Consider forwarding this to your management team!

As promised, I’m posting material that some of you already have (if you attended the Mega Conference). Because most smaller community-based banks are slow to adopt Mobile Banking, the following talking points could be shared with your management team to help them get on the same page about some facts related to the adoption of this technology.  This is a result of my research I conducted to “reduce new bank technology trends to the three most important.”

Management Team Talking Points for Mobile Banking:

Why we must develop a plan immediately:

• Smartphones are the ultimate extension of the ongoing megatrend called “convergence.”  Provisioning for growth in smartphones is our most important, urgent technology planning job.  We must have a plan by the end of this quarter.
• In June, 2007 Apple introduced the iPhone.  Three years later smartphones are the #1 technology trend across all industries.  Smartphones comprise 20% of all mobile phones today.  This penetration was predicted (in December 2009) by Apple Computers to reach 50% in three years, and is already outpacing that prediction.
• In two years, smartphones will be the #1 device used to “browse” the Internet.  Currently, the average cell phone user spends 80% of the time making and receiving calls.  Currently, the average smartphone user spends 80% of the time using “web apps.”
• Forty percent (40%) of business owners are currently using smartphones.  RIGHT NOW, our commercial accounts are wondering what’s wrong with our mobile banking approach.
• We HAVE to be early adopters, rather than early majority adopters, of this technology.

Considerations for Mobile Banking Deployment:

• The reason mobile banking is so much in demand is because it addresses Information Overload.  The average American currently processes 100,000 words per day.  The way to tackle Information Overload is to provide specific, meaningful information.  Mobile banking, if implemented properly, achieves meaning.
• Mobile banking involves the use of “middleware” . . . . an application that is downloaded to your customer’s smartphone that communicates with more sophisticated software hosted by the mobile banking provider then integrates with the bank’s information system.  The applications currently available offer threshold alerting, balance checking, even billpay and other more sophisticated services.
• Authentication is an important feature of mobile banking to investigate.  Smartphone users will not key in a password . . . . but there are other means of authentication including pattern and voice recognition methods.
• Usability is a hallmark feature of successful smartphone applications.  The iPhone has 185,000 apps, all customizable to the user’s specific needs.  The iPhone has a 150+ page user manual that has never been read.  It’s easy to use . . . the phone is smart so the user doesn’t have to be.
• There is VERY LITTLE tolerance in the Smartphone Apps world for getting things wrong.  The cost of a second chance is far more expensive than the cost of doing it right the first time.   We will be paying more than we would have to if we wait, but it will be worth it because:
  • Enrollment is key.  We must enroll our users before somebody else does.
  • When selecting a mobile banking provider, we should first determine who the dominant wireless carrier is in our market, and then determine which smartphone they are peddling.  Then we must find solutions that are designed for that particular smartphone.
  • See mega2010.infotex.com for list of mobile banking providers.

Let us know if you have additional information, thoughts, links,
or disagreements.   Simply comment on this article.

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This has been a Dan’s New Leaf posting . . . . a weekly post about whatever happens to be on Dan’s mind at the time, related of course to IT Governance in banking.