviews up to 25 months of customer loan and deposit records hunting for significant departures from a customer’s general practices, such as a $50,000 deposit hitting an account ... Full story

Advent Software has launched a new investment management application that combines portfolio accounting and reporting with client relationship management in a single platform that runs on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server. The new system, called Advent Portfolio Exchange (APX), emerged from 24 months of development and extensive testing by several asset managers. Bryon ... Full story

Sarsha Adrian, who founded Collaborative Financial Concepts and designed Business Pay Connection, has a long background in technology, including DEC and IBM. She built Business Pay Connection on Microsoft’s .NET. “The development environment of .NET is absolutely fantastic, and I have been developing software my whole life,” she said. “We owe our ability to ... Full story

It’s the deposits, stupid. If James Carville were running the BAI’s retail delivery show this year, he might post that sign over the entrance. Then again, Carville and BAI would make a rather odd combination, so don’t hold your breath waiting. The collection mechanisms that banks use to gather deposits are called branches, and they are rising everywhere. Using them effectively is a challenge. First, you have ... Full story

When a large global consumer products company wanted a better understanding of its financial positions in hundreds of bank accounts around the world, it turned to Citigroup, its lead bank, for assistance. “Large companies, whether they are multi-national or regional, have banking and financial accounts all over the globe,” explained Gary Greenwald, managing director ... Full story

Ray Davis gets two or three bankers a month visiting Umpqua Bank, based in Portland, OR, with branches in Washington and northern California too. They come to see the bank that takes retailing seriously. And acts like a retailer. “I don’t think we are doing anything that is rocket science,” said Davis, the company’s CEO. “This is marketing management 101 – I’m sure at Microsoft they ... Full story

Sarsha Adrian wants to get small businesses out of the lending business and help banks get into it cost-effectively. “Trade credit, extending terms for 30 to 90 days, is a way for companies to sell their products and services,” she explained. “That’s fine for big companies, which have ways of accessing capital to do it.” But small companies rarely have easy access to capital, and even ... Full story

When shoppers enter a Gap store, employees know they are there because they want to look good. They want something to wear that will be right for the occasion, will make them feel attractive, appropriate, fashionable... When customers walk into Starbucks, baristas know they want caffeine, they want it exactly the way they want it, and they want it fast. But when customers walk into ... Full story