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.

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.

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...

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.