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January 31, 2007

I’ve been complaining about techno-complexity for 49 years. 60 Minutes needed only 15 minutes to get the point across.

By Art Gillis

It wasn’t February 4th, but I was cheering like crazy when Steve Croft presented his segment on the complexities of technology. Even though I have been earning an excellent living as a technology guy, I confess now that I never really loved its complexity, and I’m now out of the closet, thanks to 60 Minutes.

I got my first exposure to computers as a 2nd/Lt in the Air Force in 1958. My most used response to technology then was, “You gotta be kiddin’.” I’m saying the same thing today. As a member of USA TODAY’s Technology Panel, I participated in a survey on January 26, 2007. The question was, “Are you considering upgrading your TV for the occasion (Super Bowl)?”

This is how I responded:

I should tell you I have been working with information technology for the past 49 years. One important lesson I learned was to identify the need first, and then shop for the right solution. I just purchased a new TV because the old one broke. That need was clear and crisp, without emotion or bias. I didn’t want to buy a new one, I had to buy a new one.

Functionally, the new one is just like the old one, but the screen is a little larger. We’re not always glued to the TV, so as long as we can see a very clear picture and hear the sounds, the new TV does the job, it cost half the price of the old one, and I didn’t have to go to school to learn how to use it. The real test in selection was availability. We live in a shopper’s paradise, Dallas, and you’d be surprised how low inventories are. I didn’t choose my new TV, the shelf told me what to buy.

Speaking of that, in today’s news there are two stories about car manufacturers. (1) Toyota is #1, (2) Ford lost $13 billion. Yesterday I bought a new car. I tried to buy a Ford. The dealer didn’t have the exact color and interior for me to look at. They didn’t even have any 2007 brochures so I could at least read about it. I was offered a 2006 brochure and a cup of coffee. Am I in a Starbuck’s? I went to a Toyota dealer and within 48 hours I had the car of my choice down to the smallest detail. The Toyota salesman said yes to everything, or we can get it by 5:00 PM. Ford doesn’t have to hire McKinsey & Co. to figure out why the company is failing. But maybe Toyota did 40 years ago. Technology is great only if you realize that using it is the goal, not the process of getting it and making it work.

Posted by Art Gillis at 03:19 PM | Comments

January 29, 2007

The biggest hindrance to growing any bank is the depersonalization of customers.

By Art Gillis

Solution: If your prospects and customers can get a whiff of your bad breath, then you’ll know you’re providing personal service. In the late '70, I worked on a contract, along with all kinds of other consultants, to help Citibank deploy its ATM network. Working on-site at the new Third Avenue slant-roof sky scraper, I busted into my client’s office one day and said, “I’m starving, let’s go to lunch.” He replied, “I’m so busy I won’t do lunch for several days, but here’s a card that will get you a free lunch at the employee cafeteria, and you’ll love it.” While standing in line, I recognized the CEO, two positions in front of me. Walter Wriston turned to the guy behind him, and in front of me, and asked why he was eating lunch alone. “Take a customer to lunch,” he commanded. The kid nearly collapsed and then turned to me and said, “There goes my appetite.” A few years later, Walter’s successor, John Reed, proclaimed that Citibank was going to get one million customers, one at a time. Do you see the Citibank culture here? One-at-a- time for lunch, for a credit card, for a DDA, for a mortgage, etc. Whatever the customer needs. Recently, the new Citibank culture announced a major transformation - shortening the name to Citi and removing the red umbrella (aka Traveler's logo and Sandy’s bad idea) from Citibank’s identity. Now there’s a campaign that represents real genius. I’m assuming the ad agency got management’s approval, and that’s what’s wrong with some bankers today. Would Walter and John have caved to that kind of insignificance, or would they have gone to the employee lunch room to evangelize the importance of one-on-one marketing?

Community banks have nothing to worry about as long as big bank execs are relying on Madison Avenue ideas to gain marketshare. It’s not about logos, names or slogans. The answers bank customers want these days are, “What are you doing to enhance my financial welfare, and have you taken me to lunch lately so I can tell you what’s really important?”

Posted by Art Gillis at 11:03 AM | Comments

January 19, 2007

Art Buchwald, thanks for the boost

By Art Gillis

June 14, 1983 - Art Buchwald sent me a letter saying he enjoyed my piece very much and I should send it to Personal Computing, Popular Computing, Info World and Byte for publication. I sent the article to Art Buchwald because after I had written it, I read it and it sounded like something he would have written. So I wanted to clear it with him first. Looking back at my records, it turns out I didn’t take his advice because I was in banking, and generic publications didn’t interest me. Independent Banker magazine published it under the title, “Are Computers Really Becoming Friendlier?” I’ve got three “works of art” hanging on my office walls - George Washington, a 1958 photo of a missile in front of my office building at SAC Hq. and Art Buchwald’s letter. Sometimes I think I can hear Art Buchwald’s letter speaking to me in that unique voice.

Posted by Art Gillis at 02:07 PM | Comments

January 16, 2007

In my opinion, bank tech solutions are priced too low

By Art Gillis

The other night, I flew home from Boston to Dallas on what was a very nice flight. It left on time. It arrived on time. A Tasmanian Devil didn’t sit next to me. In fact, I could have had several rows to myself. I didn’t eat anything. And the PA system must have been out of order, or maybe it just didn’t blow me out of my seat. I even managed a couple of cat naps. It reminded me a little of my no-nonsense trips from SAC Hq. to Vandenberg Air Force Base in the fifties. SAC didn’t charge me a penny for 1,500 miles of travel because I was an “employee.” Today, I have no allegiance to American Airlines except that I live in their city, and yet they charged me a mere $115 for 1,700 miles of travel. They even threw in a free ginger ale. That’s why I believe the airlines are going broke. I see the same thing happening with bank tech vendors if they don’t wake up and charge more for their tech solutions.

Whether a bank chooses an in-house system or outsourcing, they’re getting a real bargain. Here’s just one example. A bank that chooses to go in-house pays a one-time license fee for software. Then it agrees to pay 15 percent to 20 percent of the license fee annually forever. Even after 30 years, a bank can run on its updated system thanks to three-times-a-year software releases, and never has to go through another conversion. Bill Gates wouldn’t be the richest man in the world if he had used that pricing scheme for MS-DOS. I think the cheap lunch idea should end. Bank tech vendors should put a time cap on their solutions, like there’s a new pricing paradigm every 10 years, or they should sunset their systems and start over every 10 years. Or maybe I’m just overreacting to the sweet deal banks are getting because it’s time for me to trade in my 13-year-old Jaguar for a new one, and there goes my budget. I wish it were like software from a bank tech vendor.

Posted by Art Gillis at 09:38 AM | Comments

January 08, 2007

A New Year’s resolution for systems developers

By Art Gillis

Eight days into my New Year’s resolution and I’m on track. That qualifies me to tell others what their resolutions should be.

1. Build new automated processes by throwing out the old concepts. Start by asking, “What are we doing here?" not, "How did the old system work?” In the 50s, new systems were designed as if the 80-column punched card was never going to disappear. Some bank systems today start as a customer enters the branch. But in many cases the branch is the customer’s home.

2. Eight years ago, Internet applications were developed by geeks and nerds. Today, normal people who are not geeks and nerds use the Internet. So they can’t adapt to the culture. What we need today is the humanization of the Internet. A sort of “for the people, by the people.”

It seems perfectly normal to throw away a PC after using it a couple of years. But we keep our bank systems for decades as if nothing changed.

Posted by Art Gillis at 09:28 AM | Comments

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