Headlines:
VeriSign to Market Cell Phone Software SunTrust Says iRise Smoothed Migration Kirchman Signs Up 11 Bank Customers
VeriSign to Market Cell Phone Software
The encryption technology vendor VeriSign Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., will distribute passcode-generating software from Diversinet Corp. of Toronto that runs on cellular phones.
The numerical passcodes can be used to log on to online banking and other Web sites. Each passcode expires immediately after use, but the code that generates them can survive the phone battery's going dead.
Charles Walton, Diversinet's executive vice president for corporate development, said passcode-generating keychain tokens from VeriSign and other companies use a similar idea. One difference is that the tokens generate a new passcode every minute or so; Diversinet's software creates a passcode only when one is needed.
Simple cell phones cannot run the software, but users of such phones can receive one-time passcode as text messages. "You don't have to deploy any hardware," Mr. Walton said.
The VeriSign-Diversinet agreement was announced late last month. Diversinet introduced the software in late 2004 and has several companies testing it in Canada.
SunTrust Says iRise Smoothed Migration
SunTrust Banks Inc. made its deadlines and beat its performance goals for converting customers to a new online banking system by using a new kind of simulation software, an executive says.
As bankers of the Atlanta company planned its acquisition of National Commerce Financial Corp., they sought a smooth way to move the Memphis company's customers to the SunTrust system.
"In the context of a merger, we had very little tolerance for defects in our user experience. We did not have time to rethink or circle back late in the process to figure out where the gaps were," said David Nix, SunTrust's vice president of online banking solutions.
SunTrust licensed software from iRise Inc. of El Segundo, Calif., to simulate the online application that SunTrust wanted and to produce a prototype.
"I was somewhat skeptical," Mr. Nix said last week. In other companies where he had worked, final applications often came in bearing scant resemblance to the planned design. "PowerPoint always leaves a tremendous amount to the imagination when you're talking about screen flows," he said.
By mid-October 2004, near the time the National Commerce deal closed, the business side was able to turn a working model over to software developers, including moving the log-in box to the home page and developing the logic to direct customers to consumer banking, small-business banking, or a third, legacy application.
In the past SunTrust had processes for capturing business requirements and for testing a completed system, "but those weren't specifically tied together," and SunTrust had no ability to prototype, Mr. Nix said.
iRise says its software simulations can reduce rework by providing a functional specification that developers can use to write code. The company says its other bank customers include Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Citigroup Inc.
Mr. Nix of SunTrust said, "Our final product is probably 90% or 95% of what we wanted."
The marketing staff was able to use the prototype to train call-center reps before the final product went into testing, he said. "That was a surprise to us. In the past you had to wait until the application was almost built."
SunTrust has converted 92% of the National Commerce online customer base to the new system since the April 24 conversion, Mr. Nix said. Its goal of converting 82% in the first three months was achieved in 14 days, he said.
Kirchman Signs Up 11 Bank Customers
Sales of Kirchman Corp.'s core-processing software have been increasing since Metavante Corp. bought the company in May 2004.
Gene A. Lederer, Kirchman's senior vice president for sales and marketing, said Thursday that being part of Metavante - the technology subsidiary of the Milwaukee banking company Marshall & Ilsley Corp. - has helped Kirchman sell to Metavante customers.
Kirchman said that 11 banks have committed this year to using its core banking product. Three are in Alabama: Noble Bank and Trust of Anniston, Trinity Bank of Dotahn, and SouthPoint Bank of Birmingham. Two are in Florida: Great Florida Bank of Miami Lakes and Gulf South Bank of Destin. The others are Community First Bank of Reynoldsville, Pa.; First Community Bank of Jackson, Ga.; First National Bank of Odon, Ind.; First State Bank of Brownsboro, Tex.; Lewiston State Bank of Lewiston, Utah; and Millennia Community Bank of Greensville, N.C.
