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Apple's New iPads: The Features Business Users Will Love
While Apple's new iPad Air and iPad Mini are largely just hardware updates, there are features that make the mobile devices great for business users. Apple describes the iPad Mini with an Apple Pencil as a "take-anywhere digital notebook" for those who need to take quick notes, frequently fill out digital forms, and sign documents.
As Memory Prices Plummet, PCIe Is Poised to Overtake SATA for SSDs
Taiwan vendors believe PCIe and SATA will achieve price and market share parity by years' end. A collapse in price for NAND flash memory and a shrinking gap between the prices of PCI Express-based and SATA-based solid-state drives (SSDs) means the shift to PCI Express SSDs will accelerate in 2019, with the newer, faster format replacing the old by years' end.
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Jumio Unveils Automated AML Screening Solution
Jumio is launching a new, fully-automated AML solution called Jumio Screening. The new solution leverages ComplyAdvantage’s automated watchlist and politically exposed persons (PEPs) screening and monitoring to help streamline the compliance process.
Network Issues Are Causing More Data-Center Outages
As enterprise computing environments grow more complex, IT system failures and network errors are bringing down data centers in greater numbers, causing more unplanned downtime. To distinguish between an outage that threatens to bring down the business and one that is merely an inconvenience, Uptime Institute has come up with a scale from 1 to 5. When Uptime Institute examined all publicly reported data center-outages (Levels 1 to 5) over the three-year period, IT system and network problems outstripped power as the primary cause.
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Making Cash Easier for Consumers and Small Businesses
More than 27 percent of all payments are still made in cash, according to the most recent study from the Federal Reserve. Plus, 56 percent of consumers choose cash for purchases of less than $30, based on a Health of Cash 2018 Study. This article contends that FIs need to think beyond digital to expand services and reach the large underserved population who rely on cash.
If Consumers Could Have One Thing from ATMs It'd Be This, Plus 6 New ATM Stats:
Here are some statistics from Mercator Advisory Group’s report – Omnichannel and Branch Banking: The Current U.S. Consumer Banking Environment: 1) 59% of consumers want to withdraw in more specific $ denominations from ATMs; 2) 14% of US consumers refuse to withdraw cash at an ATM, period; 3) 31% of US consumers won’t conduct any other type of ATM transaction but cash withdrawal; 4) 77% of consumers report “I do anything I can to avoid paying ATM surcharges”; 5) Half of consumers (49%) report they do not make deposits at ATMs; 6) Mostly, it seems they’re unfamiliar (11%) or never tried (27%) or untrusting (28%) of depositing at an ATM; and 7) 49% of US consumers just plain “prefer a teller.”
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FIs Get More Comfortable with Mobile-Capture Risk
Slightly more than half of polled FIs are applying per-item limits somewhere between $2,001 and $5,000, compared to 49% a year ago and 46% in March 2017, according to a new poll of 105 FIs by RemoteDepositCaputre.com. And while 74% of institutions cap their per-item limits at $5,000 or less, some 19% now have limits above $10,000, have limits customized for each mobile depositor, or have no limit at all, according to the research firm.
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Consumers Increasingly Shoulder Burden of Sophisticated Fraud Schemes
The 2019 Identity Fraud Study by Javelin Strategy & Research reveals that complex and sophisticated fraud types remain at elevated levels, despite widespread adoption of anti-fraud measures. 14.4 million consumers fell victim to fraud in 2018. This represents a notable drop from the record-breaking 16.7 million victims in 2017. But victims in 2018 shouldered a much heavier burden than those in recent years: 3.3 million victims bore some of the liability for fraud, nearly three times as many as in 2016, and victims’ out-of-pocket fraud costs more than doubled in two years to $1.7 billion in 2018.
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Journey Mapping: The Long and Winning Road
The author contends that customer journey mapping represents one of 2019’s biggest opportunities for FIs to find out more about their account holders and expand relationships. Mapping generally involves three steps: how they realize they have a need, research possible services and make a buying decision. The map also includes how consumers might navigate through a company’s website or mobile app, or what might happen when they visit a branch or reach out to the call center.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Social Media Payments: An Ally or Adversary of FIs
The latest annual World Retail Banking Report by Capgemini and banking association Efma revealed that nearly one-third of consumer participants are open to receiving financial products from tech firms like Facebook, Apple, and Google. The article recommends that FIs rapidly shift their focus to providing more seamless and secure services, whether they go it alone or forge valuable partnerships with other tech providers to maintain long-term growth. It goes on to suggest that those that choose to maintain the status quo, will lag even further behind, and ultimately face the possibility of collapse.
Competing with Apple's New Credit Card
Apple's new credit card, which was launched in collaboration with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard, is touted more for its mobile and digital qualities than its shiny titanium finish. Despite the shine, however, many of the card’s features and offerings aren’t new. This article points out that with the help of FinTech vendors that FIs should be able to match many of Apple's features such as: Physical card security; Chat functionality; PFM; Mobile app security; Fast onboarding; and Rewards.
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SD-WAN: 10 Essential Considerations
SD-WAN is the hottest new technology in networking and many distributed organizations have already or will soon adopt SD-WAN solutions. This article covers 10 essential considerations for IT organizations weighing whether to adopt or expand their SD-WANs.
Is your organization using the cloud to its full advantage? If not, this article looks at 7 myths that may be holding it back.
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Enterprise Chatbot Use Cases Increase as Technology Evolves
The technology behind chatbots--natural language processing, in particular--is evolving quickly, and some methods already allow for context understanding. The result is that well-designed chatbots are getting closer to an almost-human level of communication. These chatbots have what is called ‘augmented intelligence.’ This next generation features pattern recognition capabilities, and they can utilize the knowledge database, providing superior service compared to non-AI processes.
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