Beyond the Arc will be blogging live from Finovate Fall. Join us to learn the latest breaking developments, as they happen.  We’re looking forward to two days of announcements and product innovation in the field of financial technology.

Your bloggers for FinovateFall 2013: William Mills III & Steven Ramirez

William Mills III, Chief Executive Officer of William Mills Agency is live blogging today at Finovate Fall 2013 in New York City. William has more than 30 years of experience in financial technology and is a recognized leader in financial and technology marketing. William has personally advised more than 300 chief executives on marketing strategy, business development, mergers and acquisitions, company branding and public relations.

Steven Ramirez is CEO of Beyond the Arc, Inc., a management consulting firm that combines strategy consulting with advanced analytics to help financial services clients identify opportunities to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. The company’s social media data mining helps clients improve their customer experience across products, channels, and touch points.

 Day 1

Looking forward to learning about great new innovations in financial services. Our take: innovation should be about making it easier for the customer.

Motif Investing

First presenter takes the stage: Motif Investing represented by Hardeep Walia (Co-Founder & CEO) and Ramak Fazeli (Financial Advisor).  Investors: invest in ideas, not individual stocks. Billed as an “ETF killer.” A new take on mutual funds, with crowdsourcing to drive new ideas. Product is in beta now, going live in October. Platform for advisors also coming this Fall. Benefit to consumer: possibility of fee-free 401k or 529 plan.

^SR

Motif Investing – Hardeep Walia (Co-Founder & CEO)  “An ETF killer” I’m having a tough time figuring this out exactly. It’s online trading but they provide “Motifs”, 15,000 have been created so far, I’m assuming from users of the system.  OK, so if you create a “Motif” for trading and if someone wants to use it you get paid a royalty. You can share via Facebook and Twitter as well.

One of the things about Finovate Fall NYC is that you see a lot more securities tech organizations than you do in San Francisco.

^WM #williamemills

Backbase

Huge opportunity to improve experience in commercial banking. Integrated solution across platforms, upgrade your online banking capabilities.  ^SR

Session presenters: Dave den Bleyker (VP Sales) and Jelmer de Jong (Global Head of Marketing)

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen these folks before.  Customer experience system that integrates to back-end systems.  “Who is more important, retail bank customers or corporate?” Next generation, portal software experience for CFO, TM, financial staff, etc. Showing commercial banking browser-based platform.

Another thing about New York presentations vs. San Francisco is that you USUALLY see more browser-based solutions, designed to be used in an office environment. In San Francisco, it seems most of the demos are phone or tablet applications or at least a demo on a mobile browser.  It MIGHT be different this time but so far it’s 2 for 2 for browser-based solutions.  ^WM

Saved Plus

People don’t save enough. Maybe a mobile app will get them to save more? Web and mobile access  to set your saving goals. Also enables you to link different types of accounts for your savings. Makes me wonder, will people really save more with a mobile app?  Still wondering about that. User interface in an app like this is key; it has to be captivating, simple, elegant.  This interface for mobile app is functional.

^SR

Zooz

Global payments platform. “Experience is key”, says Noam Inbar, VP Business Development, Zooz. Glad to hear first mentions of the customer today.  Also nice that it boosts revenues and conversion rates. Partnership with First Data as well.   ^SR

Payments platform. “Online Payments. Optimized for Business, Made for People.” Increase Revenue with a Smart Payment. Solution for Websites and Apps. It looks PCI-compliant.

Showing tablet version.  “Using the Zooz platform will enable you to deliver your consumers the ultimate checkout experience. Our screens are constantly optimized and personalized, based on smart consumer insights generated by our platform, so you can increase the chances of seeing your consumer complete a successful transaction.”

What I’m not clear about is this: are they marketing this to retailers, consumers or FI’s?  It’s my best guess that it is a secure shopping cart/checkout for retailers, primarily online. First Data did $9 billion in processing last year and it sounds like they invested in Zooz. ^WM

Kofax

Using mobile app to engage with customers over the right channel. Customer-centric experience: is their preferred channel, our right channel? Good for the customer, accelerates time to process, and reduces cost of processing. You can identify the cost drivers for processing loan applications, across channels. Slick! Data is easy to export to Excel. Identify the bottlenecks in the customer experience. Visibility, actionable data, what is the cost in the process: key benefits of Kofax. ^SR

Kofax – Bruce Orcutt (Sr. Director, Product Marketing) and Dimitri Snowden (Visual Strategist)

I saw these folks in SF last year. Getting ready to show a mobile app on IOS. A FI can use their mobile app to drive other bank products, such as mortgage.  Now showing what a bank customer might see via their mobile device, capture a photo of a W2 for a mortgage loan application, sort of like a remote deposit via mobile phone but now using mobile for more paper intensive products and services.

I THINK it integrates with a bank’s mobile banking application and would assume that it has an API to a wide variety of the bank’s applications; LOS, DDA, etc.  I remember meeting a multi-billion asset bank CTO once and I asked him how many apps ran in his data center. It was 167! They had all types of “big iron” – IBM, Unisys, Digital, network servers, and more. I would imagine Kofax would need to integrate to at least four or five different apps running in a FI.  They are showing it used in a mortgage loan process.

Mobile solutions in mortgage are a big deal; it looks pretty good.

Money Desktop

New innovations at Money Desktop: check images, easier categorization. Also makes it easier for users to manage budgets. Some users want to see spending over time – nice data visualization. Makes it easy for users to track spending. Really like how it allows user to prioritize goals. Takes a lifecycle approach: view goals over time, major life events. A nice timeline feature, almost like Facebook, see the major milestones of the past. You can also scroll forward to see upcoming goals.  Partners can now push data to the MD platform, with enhanced classification. MD being used by Moven Bank. Sign up for the new beta.

^SR

Full disclosure, William Mills Agency is the public relations of record for MoneyDesktop.
I’ve been to about 10 Finovate events and these folks have always impressed not only me but a LOT of other folks here as they have one “Best of Show” a number of times. MoneyDesktop is debuting a new spending interface. It’s very cool; very, very graphical with easy to understand graphics.  Showing money management goals in the platform. Ryan is showing “GuideMe” with goals for the short and long-term with a “road map” on a tablet-based application which is new. This is the first time I’ve seen this. Now showing a way for others to push transaction data to MoneyDesktop for more real-time data.
^ WM

Luminous

What if a small business could assess in advance if they’d meet a bank’s lending guidelines?  Upload information, or seamless draw info from the firm’s accounting package. Makes it easy for businesses to apply. Bank sees a different view, with deep data and benchmarks for the industry. Bank gets ongoing visibility into client’s accounting system?  Hmm, not sure I want my banker having that much access…  Does greatly simplify the application process.  ^SR

“Take away the fear factor for small business to get a loan” “Allow bank to check the credit risk on an ongoing basis”

Versafe

Your users shouldn’t be responsible for mobile and online threats; you can’t trust them to take the right steps.  How do you make enterprise security simple to implement?  Versafe hopes to detect attacks before they go live. Identify exactly which customers may have been affected by an attack. Code at the application level.

^SR

Showing the Finovate app and said “if you downloaded this app you are infected with a virus on your mobile device”.  I’m not sure exactly what they are showing, I think it’s an example of mobile malware. He was kidding, the Finovate app is not infected.

I have a feeling this is going to be an important and growing problem and it sounds like Versafe has a good solution for a FI’s mobile user base. I’m not sure how bad malware will be on IOS but I understand it’s a real problem on Android-based environments.

Last month, my ATT iPhone5 was hacked so ATT shut down my phone and I have no idea how it happened so perhaps there is a growing problem for Apple customers as well. In my case, they hacked my phone not to get mobile banking and personal stuff but to use my SIM to International calls to and/or from Guinea.

Showing Versafe Dashboard for FI to detect if a mobile banking transaction is legit or not.  ^WM

VerifyValid/Deluxe – Paul Doyle (CEO & Founder, VerifyValid) and Malcolm McRoberts (SVP Small Business Services, Deluxe)

Malcolm runs the SMB unit for Deluxe.  “What happens when a 100+ year old company with millions of customers partner with high tech startup?”  “Every 7 minutes $400 million in check transactions occur each day.” “Check are not dead.” Showing Deluxe eChecks powered by VerifyValid. Now, I don’t think I’ve seen something like this before.  Showing a browser-based screen that a SMB might use. Fill out the online check, sign (ensign) and sends. Once sent, no changes can be made. Now getting ready to show small batch runs of checks a couple of different ways including from a CSV file.  I like this a lot. They offer virtual lockbox for SMB’s.

If  you know me I have a long history related to checks.  My Dad, Bill Mills, Jr., prior to starting WMA was VP Marketing for John H. Harland & Company, taking the company public before starting William Mills Agency in 1977 with my mother. I used to visit my Dad at the check plant and many times met Mr. Harland and I seems like I’ve got MICR in my blood.

“Win for you if you are a FI or business.” OK, I’m biased but I like it and I have not seen anything like it before. ^WM

TipRanks – Gilad Gat (Co-Founder & CTO) and Tomer Turgeman (VP Business Development)

I saw these folks at Finovate before, here’s what I wrote then: Today’s sessions seem to have a more financial planning, investing products and services. Their services lets consumers see how well analysts are doing. Their is example said that 86.5% of wrong 50.2% of the time. It let’s users to really see which analysts are most successful. “We are a tech company, we can’t tell you what stocks to buy or sell. We can tell you which experts are doing the best.”  From their site: TipRanks is a free application that allows you to instantly see the track record and measured performance of any analyst you come across.

What I’m looking for is what is new at TipRanks this time.  Now showing an example of a recommendation on OpenTable shares. “We are a tech company. We show you what the best performing experts say about the stock: Buy, Sell, Hold.  Like I wrote last time, how does TipRanks make money? Today they are launching a new API which I assume enables folks to integrate easier.  ^WM

Capital Access Network – Daniel DeMeo (CEO) and Brent Harrison (Director of Marketing, Alliance & Partnerships)

Yodlee – Anil Arora (President & CEO) and Katy Gibson (VP Applications)

Anil has a great reputation. I think this is the first time I’ve seen him lead a demo of Yodlee.  Yodlee is kind of the “grandfather” of this industry; they have been around since before the “dot com” days.  I understand their technology is behind many of the online/mobile financial applications you see at Finovate.

Demonstrating “Tandem” which helps consumers with their money. While it’s on an Apple device, the icons actually look like something from a Microsoft Smart Phone. Now Katy is showing “financial circles” showing example of sharing and acting on financial information with other family members, such as paying for her son’s college education with her ex-husband as well as a “financial circle” with siblings to pay for her parent’s bills and other financial needs. It’s an interesting GUI, kind of like Microsoft and Google Circles on an Apple IOS device. Now showing TANDEM in a business loan scenario.  Banks can use to “white label” products and services.  ^WM

StrategyCorps – Mike Branton (Managing Partner) and Dave DeFazio (Partner)

What can a FI do to get customers to sign up for a new product that creates fee income? “BaZing!” has thousands of merchant discounts which FI’s can become a partner. 300,000 merchants use BaZing!. I think they said near here in NYC they say they have 1,500 discounts/deals. http://www.strategycorps.com

Showing on an IOS device. If I’ve seen these folks I don’t remember it.  300k merchants is a lot, I’m wondering how they signed up so many merchants so quietly. They really seem FI-focused.  Future versions will have location-based offers. Mobile App or online.  StrategyCorp provides all the services to help FI’s deploy this program. I’m intrigued.  “You have to be bold, go beyond just mobile banking.” I like that part. ^WM

Instabank – Roman Potemkin (Co-Founder & CEO) and Alexey Shelestenko (Head of Marketing)

We are a retail bank for the ultimate mobile bank experience. We are live in Russia.  “What is banking became like Facebook?” Now showing IOS app.  App associates each bank account by Facebook ID. The bank account looks like a Facebook page. Ok, I can see how younger folks might like this but who are they selling this to? Consumers in the U.S.?  It’s slick, but I’m wanting to hear what US FI’s can buy from Instabank.   ^WM

SaaS Markets – Ferdi Roberts (CEO & Founder) and Cameron Ministri (Enterprise Sales Manager)

Help create SaaS applications for SMBs? We’ll find out. From their site: SaaS Markets is the leading enterprise app store company

“Our Platform: build, brand & launch your custom app store with MarketMaker”. I think it’s interesting but I’m having a hard time figuring out what they bring to SMB’s and FI’s.  From their web site:

“Businesses & Associations” – Build, brand & launch your custom SaaS app store

“App Developers” – List your application(s) on the SaaS Commerce Network and reach millions  ^WM

authenticID – Blair Cohen (CEO) and Rafal Bugai(Network Administrator)

“We promise to be a game-changer for authentification.” Picture ID is the product they are presenting. They did this (good) demo in the Spring using Jamie Dimon’s information that Blair found online. Here’s what I wrote last time:  “DISRUPTIVE GAME CHANGER FOR THIS INDUSTRY” “PictureID will eliminate fraud in face to face transactions”. They are going to attempt to take over Jamie Dimon’s account. This looks like an interesting demonstration. He got Jamie’s SSN, DL #, DOB, all kinds of stuff. this looks pretty cool. “We will defeat 65% of ID fraud.”  I think this does and will work. I like it.

I liked it then and I like it now but I was hoping to see something new in this demonstration.  Let’s see what’s next.  They had some tech issues but I think it works pretty well.  ^WM

FinanceIt – Michael Garrity (CEO), Casper Wong (COO) and Paul Sehr (CTO)

“We are a POS financing platform that allows merchants to allow financing in-store using mobile technology.” 2,600 merchants sending $2 million a day in requests for financiing. ” Our payment technology is free.  FinanceIT Checkout is the product they are showing.  It looks browser-based, showing a merchant transaction of an Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman (we’ve got a one at home, they are great).  I would imagine this is a Canadian-based firm as they are showing a merchant based in Toronto.

So, the consumer has bought the item online, goes to the local merchant, the merchant uses a mobile app to review the loan details where the merchant can try to upsell the transaction.  I like this, they have benefits for consumers and merchants. I’m wondering what the FI’s role is in this solution.

If I had to guess, I’d say it eliminates the bank in the transaction and let’s small merchants offer financing like big box retailers like Best Buy. Will be live in Canada in 60 days and in the US next year.  “FI’s looking for new resources should come see us.” Perhaps they white label the solution to local banks. ^WM

CR2 – Lance Gourlay (CR2 Regional Director) and Patrick Simons (Principal Consultant) and Eugene Podzorov (CR2 ATM Expert)

Multi-channel bank solution. “How to use ATM channel and create a sales channel with ATMs?” They are getting ready to show a custom demo using a live video feed from across the hall where they have an ATM. Technology to drive both ATM and kiosks.

It looks like they are based in Dublin. We used to represent Eontec which had a multi-channel technology; I’m curious if some of these folks used to be at Eontec?

Interesting live video of a unique ATM interface; it’s sure not like a 1990 Diebold interface.  In my opinion, ATM technology has REALLY  lagged, especially as it has to do with the GUI.  I’d guess their software really turns a plain old ATM into a real interactive financial kiosk. I like it.

Their flagship product sounds like BankWorld Studio; sort of like an Adobe platform for ATM’s on steroids. ^WM

Guide Financial – Uri Pomerantz (Co-Founder & CEO) and Scott Burns (Co-Founder)

Speaking of the financial crisis “half of all households lost 50% of their net worth.” That sounds a little conservative to me, perhaps it was just bigger in Atlanta.

Free analysis and guidance to help consumers save money. This looks interesting; I can’t help to think I’ve seen this before. Just a side note, almost all of the presenters that are showing their solutions on a computer (vs. A smart phone or tablet) are using Apple MacBooks.  Guide seems to be much bigger than a PFM but I’m trying to figure out what the “extra” is.  From their web site: Guide automatically analyzes your accounts and finds ways you can save more money, from debt management to retirement choices.

Perhaps it suggests alternative financial products and solutions based on how much people are spending and where.  Wealth managers are potential partners. Interesting; I’m going to have to learn more about these folks. ^WM

BizEquity – Michael Carter (CEO) and Semyon Fishman (VP Product Engineering)

“Most SMB’s don’t know what they are worth.” Presenting 4th version of their product. From their web site: Online Business Valuation software for small and medium businesses. Value your private company and find its worth in minutes. Free to get started.

This is the ONLY company I’ve ever seen at Finovate that does something like this. The hall is quieter, I think everyone is sitting up and really paying attention. “Seven Simple Steps for Business Owner to Find the value of their Businesses.” Browser-based, patent-pending and some patents awarded.

100k businesses have tried it to date.  How do they make money? I’d like to speak with these folks; very different than things I’ve seen in the past. Large insurance companies and banks use it, I suppose to value for lending. ^WM

Manilla – Christopher Victory (VP Business Development) and Jim Sullivan (Director, Business Development)

I saw them last year. “Leading digital account management”.   Available in IOS and Android and via browser. It’s a lockbox for all your financial information. ATT, COMCAST, CITI are all partners to connect to their consumers. I liked this last time as well as today.

Now integrated with AOL and AOL mail and in the right hand rail of AOL. This is pretty cool.

This is what I wrote last year: Manilla – Chris Victory and Bill Eller – online account aggregation in a single-sign on. Linked a million accounts from users. Showing web version now; has mobile version. AMEX not a partner (yet).  Manilla users tend to use more bank bill pay.  50% of new users are signing up via mobile app.  ^WM

Zighra – Deepak Dutt (CTO) and Michael Bingham (Lead Researcher)

“What if we could authenticate just by HOW we use our smart phone or tablet?” This sounds interesting.

Showing authentification by just swiping across the device, I can’t tell if it is IOS or Android, I think IOS. This looks and sounds different than other forms of authentification.

From their web site: Zighra! – Zighra cloud authentication security, fraud detection and digital certificate solutions form the foundation of well protected networks for organizations …

Now, this part was really cool. One presenter was able to conduct the transaction with a swipe of his finger, the other could not, just based on how a person interacts with their device. Patent-pending user authentification layer.  Their technology is constantly learning based on how the consumer uses their device.  I would imagine that these folks should sell to ATT or Verizon but it looks like they are going for banks and payment providers. ^WM

Zenmonics– Chris Siemasko (SVP Product Solutions)

I asked myself, why don’t I know these folks? They are out of Charlotte, NC and I’m pretty familiar with FINTECH vendors (I’ve been doing this 30 years so far) so I checked out their web site: Zenmonics is a cross-industry global solutions provider of licensed software, custom development and skillset amplification to meet your growing needs.

So it looks like FINTECH is part of what they do. Charlotte used to be a GIANT in financial technology with IBM, Broadway & Seymour, Lundy Financial Systems, Backroom Systems, Protocorp, NCI and more so I bet some of these folks came from one of these organizations.

I’ll have to speak with these folks to learn more. With BofA out of Charlotte and lot of folks from Wells Fargo in the Charlotte area perhaps one of these banks have used their technology. ^WM

Lumesis – Gregg Bienstock (CEO & Co-Founder) and Timothy Stevens (COO, President & Co-Founder)

 Credit and compliance for the muni bond world, focused on the retail investor.  $3.7 trillion dollar muni bond market. Muni bond reports delivered to the iPad, delivers reports in seconds. Covers over 54,000 issuers, includes all disclosures for the user. New sources and supporting data at the user’s fingertips. 1.4 million muni bonds out there, Lumesis has them geo-located.  Lumesis has very powerful info, available to the financial advisor to share with their clients. Worked closely with advisors to figure out what info they need, what would be most helpful to their clients.

Very strong reporting, with good input from key stakeholders. Helpful tool to address the needs of disclosure to retail investors.  ^SR

FlexScore – Jason Gordo (Co-Founder & CEO) NS Jeff Burrow (Co-Founder & President)   Personal financial scores, based on financial planning approach. FlexScore just received a patent for their technology, congratulations!  Engage users via the scoring system, basically gamification brought to financial planning. Driven by your personal profile, the tool provides you with action steps tailored to your needs and score level. Focus on consumer financial education in easy-to-use app. Maybe we need to make a game out of financial planning. The number of people with a financial plan is not encouraging, hope this helps.  “Financial advice for the rest of us,”  I like the tag line!  ^SR

Tinkoff– Oliver Hughes (President & CEO) and Anna Mikhina (Manager, Development of Mobile Products)  One of the largest online banks in the world, major player in Russia. Banking, payments, and physical courier delivery services.  Manages the “last mile”, delivering credit card to a customer’s home.  This kind of service could be very popular in places where mail service is spotty (Brazil, Indonesia, and other growth markets for starters). Courier system is tied into the bank’s CRM system. Takes a photo of the customer and the signed agreement (for legal validation). Wow, very interesting! This is a free service, unique in the world.  ^SR

Ignite Sales- Mitchell Orlowsky (CEO) and Barbie Boe (VP Marketing & Founder)

Branch opening tools,  analytics, and reports for retail banking. Real data, to help drive branch management decisions. 125 packaged reports. Helps you measure the effectiveness of branch network. Tries to measure the opportunity cost of lost potential sales.

^SR

SpearFysh – Marc Miller (CEO) and Greg Pacholski (President)

Average salesperson doesn’t have a very good memory!  As an industry, sales management is operating as they did 50 years ago. Is sales ready for the current century?  Record sales conversations, with permission, to your iPad. Drop-down menus help to guide sales conversation. I find that it is hard to get Sales to adopt new tools. There is a lot of functionality here, but I’d worry about people actually using them. CRM is never as easy to use as it seems. I really like the tagging that you can associate with the audio recording.  ^SR

RevolutionCredit – Zaydoon Munir (Founder & CEO) and Laura Conrad (COO & CFO)

Gamification for credit decisioning.  “Fair, transparent, and fun way to improve your credit score.” Sounds good from a marketing perspective. Consumer financial education – you can learn important info in 1-minute snippets (“1-minute credit clinic”).

Beyond the Arc has done a lot of work on adverse action/credit declines in the recent past. This is a fun concept, but I’m not yet convinced of the real impact.  I’ll need to speak to this team in more detail, not sure I get the basic value proposition. ^SR

CoverHound – Keith Moore (CMO) and Rory Joyce (CPO)

Helping make insurance more transparent. “35% of visitors are coming from mobile device.” Compare insurance quotes online and mobile. I can do this now. Social media tie-in, but is that enough, does it matter?  Launching today, so will stop by to gather more of the details. ^SR

Float Money – Shane Hadden (CEO) and Chad Hurley (CTO)

Loan interest-free, profitably.   Creates a “Float Score” based on underlying algorithms and transactional data. Interest-free, that’s an interesting take. They look to make money from other sources (e.g. merchant revenue, commissions earned). Promotes smart shopping and budgeting through prepaid cards, linked to the platform. “We never promote borrowing.”

I think one of the disconnects for me is that I’m not sure who this product is targeted to. I’m inferring maybe the underbanked, or folks with poor credit history, but are actually reasonable credit risks?  ^SR

PayWith – David Strebinger (CEO) and Aaron Park (Senior Developer)

Mobile payments solution with a component of merchant-funded benefits. Enables merchants to use their existing processing hardware. Back-end dashboard provides consumer-level insights on spending history and rewards redemption. ^SR