Back Office of a Bank reflects the reality !

Recently I visited the Back Office of a Bank and it was quite different from the Corporate Office.
There was not enough place to be seated, and there were many people floating around the place and the seats taken at the reception of the bank's back office included vendors of various hues.
The corporate office was all glitzy and nice and had the trappings of  power and confidence, but the Back Office had a different story to tell.
At the Back Office there was no effort made to be customer friendly, since most visitors were vendors of the bank who came here to provide the bank services. Somehow I believe the way a banks treats its vendors will be the way it will treat its customers. If you treat vendors well and with respect you will carry the same attitude to your customers else the crack will show sooner of later.

You cannot have a colored view of the world, with one set of rules for vendors and another for customers, the code of conduct and etiquette need to be consistent across the bank and must be constant irrespective of the relationship.
Banking is about relationship, trust and consistency whoever the entity maybe, you cannot get on a high horse and wield a whip on a vendor because you are in a position of strength and in the same breath you cannot fawn and get on all fours to please a customers.
Banks must work in uniformity in dealing with their customers and vendors with the same courtesy and care and respect. How does your bank conduct itself ?

Technology Product Rating for Software Companies

Technology Product Rating for Software Companies

As Indian software companies gear up to making technology products for the world as the next growth engine it is important for them to get their products Rated by an independent assessor who understands Technology, Risk and Business.

Technology Products need to Blend Business and Technology for their success and product rating needs to be done at the Beta Testing stage or after a few trial runs  rather than after time and effort has been expedited in acquiring customers to use the product.  

Rating gives confidence to investors, customers and users of the products and will form an important feature in product selection in the next phase of growth of Indian software companies

.

A Technology Product could be rated by using rating symbols given in the table below, where AAA is the highest rating for a Technology product and D is the lowest where the product cannot be assessed since it is still in development. Refer to the Technology Product Rating Table.

Methodology for Rating Products

The technology products will scored on four key parameters

1.     Security architecture of the Product

2.     Functionality of the Product

3.     Design Compliance of the Product

4.     Application  Architecture of the Product.

Each of these parameters will have a  number of sub-parameter with a scoring methodology which will be done using proprietary rating methodology to ensure uniformity and fairness in the rating There will be a Rating committee with domain experts to review the outcome of the rating process before finalization of the technology product rating.

The Rating will be valid for a year or until a major change is undertaken in the technology product which has to be intimated as part of the Rating contract.

The Rating will be a paid service and there will be an annual fee for retaining the rating, all ratings will go through a bi-annual review to ensure that the technology product has not undergone major modification which will impact its Rating.

Conclusion :

It is important that Product Rating is adopted by Indian companies if they want to capture the world markets for their solutions. As the world shrinks thanks to cloud computing services and SAAS based solutions it is important that Indian companies get their products rated.

Are you ready to subject your technology product for rating and get it Branded as the Best of Class product in the world?

Technology Product Rating Table

Symbol	Description
AAA	Technology Products  with this rating are considered to have the highest degree of safety regarding  security, functionality, technology and solution architecture. Such  technology products carry  lowest deployment and investment risk.
AA	Technology Products  with this rating are considered to have high degree of safety  regarding security, functionality, design compliance and application architecture. Such technology products carry very low deployment and investment risk.
A	Technology Products  with this rating are considered to have adequate degree of safety regarding security, functionality, design compliance and application architecture. Such technology products carry low deployment and investment risk.
BBB	Technology Products  with this rating are considered to have moderate degree of  safety regarding security, functionality, design compliance and application architecture. Such technology products carry moderate deployment and investment risk.
BB	Technology Products  with this rating are considered to have moderate risk of non-performance regarding security, functionality, design compliance and application architecture.
B	Technology Products  with this rating are considered to have high risk of non-performance regarding security, functionality, design compliance and application architecture.
C	Technology Products  with this rating are considered to have high risk of non-performance regarding security, functionality, design compliance and application architecture.
D	Technology Products  with this rating are in development and cannot be rated at this juncture.

Digital World and Freezing Temperatures!

AS North America gets snowed down the digital connectivity with family and friends gives us an insight into their lives on a frozen day. 

We see their postings of shoveling the snow in the  driveway  and can feel the infinite silence in the photos of a snowed out landscape

As they struggle to find meaning to life cuddled in their heated homes nowhere to go the schools and offices are closed and have been ordered to stay at home.

Well maybe a nice day for lots of hot food and nourishment but no one likes to be caged at home including the animals in our zoological parks.

The free chat rooms and voice telephony allow them to make calls made thousands of miles back home to connect and hear real voices who are in are in a more comfortable environment and must be heart warming for the frozen in the biting cold. 

Digital connectivity today has become the drug for the masses who want to live in a world of make believe and many have been frozen in a digital world of utopia which is causing distress and affecting social relationships. 

So it it time to freeze our Digital interactions in a world which is slowly legalizing even the marijuana, or is the Digital world another addiction like marijuana. 

It is for you the reader to judge, and if you are frozen in North America it is time to spend time in contemplating on what you want to do next in the digital world, stay on, moderate or continue the Binge or wait for the Government to regulate it like marijuana.. 

Enjoy the Cold while it lasts and be careful not to get frozen in the Digital World and remember there is a real life waiting for you once the weather improves!

Cost of Operations and Compliance Signals Merger of Banks !

As the cost of operations and compliance keep heading North Banks across the world will have to merge to optimize operational and compliance cost.
We will see a momentum in mergers of even large banks who will be force to come together to beat operational and compliance cost.
What does this mean for bankers, for one the reduction of jobs will be the first of these optimization initiatives, but more importantly Banks will  work towards bringing in outsourced services in-house to help retain their employees.
There will be blood on the Streets and Bankers will have a rocky year but merged banks means fewer Banks for customers to choose.

Banks of Different Shades Will be Forced to Merge !

The Customer will be affected when banks become larger and lose the personal touch which customers enjoy today , customers in the digital world are already transaction driven and do not bother about the human interface in banking anymore.
Unfortunately digital adoption in retail banking has been slow and hence the customer on the street will be stressed with dealing with the new avatars of the Banks.
Wholesale banking will expand as the financial portfolio increases with larger volume of funds to be managed in the merged Banks.
The writing on the wall is clear for Banks across the world, Merge of Perish & Merger of Banks will be the manna for Investment Bankers and Corporate lawyers.
The only Banks exempt will be those who are owned and propped by Governments across the world, whether this model is sustainable is suspect as Central Banks strain to keep these poor performers alive with infusion of fresh capital.
But Banks who cannot merge may also be put down, which will be  a sad day for bankers and banks.
But in a regulated world where the cost of compliance impacts operations the writing on the wall is Loud and Clear for Banks across the World - Merge of Perish.