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After the Windows 10 Rush Ends, This Is What Happens to the PC Next
Taking into account desktops, notebooks and workstations, the global PC market recorded its first full year of growth in eight years in 2019. Lenovo is the biggest PC maker with nearly 65 million devices shipped; HP comes second with 63 million, with Dell in third. However, there is no monolithic 'Windows 11' due to arrive in a few years (Windows 10 will simply get rolling updates from now on), which means there isn't another big upgrade deadline ahead to prompt a big boost in PC sales.
Micron Expects Significant Improvements in Bandwidth and Performance for Business Servers
At CES 2020, Micron announced it is now sampling next-gen DDR5 RAM. This is the next generation of DDR, DRAM memory that will go into servers and compute platforms. It offers something like 85% performance improvement over the prior generation of DRAM (dynamic random-access memory).
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CaixaBank is using AI to help its staff find and access the most relevant training resources. Their Virtaula training portal uses AI to profile staff and identify what training they might benefit from. A chatbot, which communicates using natural language, will also assist staff accessing courses if they want to take up suggestions. There are courses in languages, executive skills, digital skills, finance and risk management, among others.
VMware Targets SD-WAN Management with Nyansa Acquisition
VMware said their newly purchased Nyansa technology will be targeted at boosting monitoring and troubleshooting for LAN/WAN deployments within its SD-WAN package – VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud. Nyansa’s primary technology is a cloud-based network management package called Voyance that employs AI to automate the discovery of devices on the network and identify unusual behavior.
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Genmega Introduces New Features to Universal Kiosk
Genmega has introduced its new and improved Universal Kiosk 2. New options include cryptocurrency, check-cashing, and an integrated topper, eliminating the need to add additional signage for advertising.
Cash Is Here to Stay - Cards Are the True Dinosaurs
Far from sounding the death knell for cash, the rise of digital payments will instead lead to the extinction of the plastic card, according to Deutsche Bank research on the future of payments. The paper takes a contrarian view from the popular assumption that the days of notes and coins are numbered, instead forecasting that cash will be around for decades to come due to a deep-rooted trust in its value during uncertain times. They predict that digital payments will lead to "the extinction of the plastic card", and mobile payments will come to comprise two-fifths of in-store purchases in the US, quadruple the current level.
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A new report from Juniper Research found that annual revenues from tokenized mobile payments, where account details are replaced with data useless to fraudsters, will exceed $40 billion by 2024, growing from an estimated $17 billion in 2019. Of this, over $30 billion will be through remote eCommerce, rather than contactless payments at the point of sale.
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2020 Fraud Trends: Are You Prepared for What the Future Holds?
Fraud scenarios that increased in 2019 include: identity theft, account takeover (ATO), card not present, and authorized push payment scams. The article covers 7 fraud trends to prepare for in 2020: 1) Authorized push payment fraud; 2) SMS spoofing; 3) Deepfakes and voice biometrics; 4) Social and voice banking; 5) Breaching 2FA; 6) Institutional disruption; and 7) More ATM fraud.
This Year, Prioritize the Critical Challenge of ID Verification
In general, ID verification today remains a slow, manual process. In the coming years, the author says to expect to see an increased focus on generating fast, frictionless agreement processes that result in increased conversion and consumer satisfaction while maintaining security and compliance. She goes on to discuss key opportunities to build a robust identity platform.
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110 Million Consumers Could See Their Credit Scores Change Under New FICO Scoring
Fair Isaac Corp., announced the launch of its latest FICO 10 model that will start incorporating consumers’ debt levels into their scoring model. This comes as total household debt in the U.S. has steadily increased for about two years, and currently sits at about $13.95 trillion as of last September 2019. FICO estimates that about 110 million consumers will see a change to their score under the new credit score model, with most people seeing less than a 20 point swing in either direction. Roughly 40 million will see a shift upward over 20 points and another 40 million will see a shift downward, FICO says.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Former U.S. Regulator Leads Effort to Create Digital Dollar
The former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has partnered with Accenture to create the non-profit Digital Dollar Project, which plans to explore the creation of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The purpose of the Digital Dollar Project is to encourage research and public discussion on the potential advantages of a digital dollar, convene private sector thought leaders and actors, and propose possible models to support the public sector.
Central Banks Form Group to Explore Digital Currency Creation
Six of the world's central banks have come together to share their knowledge and experiences in assessing the potential cases for central bank digital currency (CBDC) in their home jurisdictions. The group - comprising The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) - will assess CBDC use cases; economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability; and the sharing of knowledge on emerging technologies.
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Verizon Exec Launches Privafy, Challenges Firewall, SD-WAN, VPN Vendors
Privafy, a security startup founded by former Verizon executive Guru Pai and NXP Semiconductors CEO Rick Clemmer, launched a platform that integrates a host of security services as the company looks to win market share from firewall vendors like Palo Alto Networks and SD-WAN providers including VMware’s VeloCloud. Privafy claims its cloud-native product secures data in motion as it moves across networks, private and public clouds, and mobile and IoT devices. It does this by integrating the capabilities of several point products — encryption systems, VPNs, firewalls, DDoS protection, IDS, IPS, data loss prevention, and deep content inspection technologies.
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Why Is Video Banking an Exciting Trend to Watch?
This article states that combining digital capabilities with a live human video connection provides consumers with a near-branch experience on their mobile banking platform. Plus, by gathering employees into a centralized video call center environment, FIs can make their best employees available, regardless of their physical locations. The article also points out that the potential of video banking to provide multilingual support from anywhere at any time offers a huge advantage for contact center staffing and scheduling.
Genesys and Microsoft Serve up New Cloud Service for Contact Centers
Microsoft took the wraps off of a new cloud service for Azure via its partnership with Genesys. Scheduled for release later this year, Genesys Engage will run on Microsoft Azure to help offer contact centers a unified customer experience solution, according to the companies.
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