May 9th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Facebook is apparently ready to become a person-to-person (P2P) money transfer network. The clear decision to launch a money transfer service in the region can be seen as a test bed for Facebook’s larger ambitions of becoming a payments hub for its 1 billion user base. Facebook was only weeks away from gaining regulatory approval in Ireland for its remittance platform FT quoted unnamed sources. Facebook’s P2P platform will be geared to facilitating migrant remittances, with the goal of expanding its payment presence in emerging markets such as India. Facebook makes the bulk of its revenue from advertising, but 10 percent of its profits reportedly come from in-game payments for online and mobile games, such as Zynga’s popular FarmVille.
From WhatsApp to what’s next
Facebook’s February 2014 acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion clarified the social network’s strategy. The WhatsApp acquisition and the expected P2P network launch as part of the first phase of Facebook’s deeper immersion into payments.
Tech giants face up to payments
When comparing the payment strategies of tech giants Google Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook, the latter two competitors as having bigger potential upsides than Google. Facebook and Apple (via iTunes) already have established financial relationships with millions of users who have attached funding mechanisms – debit and credit cards – to their social media accounts. As primarily a search engine, Google is playing catch up to persuade its users to set up Google Wallet accounts.
In May 2013, Google launched its own P2P network by integrating Google Wallet with Gmail accounts, so that wallet users can facilitate money transfers via email. More recently, reports have surfaced indicating Google plans to extend Google Wallet to its wearable technology solution Google Glass. But the success of such ventures rests on users’ confidence with Google as a financial service provider.
Facebook as having a brighter financial services future than Apple. Apple’s reach is limited to consumers who have iPhones and iPads, whereas Facebook is not tied to any branded mobile devices, it is a very ubiquitous offering. It could apply to anybody with any type of phone or tablet.
Eventually, tech companies like Facebook will need to partner with payment businesses in order to expand into the merchant-centric brick-and-mortar world. The mobile POS solution provider, a business unit of global POS terminal manufacturer Ingenico SA, would be an ideal partner for Facebook. If they extend what they do from P2P payments to more of a wallet purchasing capability for their users, then the next step could very easily be an extension of that into servicing the merchant side.
Posted in Financial Services, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: Apple Inc.Facebook, consumers, credit cards, debit, device, financial service, financial service provider, Gmail accounts, Google Glass, Google Inc., Google Wallet accounts, ingenico, iPads, iPhones, iTunes, merchant-centric brick-and-mortar, migrant remittances, mobile, Mobile Devices, mobile games, mobile messaging service, mobile pos, mobile POS solution, mobile POS solution provider, money transfer, money transfer network, money transfer service, network, online, p2p, P2P network, P2P payments, P2P platform, payment businesses, payments, payments hub, phone, POS terminal, remittance, remittance platform, search engine, service provider, social media, social media accounts, social networks, tablet, wearable technology
April 8th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Today’s consumers are defining themselves by their mobile devices, their social presences and how they interact with brands, both offline and online. The digital evolution of the average consumer is alive and kicking.
Today’s consumer is more connected than ever, with more access to and deeper engagement with content and brands. Thanks to the proliferation of digital devices and platforms. Content that was once only available to consumers via specific methods of delivery such as via print, radio and broadcast television can now be sourced and delivered to consumers through their multiple connected devices. This is driving the media revolution and blurring traditional media definitions.
What are the specific characteristics or dynamics shaping today’s consumer behavior? Digital consumers are social-savvy and more connected to their friends, family and favorite brands than ever before.
Focused On The Gadgetry
Consumers love gadgets.
One out of four Americans plan to buy a smartphone in the near future. Thirty percent intend to upgrade from a regular mobile phone to a smartphone once able. For those ages 18 to 24, 49 percent they want to upgrade to a smartphone.
How frequently consumers use their mobile devices in a given month? Consumers spent an average of 34 hours and 17 minutes per month using apps on their devices, an increase of 9 hours and 52 minutes from 2012.
Interestingly, the amount of time consumers spend surfing the Web fell 1 hour and 54 minutes to a total of 27 hours and 3 minutes. The amount of time used to watch videos online increased by 43 minutes, to 6 hours and 41 minutes.
Social Media & Everyday Life
Digital consumers, by and large love their social media.
Sixty-four percent said that they use social media at least once per day. For mobile however, the growth figures reported suggest a broad shift is happening, pushing more people to access social networks via mobile platforms.
Forty-seven percent of smartphone owners log onto a social network each day. Additionally, the number of people who use social-media apps on their smartphones rose by 37 percent from 2012.
Digital consumers are also diversifying their choice of social networks, opting to use LinkedIn and Pinterest in addition to so-called traditional social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
As digital consumers find their own mix of devices and platforms to access and engage with social media, they are building profiles and connections on multiple social networks as well.
Two Screens Is A King
Digital consumers also rely on their mobile devices as a second type of television screen.
In a survey, eighty-four percent said they use their smartphone or tablet to surf the Web or to use apps while watching television. Of those, 44 percent of tablet owners shopped while watching TV, and 24 percent used their smartphones to make purchases.
Fourteen percent of tablet owners used their device to buy a product or service as it was being advertised on TV. Just 7 percent of smartphone owners said they would do the same.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Financial Services, Merchant Services Account, Mobile Payments, Small Business Improvement, Smartphone Tagged with: apps on their devices, average consumer, content, deeper engagement, digital consumers, digital devices, digital evolution, Facebook, gadgets, linkedin, media revolution, Mobile Devices, mobile platforms, offline and online, pinterest, regular mobile phone, smartphone, social media, social network, social presences, social-media apps, social-savvy, tablet, traditional media, twitter
March 6th, 2014 by Elma Jane
MPOS Mobile Point-of-sale.
Mobile point-of-sale is evolving as more merchants and consumers begin to accept payment through smartphones and tablets. The end of 2013 saw a number of acquisitions and new players shape the market, and all the signs are pointing to 2014 as the year in which MPOS goes mainstream.
Indeed, 2014 should be a defining year for MPOS. Data contained in the most recent MPOS Tracker as an indication that the major players are moving seriously to capture market share, educate merchants on the benefits of MPOS and work to make interaction with the systems simpler for consumers.
Existing companies bringing out new platform enhancement, new players popping in, partnership made it was more active, and it’s been very active in the past. This technology is going in the market, and where this industry is headed is upmarket and globalization. In order for each of these things to happen, it’s much more about the application programming interfaces and the platform that enables than the actual app itself.
A critical trend this year is global expansion outside of the U.S. This growth will help promote MPOS and push it into the mainstream as a vehicle for payment.
More adoption happening as major retailers start to integrate MPOS into their existing systems. Over time, consumers will start to use their mobile devices to make payments more frequently.
In the past, most of the activity has been in the small and midsize business space in the U.S. A lot of the use cases were niche markets, as this technology moves up to major retailers, it will become more visible to consumers that it’s not just a niche application, but it’s a regular, day-to-date encounter for them to run into MPOS.
As for the future, the signs point to continued growth both in terms of new players appearing and in market consolidation among the smaller players. However, some will have a tougher time than others as new MPOS companies seek both market share and relevance in the wider ecosystem.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Merchant Services Account, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale, Small Business Improvement, Smartphone, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: accept payment, app, application programming interfaces, integrate mpos, major retailers, make payments, Merchant's, Mobile Devices, mobile point of sale, MPOS, platform, Smartphones, tablets
February 14th, 2014 by Elma Jane
News from Target, increasing the number of cards compromised to 70 million and the expansion of data loss to mailing and email addresses, phone numbers and names, affirms that we are in a security crisis.
Card data is from a brand and business perspective, the new radioactive material. Add personally identifiable information (PII) to the list of toxic isotopes.
The depressing vulnerabilities these breaches reveal are a result of skilled hackers, the Internet’s lack of inherent security, inadequate protections through misapplied tools or their outright absence. Security is very very hard when it comes to playing defense.
There is a set of new technologies that could, in a combination produce a defense in depth that we have not enjoyed for some time.
Looking at the Age of Context (ACTs)
Age of Context released, a book based on the hundreds of interviews conducted with tech start-up and established company leaders. A wide-ranging survey. They examine what happens when our location and to whom we are connected are combined with the histories of where and when we shop. Result is a very clear picture of our needs, wants and even what we may do next.
Combining the smartphone and the cloud, five Age of Context technologies ACTs, will change how we live, interact, market, sell and navigate through our daily and transactional lives. The five technologies are:
1. Big Data. Ocean of data generated from mobile streams and our online activity, can be examined to develop rich behavioral data sets. This data enables merchants to mold individually targeted marketing messages or to let financial institutions improve risk management at an individual level.
2. Geolocation. Nearly every cell phone is equipped with GPS. Mobile network operators and an array of service providers can now take that data to predict travel patterns, improve advertising efficiency and more.
3. Mobile Devices and Communications. These are aggregation points for cloud-based services, sending to the cloud torrents of very specific data.
4. Sensors. Smartphones, wearables (think Fitbits, smart watches and Google Glass) and other devices are armed with accelerometers, cameras, fingerprint readers and other sensors. Sensors enable highly granular contextual placement. A merchant could know not only which building we are at and the checkout line we are standing in but even which stack of jeans we are perusing.
5. Social. Social networks map the relationships between people and the groups they belong to, becoming powerful predictors of behavior, affiliations, likes, dislikes and even health. Their role in risk assessment is already growing.
The many combinations and intersections of these technologies are raising expectations and concerns over what is to come. Everyone has a stake in the outcome: consumers, retailers, major CPG brands, watchdog organizations, regulators, politicians and the likes of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, eBay / PayPal and the entire payments industry.
We are at the beginning of the process. We should have misgivings about this and as an industry, individuals and as a society, we need to do better with respect to privacy and certainly with respect to relevance.
Provided we can manage privacy permissions we grant and the occasionally creepy sense that someone knows way too much about us, the intersections of these tools should provide more relevant information and services to us than what we have today. Anyone who has sighed at the sight of yet another web ad for a product long since purchased or completely inappropriate to you understands that personalized commerce has a long way to go. That’s part of what the Age of Context technologies promise to provide.
ACTs in Security
ACTs role in commerce is one albeit essential application. They have the potential to power security services as well, specially authentication and identity-based approaches. We can combine data from two or more of these technologies to generate more accurate and timely risk assessments.
It doesn’t take the use of all five to make improvements. One firm have demonstrated that the correlation of just two data points is useful, it demonstrated that if you can show that a POS transaction took place in the same state as the cardholder’s location then you can improve risk assessment substantially. (based off of triangulated cell phone tower data).
Powerful questions of each technology that ACTs let us ask:
Data – What have I done in the past? Is there a pattern? How does that fit with what I’m doing now?
Geolocation – What building am I in? Is it where the transaction should be? Which direction am I going in or am I running away?
Mobile – Where does device typically operate? How’s the device configured? Is the current profile consistent with the past?
Sensors – Where am I standing? What am I looking at? Is this my typical walking gait? What is my heart rate and temperature?
Social – Am I a real person? Who am I connected to? What is their reputation?
Knowing just a fraction of the answers to these questions places the customer’s transaction origination, the profiles of the devices used to initiate that transaction and the merchant location into a precise context. The result should improve payment security.
More payments security firms are making use of data signals from non-payment sources, going beyond the traditional approach of assessing risk based primarily on payment data. One firm have added social data to improve fraud detection for ecommerce payment risk scoring. Another firm, calling its approach Social Biometrics, evaluates the authenticity of social profiles across multiple social networks including Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and email with the goal of identifying bogus profiles. These tools are of course attractive to ecommerce merchants and others employing social sign on to simplify site registration. That ability to ferret out bogus accounts supports payment fraud detection as well.
This triangulation of information is what creates notion of context. Apply it to security. If you can add the cardholder’s current location based on mobile GPS to the access device’s digital fingerprint to the payment card, to the time of the day when she typically shops, then the risk becomes negligible. Such precise contextual information could pave the way for the retirement of the distinction between card present and card-not-present transactions to generate a card-holder-present status to guide risk decision-making.
Sales First, Then Security
The use of ACT generated and derived signals will be based on the anticipated return for the investment. Merchants and financial institutions are more willing to pay to increase sales than pay for potential cost savings from security services. As a result, the ACTs will impact commerce decision making first-who to display an ad to, who to provide an incentive to.
New Combinations
Behind the scene, the impact of the ACTs on security will be fascinating and important to watch. From a privacy perspective, the use of the ACTs in security should prove less controversial because their application in security serves the individual, merchant and the community.
Determining the optimal mix of these tools will take time. How different are the risks for QR-code initiated transactions vs. a contactless NFC transaction? What’s the right set of tools to apply in that case? What sensor-generated data will prove useful? Is geolocation sufficient? Will we find social relationships to be strong predictor of payment risk or are these more relevant for lending? And what level of data sharing will the user allow-a question that grows in importance as data generation and consumption is shared more broadly and across organizational boundaries. It will be important for providers of security tools to identify the minimum data for the maximum result.
I expect the ACT’s to generate both a proliferation of tools to choose from and a period of intense competition. The ability to smoothly integrate these disparate tools sets will be a competitive differentiator because the difficulty of deployment for many merchants is as important as cost. Similar APIs would be a start.
Getting More from What We Already Have
The relying parties in a transaction – consumers, merchants, banks, suppliers – have acquired their own tools to manage those relationships. Multi-factor authentication is one tool kit. Banks, of course issue payment credentials that represent an account and proxy for the card holder herself at the point of sale or online. Financial institutions at account opening perform know your customer work to assure identity and lower risk.
Those siloed efforts are now entering an era where the federated exchange of this user and transactional data is becoming practical. Firms are building tools and the economic models to leverage these novel combinations of established attributes and ACT generated data.
The ACTs are already impacting the evolution of the payments security market. Payment security incumbents, choose just two from the social side, find themselves in an innovation rich period. Done well, society’s security posture could strengthen.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Point of Sale, Smartphone, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: big data, breaches, card data, cardholders, checkout lines, commerce, data loss, data sets, digital, ecommerce, geolocation, GPS, inherent security, Merchant's, Mobile Devices, mobile network, online activity, personally identifiable information, pii, POS, Security, security crisis, sensors, smartphone, social networks, transaction, transactional, travel patterns, vulnerabilities
February 13th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Becoming an e-commerce entrepreneur is an increasingly attainable dream for many aspiring business owners, as new online sales platforms and Web design tools continue to emerge. While just about anyone can launch an online business, it takes a dedicated salesperson to actually succeed, and that means staying on top of current marketplace trends.
If you’re ready to take your e-commerce business to the next level in 2014, watch these five current trends in online sales:
Access through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Major gains seen in e-commerce usage of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, especially during the holiday season. Trend to accelerate as mobile adoption continues to increase and more mobile technologies become available. Small businesses should have a mobile version of their website, with mobile-optimized checkout to help facilitate a better mobile experience. Small retailers should also look at their site across multiple mobile devices and pay attention to new technologies, such as smartwatches.
Goodbye, traditional SEO. Google is constantly updating its algorithm in an effort to serve the best, most relevant content to its users. This means that traditional (SEO) search engine optimization tactics are falling by the wayside, and an increased push toward quality, unique content — along with social media signals — will be of huge importance in 2014. To help stay ahead of the SEO curve, small retailers should focus less on Traditional SEO Tenets like keyword usage and density, and instead aim efforts toward creating content that is tailored and useful for their target audience. Example, create more lifestyle-oriented content in the form of blog posts, videos and other types of media that encourage sharing by readers.
Increased dependence on data. Smaller online businesses continue to expand their presence across channels, the need to turn to performance data from both a channel-specific and holistic standpoint becomes even more important. Google Analytics is a good tool for this, because business owners can measure their site traffic from multiple devices and referral sites.
Small shops squeezed by larger merchants. Mega-retailers like Amazon continue to steal market share from other big-box retailers (both online and offline), smaller online businesses will need to become more nimble in how they compete, from a price, customer-service and marketing standpoint. This involves identifying true points of difference from larger merchants, showcasing these points in marketing and branding, and delivering personalized experiences.
The importance of multichannel selling. Customer shopping behaviors become more fragmented, so must the presence of small online businesses owners. Simply having an e-commerce site is no longer enough. Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) should begin looking for efficient ways to expand their presence, including integrations with various shopping feeds and other outlets that can reach more consumers.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale, Small Business Improvement, Smartphone Tagged with: content, e-commerce, integrations, mobile adoption, Mobile Devices, mobile version, mobile-optimized checkout, multiple devices, online business, online sales, search engine optimization, shopping feeds, Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), small online business owners, small retailers, Smartphones, smartwatches, social media signals, tablets
January 30th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Some employers might think that setting limitations on things like mobile devices and Internet access is the answer to get more done during workday, but many companies have found that giving their workers more freedom and flexibility through certain policies is the key to increased efficiency.
Progressive companies are evolving their benefits programs and finding ways to drive employee productivity without breaking the bank, said Chris Duchesne, vice president of global workplace solutions at Care.com, a care provider matching service. They are providing tools to help reduce the amount of time employees spend on personal issues, giving them time back in their day that they often designated back to working.
Duchesne suggested a few policies that can be implemented to boost productivity, morale and culture among employees: Ways to improve Work-Life Balance Today
Demonstrate Leadership. There’s a trickle-down approach to how supervisors mentor. It starts with human resources departments and top executives recognizing and rewarding employees for their advances and their contributions. Public shout-outs, spot awards and profiles in regular company communications demonstrate company values and reinforce them across the workforce. The most productive companies have a policy and culture in place where the appreciation for each employee is apparent.
Some companies are hesitant to implement changes because they are concerned about costs, but these policies are often not as expensive as employers may think. Even if they do cost money, they don’t have to happen all at once.
Change happens gradually, and employers should feel comfortable implementing new work-life policies in stages. They should figure out what the actual costs will be and even have pilot programs before rolling them out company-wide. There is also a misperception that employers will have to bring on additional staff to support these new programs. You likely have existing employees who can fit these new programs into their current job responsibly. Most people are passionate about work-life issues and will be happy to help you implement new policies to make their lives easier.
In the long run, these types of benefits programs and policies can actually have a positive impact on company’s bottom line as well.
Employers lose billions of dollars each year in total productivity loss when employees take unexpected leave due to personal issues. Work-life and culture programs will be a critical differentiator in the new workplace and have the ability to drive innovation, creativity, loyalty and increased productivity.
Encourage breaks. Creating mandatory fun sounds like a contradiction, but celebrating birthdays, allowing budget for team lunches, holding quarterly group activities or even having a beer or snack cart for random holidays can boost team spirit and culture. A break for forced fun can reduce mental fatigue, increase collaboration and morale, and offer employees the opportunity to clear their heads.
Provide flexible work options. With respect to both work schedule and work location, as long as work gets done, it shouldn’t matter where or when it was accomplished. Recent Gallup research found that employees who work remotely even part of the time are both more engaged and more productive. If it’s possible for your employees to complete their tasks outside the office, give them the option to do so.
Reduce stress through family-care programs. Help employees manage their personal and professional lives with programs and services that help them address the most pressing and stressful needs in their lives, their families. And it’s not just about child care, either. Think about how you can help them take care of their aging parents, their pets and their households, too.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Small Business Improvement, Smartphone Tagged with: boost productivity, communications, employee productivity, freedom and flexibility, human resources, implement, internet access, leadership, Mobile Devices
January 29th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Ecommerce and mobile-based e-commerce have grown significantly this year. Cyber Monday ecommerce sales, as an example, reached $1.735 billion originating from desktop and laptop devices, according to comScore. Even Black Friday, which is better known for brick-and-mortar retail sales, saw online spending reach $1.198 billion in the United States, again according to comScore. Mobile online spending may also have grown, as some reports indicate that mobile-based site traffic was up 55 percent around Thanksgiving.
Many ecommerce merchants are enjoying a robust holiday selling season even as some brick-and-mortar stores are seeing relatively flat Christmas sales. To ensure continued growth and success, Internet retailers may want to challenge their businesses to improve in several areas in 2014.
Retailers, however, should not rest on their current success, but rather should challenge their businesses to improve in several areas, including free shipping offers, mobile optimization, personalization, data driven decision making, and cross channel sales.
Offer Free, Two-Day Shipping
The first challenge for online sellers in 2014 may be to find ways to offer free, two-day shipping to all or most shoppers. While it is likely there will still be minimum purchase and maximum weight requirements and restrictions, online shoppers are going to expect faster free shipping options thanks, in part, to the growth in services like Amazon Prime and ShopRunner.
Consider order fulfillment services, distributed warehouses, drop shipping, or even partnerships with other retailers to help meet this challenge.
Offer Personalization and Customization
Personalization and customization could be a significant competitive advantage in 2014.
Challenge your business to finally begin offering personalization and customization both onsite and in marketing. The easiest place to start may be with email marketing. Work to segment email marketing campaigns so that they address customers by name and with relevant products and offers that are based on an individual’s or group of shoppers’ stated preferences or on-site behavior.
Taking on this challenge means that the retailer’s marketing department will need to collect meaningful information about what interests shoppers and organize separate, custom campaigns around those interests.
Put Mobile Design and Marketing First
In November, IBM reported that mobile devices accounted for 31 percent of U.S. ecommerce-related web traffic around the Thanksgiving holiday this year, and that 17 percent of ecommerce transactions came from smartphones or tablets. On average, tablet users spent more than $126.00 per order, and smartphone users spent about $106 per order.
This data shows that mobile e commerce is not simply a novelty, but rather a must have for 2014.
If an e-commerce business is not optimized for mobile sales, 2014 is the year to take on that challenge, including offering a responsive design and mobile friendly payment options.
Sell Seamlessly Across Channels, Devices
Try to think of every way that a shopper might interact with an online store, and then make all of those touch points work together in 2014.
Retailers online or in physical stores need to offer shoppers a seamless, cross channel shopping experience that makes buying things easier for the customer. To continue to enjoy success in 2014, consider offering shoppers the ability to share orders across devices, applications, and even marketplaces.
In practice, this might mean that items added to a cart in an online store show up in the cart for the retailer’s iPhone app too. Or that a customer’s order history displayed on a retailer’s site shows orders placed on-site and via a marketplace like Amazon or eBay.
Use Big Data for Big Information
In 2014, find sources of good, usable Big Data, and put the resulting big information to use.
As an example consider, Weather Trends International, a Big Data company that uses historical weather information and advanced data processing to accurately predict weather 11 months in advance. This sort of Big Data information could show a snowboard and ski retailer what sort of winter major ski resorts are likely to have next year, and could inform purchasing and inventory choices.
Similarly, knowing that a particular region is going to have a warmer than normal July and August might impact how, where, and when a clothing retailer promotes shorts or bikinis on Facebook or AdWords.
Big Data is a popular trend in business and in marketing. The concept can mean different things to different businesses. For ecommerce, retailers should seek to use Big Data to gather big information, if you will, that may be used to make better buying and selling decisions.
Posted in Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Smartphone, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: adwords, Amazon, big data, big information, brick and mortar, cross channel, cyber, drop shipping, e-commerce, ecommerce, Facebook, internet retailers, laptop devices, Mobile Devices, mobile friendly payment options, mobile optimization, mobile-based site, on-site, online, online shoppers, online store, onsite, personalization, retailers marketing, retailers online, shopping experience, smartphone, Smartphones, tablet, tablets
October 15th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Banking and payments technology provider FIS and City National Bank, a private and business bank, have partnered to pilot FIS’s Cardless Cash Access at City National ATMs in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. The solution lets consumers stage an ATM transaction from their mobile devices.
City National plans to introduce the emerging technology to clients in its three largest markets early next year, according to an FIS announcement, continuing FIS’ rollout of the solution at banks and ATMs in key U.S. locations.
FIS said Cardless Cash Access securely authenticates a user on his or her smartphone. The consumer then uses the phone to select the account and amount of the withdrawal. At the ATM, the consumer scans a QR code on the ATM screen and, within seconds, the cash is dispensed and an e-receipt is sent to the phone.
Consumers continue to look for innovative new ways to engage with their financial institutions via mobile devices, FIS Mobile, said in the release. At the same time, they demand additional security to keep their information safe. Information from Cardless Cash Access is maintained in the cloud, so card data cannot be accessed if the consumer’s phone is lost or stolen – making this a faster, safer, more secure way to make a withdrawal.”
To decrease fraud, FIS said, security within Cardless Cash Access is provided through the app’s authentication and registration of a user’s smartphone, which the company said eliminates card skimming risk and fraud incidents for banks and their clients.
With the proliferation of debit and access to cash at the point of sale, financial institutions are looking for ways to expand the utility of the ATM,” Senior vice president and head of product strategies, Vince Hruska, City National Bank, said in the release. “Cardless Cash Access not only provides a secure and easy way to obtain cash from an ATM, but introduces to the client a new way of looking at ATM use.
Posted in Financial Services Tagged with: account, amount, atm, authenticates, banking, banks, card, cardless, cash, data, e-receipt, emerging, financial, Mobile Devices, national, payments, QR code, securely, Security, Skimming, smartphone, transaction
September 30th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Mind-Blowing 3D Trickery for Work or Play Occipital Promises
Get in on the ground floor as we look at the most exciting crowdfunded tech projects out there. Structure Sensor, which is pitched as the world’s first 3D sensor for mobile devices. The device is designed to be an attached-hardware add-on for mobile tablets and phones that allows the user to capture spatial models of objects and indoor areas.
If you’ve ever used Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing input device for the Xbox 360 game console, you’ll have an initial grasp of how Occipital’s 3D scanner for mobile devices, called “Structure Sensor”, functions. Whereas game add-on Kinect is a sensor for detecting and interpreting movement, new Kickstarter crowdsourced funding project Structure Sensor is for mapping three-dimensional spaces or objects.
What Is It? Occipital’s Structure Sensor is pitched as the world’s first 3D sensor for mobile devices. The device is designed to be an attached-hardware add-on for mobile devices that allows the user to capture spacial models of indoor areas – 3D models of objects – and perform augmented reality. The creator uses rooms, furniture and augmented reality games as examples. The captured 3D models can then be imported into CAD software of the kind used by architects and designers, or to a 3D printer to be replicated.
Technical Details Structure Sensor contains a precision infrared emitter, camera and optics that are housed in an anodized aluminum shell. The shell affixes to a bracket designed to clip to the 4th Generation Apple iPad. Data-streaming connectivity is with Apple’s Lightning Connector. Hardened glass is used to protect the dual infrared lenses. Range is from 40 cm to 3.5 m. Some iOS demo apps included in the package consist of an object scanner; room capture; Fetch, which is a virtual pet; and Ball Physics, an augmented reality demo with virtual balls. An SDK is available.
The Downsides The creator has recently said that the technology is still in development and some planned features haven’t been implemented yet. We’re concerned about the lack of software or brackets for any Android devices, even though the creator has said it will be producing open-source drivers. We would also like to see more work go into precision measurement because we think that an architect planning a remodel, for example, is going to want the same kind of tolerances as are available in laser measurement.
The Upsides Occipital has been involved in panorama-creation apps and a successful shopping-scanner app, so it’s familiar with the spatial and optical-scanning area. The project creator has said it has already inked agreements with manufacturers and suppliers and is almost ready to start manufacturing a run of beta sensors. We like the way that the creator has plans to simply redesign the bracket rather than the entire scanner assembly as new mobile devices come to market.
The Numbers After launching a Kickstarter project on Sept. 17, Occipital already had more than 2,000 backers a week later pledging more than US$700,000 of a $100,000 goal. So, its funding goal has been achieved. The funding period ends Nov. 1. Pledge rewards range from a T-shirt for $25 to a Structure Sensor in your choice of silver or blue, a USB hacker cable, drivers and open CAD models for $349 — everything, in other words, that you need to develop with the iPad.
Underlying Concepts Kinect and Structure Sensor both work on the same principal – one shared also with golfing and shooting-sports range finders – in that they send out radio signals, like laser, or infrared frequencies that bounce off objects. The returned signal is then interpreted to calculate gestures in 3D for gaming, map an object – in the case of Structure Sensor – or measure golf-hole distance. Varying levels of sophistication are employed in the resulting rendering, depending on software, that can include 3D reconstructed images and so on.
Conclusion Pre-beta, and with available demo apps only, this product is at a supremely early product life-cycle stage, but is a potentially exciting product, particularly for software and app developers.
Posted in Smartphone Tagged with: 35, 3D Printer, Apple, architects, CAD, camera, iOS, ipad, Mobile Devices, object scanner, occipital, optics, sensor, shopping, tablet
Travel online is an industry that has seen heavy activity as mobile users employ their tablet or smartphones booking their travel destinations. Now travel agency agents are looking to up the ante with more innovative mobile options like ticketless travel. Many last minute patrons are turning to their mobile devices and the agencies m-commerce site to place their bookings and that trend is growing. Therefore it makes sense that the hotel and hospitality industry are looking to whet that appetite. Marriott is looking to fulfill this by making their e-commerce site more m-commerce friendly as well as adding features for travelers that have already booked hotel rooms with them. Read more of this article »
Posted in Mobile Payments Tagged with: Airlines, Hotel Businesses, m-commerce, Mobile Apps, Mobile Check, mobile commerce, Mobile Devices, payment gateways, Smartphones, Travel Online
