Engaging with social media – the acid test for Asset Managers

Guest blog post by Ian Hallam, CEO, 3i Infotech
 

The technological environment for the Asset Manager is shifting at a rapid pace. It all hinges around data - and our hunger for it. People are consuming data at a startling rate following widespread technological and infrastructure improvements, such as the installation of the fibre optic network in 2000, and the resulting access to broadband internet services in most homes. Combined with more recent developments in smart phones and online forums, themselves original products of the tech programming and gaming sectors, consumption of data is now increasingly driven by social networking technologies. These technologies, once the mainstay of teenagers, are starting to proliferate into professional and business services.  

With this comes an increasing acceptance of online interaction, such that we now have business-oriented services like LinkedIn, combined with message platforms, such as Twitter. As such, the devices that we use day in and day out are converging to meet our requirements - helping us have access where we want and when we want. This means we’re always on the go, multi-tasking, bombarded by data - all fuelling our increasing desire for an instant response.

With this ever evolving environment in mind, the Asset Management community is faced with the needs of an increasingly technically savvy and data hungry investor. Technology providers can already provide the end investor with the ability to access their portfolio on their chosen mobile device at any given time. The differentiator will be in how the information is filtered and presented. The most competitive applications will enable a tailored portal to portfolio information, configured to operate to an individual’s settings and provide the ability to filter out unwanted information. The balance of discretionary and advisory service could potentially change as a result of applications providing access to the end investor for evaluations, investment model analysis, running ‘what-if’ scenarios and so on.  

So how will this assist the Asset Manager of the future? Those Asset Management firms that will take the lead will not necessarily just adopt the technology, but rather embrace it and look for ways to demonstrate even greater value. With the converged devices of the future it should be a very real scenario that clients can access a tailored dashboard via a mobile device, anywhere in the world, and be able to be advised on updates and portfolio operations in real time by their Asset Manager. 

Jack Squares up to payments industry

I started tracking Jack Dorsey’s Square venture during my stint as Retail Systems Editor and, since taking over at FStech, have stepped up my interest (for obvious reasons!)

The Twitter co-founder’s company is upping its bid to ‘revolutionise’ the payments sector with Square Register and Card Case. The Square Register app for iPad replaces cash registers with “a beautiful, full featured, touch-enabled PoS and checkout solution.” It enables businesses to easily manage the items they sell, check daily transactions, update pricing, automate checkout, generate digital receipts, and maintain virtual storefronts so customers can discover and explore new offerings when they’re in the neighborhood. Card Case allows iPhone and Android users to explore local businesses, view menus, track and store digital receipts and open digital tabs to make instant purchases on their phones. Further info here.

Dorsey has certainly got the payments ‘establishment’ rattled. VeriFone CEO Doug Bergeron recently wrote an open letter, warning of a serious security threat with Square’s card reader and calling on the company to recall its devices. “In less than an hour, any reasonably skilled programmer can write an application that will “skim” - or steal - a consumer’s financial and personal information right off the card utilising an easily obtained Square card reader. How do we know? We did it. Tested on sample Square card readers with our own personal credit cards, we wrote an application in less than an hour that did exactly this,” Bergeron stated.

“The issue is that Square’s hardware is poorly constructed and lacks all ability to encrypt consumers’ data, creating a window for criminals to turn the device into a skimming machine in a matter of minutes,” he added.

Security issues aside, Dorsey’s company has undeniable momentum right now. As Brett King, author of  BANK 2.0 and founder of Movenbank, recently tweeted: “What does it say about bank innovation when @Square launches Cardcase with 50 partners, and @Visa launches e-Wallet with 14 partners?”

Square is aiming to revolutionise the behemouth that is the payments industry, an industry that, let’s be honest, has had things its own way for too long. Will it succeed? Unlikely. It will be hard to make much of a mark, but Dorsey has set the ball rolling and that’s what really counts.

App-solute rubbish

Good Lord, did you see the second episode of The Apprentice last week, the one where the contestants (Britain’s entreprenurial elite, or something) had to build a mobile app? After consulting with those in the know and doing ‘extensive’ market research (consisting of wandering up to random people in the street and annoying them), they came up with an app that made a limited number of annoying noises and another that spat out phrases like ‘if you can’t drive it, park it’ in cockney, scouse etc dialect.

The Apprentice has long since given up any pretence towards being a serious business show, having strayed into freak show territory during series two, but even by its low standards the apps were awful. On the plus side, it was good to see an appearance by the folks at Grapple, who have created apps for the likes of BT, Xbox and T-Mobile. Pity the contestants paid no attention to the sound advice they were given.

If you’ve got the stomach for it, you can watch The Apprentice here.

Apple - It's everyone you want to be?

Guest blog post by Michael Koploy, ERP market analyst at Software Advice

Every year since 2007, Apple has rolled out a new model of its popular iPhone. But the next iteration may change not just the cell phone arena forever, but both the technology and financial landscapes.

What about this next iPhone would be so different? It's not the likely improved camera, faster processor, or higher-resolution screen. It's the ability to act as your Visa or Mastercard. Apple can do this by including near field communication (NFC) technology in its latest smartphone, a technology powered by radio frequency identification (RFID) chips. Many Android and BlackBerry phones are getting the technology this year, and Apple's iPhone is rumored to be next.

So how would an NFC iPhone be different? Apple would be able to integrate shopping applications and other financial apps with the NFC service to make a new shopping experience any other hardware or software company couldn't provide. By doing so, Apple could set up its own merchant services account and receive a portion of every iPhone-based credit transaction.

Could it then become an all-new credit card brand, like Visa or Mastercard? Apple certainly has the capital to invest in such a network, if they choose - to the tune of $60 billion in cash. What direction will they take NFC functionality?

For further discussion on this vision, check out: Why Apple is Poised to Become the King of Payments

Hello, good evening and welcome

There's a new FStech Editor in town. Allow me to introduce myself. The name's Scott Thompson and I have over 13 years of experience in business and technology journalism including four years in the editorial hotseat at FStech's sister title, Retail Systems - the leading business/tech title for IT decision makers in multi-channel retail. Further info on my career to date here. And I can be contacted at: scott.thompson@fstech.co.uk

Thanks to outgoing Editor, Sophie Baker, for her sterling work during the past year, which has included steering the publication through a major redesign and name change from FST - Financial Sector Technology - to FStech and also launching a new look blog. I'm looking forward to carrying on this work and to driving the brand forward (both in print and online) in 2011 and beyond. First up, I'll be taking our May/June issue to press (look out for a number of new sections in the mag - due out in early June), then I'll be working on boosting the title's online and social media presence. BTW, you can follow us on Twitter @FStechnology. And also on Linkedin.

That's all from me for now, but please check back here on a regular basis as I plan to make the blog a major part of the FStech portfolio with frequent updates from myself and guest bloggers. Thompson out! 

Guest Blog: SEPA for corporates – a three-step migration strategy

By Steve Hawkes, Product Manager, Experian Payments

The European Central Bank’s Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell recently reiterated her desire for European lawmakers to mandate migration to SEPA Credit Transfers by the end of 2012 and to SEPA Direct Debits by the end of 2013. The adoption of SEPA to date has been slower than anticipated and Tumpel-Gugerell cites three main reasons for this lethargy: “market uncertainty, a difficult economic environment, and resistance to migrate to the new system as long as there is no binding and definitive end point.”

Meanwhile, the European Payments Council (EPC) has warned the European Commission not to abuse its executive powers and take on a standards-setting role in the push to create SEPA, arguing that banks must retain their primacy in the development of payment systems. In its Annual Activity Report 2010, the EPC delivers a clear message: "Self-regulation by banks provides the most efficient means to create innovative, effective, secure and stress-resistant payment systems."

While industry bodies fight out the detail, what does SEPA mean for the corporate community? What do corporates need to do to make the migration process as painless as possible and how should banks be supporting their corporate customers through this process?

In our view, there are three main aspects that corporates need to consider in their SEPA strategy.

1.       Corporates need to assess their existing operations against the new regulatory requirements to create the scope of their SEPA planning. So, they need to consider questions such as: In which countries do operate? Which countries do I make payments into and within? It’s also important to be fully aware of when each domestic euro clearing system will migrate to IBAN and BIC and the requirements for compliance. By understanding local migration plans, corporates can determine how and when SEPA will impact their payments processes and address this in their plans.

2. Having embarked on the migration process, it is important to complete it as quickly as possible to avoid maintaining two separate sets of data in parallel. Usually, payment details originate from a number of systems, so the location and quality of bank account information needs to be examined and the relationship between data held in separate systems established. This will define the number of records that need to be converted, and how many of these are likely to need correction or enhancement to avoid errors.

3. Corporates need to convert and validate IBAN information and identify errors in their existing data. Some banks help their customers by fixing problems with domestic transactions without their knowledge. This means that the actual data error rate may be higher than the percentage of rejected transactions experienced.

What’s more, while many banks are happy to provide BIC and IBAN details for their own customer accounts, some are reluctant to contact other banks in various countries to obtain and generate the details.

The good news is that the most proactive European banks are already helping their corporate customers by familiarising them with the upcoming changes. They are supporting them throughout the migration process, in order to minimise correction and rejection charges of failed payments. Hopefully, such a collaborative approach will help both banks and their corporate customers make the most out of the long-anticipated Single Euro Payments Area.