Charting a course through data fog

Guest blog post by Sean Farrington, UK MD and RVP Northern Europe, QlikTech

Financial markets are experiencing a ‘data fog’. We are forever hearing about the increasing amount of data being generated, whether IBM’s comment about data volume doubling every two years for the average organisation, with that data needing to be managed for years, or Cisco’s recent prediction that there will be 15 billion connected devices by 2015 with a staggering amount of data traversing the networks as a result.

Too little thought is given to the amount of data (and sensitive data) being generated by the financial services, in my opinion. We know just how important access to data is for the financial services industry, however, as we work with over 250 financial service firms, including over 50 per cent of the Fortune global top 25. There have been several recent innovations in IT theory and we are continually working closely with the financial services firms to improve the algorithms and tools that help them gain access to relevant data so they can harness insights for business growth at the same time as providing increased transparency.

All too often, the focus is on big data and ensuring that all information is downloaded, stored and managed, in case of future regulatory requests and to mitigate political and legal risks. In our view, and judging by our customers’ needs in the financial sector, the focus should be on enabling organisations to empower their employees to harness data for insight and for business discovery. Backing data up and making it available for the long-term should happen regardless, but it’s the here and now that counts in the financial sector, and using IT and technology cleverly gives financial organisations the opportunity to collate data and analyse it to avoid repeating past mistakes as well as look for future growth opportunities.

Selling contactless

Just been reading an interesting blog post by Consult Hyperion's Dave Birch (find it here).

In a nutshell, Dave details some retailer and bank-related contactless calamities and concludes: "People have never heard of contactless and don't trust it, but if you show it to them and get them to use it then they love it and will continue to use it. So to overcome the initial barrier, we need people to see their mates using it rather than Usain Bolt, essentially...maybe it's time for the contactless chaps to abandon the flash adverts and get on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr instead."

Couldn't agree more. The banks and retailers still haven't sold the general public on contactless. The current Visa Europe advertising campaign, featuring Bolt running around a lot, is a good case in point. It's in the same vein as that rubbish rollercoaster ad from a couple of years back - i.e. looks like it was dreamt up by advertising execs who only know one way of doing things - style over substance. And even if it did get the message across in an effective way, in this age of Sky+ do people even watch TV ads anymore? I certainly don't. Get thee on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc and engage with users and then the contactless revolution might actually take place.

Anyhoo, that's enough from me. The sun is shining here in London and I'm off to enjoy it while it lasts. Have a good weekend!

Metro Bank hit by comic's Twitter tirade

Metro Bank's social media policy has been put severely to the test in recent days.

Comedian Al Murray took to Twitter to blast the bank over the opening of its 12th branch in Chiswick.

Murray tweeted on Friday: 'I have actually crossed the road to avoid the toe curling god awful pisspoor balloon waving music blaring launch of my local Metro bank.' Posting a pic of the opening celebrations, he added: 'I love it when cretins treat the rest of us like morons.'

He then invited his followers to use a rather unflattering hashtag, which I won't repeat lest any children are reading (unlikely I know but hey ho). Metro Bank initially stayed out of the debate, but decided to respond when a few days later Murray was at it again. On Tuesday, he tweeted. 'Metro Bank: Another "reason for joining - no stupid bank rules". Um isn't that what landed us all in it?'

The bank shot back with 'Hi Al. We'd love to welcome you into our Chiswick store and explain what we're all about. When are you free?' 'That's very kind but very busy at the moment,' came the comic's reply.

Should they have responded earlier? Possibly. But Metro Bank are one of the better banks when it comes to social media and they did at least get there in the end. It's good to see a bank showing a proactive approach to monitoring and interacting with the public on sites such as Twitter. Rather than burying your head in the sand and hoping for the best, as continues to be the case with many financial institutions.

FStech/Retail Systems Payments Conference

Right, time to get cracking on the second FStech/Retail Systems Payments Technology Conference.

Taking place in London on Thursday, 1 November and chaired by Vendorcom's Paul Rodgers, this event will bring together the retail and financial services sectors to network and discuss cards and payments services, the present and future. This year, there will be a particular focus on mobile banking and payments. Senior figures from across the retail, financial services, technology vendor and telco sectors will come together to debate the key issues, innovations and barriers to the mass-market deployment of mobile. 

The event will also showcase the latest developments and services and products in such areas as: contactless cards; self-service technologies, SEPA, payment security, online payments, the future of cash and cheques and social payments.

The 2012 website will launch shortly. In the meantime, you can find the 2011 site here. 

I'm on the look out for speakers, particularly speakers from retail and FS organisations as well as analysts/consultants. So feel free to get in touch if you would like to take part. You can find my contact details here.

FStech launches digital edition

Here at FStech we're very excited about the launch of the digital edition of the mag. It's something we've been working on for a while and yesterday it was finally unleashed.

Our new interactive digital format allows readers to easily search, browse and navigate news, features, articles, commentary and adverts. All content is hyperlinked for a richer online experience, which now also includes user-friendly viewing on smartphones and tablet devices.

You can read the March/April issue here.

Any comments/feedback greatly appreciated. Thanks and happy reading!

Slough?I? Are you sure?

It's best known as the home of massively overrated sitcom The Office and the place that inspired some cutting (and equally overrated) verse by John Betjeman. But now Slough has a new claim to fame.

Figures released by Experian show it has overtaken London to become the identity fraud capital of the UK. The Berkshire town recorded 25 identity fraud attempts for every 10,000 households, with residents targeted at around four times the UK national average (seven households in every 10,000).

At first I thought, Slough? Really? But the logic is that the fraudsters are shifting their attentions away from the wealthier groups in society, those who live in prestigious London postcodes (David Cameron and his cabinet etc etc), to lower income demographics. The highest rates of identity fraud are now to be found in the Thames Valley and London’s Olympic neighbourhoods.

And on that bombshell, I wish you a great bank holiday weekend. Oh, and if you disagree re. The Office (good but not the work of genius it's often made out to be...I prefer the US version) and Betjeman's yawnfest, feel free to let me know.

Social networks in FS – Facebook remains the best option

Guest blog post by Stephen Dunnigan, Country Manager UK & Ireland, MicroStrategy

I can empathise with some of Scott’s recent FStech blog on the use of Twitter and Facebook in FS. We have all seen too many ‘amusing faces in the pub’ photos, but I just can’t agree with the idea that Twitter has replaced Facebook as the social network of choice in FS.

Of all the social networks, Facebook has by far the highest number of active users – around 900 million at the last estimate – and also the richest data on its users. Using that data, the potential for targeted and relevant marketing is huge. Users can be segmented based on their  interests, psychographics, demographics, preferences and likes. Segments can be targeted with personalised content, special offers, and recommendations based on who they are, where they come from, and what they like.

The best way of doing this is via closer integration of IT and marketing to forge social CRM strategies. At last year’s MicroStrategy Social Media Marketing and iCommerce Summit, Facebook’s Tim Campos spoke about how organisations can monetise their Facebook data by converting the site's social graph data structure into a relational data structure, enabling the use of existing Facebook data for enterprise applications. These apps enable personalised messaging based on the rich and constantly updating Facebook data – ideal for customer engagement and building brand loyalty.

The Corporate Insight research cited by Scott last week does reveal that 88 per cent of the FS companies surveyed were on Facebook and 92 per cent on Twitter. Yet so many Twitter accounts are inactive or spam and the user numbers do not come anywhere near to those on Facebook. And the nature of Twitter – 140 characters per update – means that the users it does have do not reveal much of substance that could be used by FS marketers. I do not mean spam, but relevant, targeted and personalised offers based on that user’s profile and interests.

While many of the status updates may seems trivial, only Facebook allows FS firms to engage with customers and prospects in a meaningful way, so the odd un-flattering picture of a friend in the pub is a price worth paying.