MassBankers e-News - 07/13/2009

 

Implementing Successful Mobile Banking Solutions: The Four Phase Approach
By Diarmuid Mallon, Senior Product Marketing Manager, mCommerce, Sybase

“Today, Bank A offers text message alerts, while Bank B offers text message alerts, bill payment and money transfers. What’s the difference?”

Mobile Banking Implementation Trends

 

Mobile Banking Implementation Trends    Past  Present  Future  Bank     A SMS Alerts SMS Alerts SMS Alerts WAP and rich client channels   Bank     B SMS Alerts WAP SMS Alerts WAP Rich client SMS Alerts WAP and rich client Mobile payments, mobile wallet, P2P payments, NFC

 

Mobile banking implementation trends show Banks are rapidly embracing mobile banking services at an accelerated rate. However, as some Banks are pushing ahead in their implementations, others are lagging behind.

In the rush to launch mobile banking services, banks often overlook key strategic technology decisions. While silo, channel-specific services are initially faster to implement, they create limitations as banks move from simple mobile banking services to full mobile commerce offerings. Mobile banking success and failure lies in its technology strategy, understanding the four phases of mobile banking implementation ensures a sound strategy is in place from the beginning.

The Growth of Mobile Banking: Consumers and Banks
The industry has been discussing mobile banking for over a decade now, and finally in 2008 and 2009 we are seeing banks and consumers start to fully exploit this service. Sybase 365’s Global Mobile Banking surveys examined consumer and bank trends and implementations around mobile banking services. Results revealed considerable momentum for mobile banking, with an additional 32% of Banks worldwide expecting to offer mobile banking services in the next 12-24 months. Results also captured consumer enthusiasm with 40% of all bank customers interested in mobile banking, while 25% would consider switching Banks for mobile banking.

As interest in mobile banking continues to gain momentum and banks undertake a variety of strategies to win consumers, Sybase 365 believes it is important to assess where the market is going and what strategies will be most effective. Specifically, what decisions might be made today that can positively, or negatively, affect consumer adoption rates?

The Four Phases: Successfully implementing mobile banking
Today, banks are actively launching and testing a myriad of mobile banking solutions-from simple SMS alerts/notifications, enhanced mobile browsers to complex downloadable rich-client applications. Understanding the four phases for mobile banking implementation helps banks choose appropriate technologies that ensure consumer adoption, monetization opportunities and product enhancement. Breaking out of a single channel approach and offering mobile services by multiple channels in phases that are conducive to consumer adoption will provide long-term, sustained monetization opportunities.

Phase 1 – The New Channel: Addressing the Mobile Channel
Proactively interacting with consumers by simple SMS alerts and notifications allows greater consumer penetration and awareness, leading to successful implementation of more complex mobile banking services in the future.
Strategy: Create consumer awareness.
Implementation: Simple alert/notification SMS push.

Phase 2 – The New Return: Cost savings from the Mobile Channel
As consumers start embracing mobile banking, the next phase is creating interaction – proactive interaction with their banks, with their mobile device. This phase introduces the initial cost-reduction opportunity for banks.

Strategy: Create consumer interaction.

Implementation: Simple interactive services: checking balances, reviewing recent transactions and mini-statements, etc., on single silo platforms (SMS, WAP, rich-client).

Phase 3: The New Growth: Innovative fee based services
As consumer adoption accelerates, the next phase is implementing complex mobile services to monetize the mobile channel. Offering innovative, mobile-channel-only services with fees charged, allow banks to move consumers to the next level of mobile banking.

Strategy: Create interactive services with value.
Implementation: Complex services: funds transfer, bill payments, 2FA, Panic Pay, etc., by upgrading existing platform with WAP or rich-client applications.
Phase 4: The New Value: Mobile Financial Services
This phase culminates mobile financial services, and occurs when consumers are fully engaged and comfortable using mobile devices in their daily financial regimen. This phase allows banks to fully monetize the mobile channel by implementing unconventional financial services.

Strategy: Create broader mobile commerce applications.
Implementation: Advanced services: micro-payments, person-to-person transfers, remittances, top-ups, mobile wallet, NFC transactions, etc., by upgrading existing platform.

Technology considerations
One of the most crucial considerations for mobile banking is technology and the platform a bank implements. As outlined above, each phase in mobile banking implementation requires technology decisions. For example, in Phase 1, banks can choose from an array of messaging aggregators and for a product, consider alert engine options to automate scheduling and delivery of alerts/notifications. It is in Phase 2, is where banks rush to implement solutions that are channel-specific – SMS, WAP or rich-client –thereby commit a critical strategic error. This critical error occurs because successfully navigating to Phase 3; banks should have three things in place:

(1) Fast access to data
(2) Comprehensive model for security
(3) Architectural flexibility

Having silo platforms in Phase 2, makes migrating to Phase 3 technologically challenging, as data, security and architecture attributes have to contend with multiple platforms.
In Phase 2, when implementing a single mobile channel, it’s strategically critical for banks to consider a platform that allows upgrades to multiple mobile channels, without having to change or compromise data access and security integration. Thus, moving towards Phase 3, banks can easily enhance their mobile financial services, without investing considerable capital in re-mapping data access and security integrations to multiple new platforms. Once Phase 3 is in place, advanced architecture flexibility allows easy integration of mobile commerce capabilities for banks to offer a complete spectrum of mobile financial services.
To successfully implement a mobile banking strategy, crucial technology and platform decisions have to be made in Phases 2 and 3 that involve choosing a flexible, comprehensive mobile banking platform that paves the way to Phase 4, mobile commerce, with minimal rework.

As industry experts and studies indicate, Mobile Banking is no longer perceived as an interesting option, but considered an essential business imperative that lays the foundation to more robust mobile payments and mobile commerce offerings in the future. Initiating a mobile strategy that embraces consumer awareness with alerts and notifications, and then moving to more complex mobile banking and payment services allows banks to quickly monetize all mobile financial services. Choosing a mobile financial services platform that easily integrates new services and mobile channels allows banks flexibility and opportunity to embrace the full potential of mobile financial services. The mobile phone represents more than an extension of online banking; it offers an opportunity to reach and meet the changing demands of current and new customers, and Sybase 365’s market-leading end-to-end mobile commerce solutions can help you plan your mobile strategy.

Download FREE Edgar & Dunn Company Whitepaper: “Realizing the True Potential of Mobile Commerce”

FREE webinar: From Mobile Banking to Mobile Payments: How Banks Get there?
www.sybase.com/sybase365webinars

Learn more about Sybase solutions at: http://www.sybase.com/mobileservices/financial-services

Contact us at: info365@sybase.com

 

 

Google Mots clés : Mbanking, Mobile banking, HPS, Morocco, Sybase

 

Africa as a mobile banking benchmark

 

Africa probably boast the most advanced, oldest and most successful examples of mobile banking solutions on the planet today. It is not difficult to understand why, as this is also one of the fastest growing markets for mobile telephony in the world.

The Celpay deployment in Zambia was one of the first mobile payment solution deployed and is still operational today. This implementation currently manages about 2% of Zambia's GNP on mobile payments. I am not aware of any other mobile payment solution that can make the same claim. One of the other Celpay deployments (in the DRC - a country as large as most of Europe and with a population of more than 120 million people) runs roughly five million mobile payment transactions a month.

Other solutions (like the m-Pesa deployment) is often quoted by Vodafone as THE Vodafone mobile payment reference. This solution runs on the Vodafone network in Kenya (Safaricom) and boasts advanced cash management capabilities. Wizzit (an innovative mobile banking deployment for the under-banked) is often quoted as an example of empowerment of under-banked and the creation of jobs.

In a country like Nigeria (one of the most oil-rich countries in the world) one finds many advanced mobile banking and payment solutions - supported by advanced central bank regulations. Deployments like eTranzact, Flash-me-Cash and mobile banking provided by the central switch (Interswitch) must definitely be rated as some of the most advanced deployments in the world, with a large take-up and growing.

Every bank in South Africa have deployed advanced mobile banking and payment solutions. This market is currently growing at the rate of more than thirty-five thousand subscribers per month. The mobile banking market have grown to one million subscribers in just over two years. Few countries can claim this achievement. The MTN banking deployment in South Africa (an innovative product supported by MTN - the largest operator in Africa and Standard Bank - the largest bank in Africa) features advanced and unique characteristics (like a banking starter pack and "pay-as-you-go" banking to name a few).

It is no doubt that Africa is one of the leaders in mobile banking with advanced solutions and successful references.

Google Mots clés : Mbanking, mobile banking, Payment systems, HPS, Interswitch, Morocco, Nigeria, MTN, Vodfone

Le Figaro - Sociétés : Le PDG de Google quitte le conseil d'administration d'Apple

 

• 
  Eric Schmidt, patron de Google.

• Eric Schmidt démissionne de ses fonctions, afin d'éviter tout conflit d'intérêts entre les deux groupes.

  

  Apple et Google de plus en plus concurrents ? La question se pose après l'annonce du départ d'Eric Schmidt, patron de Google, du conseil d'administration d'Apple, au sein duquel il siégeait depuis août 2006.

  Pour Steve Jobs, le patron d'Apple, il s'agit d'éviter les «conflits d'intérêts». «Maintenant que Google pénètre de plus en plus le coeur de métier d'Apple, avec (les systèmes d'exploitation) Android et Chrome OS, l'efficacité d'Eric comme administrateur d'Apple sera très réduite, car il aura à se récuser de parties de plus en plus importantes de nos réunions pour éviter de potentiels conflits d'intérêts. Donc nous avons décidé d'un commun accord que c'était le bon moment pour qu'Eric démissionne du conseil d'administration d'Apple», a souligné le patron de la firme basée à Cupertino en Californie.

  Plus tôt dans l'année, certains régulateurs de la nouvelle administration Obama montraient déjà du doigt la présence d'Eric Schmidt au conseil d'administration d'Apple.

  Divergences

  Il faut dire qu'initialement, le spectre des activités de Google était centré autour de la recherche sur Internet, quand celui d'Apple tournait plutôt autour du matériel informatique. Une situation qui les avait amenés à nouer de nombreux partenariats, avec comme conséquence l'arrivée au sein du conseil d'administration d'Apple d'Eric Schmidt. Les deux groupes avaient par ailleurs un ennemi commun : Microsoft. Mais l'appétit croissant des deux géants de l'informatique a quelque peu modifié la donne. L'arrivée de Google dans le secteur des systèmes d'exploitation concurrence ainsi directement Mac OS, tout comme d'autres applications du groupe Internet, à savoir le navigateur Chrome et le système d'exploitation pour mobiles, Androïd, qui marchent tous les deux sur les plates-bandes d'Apple.

  Ces initiatives ont mis du piment dans la relation jusqu'ici très confraternelle des deux géants. Récemment, une des applications iPhone de Google, Google Voice, avait été exclue du catalogue de l'iPhone d'Apple. Vendredi, l'autorité des communications américaines, la Federal Communications Commission, avait même exigé des explications sur cette affaire à Apple et AT&T. Ce sujet pourrait d'ailleurs être la goutte qui a fait déborder le vase.

  Reste que les relations entre les deux groupes sont encore loin de celles, très acrimonieuses, qu'entretiennent Apple et Microsoft. On notera à cet effet qu'un autre membre du conseil d'administration d'Apple, par ailleurs dirigeant de Google, Arthur Levinson, reste lui au conseil d'administration du groupe de Steve Jobs.

Google Mots clés : Google, Apple, anti-trust