This is one of a series of articles with live coverage of more than 70 companies presenting at the Finovate conference.

Zenmonics & Diebold – David Dye (VP Sales, Zenmonics) and Shelly Ewing (Director, New Business & Solution Incubation, Diebold)  Banks can enable self-service transactions within the branch. This helps banks to refocus their branch strategies. This application ties into the bank’s branch  systems; so through a tablet in the lobby, the customer is able to make a wide range of transactions. This solution, with the tie into the branch systems, allows the customer to do more than they would at an ATM. ^SR

Talking about a NEW type of branch model that leverages existing branch systems. They are showing a video demo. Think this is a JV between Diebold and Zenmonics (for the software) as a full teller experience at a branch using large tablet-like devices and cash dispensers. Now shooing the ID authentication with a real CSR via teleconference. We’ve been seeing “self-service banking” for more than 20 years. I think this type of solution would BEST be used in really low volume branches or areas that a bank would like to serve but can’t afford a full-time branch staff and building.^WM

BizEquity – Michael Carter (CEO) and Semyon Fishman (VP Engineering & Technology)  A business valuation engine to estimate the value of small businesses. In addition to the value, BizEquity now can track and measure the performance of the business. Simple, interactive, visualization with real-time profiles on more than 17 million companies. ^SR

What’s the business worth? Platform to evaluate how much a company is worth. I think I saw their presentation either last year or last spring and it looks interesting. Michael was doing private equity work and realized there was a need to launch a technology platform for business equity.  Announcing new version of their platform today.  I’m interested in hearing HOW their valuation engine calculates the evaluation. I THINK he said “so far we have pre-value more than 27 million SMB’s” I did a quick test of the system and I didn’t have time to enter all the data but I think it’s VERY cool. I’m assuming they keep the information private. ^WM

Global Debt Registry –  Todd Veale (Chief Marketing & Product Officer) and Charlie Moore (Chief Commercial Officer)  Helping financial institutions manage debt collection, ensuring compliance wherever the debt may live — on the issuers books, or in the secondary markets. Documents the history of the account, and full chain of ownership. They also have addressed the issue of consumer transparency. Consumer can look up the debt, and the debt collector.  ^SR

“It’s the DMV of consumer debt”. Did I hear that correctly? I might be wrong but this MIGHT be a kind of of Mortgage Electronic Registry Services (I think, also known as MERS) for consumer debt.  This sounds like a really good idea. There is a TON of debt that is charged off and various agencies value and collect the debts. “This industry has been traditionally been offline.” I’d agree with that. Once again, another great browser-based but very graphical presentation of the data. For someone like me I really like how almost all of these companies have really stepped up with their customer experience. It’s like the entire financial technology industry finally realized the value of easy to use dashboards and graphics. I can’t stress enough how much this has changed in the last two years. As I referenced earlier, I call it the “Apple Effect”, business users have now come to EXPECT outstanding visuals whether it is usable icons to excellent presentation of data.  I know of no other organization like Global Debt Registry.  They make money by getting fees for docs from collectors as well as fees from FI’s. I like it. ^WM

P2Binvestor     Gabriella Krista Morgan (President & Co-Founder) and Clay McIlrath (CTO)  They believe that “modern business lending” is enabled by their online portal.  The offering is integrated with QuickBooks, so has a rich store of data on the applicants. They are a crowdfunding model, so also have an investor platform. There is a beta for all Quickbooks online users. ^SR

“Portable, flexible capital loans and call it crowd lending”.  This is a HOT category. There are several technology companies leveraging technology for better short-term lending. I believe she said the data comes from an company’s QUICKBOOKS data.  “We have originated million in loans so far this year.” They are showing the loan app via a Google Chrome browser via the Quickbooks API. Once loan is submitted by the  borrower (probably an SMB) they do the evaluation and do a go/no go response but I wasn’t sure how fast it is. I believe she said this was in beta. I like it and would like to learn more. ^WM

FlexScore  Jason Gordo (CEO) and Jeff Burrow (COO & President)   They provide a “financial success score”, they offer both online and mobile app.  This can be white-labeled for the bank. Consumers can get a quick score, without even having an account established. Mobile app shows consumers how a few small changes today, can have a big impact on your financial goals, and your life. Customized action steps, and a clear path forward, are what customers say they want. FlexScore enables you to take a closer look at both assets and debts.  The application looks very good, both on iPhone and iPad.  ^SR

“Today we launch our new mobile app: beautiful, sleek and full of advice and easy to figure out (unlike our wives)” FlexScore is “Financial Advice for the Rest of Us”. I believe they “white label” their app to FI’s for PFM/mobile banking which is a HOT category. You can download the app from either mobile platform without having to enter all your banking information. VERY EASY GUI. I’m wondering about their go-to-market strategy. Is it revenue from FI’s from white label software offering OR direct to consumer and selling that data to others? From our friends at BIC: FlexScore provides users with a view on their financial position and position compared to peers and also provides recommendations on how users can improve their scores.

Folks, PFM has been around for years and years but I believe it’s hot now because consumers are much more likely to actually use a PFM if it’s on their phone and ESPECIALLY if it is integrated with their mobile banking application. FlexScore the MOST consumer friendly presentation so far today so that anybody could use it, no matter their level of education. ^WM

VerifyValid    Paul Doyle (CEO & Founder)  The company provides a digital checkbook from your mobile phone.  This may be what we need in the U.S. to wean us off checks. The U.S. is the last market on the planet where people still write checks. Today’s announcement is about their consumer mobile app. They acknowledge that consumer’s don’t think about, or care about payments; they just want payments to work. It has to be simple, and this offering looks like it is. When you use the service to receive payments, you can deposit the digital check you’ve received into your choice off accounts. ^SR

Full disclosure, William Mills Agency provides public relations for VerifyValid.

I first met Paul a year ago at Finovate Fall 2014 when Paul did a presentation with Deluxe check printers. “This month, so far million has been authorized and sent through our service.” Paul is showing their app on an Apple iPhone. When I first saw this last year I could not believe no one had thought of this before; it makes so much sense. Paul is now showing how he uses VerifyValid’s mobile app so he can manage/approve/send checks for his business using his own application. Now getting ready to discuss a new product launching today at Finovate.

New consumer app is called MagicMoney and he is giving a demo now of his real personal checking account that he shares with his wife and can use the contacts in his phone to create a new payee. This is very slick and I would imagine that VerifyValid is a contender for best in show. Paul now showing a recipient’s lockbox via browser. ^WM

iBillionaire   Raul Moreno (CEO & Co-Founder)  Want to party like a rockstar?  Can’t help you with that. Want to invest like a billionaire? Now, you can. iBillionaire tracks the public filings of the world’s leading investors like Buffet, Soros, etc.  Those disclosures are near-impossible to read through on your own. This app makes it easy to see. Retail investors can also look at a stock, and see which heavyweight investors own it. What are the top 30 stocks owned by billionaire investors? “You don’t have to be a billionaire to invest like one.” 150,000 investors using the platform currently. I’m going to download this one! ^SR

They are showing an IOS app that I believe mimics the stock portfolios of billionaires so that investor can hold similar (although much smaller) investments much like Larry Ellison or Bill Gates.  Low cost investment technology. They have 150,000 investors using their product today. iPhone app is free. They are looking to partner with FI’s and advisors. ^WM

WorkFusion   Max Yankelevich (CEO)  This offering is a crowdsourced platform, that enables a company to outsource repetitive tasks. Sounds like they integrate with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and eLance. WorkFusion also enables you to assign some tasks to your own staff. The software-as-a-service (SAAS) offering is powered by machine learning. As you assign more tasks, you can improve your performance (work gets done faster, more accurately) over time. There is a workflow tool and dashboard to manage and report on tasks. This tool helps you to automate previously manual-intensive activities. ^SR

SAS platform around massive data collection for FI at 1/2 the cost. The way they do it is by pairing freelance workers with machine learning. 7 of the top 10 data providers for FI use their platform.  Adam showing demo now using a web browser as if he is the data manager for an FI. He is using an example of collecting how often a dividend announcement might be collected. Showing an earnings release from a company distributed on Business Wire and copying three fields of information (price and dates). I’m not an expert on “big data” collection and management but thankfully my associate Steven Ramirez, CEO of Beyond the Arc is THE EXPERT in big data for financial institutions. Showing a data collection and report that was done in 15 seconds from one minute. NYC-based company focused on FI’s and are offering a free pilot upon request. ^WM

Misys    József Nyíri (Director, Innovation & Digital Channels LABS) While MiSys gets points for trying to be creative, I really have no idea what they are offering. Their Finovate skit featuring two superheroes really went nowhere. I think there is something about better understanding customers and making relevant offers. Perhaps voice-activated services for banking? They have an “experience  engine”, whatever that is. ^SR

MISYS is a huge player but I’m not quite getting their presentation. I’m glad they are using humor and the crowd seems to likes it. Two of the three presenters are in costume as super hero’s. NOW we are getting to the demo. Again, another beautiful product but I have no idea what they do. I THINK it’s a mobile banking app for IOS but I’m not sure. I’ve got to research this. Our friends at BIC say: Disruptive digital innovation to 2,000 financial services customers worldwide – making banking “frustration-free” for consumers. ^WM