Published
- 06:00 am
IBM today announced IBM Watson Marketing Insights. Available on the cloud, Watson Marketing Insights has cognitive capabilities that can study the behavior of customers and reason how they might impact the success of the business. With this insight, marketers can launch targeted campaigns designed to cultivate customer advocates and enable long-term business success.
IBM Watson Marketing features proven cognitive capabilities that can uncover key predictors in customers by examining their interactions with the company, whether it's in the store or on email, digital and social media. By continuously updating this data, Watson Marketing Insights reveals new audience profiles and customer segments as the relative importance of their behavior predictors changes.
With Watson Marketing Insights, marketers can predict a customer's potential response to a new campaign, based on their previous behavior. For example, the cognitive capabilities may show that customers who regularly abandon their shopping cart are more likely to defect from a brand than those who frequently return products. To make it easy for marketers, the new offering features a visual dashboard that includes details on the context and reasoning behind the findings. Marketers can then leverage this information to target campaigns designed specifically to engage this group with a personalized offer.
"While every customer journey is different, each involves multiple touch points before the purchase is made. It's up to the brands to make every one of these journeys is seamless and end with a satisfied customer," said Maria Winans, Chief Marketing Officer, IBM Watson Customer Engagement. "With these new cognitive capabilities, marketers can now get the audience insights needed to strengthen customer engagement and deliver campaigns that resonate with every single customer."
Unlike other solutions, Watson Marketing Insights ensures that teams don't have to settle for static segments that traditionally don't consider variables such as how customers have interacted with the brand over time. In addition, marketers no longer need to rely on analysis from data scientists because these insights are automatically presented to them and updated automatically over time to ensure they are always acting on the most up-to-date details.
Watson Customer Engagement portfolio, combines Watson cognitive capabilities with deep expertise in marketing, commerce and supply chain to create an end-to-end digital experience for businesses across industries and size. Deliver via the cloud, the IBM Watson Customer Engagement capabilities, are individual features that companies can introduce over a period of time, based on where and when there is a business need.
- 09:00 am
Today, Bombardier Inc. announced the appointment of Jeff Hutchinson as Chief Information Officer, reporting to John Di Bert, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Bombardier Inc.
In this position, Mr. Hutchinson will be responsible for leading Bombardier's global IT, digital asset and cyber security functions. In this capacity, he will assume responsibility for establishing a strong portfolio of world-class IT strategies, services, and offerings, in support of Bombardier's 2020 goals and longer-term strategic plan.
"Jeff has the right experience and credentials to lead our IT organization's transformation, with a focus on driving performance, enhancing synergies, and building a best-in-class IT organization," said Mr. Di Bert. "Beyond his impressive track record, Jeff brings a customer-centric approach to technology to Bombardier, as well as a passion for enabling companies like ours to drive profitable growth through their digital transformation."
Jeff has more than 30 years of experience leading and transforming IT organizations at large, matrixed companies including Honeywell, Maple Leaf Foods, SAP and Danone/Dannon. Throughout his career, Jeff has focused on leveraging leading processes, digital assets, technology and collaboration to enable improved business performance, profitability and business growth.
Jeff earned his BS in Business Administration from Bryant University, a MBA from the University of New Haven, a MS in Software Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Doctorate in Computing from Pace University.
- 01:00 am
Bengaluru based BuyForexOnline, the pioneer in the online Forex space, has announced the launch of a revolutionary new B2B Forex platform for Travel agents & Education Consultants.
As part of the pilot launch in Bengaluru, more than 250 agents have signed up for the platform, which will now be rolled out across India toprimarily target SME Travel agents and Student Consultancies specializing in Overseas Education.
“Forex in the B2B space is a largely disorganized sector with Agents ordering Forex for their clients through multiple offline channels, often requiring additional resources both in time and manpower for coordinating the transaction. This becomes challenging, especially when it comes to determining rates, arranging for delivery, and collecting payments. TAM was launched to address these challenges and to streamline the process. It is an easy lead-generation tool, and once the lead is triggered, the BuyForexOnline team then takes over and contacts the client to close the lead.’’ said Ananth Reddy, Founder and Managing Director of BuyForexOnline.
“The key advantage of TAM is that the lead is mapped to the agent, and their commission is automatically captured by the system even for all subsequent transactions by that client - giving a substantial additional revenue-stream to the agent. An in-depth report can be viewed on our system by the travel agent to monitor their commissions. Our rates are the lowest in the market, and travel agents are free to add-on a further margin for their clients, which will be protected for them.” added Ananth Reddy.
BuyForexOnline is a pioneer in the Online Forex space, which has successfully disrupted the traditional forex model. The major differentiation is in promoting a shift to the Forex Cards on the Visa/Mastercard platform, and offering an online engine for Wire transfers/remittances. Travelers have the added benefit of security and the ability to reload on the go when funds run out. Since electronic money loaded on Forex cards is not limited by stock, they are a much more cost-effective solution. As the First Completely Online Foreign Exchange Portal in India, BuyForexOnline.com has introduced features like - online Forex reload, Home delivery of Forex, and Dedicated After-hours customer support to make Forex Purchase a much more simplified, convenient and pleasant experience.
- 08:00 am
Dovetail, the provider of best-in-class payments and liquidity management solutions, today announced a global strategic partnership with IBM to offer Dovetail payment solutions in combination with IBM’s Watson Financial Services products.
“At IBM, we seek to partner with organizations who offer world-class solutions to help our joint clients succeed in the Cognitive era,” said Neil Isford, IBM GM, Watson Financial Services Solutions. “Dovetail is a key player in the provision of payments solutions to many of the world’s leading transaction banks and joining forces with Dovetail will enable us to offer financial institutions with a comprehensive set of payments and related solutions across both high and low value payments domains and better serve our customers and their broader payments initiatives.”
Martin Coen, Dovetail CEO said, “We are excited to have formalized this relationship with IBM. It’s another significant step for us as we take our best-in-class payment solutions out to a wider market. It will enable us to combine Dovetail solutions with the breadth and depth of IBM propositions in facilitating the digital transformation of financial institutions. Together we will be a powerful combination that will be very attractive for banks looking to accelerate their digital transformation journey in payments”.
- 01:00 am
Internet spending has jumped by more than a quarter in the last two years, a new report analysing how the UK uses payment cards online reveals. Card spending on the internet totalled £154 billion in the UK in 2016, averaging £422 million a day, figures from The UK Cards Association show. This is a rise of 28 per cent since 2014, when online spending amounted to £120 billion. Analysis finds one in four card purchases online is on entertainment, with consumers buying cinema and concert tickets, takeaway orders and digital content. Figures also show the UK spends online more per household than any other country, at US$5,900 in 2015. This is higher than Norway (US$5,400), the USA (US$4,500) and Australia (US$4,000). The report looks at internet spending patterns on debit and credit cards in the UK and finds that:
1.8 billion purchases were made online in 2016, an average of 150 million a month. This is an increase of 38 per cent from 1.3 billion in 2014
Entertainment sales make up the highest proportion of all online purchases (26 per cent); although these only account for 7 per cent of the total value, reflecting the relatively low cost of digital entertainment such as apps and music downloads
While 41 per cent of in-store card purchases are on food and drink, the sector only makes up 7 per cent of online transactions
More than a quarter (27 per cent) of all online spending by value is on financial services, the highest share of any sector.
Richard Koch, Head of Policy at The UK Cards Association, said:
“The internet enables millions of people to access services around the clock from wherever they are based. Payment cards have driven this revolution, providing an easy and secure way to shop online, whether it is to buy an app for your phone or a sofa for your living room.
“Since the early days of internet shopping there has been a host of innovations, from digital wallets to one click purchases, which bring enhanced security, choice and convenience for customers and which will lead to continued growth in the sector. The additional protection provided when using a card also gives consumers extra peace of mind when they are shopping online.”
The report also reveals the dominance of online spending in certain sectors:
Nearly four in every ten pounds (37 per cent) spent on travel is paid for online, with 54 per cent of spending on flights made through the internet
Consumers now go online for a quarter (23 per cent) of all clothing spending
Event tickets are now mainly bought via the internet, with 67 per cent of concert ticket spending and 61 per cent of cinema, theatre and dance spending made online
In-store shopping still dominates at some businesses such as pawn shops (98.6 per cent of spending in-store), laundry and cleaning (98.3 per cent), and pubs (98.2 per cent).
- 01:00 am
Industry association, OSPT Alliance, today launches an ‘Affiliate’ membership category.
The new membership category has been established in response to increasing enquiries from manufacturers and integrators as the market witnesses increasing requests for open standards in transit.
Companies joining OSPT Alliance at the new membership level will receive:
• Full access to the CIPURSE™ Specification, OSPT Alliance’s open standard
• The right to implement CIPURSE on the transmitting level
• A significantly reduced cost of membership
• The benefit of no royalties to pay when implementing on the transmitting level
• Participation in one of OSPT Alliance’s sub-working groups
• Use of word and picture trademarks in line with the OSPT Alliance Articles of Association
“OSPT Alliance is driving the adoption of open standards by encouraging CIPURSE integration and promoting infrastructure availability,” comments Laurent Cremer, Executive Director of OSPT Alliance. “In listening to the market, we recognized the importance of creating a platform to encourage and simplify engagement by terminal manufacturers and system integrators to ensure system component readiness and the availability of integration services locally.”
OSPT Alliance already offers two levels of membership: Full membership, which is open to all companies that plan to develop commercial products based on CIPURSE; and Associate membership, which is available to transit agencies, industry associations involved in transit, universities and research institutions with an interest in public transport, solution and service providers, and system integrators.
In addition, any company that is interested in creating a product / solution based on CIPURSE may become an Evaluator to evaluate whether the standard is suitable for their needs before joining as a Full member.
Laurent continues: “As the appetite within the transit industry to collaborate to deliver better, simpler, more efficient and more convenient services to consumers continues to grow, it is more important than ever that there is a common platform on which to do so. I encourage any stakeholder with an interest in fare collection solutions to join the association to influence the CIPURSE standard and contribute to the direction of the transit market in the future.”
- 05:00 am
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published today its final technical advice to the European Commission regarding supervisory fees for Trade Repositories (TRs) under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR).
TRs have to pay fees on specific administrative actions such as registration, extension of registration or recognition, and an annual fee for on-going supervision which is proportionate to the level of turnover of the TRs. ESMA also advises to simplify the way of determining the turnover of TRs for the purposes of calculating the annual supervisory fees by including revenues only and excluding activity figures.
ESMA also proposes lower fees in the case of extension of registration under SFTR, or in the case of concurrent application under both regimes. ESMA has also proposed the calculation of fees for recognition of third country TRs and the reimbursement of the cost to NCAs in the case of delegation of tasks.
- 03:00 am
UBS Twint is now available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The free app is ideal for everybody with a UBS account or a Swiss credit card of any kind: Twint payments are debited directly to your bank account or credit card.
UBS TWINT is now available. This means that those with a UBS account can connect it to the app. New: when you pay with UBS TWINT, the amount is debited directly to your bank account – making topping up your credit a thing of the past. Alternatively, you can also save any Swiss credit or prepaid card. This means that UBS TWINT is also available to users without a UBS account.
Further TWINT apps from Swiss banks will be available shortly. BCV TWINT, Credit Suisse TWINT, PostFinance TWINT and Raiffeisen TWINT will be available to download in the early summer.
Tips:
- Do you have a UBS account or a Swiss credit or prepaid card of any kind? If so, download UBS TWINT.
- Do you still have credit on your current TWINT app? If so, you can release the credit: in the app, select 'Release money' under the 'More' menu. You can enter an IBAN here and the credit will subsequently be transferred to an account of your choice. Of course, you can also continue to use the TWINT app in parallel to UBS TWINT until your credit is used up.
- 03:00 am
Today BMO Harris Bank announced a partnership with 1871, a leading technology and entrepreneurship ecosystem which is currently home to nearly 500 high-growth digital startups in the Merchandise Mart – that will provide a select group of FinTech startups the opportunity to participate in a three-month mentorship program.
The program, called BMO Harris/1871 FinTech Partnership, will provide six selected startups with:
- A three-month mentorship program with access to mentors and resources from BMO Harris Bank;
- A working space at 1871, a 140,000 square-foot pure innovation space; and
- The potential opportunity to pilot their technology with BMO Harris Bank.
"Innovation is crucial for any business to succeed in today's business environment," said Alexandra Dousmanis-Curtis, Group Head, U.S. Retail and Business Banking, BMO Harris Bank. "We're partnering with 1871 to present new enhancements to our industry with the opportunity to refine our capabilities for our current and prospective customers of tomorrow and beyond."
Fintech companies from across the Chicagoland area are invited to apply before May 15 for one of the six placements. After three months, all of the six startups will present their product to a panel of judges consisting of bank executives for a chance to share in the total cash prize of $50,000. The winners may also be given the opportunity to pilot their product with BMO Harris at the conclusion of the mentorship program.
BMO Harris Bank remains focused on building upon its strong digital foundation, and user experience continues to be a top priority. Recent launches – including Mobile Cash, which allows consumers to withdraw money from an ATM using their smartphone; People Pay, a peer-to-peer money transfer service for mobile app users, and digital wallets for select BMO Harris Bank credit and debit cards – reflect the bank's commitment to offering customers more intuitive digital experiences that allow them to bank in ways that suit their individual preferences.
"Chicago is a rich technology epicenter and 1871 has played a critical role in that transformation," said Darrel Hackett, President, BMO Wealth Management U.S. "Our mentorship program with 1871 will enable us to forge a strong working environment for startups to take advantage of and explore new ideas that resonate in the financial services industry and ultimately with our customers."
"1871's partnership with BMO Harris further enhances our offerings for FinTech startups in Chicago," said 1871 CEO Howard A. Tullman. "We look forward to welcoming the mentors and the startups to our space, and are excited to see the results of the program. The partnership is yet another example of 1871 connecting entrepreneurs to large corporations to accelerate innovation."
- 01:00 am
Today Profile Software, an international financial solutions provider, revealed that Dolfin, a London-based investment firm, is managing its asset management operation with Profile’s award-winning platform, enabling a fully automated operational environment.
Founded in 2013, Dolfin is technology-savvy, independent, with a fresh approach. Providing custody, trading and asset management to both institutional and private clients, its focus is on helping wealth managers, private bankers and other financial advisers to start and grow their own business by sharing its infrastructure and services.
The Solution enables Dolfin to streamline trading, settlement and accounting processes (STP utilising SWIFT & FIX connectivity), API connectivity to external sources and utilise tools for performance & risk analysis, regulatory compliance and reporting throughout the business.
Amir Nabi, COO at Dolfin commented “Our aim is to offer our clients investment expertise with digital agility so it’s crucial that our infrastructure and technology are first-rate. In selecting third party providers, we look for the best of breed. We’re happy to be working with Profile Software”.
Profile’s CEO, Babis Stasinopoulos remarked “It is a privilege to work with Dolfin, a financial services firm that is enthusiastic to utilise the available digital tools to accelerate their clients’ and partners’ experience beyond traditional wealth management operations. The flexibility and modern technology available in our platforms, is expected to add real value to their operations”.
Investing in delivering reliable and functionality rich platforms that adhere to country specific regulations and client-centric requirements, Profile’s wealth management solutions support easy integration, automation, and business agility.
