Any Big Vendor Announcements from BAI Retail Delivery

It is that time of year again, when us vendors and bankers pack it up to head to the annual BAI Retail Delivery Conference and Expo. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the conference and is the time when exhibitors are unveilling new banking innovations, technologies and groundbreaking strategic insights. Let's take a look into a select few vendors to see what announcements are out there this week and the buzz:

Fiserv - Nice mix of acheivements, customer wins and new product announcements, high buzz.

• Fiserv Achieves Top Ten Ranking among Global Risk Technology Companies in Chartis RiskTech 100 Report
• Fiserv Recognized for Financial Technology Innovation by Bank Technology News
• Fiserv Delivers New Standard for Online Banking with Online Advantage
• BB&T Implements Fiserv Branch Source Capture™ Solution in More Than 330 Branches

Metavante - Just one partner announcement, no buzz.

• NYCE Teams With Verient To Provide New Online Payment Option

NCR - Four announcements and demo on MSFT surface, good buzz.

• NCR Launches Multi-channel Self-Scheduler Solution for Financial Institutions
• NCR concept to transform branch-based sales transactions
• NCR launches next generation self-service management

Yodlee - One announcement on something they have probably been doing for a while, no buzz.

• Yodlee Announces Availability of Over 11,000 Financial Data Sources

Cash Edge - One cool re-announcement of me-to-me payments, high buzz.

• CashEdge Reports Strong Market Traction With New Consumer Third Party Transfers Module

S1 - Busy marketing department and winner for most with five announcements, good buzz.

• Bank of Blue Valley Launches Postilion Retail Internet Banking to Offer Innovative Self-Service Banking Solutions
• Postilion Increases Payments Presence in Latin America with Four New Customer Wins
• Volksbank International Implements S1 Enterprise for Complete Overview of Customer Interaction
• New Releases of S1 Enterprise's Branch and Call Center Solutions Simplify the Process of Making Screen and Workflow Modifications
• S1 Corporation Signs Tenth Customer for Global Financial Institution-Centric Mobile Banking and Payments Solution

Digital Insight - Nothing, nada to announce...

We'll keep updating as things draw to a close and they turn off the lights in Orlando.

Nothin' Depressin' 'Bout Paper Supressin'

eBills have always been a big part of the CheckFree bill payment and presentment solution. Heck, we even have our own site dedicated to eBills @ eBill Place.

If you are a consumer, the benefits of receiving and paying bills online are pretty clear from convenience, control, organization - and its enviornmentally friendly - it is amazing to think about the solid waste that is produced for a bill that you are ultimately going to throw away and carbon footprint it took to create - get that bill to you. You can calculate your green savings here or simply have a look at the diagram below. So if you aren't getting your bills electronically what are you waiting on?

For those of you that are already using eBills, I wouldn't go as far as to say that you are a Real American Hero but maybe an "unsung hero" or maybe even a "real man of genius"... and for that we salute you Mr. Online Bill Pay Payer (listen below)... because there ain't nothin' depressin' 'bout paper supressin'.

Q&A with Fiserv Mobile Money PM

Calvin Grimes, product manager for Fiserv Mobile Money, sits down with Michelle Robart, contributing editor for TMCnet, to explain the benefits of mobile banking and what he predicts in the future for this exciting industry.

TMCnet: For anyone who is not familiar with Fiserv, can you provide a brief overview of what the company offers, and who its customers are?

CG: Fiserv is one of the world's largest providers of information technology services to the financial and insurance industries. Leading services include transaction process, outsourcing, electronic bill payment and presentment, investment management solutions, business process outsourcing, software and system solutions. Fiserv reported nearly $4 billion in annual revenue from continuing operations for 2007, processed 18 billion transactions and provides technology solutions, including core and online banking systems, for top 100 U.S. banks, credit unions and community banks.

TMCnet: What is Fiserv Mobile Money and who can benefit the most from using this service?

CG: Fiserv Mobile Money is the industry's only all-in-one, triple-play mobile banking and payments solution providing universal reach by serving any device via any access mode on any carrier network. The solution provides financial institutions with the flexibility and scalability to deploy different access modes such as text (SMS), browser (WAP) and mobile application to meet the evolving needs of their customers. Fiserv Mobile Money also integrates seamlessly with existing banking systems and security infrastructures, including those offered by Fiserv. With one technology deployment, financial institutions can maximize their mobile return on investment and consumer adoption, while providing their customers with a user experience tailored for their unique mobile device and mobile banking preferences. Powered by proven technology from Mobile Commerce, Fiserv Mobile Money is available today via an in-house software solution; a hosted version of Fiserv Mobile Money will be offered in 2009.

TMCnet: What are some of the main benefits of Fiserv Mobile Money for businesses and professionals?

CG: Fiserv Mobile Money provides consumers with an enhanced mobile banking and payment experience for all mobile devices, such as the Google Android-powered G1 and the Apple iPhone, as well as a broad range of phones from other leading manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. The Fiserv solution also enables consumers to choose the most convenient access mode - browser, text, or downloadable application - to meet their mobile banking needs, including checking account balances, receiving alerts, transferring funds and paying bills.

TMCnet: With the rising consumer demand for mobile banking services, what do you think is the main driving force behind mobile banking popularity?

CG: Certainly, a major factor is that mobile devices and the carrier networks have evolved to the point where they can support mobile banking services. More importantly, consumers are using these services in greater numbers, and many more are interested and ready to adopt in mobile banking services. In Fiserv's latest mobile survey, 23 percent of consumers said they use their mobile device to conduct mobile financial services, up from essentially zero in 2006. The survey also showed that 75 percent of consumers are interested in using mobile banking services, up from 49 percent in 2006. Among Generation Y consumers, that figure is even higher - 83 percent express an interest in and willingness to using mobile financial services.

TMCnet: What are some of the creative, real-world ways customers are using mobile banking in their daily lives?

CG: Today's increasingly mobile consumers are frequently away from their Internet-connected desktop or laptop computers that they would generally use to access online banking and bill payment services. However, consumers are rarely very far away from their mobile devices, giving them continual connectivity and unprecedented access to mobile banking services. During this economic downturn, mobile banking is providing consumers with a very powerful tool to help make more informed choices about how they manage and spend their money. So now they can use any mobile device, anywhere, anytime to check account balances to determine whether to make a purchase. In the course of a day, they can receive alerts that will empower them to transfer funds to avoid an overdraft and pay an overdue bill to avoid a service shutoff. This gives consumers tremendous flexibility and empowerment to manage their finances more effectively than they ever have before.

TMCnet: What are some of the trends shaping the mobile banking industry in the U.S.?

CG: Financial institutions generally will choose one of two paths - either pursuing a relatively defensive strategy whereby they are looking to provide straightforward, check-the-box mobile banking functionality - or taking a broader, forward-looking mobile commerce strategy aimed at providing mobile banking services today, while setting the stage for opportunities to generate revenue from the mobile channel and near-field communications, contactless point-of-sale transactions and micro-payments.

TMCnet: Looking ahead, what predictions do you have about companies continuing to utilize the benefits of mobile banking technology?

CG: In the near term, we see financial institutions seeing the value of providing customers with multiple ways to access mobile banking via WAP, SMS and downloadable applications. We also anticipate continued growth of near-field communications to help us realize the full promise of mobile commerce. You'll see companies across the industry spectrum using mobile phone numbers rather than email addresses to interact with their customers for peer-to-peer communications, and you'll also see retailers using NFC for loyalty, contactless card programs.

TMCnet: How can mobile banking help companies improve their bottom line and survive economic hardships?

CG: Mobile banking can help financial institutions reduce costs, improve their bottom line, boost customer retention and generate revenue from the mobile channel. That's especially important during this economic downturn. For example, ANZ National in New Zealand and Australia has been able to monetize the mobile channel using the M-Com-powered solution, by charging their customers for bill pay transactions and mobile text alerts. The bank is also driving down annual cost-to-serve expenses by $20-30 per customer by "right-channeling" customers from more costly offline channels such as the call center to the lower-cost mobile channel. At the same time, they're lowering churn rates to 5 percent for frequent mobile users versus 10-15 percent on average.

To read more of Michelle's articles, please visit her columnist page. Read the full article.

Finovate 2008 | Credit Karma

Presenter: Kenneth Lin, CEO

Notes from the Presentation: Polled if the audience thought credit scores are important. Majority indicated yes. Used this to transition to overview of the product. The product has three value prop – free credit scores within seconds, educational tools to track and better your score, and they provide incentives and financial services offers. New product just launched this weekend – Credit Simulator (see below) – how doing certain things will affect your individual credit score. They simulated what applying for a new credit card would be. The next example – what would be the effect if they paid which card late. Common theme is that it is very pro consumer service.

Show Note: Credit Karma was selected as one of the Best of Show for Finovate 2008.

Finovate 2008 | SmartHippo

Presenter: George Favvas, Cofounder and CEO

Notes from the Presentation: George wanted to use SmartHippo to address the current financial problem – and thinks that if we didn’t solve the core problem we will waste $770 billion dollars. He commented on the fact that there are too many intermediaries with lending. Smart Hippo is a community of consumers helping each other with the collective power to change the way the industry works. First vertical is mortgage and they have consumer reviews. Provide the ability to rank thinks from customer service to disclosures. They also have a rate version – new version which will launch this month was demonstrated. First site of this type that combines data – feed by lenders, proprietary bot and other users who are feeding their own information. Two key innovations – no charge to feed data and the best ones bubble to the top.

Finovate 2008 | My Best Interest (Rate Surfer)

Presenter(s): Mitch Calderwood, CEO and Jackie Meyers, Director of Communication.

Notes from the Presentation: My Best Interest developed Rate Sufer as a desktop application for credit card accounts and the best option for the end user. It will manage all cards on your desktop and help end users save money. How does it save money? On the card accounts page and get the card balances for each account. The bank surfer signs on to the bank site and retrieves the individuals account database – like OFX capabilities with Money or Quicken. On the balance transfer page you transfer balances from one account to another. This was shown as a transfer from Wells Fargo to Advanta credit card. The rate surfer also has SMS alerts for balances or rate guards if the rate changes. Follow the money shows you what your balances are made up from. Apply for new cards, will show the best available card offers. Another push button feature to increase limits.

What is in it for banks – drive adoption of online banking as you need to use an online banking to use rate surfer. Will have a branded application for banks to cobrand.

Finovate 2008 | CheckPoint

Presenter: John Gable, Director of Product Management

Notes from the Presentation: Started by highlighted the browser security wars. Cyber criminals are making over $100M a year which is more than conventional crime. What is happening here? Over 1/3 of cyber crime is done through the attacks are coming through the web browser stealing confidential data. CheckPoint is the most profitable security software in the marketplace and work with 90% of fortune 500 companies.

Went to a Phishing site and showed a warning. Most products only know about a site that is on a list. They showed ZoneAlarm that does real time analysis. Showed a non FI site – the NFL Miami Dolphins site. Showed a key logger site that was loaded on the PC by using keystroke software. ZoneAlarm software that sits in the browser tool bar – they create a bubble around your browser and computer. The software creates a ‘forcefield’ – in a virtual sandbox.

Finovate 2008 | Mint.com

Presenter: Aaron Patzer, CEO and Founder

Notes from the Presentation: Mint's mission has always been to improve personal finance software – they currently have over 500,000 users (no indication of how many are active) and are growing at about 4,000 new account each day. Now are out of beta – the fastest growing user base are women in their mid 30’s. On Thursday they launched custom categories with alerts to let you know when you can go over your budget. They have added mortgages and investments to the site. Key information includes – what is in the users holdings and what it is worth – across all the users accounts. They wanted to know how well they are doing against the rest of the market. The other point of confusion has been performance vs. cost basis. Shows the value of account over time – and diversification across all accounts. New revenue stream to roll over old 401(k) by putting it into a better account – they partner with Fidelity, Scottrade, and eTrade.



Aaron indicated that over 10% users have used “Way to Save” feature – 50% have changed spending behavior.

Finovate 2008 | Vidoop

Presenter: Mictchell Savage, Executive Vice President

Notes from the Presentation: Vidoop has been working for the last three years to solve usability and security are a trade off. Makes your online banking platform easier to access and harder for hackers. Show the user choice platform for Vidoop. Much more secure, user driven, and free. Verification by phone – press one key and you can log into your online banking application (a four digit pin can be used). Showed an image shield based on recognition based on a path he selected at enrollment. They have it live at Charles Schwab.

Free because they have the images sponsored – Smart Car and Mercedes was provided as an example. Celent says that by 2010 over 20% will sign on via their mobile solution. The image shield is available in an optimized mobile version.

Closing comment: “Compliance with FFEIC doesn’t equal security.”

Finovate 2008 | FiLife

Presenter: Dave Kansas, President

Notes from the Presentation: First time that they have shared with outside folks what FiLife is doing. Indicated that FiLife provides simple inputs and dynamic outputs. At the core of the site they have 39 different categories with multiple products and companies. They have subject experts that will answer questions to your specific questions around any product. FiLife introduced a product picker for the credit card product page. You enter a series of data – and sorts through over 60 credit card companies to provide the best product for your individual needs – you can see in one easy number what the product means to you. The community will provide input on the specific product based on value. There is a compare feature that lays out the key attributes side by side.



Dave introduced the ‘The Stacker” (see above) – which performs an analysis of over 4million lines of data that is specific to your individual needs. Your have the ability to narrow categories and can toggle the view between the Pyramid and Geek view.

First on Android | Bank of America Launches G1 Application

From Bank Technology News: Bank of America, the first institution to put a mobile banking application into the iPhone application store, is also the leader in getting on board with an app for Google’s new smartphone Android OS running on the new G1 device from T-Mobile.

The BofA app, one of the debut applications for Google’s Android Market, includes online banking and branch/ATM locator features.

Finovate 2008 | Wesabe

Presenter: Gabe Griego, VP of Marketing

Notes from the Presentation: Wesabe was the first to market with money management tools and community finance. Money is hard to talk about and with the product they have the ability to share insights with spending decisions. New homepage that brings to life some of the new things with Wesabe. They have been innovating with Twitter – you can Twitter information into Wesabe – gave an example of a taxi ride as an expense. They don’t believe that product managers should tell you how to manage your money. The Wesabe product allows you create your own tags – and your sub level tags. Exciting part they highlighted was taking the API to the people in a UX experience, not needing coding and you can compare to other Wesabeans. The product did not appear to be complete as noted by the presenter. Going to build a graph gallery through the user community and share them with every individual.

Interesting Industry Note: Founder and former CEO of Corillian Corporation (acquired by CheckFree) Ted Spooner is now the CEO of WeSabe.

Finovate 2008

This week the financial services software nerds gathered in New York City for the second annual Finovate conference - "the Super Bowl and World’s Fair rolled into one" as the WSJ described it.

The Finovate conference is presented by NetBanker that showcases “the latest and greatest technological innovations in finance and banking.” The “hot products, cool people” format returned with 24 more companies getting 7 minutes each to demo their latest innovations (no PowerPoint allowed!) followed by several hours of focused one-on-one networking time. The event wrapped up with cocktails and appetizers at the end of the day.

Fiserv Mobile Money | The Swiss Army Knife of mobile banking

Fiserv announces anticipated mobile offering, the industry's first single solution that supports SMS, WAP, Mobile Application and Offers Offline and Online Enrollment... or the Swiss Army Knife of mobile banking.

BROOKFIELD, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 2008--Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading provider of information technology services to the financial industry, today launched Fiserv Mobile Money(SM), the industry's most complete mobile banking and payments solution, because it supports consumers on all three mobile access modes - short messaging service, (SMS), wireless application protocol, (WAP), and downloaded mobile applications, offers online and offline enrollment capabilities and integrates with core banking, online banking and electronic payments systems. The new solution, available for the first time today, builds upon existing Fiserv mobile banking options already in the market and adds a strategic technology to help all segments of financial intuitions.

Powered by technology from New Zealand-based Mobile Commerce Limited (M-Com), Fiserv Mobile Money enables organizations to reach more consumers through its native support for SMS, WAP, and downloaded mobile applications. In addition, the solution is unique because it allows financial institutions and billing organizations to drive enrollment of offline customers to a more profitable mobile banking relationship. Consumers can enroll via a mobile device, at a branch, ATM or customer contact center, as well as via the online channel. Fiserv will also support certain marketing campaigns and research aimed at driving adoption and usage within this emerging channel.

"Mobile banking holds great promise as a unique channel that offers customers the ability to manage their money anywhere, anytime, while enticing new customers and making existing customers more loyal," said James Van Dyke, president and founder of Javelin Strategy & Research. "We see 2008 as a pivotal year for the emergence of mobile banking and payments, particularly as more end-to-end, enterprise solutions start to take hold in the marketplace."

Fiserv's scalable mobile banking and payments solution can integrate seamlessly with a variety of core banking systems, online banking systems and electronic payments systems. It is designed to leverage a financial institution's or biller's existing online security infrastructure, including existing credential management capabilities. In addition, Fiserv Mobile Money offers consolidated customer care and reporting across both the online and mobile channels, potentially lowering the total cost of ownership and enabling a broader view of the customer's needs when they contact the financial institution for service or support.

"This is a great example of Fiserv 2.0; using resources across our business units to develop innovative products that help our clients achieve best-in-class results. Fiserv Mobile Money is the result of hard work from our integrated teams representing both Fiserv and CheckFree. We are continuing our mission to be the leading provider of technology products and services to the financial services industry, bringing the best solutions to this emerging channel," said Jeffery Yabuki, Fiserv President and Chief Executive Officer.

Financial institutions will have the flexibility to deploy the Fiserv mobile banking and payments solution as a hosted solution or as software that can be managed and run in-house. The solution is available today via an in-house solution for the top 200 financial institutions. A hosted version is expected by mid-2009.

"Fiserv Mobile Money helps financial institutions optimize customer relationships either through deepening existing online banking relationships or through driving offline customer relationships to a more profitable mobile banking and payments relationship," said Steve Olsen, Fiserv group president, Internet Banking and Electronic Payments. "This ultimately helps institutions of all sizes to maximize their mobile return-on-investment."

To that end, Fiserv Mobile Money's multi-channel enrollment capabilities have proven effective as a means to attract more offline customers to the mobile channel, which has a lower cost to serve than other channels. For example, a Fortune 500 New Zealand bank that currently uses the M-Com solution, annually saves up to $30 per customer when it drives these customers from an offline relationship with the bank to a mobile banking relationship. The bank achieves this result even though more than 40 percent of its customers are not online banking users.

Fiserv Mobile Money runs on established mobile banking and payment technology from M-Com, whose mobile solutions are used by some of the largest financial institutions in the world, including Washington Mutual, Inc., ANZ Banking Group, Westpac Banking Corporation, Electronic Transaction Services Limited (Paymark) and GE Money, among others.

"This strategic alliance combines Fiserv's strong leadership in payments processing, innovation, operational excellence and execution with M-Com's proven mobile banking and payments technology and innovation," said Adam Clark, founder and chief executive officer of M-Com.

"Together, we will provide the most complete solution in the industry, giving financial institutions and billing organizations a path toward unlocking the promise of mobile payments."
In addition, key personnel from Fiserv and M-Com are working together in the Fiserv campus in Norcross, Ga., to develop and deliver the next generation product - the industry's first single-platform, scalable mobile banking and payment solution that integrates seamlessly with online banking, bill payment and core banking systems.

Product Demonstrations:

• ANZ SMS Demonstration
• ANZ Downloaded Application Demonstration

Lost Footage | Prepare for the Internet

We all remember the 1990's when technology buzz words like mindshare, brick-and-morter, and paradigm shift accompanied any conversation about internet banking... oops it was PC banking. A powerful PC consisted of a 386 processor and 4MB of memory over a 14.4 connection. Those were the days when balances and transfers were cool...

This video archive from Digital Insight (must be circa 1997?) reminds us just how far we have come in the channel, but how much opportunity we have in front of us.

What future opportunities does the channel present? What does tomorrow's bank look like? Is it virtual branches in Second Life, RFID chips, or artificial intelligence? Microsoft compiled a fairly compelling demonstration of the roll that technologies such as biometrics, peer-to-peer, and mobile computing will have in the bank of the future.

This isn't going to happen overnight, look how long it took us to be able to open accounts online, but the surge of mobile (both devices and services like the iPhone) this year will certainly aid in accelerating things...

Hello, I'm a Credit Union... And I'm a Bank

I have to admit it, I am a convert... PC to Apple. I love Apple's products and marketing. My wife is in education and worked on me for years to use an Apple in our home. I resisted, having been in a career dominated by PC's and BlackBerry's. But then something happened, we had kids (accumulation of massive amounts of digital pictures and video) and I got an iPod (goodbye CDs). Coincidentally, this was the same time that Apple started to run the Get a Mac campaign, a series of sketches between two people, one a Mac and the other a PC. The PC played by John Hodgman, was portrayed as dull, stuffy and business like. On the other hand Mac, played by Justin Long came across as cool and hip. I think the one that did it for me was Better Results where PC and Mac discussed making home movies, and showed each other their efforts. Supermodel Gisele Bündchen entered, representing Mac's movie, while PC's movie is represented by a man with a hairy chest and a blonde wig wearing a dress similar to Bündchen's. PC stated that there's some work in progress with his movie. The ad connected with me and that weekend we brought one home.

Since this campaign started, Apple has seen explosive growth. Web analyst Net Applications now puts the Mac's market share at 8 percent, up from 5.3 percent in early 2007. That is stunning growth by any measure, especially when you consider that this is 18 percent growth in its market share...just since November 2007. And whether you are a fan of the ads or not, we can probably all agree that imitation is the highest form of a complement. These ads have been spoofed by both the novice producer and mainstream corporations like Novell. Most recently, I ran into a series produced by BankerSpank.com lampooning the differences between a Bank and Credit Union.

Do consumers think Banks are stuffy suits and Credit Unions are hip? Sure there are examples of cool Banks, look at Umpqua in Portland, OR. From their online music store, to their cutting edge retail strategy, and a moving van converted in to a mobile bank, these guys ooze cool and hip. And surely there are examples of stuffy Credit Unions out there. What this highlights to me is the continued importance of connecting and empathizing with our customers or members. Who among us doesn't want Apple like growth to talk about at the next board meeting? And, if someone will learn an new OS or port data to new hardware, what is to think that they aren't one campaign away from a switch?

More people pay bills online than with paper checks

A recent survey sponsored by CheckFree, now part of Fiserv, Inc. found that more Americans than ever, an estimated 63.1 million households or three-fourth of those online, are paying their bills online rather than writing paper checks.

A little slower than email taking over U.S. Mail but, it finally happened. Actually for the second year in a row, American consumers who go online each month paid more of their household bills online at bank and billing organization websites than by any other method.

Some interesting facts from the survey:

• Internet-using households pay an average of 11 bills per month. Consumers use an average of three different ways to pay bills, with online, check, automatic debit and in-person topping the list of popular bill payment methods. Online bill payments at bank and biller websites comprised 42 percent of total monthly payments, followed by 31 percent of bills paid by check. See chart below.

• Fifty-one percent of survey respondents cited the environment as a reason why they chose to view and pay bills online. Of these, 72 percent identified paper and clutter reduction as chief benefits, followed by tree conservation (19 percent) and reduction in gas consumption (16 percent).

• Major credit cards (48 percent) were the most frequently cited e-bills received and paid at online banking sites, followed by cable or satellite television (42 percent), cellular phone (41 percent), electricity (38 percent) and local telephone (34 percent).

Data and segmentation about those paying bills online:

• Among younger respondents under age 45, 57 percent considered the environment as an important reason why they use online billing and payment, compared to 44 percent among those in the 45-and-older age group.


• Fifty-five percent of those living in the Western United States cited environmental concerns as a key motivation for online bill payment adoption versus 49 percent for other regions.


• Fifty-four percent of respondents who were aware their online banking site offers e-bills said they receive at least one e-bill, while 46 percent do not. The most appealing features of e-bills were due-date reminders, convenience and assurance that bills are never paid late.


• E-bill recipients were 45 percent more likely to report being extremely satisfied with their bank or credit union than non-e-bill users. Fully half of e-bill recipients said their experiences with e-bill had made them less likely to switch financial institutions in the future. E-bills are electronic representations of paper bills that are securely delivered directly to a business or financial institution Web site. With e-Bills, consumers can review balances, transactions and all other details available in paper bills, and schedule payments with just a few clicks of the mouse.


• Overall, 67.9 million households, or 80 percent of the estimated 85.1 million U.S. online households, use online banking services, up from 63.4 million in the 2007 survey.

• Those living in Western (83 percent penetration) and Southern (81 percent penetration) states were more likely to adopt online banking than those in the Northeast (78 percent) and Midwest (78 percent).

Additional Information:

You can watch a recast of the webinar where researchers from CheckFree and David Baron, vice president of Financial Research Services for Harris Interactive, provides insights into what made the survey successful.

In conjunction with the press announcement, CheckFree announced the launch of the new-and-improved eBILLPLACE.com website, which aims to inform consumers and the media about the environmental, time and cash-saving benefits of receiving and paying bills online.

Quicken Beam | SMS Banking without the Bank

Inuit recently released a free consumer mobile banking application (still in beta) under the product name Quicken Beam. The service sends text-messaged balance and activity alerts from most U.S. bank, credit card, and credit union accounts based on criteria you define. You can also text BAL to 636363 and it will let you know what your balance is for all your checking and credit card accounts for those of you addicted to SMS.

Currently, Quicken Beam runs independently of Quiken or any online banking relationship they have with an FI through their Digital Insight products. Additional information on the product is available in the press announcement released on August 19th.

Beam Aboard and Features
New users can sign up at Quicken Beam's website by simply creating a user profile.  Set up is an easy three step process of linking Beam to your financial institution through a very friendly user interface . Quicken Beam aggregates your registered account data (yes, multifactor authentication is supported) and then beams you your financial status directly to your mobile phone. Here's what you can sign up to get:

• Daily or weekly text message with all your balances and your last five transactions.
• Alerts if you accidentally spend a little too much.
• Warnings if you drop below a low balance that you set.
• Alerts when a larger expense goes through.
• More alert types are on the way from reading the community forum.

Quicken has taken a web 2.0 approach to the user interface, marketing and community development. The Beam site is very minimal, maybe due to the beta status, and has some FAQ's up but very little about security or advantages of this service over what my primary FI provides. You can also follow the Beam product team on Twitter - we'll see if that sustains and how many non-Quicken employees subscribe.

Complementary or Competition
Offering this service highlights the complexity in balancing Quicken's direct consumer business and direct online banking services that they partner or sell directly to finanical institutions through Digital Insight. So, while Beam is bound to be a hit with consumers, it is doubtful it will get the same reaction from their banks and credit unions customers or mobile partner, mShift.

In a FinanceTech article, Glenn Tom, SVP consumer segment leader at Digital Insight, said that Quicken Beam is in no way meant to replace the financial institution as the repository of consumers' account information. "It simply enables consumers to see this information on the go, anytime, from anywhere," he explains. "For years, thousands of financial institutions have provided connectivity to Quicken and Quicken Online, enabling millions of consumers to see their personal finance balance and account activity on their desktop and on the Web. Quicken Beam uses the same data feed to simply show consumers their transaction and account balances on their mobile devices."

Let's be honest, Quicken isn't doing this out of the goodness of their heart. And, since this is coming out of Intuit Labs, it is probably a dip of the toe in the mobile pool before jumping in with an integrated offering through FinancialWorks or QuickenOnline (liken it to Google Labs Goog411 service and voice recognition). Of course, now that they have my mobile phone number, I am expecting to get an SMS cross sell either around tax season or some other promotion for the online software. In the meantime, since my primary bank doesn't offer mobile alerts - I'm beaming to use it.