Media-Insert Communications

Colombia All Ears After Students Vote With Their Feet

State to consult public, staff and students over disputed university reforms. Graham Jarvis writes.

In November, 600,000 Colombian students walked out of lectures in protest at what they saw as the increasing privatisation of higher education in the country...read more here.

Published by Times Higher Education on 12th April 2012.

On the Record

Since November 2011 companies working in the equity, bond, financial and commodity derivatives markets have had to comply with the Financial Services Authority's rules that require them to record all 'relevant communications' and store them for six months to prevent any professional misconduct or illegal activities like insider trading from taking place....read more here.

Published by Banking Technology on 18th April 2012.

Customer Wallets Are Tight: So Is Empathy the Best Strategy?

The unemployment rate in the U.S. may have hit a four year low. U.S. government sources are claiming that the initial claims for unemployment benefits have fallen by 5,000 applications to a seasonally adjusted figure of 348,000; but this doesn’t mean that customers have become more open to spending more money. Yet it is good to hear that employers in the U.S. have created 245,000 jobs per month between December 2011 and February 2012. On the face of it, at least for the short-term, these figures suggest that growth is returning to the U.S. market....Read more here.           

Published on 19th A[ril 2012 by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI)

Clearing and Settlement Working Group Holds First Meeting

Does the industry need a new body looking at the clearing and settlement issues raised by new regulation? The London-based Financial Services Club thinks it does, and has set up a clearing and settlement working group...read more here.

Published by Banking Technology, 2nd March 2012.

Thinking outside the bank: innovation in financial services

In recent years banks have been a target for criticism, ridicule and vehemence. They are, for example, said to be slow and reluctant to innovate. Read more on Banking Technology.

Published on 8th February 2012.

Keeping track of digital assets in the cloud

Managing digital assets is an important consideration for enterprises - does cloud help this process? Read more on CloudPro...

Published on 17th January 2012.

The most effective ways to invest in business development

During harder economic times, many law firms have had to find cost-effective ways to gain new business, using a depleted marketing budget. Although some practice areas experience more activity during a downturn, most firms have to adapt to it to survive and grow. The experts who were interviewed for.....read more on The Law Society Gazette.

Published on 5th January 2012.

Developers warn of testing times for cloud adoption

Moving to the cloud is not always straightforward but a proper testing programme could minimise risk.

The rush towards cloud seems to be unstoppable. Research company IDC estimates that spending on public cloud IT services is set to increase from $21.5bn to $72.9bn in 2015. However, a quickly-moving market like cloud computing is going to face some difficulties as this level of migration is going to lead to its own problems.

Read more on CloudPro - Published on 27th December 2011.

There could be trouble ahead: managing the move towards cloud

Upgrades can spell trouble for companies so companies moving to the cloud have to be especially wary.

In October, Blackberry users around the world got to know first-hand how frustrating downtime can be. Millions of Blackberry users found that they couldn’t do much more with their handsets than make voice calls. Read more on CloudPro.

Published by CloudPro on 2nd December 2011.

Banking on change: How technology and customer behaviour are changing banking

The banking sector is one of the most highly regulated and risk averse industries in existence today, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the pace of innovation – whether technological or otherwise – can seem quite slow.

Resistance to change is a dangerous stance. If an incumbent doesn’t respond to changes in customer and market needs, it could find that it has acted far too late.

Banks and financial services institutions therefore need to use all the tools in their toolbox to ensure that they can remain competitive, balancing risk with a concern for customer benefits and employing technology as an increasingly important enabler of new customer experiences. Read more here...

Published by Customer Focus on 27th September 2011.