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Bank Systems & Technology: The Blog« January 2007 | Main | March 2007 » When the CIO becomes a political animal, then he/she is no better than the CIA in delivering integrityFebruary 26, 2007 @ 09:38 AM | By Art Gillis By Art Gillis In adherence to my 2007 resolution to shorten my blogs, I offer this. The only tech guy I know who made a successful career of IT and politics is Frank Lautenberg, formerly CEO of ADP and now senator from New Jersey. But he didn’t try to do both at one time. CIOs should call the shots based on what they know, the results of honest analysis, and their conviction that their recommendations are doable, not what the boss or special interest groups within the bank want to hear. Comments(2)Vendor Podcast: Today's Business Needs & Industry Drivers for Investment & Capital Market Firms - A conversation with Oracle's Senior Director of Industry & Strategy. February 21, 2007 @ 09:09 AM | By Vitali Zhulkovsky BS&T recently had an opportunity to speak with Ed Garry, Oracle's Senior Director of Industry Strategy and Marketing for Capital Markets. Our conversation focused on areas where Oracle's customers are facing challenges as their business evolves and shareholder demand increases. Learn how business drivers such as risk and compliance, customer centricity and the continuous need to reduce operational costs and increase efficiencies are achieved and leveraged in ways that support a business model that is focused on increasing shareholder value. This Podcast is sponsored by Oracle.
If you can’t have the BEST technology, at least have ALL the technology February 15, 2007 @ 03:33 PM | By Art Gillis By Art Gillis In 1989 a client asked me, “How do we know we have all the pieces of the technology pie?” That kind of no-nonsense interrogation is the mother of invention, so I responded with a graphic that displayed each piece of the pie. My client, a banker in Pennsylvania, then proceeded to color code each of the boxes on the chart and performed a reconciliation of what his bank had and what it didn’t have. He also identified each vendor that provided the solution. There were eight. For historians who are interested, I offer their names - Mellon (now Fiserv), Habersham Item Processing (whereabouts unknown), Interactive Planning (now IPS/Sendero, a Fiserv company), Bunker Aladin (now gone even though Getronics acquired the Bunker Ramo business), SunGard, Plansmith, FED and ADP. During the next phase of what we called “Catching Up With Available Technologies,” we went on a shopping spree. Please note that every available solution did not get purchased. The max list is intended to inform by showing what the universe of bank tech includes. It does not suggest a need to buy everything. There are 128 solutions. But there are 169 boxes on the chart because I included hardware as well. The major solutions are: core apps 17
In 18 years, however, only nine new boxes have been added. That doesn’t mean vendors have had it easy. Every old application has been changing and expanding. But brand new, never-done-before stuff amounted to nine. For example, Check 21 is one of the nine. Just thought you’d like to know when your job is done. Comment on this blog entryData security at my bank was a major issue even in the 1960s February 12, 2007 @ 02:36 PM | By Art Gillis By Art Gillis Long before IT developed into a distributed architecture, the idea of protecting the bank’s data was rather simple. Lock down the computer center. The idea was probably based on an old banking rule. Put the cash in the vault every night. My bank took it a step further and buried the “vault.” That’s right, our computer center was under an apple orchard located about 20 miles from downtown Providence. The data center was indeed impressive. Enough food for 30 days, showers to wash off the radiation, mattresses under the raised floor for comfortable sleeping, and try to get in the place. In the five years I worked for the bank, I had seen it only once. The guy in charge of security was modeled after a Barny Fife. No matter what one’s credentials were, he had to know why you were there that day, and impressing prospective customers was not an acceptable reason. We were never attacked by the Russians or even the local “Sopranos,” and after the bank’s cost analysts did their thing it was decided to abandon the “bunker” in favor of a far less-expensive modern facility in an industrial park that had bellied up, aka OREO on the bank’s balance sheet. Please don’t assume that I was against this practical view of how much a bank should spend on data security. It hit me when I realized that our extreme security was only as good as a Dodge Dart and one of twenty-something (we had only two SSNs) Brown University students who distributed the work back and forth to the protected data center. The good news was we never lost a piece of data, nor were we ever late delivering even in severe New England weather. And the students never got speeding tickets even though we did not insist on drug testing. The bad news is that technology got more sophisticated, and we lost our grip on securing the “vault.” Data security costs about 10 percent of a bank’s IT budget. Spend it wisely. Comment on this blog entryDon’t overlook the vendor’s CFO when shopping for tech solutions. February 07, 2007 @ 02:50 PM | By Art Gillis By Art Gillis Every bank tech salesperson will yes you to death. The CFO is well versed at saying “NO.” He says no to his own people as well, like when a salesperson is working on a big deal and wants to slash the price just to get the sale. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of meeting several CFOs at the major bank tech companies. Fiserv has had one who has served from Day One and retired recently. When I was called in as an independent voice during a due diligence meeting, I made a comment about Fiserv’s superb M&A activity, saying Fiserv had achieved a perfect record of buying solid companies. I felt an elbow in my ribs delivered by Fiserv’s CFO who said, “Art, we had one sour one.” I have known two CFO’s at Jack Henry & Associates. I once said that when these guys make their presentations to the securities analysts, it sounds like they’re reading from the Bible. Even the bad stuff comes out. Metavante’s CFO is the only one with a sense of humor, even though it’s one that you have to hunt for to get it. I always get a good night’s sleep before I go one-on-one with Mike. I have always trusted technology that was never politically correct. Give it to me straight, and I will handle whatever comes. Wouldn’t it be great if the CIA followed the culture of bank tech vendor CFOs? Comment on this blog entry
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