Visible Banking @ FinovateStartup: I will start to live blog on NetBanker.com in 3h

Jim Bruene invited me to live blog at the most exciting online finance conference of the year, his FinovateStartup in San Francisco.

The conference will start in 3 hours, and it is an only start for me (4:30am local time). One may say that I should be fully of energy as 1) it is already 12:30pm in England, 2) I arrived on Saturday. Fact is that even though my body is still dealing with the jetlag, I am so pleased/excited/proud/motivated that I can't wait to leave my room and head to SoMa and the conference center!

I will do my best to publish interesting, passionate and valuable posts on all the companies presenting at the event. As planned, I contacted most of their Founders and CEOs before the conference (I found all of them on Linkedin), and I blogged about over 50% of them. The last few weeks at work have been hectic, and it was a real challenge to prepare my trip to San Francisco at the same time.

Visit of the Wesabe and the Yodlee offices
I didn't sleep much in the last couple of weeks, but it was worth it. Yesterday, I shot a video interview with Marc Hedlund, Wesabe's Chief Product Officer, and I had lunch with Allese and Gabe , who will both be attending FinovateStartup today. Jason Knight, Wesabe's CEO, had an excellent reason to cancel our meeting: his wife is excpecting a baby, and I believe he had to go to the hospital urgently. I am sorry but I can't tell you Jason's baby's name. I love Wesabe, and to me it is one of the most innovate startups 2.0 out there.

In the afternoon, I took a train to Redwood City to catch up with Melanie Flanagan, VP Marketing at Yodlee, and shoot another video interview with the excellent Peter Hazlehurst, SVP Products at Yodlee. I met Peter at the first Finovate in NYC in October 07 (please check my first interview with him). I was keen to catch up with Peter who kindly found some time in his busy schedule.

Yesterday evening, Jim Bruene and Eric Mattson invited me to have dinner with the Finovate crew. I had a lovely time with the team. I almost felt part of the family! It is a private joke, only Jim and Eric will understand.

I have one more personal message to Peter: "aligato" for yesterday, and a private joke to Marc "may the force be with you"! ;)

It is 5:10am local time and I would better finalize my preparation now. Stay tuned on NetBanker and Visible Banking today!

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Authentium

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Authentium, innovative solutions for a "secure internet"

I met John Sharp, Authentium's co-Founder and Chairman, several times in London. John first contacted me via Linkedin.


I shot a video interview with John and talked about topics such online security, identity theft, and two-factor-authentication.


Authentium recently rebranded its VirtualATM product as SafeCentral, allegedly the first "secure internet".

According to John, "Using SafeCentral is like going into war already "armored-up" - using the other solutions is like going into battle, being wounded, and getting hauled off to hospital - and then finding out, as you fight for your life, that your health insurance is paid up."
 
To stay up-to-date on online fraud, online security, viruses & malware apps, I invite you to subrscibe to the Authentium blogs.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup
* Coverage Finovate 2007
* Interview John Sharp, co-Founder of Authentium

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Aradium

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Aradiom, an innovative leader in the mobile revolution

I first met Aradiom's owner, Selahaddin Karatas, at Finovate 2007 in New York.

Aradiom is a software development company providing mobile solutions for enterprises, network operators and service providers. Aradiom designs, develops and markets a broad range of mobile messaging solutions based upon a proprietary wireless messaging platform.

Back in 2003, Aradiom announced the launch of the world's first wireless banking client based on Sun technology.

If you are interested in Mobile Banking, I advise you to subscribe to Brandon McGee's excellent blog.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup
* Coverage Finovate 2007
* Interview Brandon McGee, Huntington Bank

Banking 2.0 V-News: Focus on Wells Fargo

From my opinion, Wells Fargo is "The" perfect example of how a bank should leverage the web 2.0. Tim Collins, SVP Experiential Marketing, and Ed Terpening, VP Social Media, surely have two of the most exciting jobs in the banking industry!

Back in 2005, Wells Fargo became one of the most innovative banks online when they became the first major bank to have a presence on Second Life.

vSafe: online storage facility
Last week, Wells Fargo announced the launch of v-Safe, another innovative service available online.
 
The service will allow customers to securely store documents such as financial statements, loan and tax documents, wills, passports and birth, marriage and death certificates in an electronically secure centralised location.

In the UK, BT successfully launched its BT Digital Vault service. And O2 is currently extensively promoting its O2 Bluebook service.
WF's goal is surely to increase stickiness, customer retention. Will they also manage to somehow increase the share of wallet of their users?

According to you, is it the role of telcos or banks to help us store our valuable documents?

I welcome another innovative initiative from Wells Fargo, but shouldn't banks focus first on increasing the level of security of online banking? Many customers are still not comfortable with banking online... Are they ready to trust their bank and store non-financial documents online? Won't they see that as another way for banks to profile them?
 
Related articles on Visible Banking
* Wells Fargo 2.0
* Wells Fargo co-Founds "the Blog Council"
* Interview Erik Hauser, Creative Director @ Swivel Media
* CenterStage: Wells Fargo First Consumer-Generated Marketing Program

News on finextra: Wells Fargo's online initiatives
Please note that the list is not exhaustive.

* Wells Fargo unveils online storage service - 20/03/08
* The Blog Council is born with Wells Fargo as co-founder - 10/12/07
* Wells Fargo introduces online workstation for commercial customers - 18/10/07
* Why Wells Fargo left Second Life - 13/06/07
* Wells' Web makeover woos punters and analysts- 25/05/07
* Wells Fargo introduces Webcast series for small businesses - 26/04/07
* Wells Fargo: Adventures in the blogosphere - 30/03/07

Westpac Enterprise 2.0: unleash the potential of web 2.0 "behind the firewall"

Westpac, Australia's oldest bank, is acknowledged as the web 2.0 leader among the big four banks in Australia. Please find below the presentation David Backley, CTO of Westpac, gave at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in February 2008.

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Westpac fully embraces social media
I invite you to check an extremely interesting article on web 2.0: Westpac turns to Web 2.0 free for all.

It is always a pleasure to find out about a major bank implementing web 2.0 technologies "behind the firewall" (btf). Especially when it is a leading, old and traditional, bank. Usually, those initiatives are driven by the top of the IT Organization: it always helps if the CTO of the bank believes in blogs, wikis and social networking.

Please find below a few key extracts from the article. I wish more CTOs shared David's vision on social media. Banks should embrace web 2.0 technologies. I believe David, and as a consequence Westpac, have the right approach.

"The rationale is that people will waste time if they want to waste time," Backley says. "Most people who work for us will do the right thing, and see that others are doing the right thing. Many of these things can be self-managed."

A liberal policy toward access to Web 2.0 sites might become necessary, he suggests, to attract skilled workers in the future.

"There is a war for talent out there," he said. "The next wave of people we hire are going to be used to this kind of technology. In two or three years time, if [these potential employees] aren't provided this technology inside the organisation, or at least a link to it from your network, that may affect their choices about who they work for."

Banking 2.0: cut your teeth on "behind the firewall" projects first
I invite you to check my post/videocast on the four kinds of social media projects at a bank. "BTF projects" are easier to implement. The bank has "more control", the content is only accessible internally, and there are ways to measure the impact on productivity or on the number of cross sell opportunities. Those projects are easier to sell to your Senior Executives.

The benefits of using social media and user generated content internally are tremendous. Providing wikis and blogs is an efficient, and cost effective, way to urge people to collaborate and increase their visibility in the bank. It helps them identify the relevant skills within the organization and work more efficiently. It could also help them to shine and create opportunities.
 
Imagine if internally you had access to a social network matching Linkedin's quality of profiles and intuitive interface... Wouldn't it be great? You are looking for some competitive intelligence info or insights on a specific industry: what if you just had to type in a few key words to find your colleagues with the relevant background and contacts in the industry? How much time would you save?

The challenge does not lie in the technology or the platform (you can use MS sharepoint, Lotus Software, Facebook, or any kind of homegrown platforms) as long as the tools are secure and intuitive. The challenge lies in educating people, convicing them is is worth using those tools, filling up their profile, sharing their expertise on their blog, or contributing to the wikis.

It is critical to reward your members for their contribution and their time spent online.
 
A social network is only as good as the quality of its member profiles and its search feature.

CenterStage: Wells Fargo First Consumer-Generated Marketing Program

Today I have received an email from Ed Terpening, VP Social Media at Wells Fargo, to let me know that Wells Fargo are launching "Be Center Stage in the Rose Parade", their first Consumer-Generated marketing campaign.

Wells Fargo innovate again: they are the first large financial institution to join that type of contest. I have already expressed my admiration for Wells Fargo (cf my post Wells Fargo 2.0), but again well done to Ed and his team!

Buzz and WOM
Tim Collins, SVP Experiential Marketing at Wells Fargo, and his teams are not only good at launching innovative services or marketing campaigns, but they also know how to generate buzz online.

Earlier today, Ed contacted the key bloggers in the industry: I invite you to check the posts from William Azaroff, Jim Bruene (I look forward to meeting Jim at Finovate 2007 in NYC next week) and Colin Henderson (just to name a few)

Sample video

Finovate 2007: the excellent banking 2.0 event organized by Jim Bruene

More than a month ago I found out about the excellent Finovate 2007, a one day event in New York, on Jim Bruene's NetBanker blog. Jim invited me to attend and added me to the list of bloggers.

On October 2nd, twenty of the most innovative companies in the financial space will demo their newest products in only 7 minutes each. It is a great opportunity to meet with the Founders and Senior Executives of those companies and network with the delegates, the press and some enthusiastic bloggers.

I look forward to meeting with Jim face-to-face and with my peers. And it is always a great pleasure to meet, and kick ideas, with founders and entrepreneurs who are usually passionate and motivational.

The presenters are all involved in hot topics such as Personal Finance, Social Lending (aka Peer-to-Peer Lending), mobile banking and online payments.

Web 2.0 and user-generated content in the banking industry
If you read Visible-Banking.com on regular basis, you know that I am interested in all kinds of web 2.0 initiatives in the Banking industry, especially any innovative services which improve customer satisfaction or help building an online community of active members.

It is good to see that more and more banks show interest, even though we need to remember that user-generated content is a big challenge for the regulated banking industry. Bad comments are potentially a threat and can damage a bank reputation (especially if the bank doesn't respond and address the concern...)

Reputation is critical and the risk slows down banks with their web 2.0 projects. At the same time, more and more people think their bank is letting them down. Customers are less and less faithful and they expect their bank to listen to them and demonstrate they care.

An event well attended by bankers
I am confident Jim's event will attract many bankers who need to better understand the impact of those twenty companies. Companies in the crowded Social Lending (Prosper or Zopa) or Personal Finance (Wesabe) spaces have very successfully managed to build strong online communities of committed and passionate users. They post on regular basis, share their ideas and concerns, and are happy to recommend their favourite platform. Could you find a better, more cost effective, and more efficient way to promote your service and grow your customer base?

Banks must watch out those companies and use them as a source of inspiration. How big the threat is? How could banks use the same approach to engage their clients? Could banks partner with those new players? (Money Management / Personal Finance is one of the key features desired by banking customers). Please check the excellent post of my ex-colleague James Gardner about Wesabe and Prosper.

Wells Fargo 2.0
I invite you to check my post on Wells Fargo 2.0. As far as I am concerned, Wells Fargo is the best example of how to use web 2.0 in the banking industry. Well done to Tim Collins, SVP - Experiential Marketing, Ed Terpening, VP Social Network Marketing, and their teams. In the last couple of months I had the pleasure to communicate with Ed and to meet Tim at the excellent Wells Fargo event organized in London by the Financial Services Club. Well done to Chris Skinner and Andy Coppell!

Mobile Banking offerings are blossoming all over the world. If you want a good overview of the US market, I invite you to check the excellent post by Brandon McGee, VP & Senior Product Manager (Mobile Banking), who is one of the guest bloggers on Jim's mobile money & banking blog.

List of presenters at Finovate 2007
Fraud & identity theft
* Identity Theft 911 

Online Account Opening
* Andera

Online Banking
* CheckFree /Corillian
* Digital Insight (an Intuit company)
* Metavante

Online Payments
* Billeo Inc
* iPay Technologies
* Online Resources
* Yodlee

Mobile Banking
* ClairMail
* Firethorn
* mFoundry
* MShift
* Monitise

Personal Finance
* Geezeo
* Jwaala
* Mint

Social Lending and Online Loans
* Lending Club
* Mortgagebot 
* Prosper Marketplace

If you plan to attend as a delegate or a speaker and you want to share your interest or expertise in web 2.0, please do not hesitate to send me an email (cm_langlois[AT]yahoo[DOT]co[DOT]uk) to make sure we meet during the show.

Congratulations Jim, you have done an amazing job!
Ideally, I would have loved to meet with a few other companies such as Wesabe, BillMonk or Zopa...

ad:tech - Digital Marketing Conference in London

A couple of weeks ago Catherine Ossemerct, who launched Join2Grow.biz - Fortis social network for European Entrepreneurs -, informed me that she will be coming to London in late September to share her experience in social networking at the ad:tech conference.

Web 2.0
I am glad that nowadays most companies show interest in the trendy Web 2.0. Just check the number of speakers and the large range of industries covered.
They want to better understand what it is and see if, and how, they could use it. User-generated content seem to be the way forward, but bad comments from angry customers are always seen as a high risk of major brand damage. Especially in the regulated world of Banking and Financial Services.

Web 2.0 is not a technology, but a range of tools to urge people to express themselves (blogging, social networking, podcasts, videos, rss feeds...). As Chris Larsen from Prosper said in one of his interviews, web 2.0 is all about "giving the power to people". It is all about user-generated content.

ad:tech, London 2007
I registered as a member of the Press. My goal is to meet the key speakers and delegates involved in web 2.0 projects, especially in the banking space. I plan to shoot short video interviews "on the spot".

On that occasion, I will interview Catherine and her colleague Jean-Paul, Join2Grow's webmaster, to find out more about Join2Grow: Fortis goals and expectations, the most recent stats and the results since its launch in February 2007.

The Key workshops I am planning to attend:
* Blogging: Blogging French Style - Buzz your Products and Brand
* Marketing: Experiential Marketing - Interlinking and Amplyifing Digital Investment, 
* Online communities & social networking: Social Networking & Community Sites, Online Communities as a Marketing Tool - A Case Study: First Choice Holidays
* Podcasts: Podcasting: Why you should be doing it and how you can do it better!
* Virtual worlds & Second Life: Virtual Worlds - What Value can they bring beyond PR & Market Research?
* Web 2.0: Monitoring Consumer Conversations Online, Researching and Creating Web 2.0 Experiences, Analytics & Metrics for Web 2.0, Social Search - Tips & Tricks

The Key speakers I would like to meet and interview:
* Nasser Batley, Head of Internet and New Media, Global Banking, Dresdner Kleinwort
* Elizabeth Chambers, Chief Marketing Officer, Barclaycard 
* Eric Clemenceau, VP Advertising, Joost
* Cynthia Crossley, Director, UK Search Business, Online Services Group, Microsoft Ltd
* James Fabricant, Director of Entertainment and Head of Video, Europe, MySpace.com
* Alison Fennah, Executive Director, EIAA (European Interactive Advertising Association)
* Kay Hoffmann, Head of Global Advertising and Innovations, Vodafone Group Services Ltd
* José Luis Iribarren, e-Relationship Marketing Manager, ibm.com Europe
* Rebecca Jennings, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
* Justin Kirby, CEO, DMC and co-founder, Viral & Buzz Marketing Association
* Patrik Oqvist, EMEA Marketing Director - Hotels.com, Expedia Inc.
* Jill Orr, UK Managing Director, CNET Networks UK
* Catherine Ossemerct, Head of Media-Channels, Merchant & Private Banking, Fortis
* Jay Stevens, VP Operations EMEA, MySpace
* Bill Tancer, General Manager of Global Research, Hitwise
* Dominic Tillson, Senior UK Sales Manager, Bebo
* Martin Verdon-Roe, Head of UK Sales, TripAdvisor
* Karin von Abrams, Senior Analyst, eMarketer

If you plan to attend as a delegate, exhibitor or speaker and you want to share your interest or expertise in web 2.0, please do not hesitate to send me an email (cm_langlois[AT]yahoo[DOT]co[DOT]uk) to make sure we meet during the show.

Stats on Join2Grow - Phase 1

Last week, I had a good chat with Catherine, the Join2Grow project owner at Fortis.

If you want to find out more about Fortis initiative in the social networking space, I invite you to check Catherine's presentation at the recent Emerce Insight Banking event.

ING's "Pick your financial advisors" blog

ING is one of the most dynamic and innovative European banks in terms of web 2.0 and buzz/viral marketing. They have a Dutch "mini-state" on Second Life, they recently launched moveoutmoveup.com a viral marketing site with its own profile on YouTube...

On regular basis, I check the ING Asia/Pacific's blog initiated by Jacques Kamp, CEO ING Asia/Pacific. A couple of weeks ago, I found out about their excellent initiative in India, the Pick Your Financial Advisor blog.

I am always very pleased to see a leading bank innovating and utilizing web 2.0 features. Even if the new platform or service is not perfect. Recently, I reviewed the phase 2 of Join2Grow.biz, the European Network for Entrepreneur launched by another innovative bank in the Benelux, Fortis Bank.

My goal is to share my comments and my suggestions to improve the service and better engage their members. The customer experience is key: nowadays, in the web 2.0 era, people want more control. Before launching a new platform, companies should aim to create and build a community. Then, they need to make sure they engage their members and urge them to post some value added content on regular basis. Companies must focus mainly on providing a comprehensive and intuitive platform, and let their members produce the content.

But most banks refrain from implementing web 2.0 technologies because of potential brand damage. They are scared of user-generated content. But an aggressive comment or complain on your blog is not a problem, as long as you respond to it!

PickURAdvisor.com is a sort of blogging platform, not a social network. It is a good initiative, I like the idea of being able to choose your advisor, know a bit more of her/his background and put a face on the advisor, and see some activities and responsiveness from her/him.

As a potential client, it should definitely urge me to use the service and get in touch with the most suitable advisor. Moreover, I have a good feeling about ING which demonstrate they want to develop a good long-term relationship with me.

But how am I supposed to choose among the advisors? How do I get to use this service if ING don't promote it on its website? What if the interface is not intuitive? How comfortable with the service should I be if I find some inappropriate content or other visitors/members personal contact numbers?...

This is a good example of potentially damaging user-generated content. The good news is that it is easily addressable, with a moderator who constantly monitor the blog.
 
Please find below my comments and my suggestions.

Interface - main menu
FIRST COMPANY TO FEATURE ITS INSURANCE ADVISORS...
It links to the media section of ING's website. You are lost, and there is no link to the original press release...
Is this link targeted to potential clients, potential employees or investors?

BASICS OF LIFE INSURANCE
I think the Font used is too small, and not suited to older people.
There are no hyperlinks on the pages and at the end there is no call to action. For instance, on page 13, I was expecting to find a link to the "Lifemaker application" info page on their website.

It is an interactive book. Why not, but it is not ideal in terms of user experience, and it could have been more interactive. As best practice, I invite you to check "the Virtual Forest" section of first direct interactive.

DOWNLOAD THIS WALLPAPER
Why would I do that? Moreover, it looks like the picture is not displayed on the website... I would be curious to find out a) the reasons why they decided to add that option... b) how many times this wallpaper has been downloaded!

GET TAX FREE INCOME ON RETIREMENT
It is merely a link to the website...

Interface - poor navigability
The interface is not intuitive and a bit messy: a lot of info or features are below the fold, the home button is at the bottom of the page... The user experience is critical if you want to drive traffic to your service, and urge your members to login frequently, be more active and contribute.
* A fair proportion of "communty blogs" are useless: you can only see the standard "Please enter your message here". Also, it is easy to duplicate your message by mistake... Before submitting the post, they should launch a script which controls the body of the message.
* Browsing the communty blogs is not user friendly, and it takes for ever to find a message which is relevant to you.
   
One of the key misses is the absence of categories or taggs. Tagging is the base of pretty much all the web 2.0 websites and communities. It is a very efficient way to find all the relevant info about a specific topic, share that info between members and urge them to contribute.

Registration & User Profile
Early in the registration process, they ask you to choose my advisor. But how are you supposed to choose your prefered advisor at that stage?

* Add testimonial: it is good to urge your members to leave a testimonial. But here, it looks like there is only one online! Does it mean that: no one ever left a testimonial? They received many testimonials but they were that bad? They receive many testimonials, but they don't bother checking and publishing them?
* Blog rating: this is an interesting feature. Now, I feel like I am in control. But am I rating each post? Or the whole private blog with my personal advisor? What is the impact of my vote? There is no point sending my feedback if no action is taken.
* Reminders: it is a basic reminder/alarm service. I couldn't find the list of reminders on my personal homepage.
* Face-to-Face meeting: when you click on the link, another page appear saying that you will be contacted shortly. That is it!

The Advisor profiles
* The way advisors introduce themselves is diversed but there is no consistency.
Is the goal of the blog to recruit more advisors OR to develop warmer, more personal, relationships with clients? As a potential client, do I really want to hear about "growth potential"? Nope.
* I was surprised to find some personal email addresses?
* I would challenge the value of displaying personal photos. Moreover, most of the time the advisors forgot to add a description. There is no checking: "Upload family photo and enter a caption".
* They introduce their personal background.

Fine, but I need to better understand what their approach is and find out about their key skills which could help me as a client. I need to understand how successful and popular my advisor is: it would be benefitial to have access to the nb of community blogs, private blogs, face 2 face meetings, and blog ratings by advisor.
 
No control? It means a higher risk of brand damage
No "moderator"? Visitors promote pharmacy, viagra, ringtones, porn...
It looks like the advisors themselves don't check their community blogs!

It does not communicate a positive image of the company. A visitor may well think: "OK it is a good service, but ING don't care. They don't even read the content of the posts..."


No promotion on ING Vysya Life Insurance website?
I briefly browsed the ING V.L.I. website. I may have missed them, but I couldn't find any references or links to pickuradvisor.com.

When companies launch such an innovative service they should: a) be proud, b) communicate and send press releases to early adopters and sneezers, c) promote the new service on their website.

Stats - 31 July 07
* 6 cities & 27 advisors: Bangalore (5), Chennai (5), Delhi (5), Hyderabad (4), Mumbai (4) and Pune (4).
* It looks like there are just 490 posts for over 20 advisors since the launch. 

Terms and conditions
I rarely go trough all the T&Cs, but this time I wanted to find out more about ING's policy in terms of control and moderation on the blog.

Messages
This site hosts message boards, and chat services for both public and private forums. The Users may please note that any information that is disclosed in public forums becomes public information. Users should exercise caution when deciding to disclose their personal information on such forums.
Fair enough, but what if the advisors are asking for those contact details in the community blogs... Should they do it? On many occasions, I found some personal contact details in public posts.
 
Editing
IVL reserves the right to edit/delete the content contributed by Users in its blog forums, if the same in the opinion of IVL is against law, morality and IVL’s Business Principles.
Cf my "No control?" section...