Review: webinar, Online Banking 2.0

Online Banking 2.0: Key trends that are changing the online banking experience to help you effectively compete online Increase Adoption of the Online Channel

I invite you to watch that excellent webinar on Online Banking & Web 2.0, organized by SourceMedia in March 2007.

Host & speakers
* Jeff Scott, President Banking Division - SourceMedia, was hosting the event.
It is a small world: when I was working at Accuity, a division of SourceMedia, Jeff was our President. He did a great job, and then he got promoted to his current role. I know Jeff well, he is a great guy, and he totally deserved his promotion.
* Greg Haislip, Director of industry Solutions for Banking MS, was the first speaker.
Greg talked about the new challenges for banks and compared them to the retailers (like Starbucks...)
* Max Janasik, Director of Product Management Corillian, was the second speaker.
I liked his presentation: it was focused on online banking, and he shared a lot of valuable information and figures. Max is obviously very experienced, and I will make sure to interview him.

The importance of Online Banking
Online Banking & Web 2.0 are two hot topics. Nowadays, more and more people are banking online, and the banks understand the value of providing an excellent level of services online. It is critical for financial institutions to enhance the effectivness of their online banking channel.

Last week, I was in the US to speak at the online_banking_summit_2007 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
I was part of a panel, our session was on banking & web 2.0. The event was a success, and I invite you to consider attending next year!

Key messages
You need to focus on creating value, making things easy for your customers, creating a community, becoming a partner. You need to give a reason to your members to contribute, share their comments & ideas, and keep coming back.
 
Greg's presentation: not focused on online banking, and a bit to "selly"
I am sure Greg is very experienced in banking & IT. But his presentation was more about the banking industry in general, and Microsoft. He focused on compliance, outsourcing and processes. Greg didn't really talk about web 2.0 and giving more control to the people, to your customers.

Nevertheless, I found interesting his vision of banks competing not only against banks but retailers. He talked about Starbucks and the experience they create for their customers.

I totally agree with Greg when he says that demographics are changing and customers have increased expectations. "Doing more with less" and increasing your efficiency is critical.
More and more consolidation and increased competition are coming up in the Industry, and loyal customers are more and more valuable. Banks need to build trust to be able to sustain leadership and growth. Banks need to understand what their clients need, to be able to cross sell more.

Max's presentation: full of valuable info on web 2.0
I found Max's presentation extremely interesting: his slides were relevant to the topic, and full of valuable information. He didn't talk about Corillian, now part of CheckFree, but the industry.

Max started with a slide on the three generations of online banking, from "Beta" (emergence), then growth, to web 2.0 (channel effectiveness). Now, banks are expected to give more value to their clients, and show they listen to them. Max said customers see their bank as a trusted financial partner.
I disagree on that statement, I think it is not the case especially in the uk.
 
Then, he talked about the adoption of technologies, and the key concerns and demands from the customers: online banking must be secure and easy to use.

There is a very good slide about the percentage of US bank's customers who have done the following activities: Used networking sites / Listened to podcasts / Read blogs
Please find below the results for a few US banks:
* BoA: 15 / 7 / 16
* Citibank: 19 / 12 / 19
* E*Trade: 15 / 23 / 23
* HSBC Group: 20 / 12 / 17
* ING Direct: 21 / 7 / 23
source: Forrester

Max walked us though some other topics such as online innovation which builds brand value, or confusion driven by the profusion of web 2.0 technologies.

A few Ideas - Give your cutomers more control
* Give them tools to manage their money: tags/categories, calendar, tables, graphs
* Let them configure their security preferences
* Give them access to all their statements online
* Focus on life events

Blogs: very controversial, but tremendous value
Banks are concerned. But I like Max's quote: "We envision a day in the near future when companies that don't blog will be held suspect to some degree, with people wondering whether those companies have something to hide or whether the owners are worried about what the people wh works for them have to say." Robert Scoble and Shel Istrael

You need to create a level of trust and a meaningful dialogue with your clients. It helps humanize your organisation, it shows you care enough to listen.

Comments

[Stuart Celarier]

A small correction: CheckFree's offer to buy Corillian is going through the necessary legal and regulatory process, and is still on track to close around the beginning of June 2007. We're all excited about the deal, but Corillian is not part of CheckFree yet. I'm glad you enjoyed Max's presentation.

[Chris Langlois]

My mistake.
Thanks Stuart for your comment.