Designing Banks

[TECHNOLOGY] Multi-Touch G2 Demo

This is an update to a previous post on multi-touch technology and Microsoft Surface.

Things are now heating up.  It seems Multi-Touch G2 is ready to give Microsoft Surface a little competition.

VIA:   Multi-Touch G2 Demo

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• Microsoft Surface
• Touch Screens for Many Fingers

[TECHNOLOGY] Microsoft Surface For Barclays Banks

Surface technology will allow users to grab digital content with their hands and navigate information about Barclays' Premier banking offering.      [more . . . ]

Microsoft Surface is a proprietary product based on new technology called, “Multi-touch”.  Simply, touch screen technology using more than one finger.  No big deal, right.

Actually, it could be a BIG deal.

Informational ease-of-access is about removing barriers.  Specifically, the barriers between what you want known about your organization and who you want to know it.

What multi-touch does is bring your patrons one step closer to your products and services through direct interaction with the information they see on a tabletop display.

Consider getting a better view of your bank statements by sliding the “pages” around the screen with your fingers. Or enlarging a picture of a digital brochure by moving your index fingers apart. In other words, working intuitively with familiar objects, much as you would at your desk.

Barclays is apparently using Microsoft Surface as a touchpoint.  It is a way to draw their customers closer to that sometimes elusive, personal relationship with the brand and what the company has to offer.  Not through a conversation with a person, but through almost playful interaction with the corporation itself.

VIA:   Barclays banks on Surface | OnWindows.com

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[RETHINK] What's Health Got To Do With It?

LATERAL THINKING

As an architect, I often look at design directions developing in industries, other than the one I am currently focused on.  Many times, I have discovered a number of interesting parallels, which lead to fresh ideas I have not yet explored.

This video, on the future of personal health, has nothing to do with banking.  However, it sheds light on new information technologies which may, some day, apply to banking.

As you watch, think laterally. Try to see the similarities in seemingly unrelated disciplines.  Look for ways you can apply what you see to related areas in your business.

This technique has served me well for many years.

VIA:  YouTube - Office Labs: Future of personal health concept

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[GREEN] Bank Uses Wind, Solar And Geothermal

EXCERPT: 

The LEED Registered, $2.5 M branch relies on a wind turbine, solar panels, energy efficient windows, Agriboard compressed-straw panels, permeable pavers, and geothermal heating and cooling.   [more . . . ]

VIA:   Indiana Green Bank Uses Wind, Solar + Geothermal - Jetson Green

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• [ARCHITECTURE] One Bryant Park -- B of A

[ARCHITECTURE] One Bryant Park -- B of A

 

One of the biggest banks to open in Manhattan in many years will be the Bank of America flagship that is promised for the all but completed One Bryant Park, a massive skyscraper designed by the firm of Cook + Fox. The building will also be known as the Bank of America Tower, in honor of its foremost tenant. Already the offices of the bank have been installed in this pale, Deconstructivist tower, and though we are still some months away from the project's completion, it is sufficiently far along that we can offer a preliminary assessment of its success.      [more . . .]

VIA:

• Design Crack-One Bryant Park, New York by Cook + Fox
• New York Sun--At One Bryant Park, Scale Changes Everything

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[TECHNOLOGY] How Cloud Computing Is Changing the World

The term "cloud computing" encompasses many areas of tech, including software as a service, a software distribution method pioneered by Salesforce.com about a decade ago. It also includes newer avenues such as hardware as a service, a way to order storage and server capacity on demand from Amazon and others. What all these cloud computing services have in common, though, is that they're all delivered over the Internet, on demand, from massive data centers.  more . . .

VIA:   How Cloud Computing Is Changing the World

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[TECHNOLOGY] Diebold - Future Branch

The bank of the future may very well feature biometric "welcome stations" where customers are identified when they walk in the door by a fingerprint or other means of individual identification, and serviced according to their needs and banking profiles.    more . . .

VIA:

• Article: Baseline A Look At The Bank Of The Future 
• Picture: Balance Inc. Diebold - Branch of the Future

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[CUSTOMERS] Transforming Banking Experience

Financial institutions value the relationship with their customers and are looking to provide more personalized products and services that better meet their financial needs, independent of the time of the day or the delivery channel. Customers are now demanding an experience from their banks similar to the customer-centric services they get from other industries, such as retail, travel and entertainment. As a result, banks are striving to deploy technologies and information technology (IT) architectures that help enable new marketing and sales programs, more dynamic and timely employee training, and improve business process improvements to optimize a collaborative customer experience.  more. . .

VIA: Cisco and IBM to Transform Banking Experience

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• IBM and Cisco Front Office Solutions for Retail Banking (PDF - 2MB)

[TECHNOLOGY] Banking on Telepresence

 

Cisco Telepresence Magic

This video, while not focusing on banking, is an eye-opener and well worth watching.  Telepresence may seem like science fiction, but as many of you already know, it is not.

In addition, you may want to read the following Bank System & Technology article for more information:

Telepresence technology just now is being rolled out at banks, primarily for intracompany business. But as more and more systems are deployed, you'll see this technology being used for intercompany applications. Banks also will use telepresence for more general applications -- general meetings, employee reviews, job interviews and a variety of other applications that aren't banking-specific. [more. . .]

VIA:

• As Telepresence Becomes More Common in Banking, Use Will Expand to Intercompany Applications

RELATED:

• Transforming Retail Banking with Cisco TelePresence (PDF)

[FUTURE] Center For Future Banking Web Site

From MIT MEDIA LAB CFB:

Rethinking Banking for the Twenty-First Century

Researchers at the Center for Future Banking, in collaboration with Bank of America, will explore how emerging technologies and insights into human behavior can transform the customers' experience and elevate the role of the bank in their financial lives. We seek to invent new ways to anticipate the needs and desires of customers down to the level of the individual, to put every customer in total control of his or her own financial futures, to rethink the experience of customer-bank interaction as virtual and physical reality become increasingly intertwined, and finally to leverage the unique position of a bank to make people's lives simpler and more fulfilling.  [more . . .] 

from MIT MEDIA LAB -- Center For Future Banking

VIA:   MIT MEDIA LAB -- Center For Future Banking

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