Calling BS On Banking The Unbanked

“Financial inclusion”, “banking the unbanked”, blah blah blah. Call them what you want. But they all mean the following: Financial Inclusion / Banking the Unbanked – What They Mean People want to borrow money only from banks; people want to deposit their savings only in banks. But, since they can’t access a bank, they’re forced … Read more

Frictionless Loyalty Programs – FAASO’s Case Study

The quick service restaurant chain FAASO’s recently launched MOBILE wrAPP, an ordering, payment cum loyalty app. Available on Android, iOS and Windows, the app lets users locate stores, browse the menu, place delivery or takeaway orders, and make online or cash on delivery payments. To incent repeat purchase, the company credits INR 400 (~US$ 6.67) … Read more

Does Cloud Increase Vendor Lockin Risk?

For all the marketingspeak from technology providers about open systems blah blah blah, seasoned CIOs know that every software purchase is accompanied by a certain level of risk of getting locked in to that particular vendor. The risk is caused by user comfort, proprietary programming language and opaque database structures, among other factors. Cue to … Read more

Marketable Items Let You Have Your Content And Eat It Too

In his blog post titled Wasted Words – Why Marketing Content Longer than 3 to 5 Items Does Not Work, Gartner Research Director Hank Barnes makes a strong case to technology vendors for simplifying their story and emphasizing only two or three things that matter most in their marketing collateral. He goes on to explain how … Read more

Frictionless Loyalty Programs – MakeUseOf Case Study

The leading British technology and Internet apps blog Make Use Of recently launched a loyalty-cum-rewards program where readers earn points for sharing its articles on social networks. In the past, I’ve come across rewards for filling forms, completing surveys and taking other actions but this is the first time I’m seeing a website rewarding social sharing … Read more

How Security Can Actually Increase Vulnerability

Security increases friction. That’s not news. I’ve myself written many blog posts – click here, here and here – on this perennial tradeoff involved in payments. However, I recently found a new security measure that actually creates new sources of vulnerability. Ironic but true. Since December 2013, India’s central bank RBI has made it mandatory … Read more

Shopper’s Stop – Loyalty Or Disloyalty Program?

Since I wrote Loyalty Or Disloyalty Programs? and Beware Of Losing Sales With Bad Loyalty Programs, a couple of companies have used mobile technologies in very innovative ways to design loyalty programs that truly foster loyalty. But Shopper’s Stop is not one among them. The pioneer of India’s organized retail industry recently introduced a mobile app variant of its … Read more

Three More Ways How Tech Can Help Banks Accelerate Legacy Transformation

In How Tech Can Help Banks Accelerate Legacy Transformation, I’d described three issues with open systems that hold banks back from migrating their legacy applications to open systems. Here are three more: #4. Sudden Loss of Functionality In this brilliant article titled When Product Features Disappear – Amazon, Apple and Tesla and the Troubled Future for … Read more

How Tech Can Help Banks Accelerate Legacy Transformation

During a meeting with the CIO of a Top 5 bank in Germany, I was introduced to a lady who was retiring that same weekend. The CIO averred that she was the last employee in the bank who knew the nitty-gritty of a certain mainframe application. This was music to my ears. The company I … Read more