Opinion

Spent most of this week at a payments conference. The theme was relentlessly around mobile payments, as this area of the market has truly kicked off as a major focal point for banks, telecommunications firms, retailers and merchants. There was a particularly interesting debate about contactless payments, as this is also something that is being…

I haven’t written much about social media lately.  The reason is that it’s now mainstream and dull.  When you're scanning future views, you’re not as bothered about Facebook and Twitter when everyone’s familiar with and using such services. Facebook's pervasiveness is well illustrated by the Facebook IPO  announcement, which gave a raft of good stats about how…

I haven’t written much about social media lately.  The reason is that it’s now mainstream and dull.  When you're scanning future views, you’re not as bothered about Facebook and Twitter when everyone’s familiar with and using such services. Facebook's pervasiveness is well illustrated by the Facebook IPO  announcement, which gave a raft of good stats about how…

Following on from my discussions of solutions versus product people and vertical alignment versus horizontal, the question came up as to how to think strategically. How can you really get inside the customer’s head? What keeps the CEO awake at night (literally in the case of Lloyds Banking Group)? And all those other strategic account questions…

Following on from my discussions of solutions versus product people and vertical alignment versus horizontal, the question came up as to how to think strategically. How can you really get inside the customer’s head? What keeps the CEO awake at night (literally in the case of Lloyds Banking Group)? And all those other strategic account questions…

For most of my life, I’ve been aligned to the financial services industry as a supplier of technology. Throughout this time, my role has been as a solutions person, providing technologies that solve financial processing problems. And, throughout this time, I’ve dealt with technology companies that struggle with moving from being horizontal to vertical, from…

For most of my life, I’ve been aligned to the financial services industry as a supplier of technology. Throughout this time, my role has been as a solutions person, providing technologies that solve financial processing problems. And, throughout this time, I’ve dealt with technology companies that struggle with moving from being horizontal to vertical, from…

What’s hot in tech in 2012 is a continuation of what’s hot in tech in 2011: cloud, smartphones, tablet PCs, contactless mobile and more. Rather than just repeating all that again, let’s be more specific: Contactless mobile will reach a tipping point in retail payments Social media will become a core communications tool PFM, combined…