Financial Services – Digital IT News

The Riverbed Global AI & Digital Experience Survey Financial Services Released

Taylor Graham — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 17:00:03 +0000

Riverbed has released the Financial Services findings from the Riverbed Global AI & Digital Experience Survey, revealing that most organizations in the financial sector hold progressive views on AI technology. According to the survey, 94% of business and IT leaders believe AI will enhance the digital experience for their users. Industry leaders are dedicated to leveraging AI as a strategic asset to boost operational performance and drive business growth.*

Compared to other sectors, Financial Services is also one of the most prepared for AI adoption. Currently, 46% of leaders surveyed in the Financial Services sector say their organization is fully prepared to implement their AI strategy now (against a 37% average). However, with the majority not fully prepared, a readiness gap still exists within the Financial Services industry. Additionally, Riverbed’s research reveals that Financial Services leaders require reassurances in data confidentiality and accuracy before they can deliver secure digital experiences for their end users.

At the same time, Financial Services decision-makers are also more assured in the practical benefits of AI than most, with 96% of respondents believing it provides their business a competitive advantage. Financial organizations are vying for an edge against digital-native startups – which demands a strategic and practical approach to AI that reduces costs, increases efficiency, offers bespoke services, and mitigates customer risk.

While AI is still maturing, it’s evident that trust in AI is growing with 65% of Financial Services IT and business leaders agreeing they would rather automate a major IT upgrade than sit in the back seat of a driverless car in a city – which is 4% more than the global average.

Investment in Infrastructure and Talent May Help to Offset Generational Concerns

Nearly all leaders in the Financial Services industry (99%) consider AI to be either a key strategic priority or at least moderately important across their organization. Furthermore, the perception of AI within Financial Services organizations is slightly more enthusiastic than in other sectors, with 62% of leaders believing their teams are positive towards the adoption of the new technology, and only 3% skeptical (versus 59% and 4% respectively as the global average).

When asked which generation is most comfortable with leveraging AI in their organization, leaders said Gen Z (55%), followed by Millennials (36%), with Gen X and Baby Boomers at 9% combined. All industries mirror this perception, potentially reflecting the broader apprehension that AI will replace knowledge-holders, and therefore be better received by tech-native employees. This generational refresh might suggest the underlying reason as to why 68% of Financial Services organizations are growing their investment in infrastructure and talent, continuing the industry’s forward-leaning approach.

Financial Organizations Set to Improve DEX and Operational Efficiency With AI

In last year’s the Riverbed Global Digital Employee Experience (DEX) Survey, 92% of Financial Services business and IT leaders believed pressure on IT resources would increase in response to the need to provide a greater DEX for employees and customers. Now, it’s becoming clear that AI automation can offer a solution for these heightened expectations, with nearly half (49%) of financial leaders reporting that AI implementation has either optimized resource utilization or will begin to do so within three years – benefitting workplace morale by supporting stretched teams with their daily tasks.

Over the same time frame, leaders in the Financial Services sector expect AI to streamline their operations by improving workflow automation (71%), automated remediation (62%) and autonomously offering 24/7 support via tools like chatbots (62%).

Currently, the primary reason for using AI in the Finance Sector is almost equal between driving operational efficiencies (51%) versus driving growth (49%) – demonstrating that these Financial Services organizations are currently more advanced in terms of AI maturity than other industries. However, it’s expected in three years’ time that the primary focus will shift towards driving growth (54%), with operational efficiencies becoming slightly less (46%) of a priority.

Generative AI is also expected to gain traction in IT operations over the next 12-18 months. According to the results, currently 36% of Financial Services organizations have put Gen AI use cases for IT operations in production or have completed prototypes they now plan on taking to production. Leaders in the industry expect to become even more progressive as the sector revolutionizes further, with use cases materializing into 71% implementation over the upcoming 12-18 months. All other respondents remain in the ideation phases for their potential AI usage.

Despite Being Ahead of Other Industries, There Are Still Doubts Regarding AI Data Integrity and Readiness

The Riverbed Global AI & Digital Experience Survey revealed three key areas in which there’s a noticeable gap between AI enthusiasm and implementation, although Financial Services continue to display above average progress in preparedness. As referenced earlier, there is a Readiness Gap with less than half (46%) claiming they are fully prepared to implement AI projects today, though this is nearly 10% higher than cross-industry averages.

There’s also a Reality Gap, with 85% of leaders in the industry saying they’re either ‘significantly’ or ‘slightly’ ahead of their competitors with their adoption of AI for IT services and digital experiences. This gap between perception and reality indicates many leaders are overconfident about where their IT function is on their AI journey relative to their industry peers.

However, the biggest concern for the Financial Services industry is the Data Gap, which represents the area in which financial organizations must seek improvements to compete with the cross-sector average – although this is still a shared concern across all industries.

“As the financial sector traditionally handles more sensitive customer information than other industries, it’s not surprising that 80% of leaders are worried about their proprietary data being accessible in the public domain due to AI usage,” said Jim Gargan, Chief Marketing Officer, at Riverbed. “What’s more, leaders also have reservations regarding the effectiveness of the data at their disposal, with only about a third rating their data as excellent for completeness (36%) and accuracy (34%) – the lowest across all industries.”

Gargan continued, “Great AI starts with great data and the data gap is one of the biggest inhibitors to AI success. At Riverbed, we are helping our customers address this data gap with a practical approach to AI, which includes an AI-powered platform that provides full-fidelity data and observability across the entire IT landscape. Additionally, Riverbed’s AI is safe, secure and accurate, providing real value with data-driven insights that allows organizations to deliver optimized digital experiences and improved business outcomes.”

Observability and Authentic Data Anticipated to be Crucial for Full AI Implementation

The survey’s findings indicate that financial services organizations are even more keen to address the data gap than their counterparts in other sectors. Most leaders (92%) say that using real data, rather than synthetic data, is crucial in AI efforts to improve DEX, and 91% agree that observability across all elements of IT is important in an AIOps strategy. This is several percentage points higher than other industry sectors.

Leaders in the Financial Services industry are more aligned with the broader consensus on the benefits of other AI strategies, including:

At least 84% say observability is either extremely or moderately important when overcoming network blind spots, including public cloud, remote work environments, Zero Trust architectures, and enterprise mobile services.
45% have established observability and/or user experience teams; and over half of organizations (55%) have formed dedicated teams to address AI preparedness.

Financial Services organizations are clearly adjusting their infrastructure as they look to continue optimizing the benefits of emerging technologies. AI is undeniably a core aspect of the industry’s future – but strategic adjustments and increased data security are still necessary before full integration can be achieved. The financial services organizations that act swiftly to address these gaps will not only produce secure and seamless operational performance, but also gain a significant competitive advantage within this increasingly AI-driven landscape.

Methodology

The Riverbed Global AI & Digital Experience Survey polled 1,200 IT, business, and public sector decision-makers across seven countries, all with over $250 million in annual revenue (over $500 million in the US, UK, and France). Industries included manufacturing, financial services, retail, government/public sector, healthcare providers, energy and utilities, and transport and airlines. A total of 200 decision makers were surveyed in the Financial Services industry. The survey was conducted by Coleman Parkes Research in June 2024.

Discover more on the topic of how IT, business and public sector decision-makers are overcoming gaps and navigating AI adoption and implementation by checking out The Riverbed Global AI & Digital Experience Survey report here.

ECI Survey Predicts Financial Services Hybrid Multicloud Adoption will Triple

* Note: Unless otherwise noted, all data and percentages referenced in the press release are percentages calculated from responses to the Riverbed Global AI & Digital Experience survey. Respondents included IT and business decision makers across seven countries in the Financial Services industry.

The post The Riverbed Global AI & Digital Experience Survey Financial Services Released appeared first on Digital IT News.

BofA Launches Family Banking to Help Parents Raise Financially Savvy Kids

Taylor Graham — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 14:00:18 +0000

Bank of America introduced a new solution to assist parents in guiding their children as they start their financial journey. SafeBalance Banking for Family Banking is a bank account designed to provide parents with tools and resources to help children develop healthy financial habits and manage their money through a secure and convenient digital platform.

“For many parents, it can be hard to find the right financial tools and resources that can also instill positive financial habits in their children,” said Mary Hines Droesch, Head of Product for Consumer, Business and Wealth Management Banking and Lending at Bank of America. “Family Banking offers the foundation young people need for managing money, with support for parents seeking to help their children on the path to financial health and independence.”

A recent Bank of America survey found 90% of parents believe they bear responsibility in teaching their children financial literacy and 61% start talking to their kids about money by the age of 10.

“Designed with the whole family in mind, Family Banking offers the convenience and safety features parents seek, along with knowledge-building tools that will help set their children up for a strong financial future,” said Holly O’Neill, President of Retail Banking at Bank of America.

Family Banking can be opened via Bank of America online banking or the mobile banking app and allows parents to maintain oversight of their child’s spending and supervise the account. Key features include:

Intuitive digital experience: Allows a parent to open and add a child to an account, and offers an age-appropriate banking experience
Financial literacy resources: Easy-to-understand Better Money Habits educational resources help parents have personal finance conversations with a child
Child’s first debit card: When a child is ready for their first experience managing money or budgeting, parents can give them access to a physical or digital debit card
Flexible parental controls: Daily spending limits, card lock/unlock features and real-time alerts act as guardrails and help teach responsible financial management
Monthly maintenance fees waived: SafeBalance Banking® for Family Banking has no monthly maintenance fees while the child is under age 25
Account ‘Graduation’: As a child’s needs become more advanced, parents can add them as an owner to the account when they determine a child is ready

Family Banking launched in select states (Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island), with access expanded to additional states over the next three months, leading up to nationwide availability in December. The solution allows parents to open a banking account for their child and will expand to include other enhancements next year. The account is geared toward parents with children under the age of 16.

10 Years of SafeBalance Banking

Initially offered in 2014, SafeBalance Banking is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. This convenient, easy-to-use account has no overdraft fees and was designed to help clients manage their day-to-day finances. As of August 2024, SafeBalance Banking has grown to nearly 7 million accounts — including more than 3 million accounts held by youth and young adults. SafeBalance now represents nearly two-thirds of all new consumer banking accounts opened at Bank of America.

To learn more about Bank of America’s Family Banking resources for parents and their children, visit the website here.

Generative AI Driving YOY Cloud Spending 30% Higher

The post BofA Launches Family Banking to Help Parents Raise Financially Savvy Kids appeared first on Digital IT News.

Bitsgap AI Assistant Features to Enhance Crypto Trading

Taylor Graham — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 15:00:34 +0000

Bitsgap is excited to introduce its new AI Assistant features, aimed at helping traders stay profitable. With this launch, Bitsgap becomes the first platform to offer AI-driven portfolio management.

Leveraging seven years of experience in developing algorithmic and automated trading systems, Bitsgap has introduced the AI Assistant. This new feature enhances crypto bot trading by empowering users to leverage AI insights across all Bitsgap partner exchanges, including Binance, OKX, KuCoin, and others.

The AI Assistant takes this innovation to the next level by shifting the focus from managing individual trading bots to overseeing an entire portfolio. This advanced feature supports a broader range of assets, including Bitcoin, enabling traders to diversify their portfolios and engage in crypto-to-crypto trading.

Bitsgap AI analyzes thousands of pairs across all exchanges connected by the user and, based on back testing and algorithms, selects the most profitable automated trading strategies.

The bot has unique features such as portfolio management for easier control and a take-profit functionality that allows users to secure gains for an entire group of bots.

“With the AI Assistant, Bitsgap is setting a new standard in crypto trading,” said Max Kalmykov, CEO at Bitsgap. “Our AI-driven approach ensures that traders can navigate the volatile crypto market with confidence, backed by data-driven strategies to maximize profits.”

For more information about Bitsgap AI Assistant, visit the website here.

Cyber Threat Report Details Increase in Overall Cyberattacks

The post Bitsgap AI Assistant Features to Enhance Crypto Trading appeared first on Digital IT News.

ECI Survey Predicts Financial Services Hybrid Multicloud Adoption will Triple

Taylor Graham — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 19:00:19 +0000

Nutanix has released the results of its sixth annual global Financial Services Enterprise Cloud Index ECI survey and research report, which assesses the progress of cloud adoption in the financial services and insurance industries. The survey indicates that while the current use of hybrid multicloud deployments has remained steady year-over-year, respondents anticipate a substantial threefold increase in adoption over the next three years, positioning it as the dominant IT model in the sector.

The Financial Services ECI survey report revealed that data security and ransomware protection, implementing AI strategies, and minimizing cost are driving IT decision makers infrastructure priorities. 99% of ECI financial services respondents shared that they had experienced a ransomware attack at some point in the past three years. 89% agreed that their organizations had room for improvement when it came to their ability to protect against such attacks. AI was noted as a key driver of IT infrastructure priorities as well, as IT leaders are increasingly tasked to leverage AI solutions to improve decision-making and enhance customer experiences.

This evolution reflects the strategic deployment by financial services industries of diverse cloud environments tailored for specific operational, cost, compliance, and control requirements. Hybrid multicloud architecture’s appeal lies in its ability to offer diverse cost, billing, and deployment options, empowering digital enterprises with the flexibility to enhance application performance, bolster security, accelerate time to market, and optimize IT expenditures.

“It is startling to see that nearly all the financial services respondents in this year’s ECI Survey have experienced a ransomware attack,” said Lee Caswell, SVP Product & Solutions Marketing at Nutanix. “It’s a sign of the times that hybrid multicloud adoption is set to triple as financial services users gear up for heightened cybersecurity risks as new regulatory requirements, such as the EU’s 2025 Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), go into effect – making data protection and disaster recovery a hybrid multicloud imperative.”

Financial services respondents were asked about their current cloud challenges, how they’re running business applications today, and where they plan to run them in the future. Key findings from this year’s report include:

Financial services decision-makers share that cybersecurity remains paramount, yet emphasis on AI Investment and managing overall costs sit closely behind. Half of the respondents (50%) reported that their organizations required a few days or a few weeks to fully restore operations following a cybersecurity incident. Another 12% said that while operations were mostly restored within a few days or weeks, the impact of the attack on the enterprise lasted beyond the restoration of daily operations.
How FinServ CIOs are thinking about infrastructure priorities. As hybrid multicloud environments grow, so are infrastructure and workloads. Cloud (78%), data and AI (77%), and ransomware protection (77%) are seeing significant growth. Despite frequently citing sustainability as critical to purchasing decisions, few institutions plan to significantly increase investments in this area next year. The largest projected increases in IT budgets are for AI (39%), followed by ransomware prevention (34%) and IT modernization (30%). Overall, 78% of respondents intend to boost spending on cloud computing, with 77% planning increases for AI and ransomware protection.
Sustainability and flexibility top the list of key factors for decision making. For financial service companies selecting cloud services (private, hybrid, or public), flexibility, security, and data capabilities have consistently been key criteria this year and last. When ECI survey respondents were asked to identify the single most important factor influencing their IT infrastructure purchasing decisions, sustainability was the top selection (15%), closely followed by the flexibility to manage workloads across various on-premises and cloud infrastructures (14%), and cost considerations (14%). This varied compared to other sectors where sustainability and cost were generally ranked as less important.
The desire to improve data access performance, security, and regulatory compliance are why financial enterprises relocate applications to a different infrastructure. Nearly all respondents (97%) in the financial services sector and 95% globally said they had moved one or more applications to a different IT infrastructure in the past 12 months, creating a need for simple and flexible inter-cloud workload and application portability. Application movement in financial services was motivated most often by a desire to enhance performance/data access speeds (42%), followed by improving security and regulatory compliance (41%).
The top-ranked challenges in financial services IT departments are cyber and compliance related. Among financial services respondents, ransomware prevention/data security and adherence to data storage/usage mandates, like DORA, were both cited as the top data management challenges today, each by 19% of respondents.

For the sixth consecutive year, Vanson Bourne conducted research on behalf of Nutanix, surveying 1,500 IT and DevOps/Platform Engineering decision-makers around the world in December 2023. The respondent base spanned multiple industries, business sizes, and geographies, including North and South America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific-Japan (APJ) region.

To learn more about the full global Financial Services Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index ECI survey, please download the report and findings here.

Glia Cortex Launched; Responsible AI Platform Built for Financial Institutions

The post ECI Survey Predicts Financial Services Hybrid Multicloud Adoption will Triple appeared first on Digital IT News.

Ai4 2024- North America’s Largest AI Event Coming Soon

Taylor Graham — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 16:30:21 +0000

Media registration is now open for Ai4 2024, North America’s largest event for AI visionaries. Ai4 will gather nearly 5,000 attendees from over 75 countries, scheduled from Monday, August 12 to Wednesday, August 14, 2024, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV. The event will feature over 150 AI exhibits and more than 350 speakers. Ai4 serves as the epicenter of the AI ecosystem, where industry executives and top tech innovators meet to promote the adoption of artificial intelligence and advance the field responsibly.

“AI has widespread influence and is weaving its way into every imaginable industry,” said Michael Weiss, Co-Founder Ai4. “Industries across the board are working to figure out how to best use it, which takes time, experimentation and real-world collaboration and testing. Ai4 is where leaders come to explore the state of generative AI, discover the latest applications, and discuss best practices in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.”

Ai4 offers a unique platform for cross-industry executives and top tech innovators with a use-case oriented approach to content that provides a common framework for thinking about what AI means to each industry and job function. In covering industries from tech, education and financial services to government, healthcare, retail, and real estate, media will have the opportunity to report on groundbreaking announcements and gain industry insights from the world’s leading AI voices.

The event will feature renowned speakers such as Geoffrey Hinton, the Godfather of AI, who will deliver the opening keynote address at 8:30 AM on Tuesday, August 13. Other notable speakers include Andrew Yang, 2020 Presidential Candidate and founder of the Forward Party, Karin Timpone, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer for Major League Baseball, and head data scientists from prominent companies like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Johnson & Johnson, Nordstrom and more.

With interactive exhibits, expert panels, hands-on workshops, and networking events, Ai4 serves as the hub for the AI community. Special event highlights include AI trainings, the AI Policy Summit, the Official Afterparty, the Women in AI Reception, the AI Research Summit, and the AI Art Exhibition. Registered journalists will have access to Ai4 leadership and top speakers for interviews, seating at all keynotes, dedicated workspace and complimentary access to show events and receptions.

This event attracts enterprise leaders, government decision makers, disruptive startups, investors, research labs, academics, non-profit and trade associations, open-source projects, media, analysts, and more. With 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies represented, Ai4 provides the most influential arena for idea-sharing and technological progress on the planet.

To learn more about Ai4 2024 or to register, visit the website here.

Addressing the Labor Shortage in the Field Service Industry

The post Ai4 2024- North America’s Largest AI Event Coming Soon appeared first on Digital IT News.

Glia Cortex Launched; Responsible AI Platform Built for Financial Institutions

Taylor Graham — Mon, 20 May 2024 16:01:57 +0000

Glia introduced Glia Cortex, the first responsible AI platform tailored for the financial services sector. Glia Cortex allows financial institutions to utilize AI that is secure, reliable, and provides tangible returns on investment for customer service and contact centers. This platform enhances efficiency, reduces wait times, and improves the experience for both customers and agents.

“Financial institutions are looking to AI to modernize and create efficiencies in their contact centers, however they have been rightfully cautious as significant questions around safety, privacy, and business and reputational risks associated with adopting AI remain,” explained Jay Choi, CPO for Glia. “Glia Cortex unleashes the benefits of AI and generative AI while maintaining proper, steady guardrails to keep data private and secure. We’ve made it possible to deploy AI without introducing risk, providing responsible technology that institutions and their customers can trust.”

Glia Cortex empowers financial institutions to transform their contact center with AI by automating customer interactions, increasing agent productivity and enabling deeper visibility for managers. Because Glia Cortex seamlessly and safely embeds AI throughout Glia’s Unified Interaction Management platform, it is easily adopted and presents immediate value.

Key components of Glia Cortex include:

Customer AI: Turnkey AI assistants that automate and elevate customer interactions in any channel, from digital properties to traditional phone calls. These assistants automate up to 65% of customer interactions.
Agent AI: AI and generative AI tools for agents that automate and streamline existing workflows, improving productivity by 20%+.
Manager AI: AI-powered tools for managers that deliver deeper insights, helping them better understand agent teams, why customers are reaching out and how to improve service.

Service 1st Federal Credit Union has partnered with Glia to introduce responsible AI into their contact center. Sarah Zinga, AVP of Digital Services for the credit union, said, “How do I improve my credit score? What is my current balance? With Glia, we have been able to leverage AI to help us automate these simple calls and free up our agents’ time for when the human touch is really needed, and ultimately provide the best member experience for what our Service 1st members expect.”

Glia Cortex improves operational efficiencies, reduces average handle times and redundancies and unifies reporting. It allows institutions to speed onboarding time and lower training costs. Customers benefit from the technology as well, gaining always-on, self-service capabilities across all channels with the ability to seamlessly transfer to a human agent, without having to reauthenticate or repeat their issue over and over again.

This launch is the latest in a powerful innovation drumbeat from Glia, including the recent announcement of Unified Interaction Management to challenge the CCaaS paradigm, and a generative AI solution that allows financial institutions to launch, manage and measure AI across digital and voice.

To learn more about Glia Cortex, visit the website here.

What Will Drive Mobile Financial Services’ Growth? Report Released

The post Glia Cortex Launched; Responsible AI Platform Built for Financial Institutions appeared first on Digital IT News.

IT Expense Management Costs 5X Less When Fully Outsourced

Taylor Graham — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 14:00:58 +0000

A recent Vanson Bourne study, commissioned by Tangoe, reveals that fully outsourced IT Expense Management (ITEM) solutions achieve faster results at significantly lower costs, demonstrating a fivefold reduction.

The study surveyed 500 IT and finance decision-makers from the US and the UK to explore their IT expense management practices. The research explored three approaches to IT expense management: fully in-house, fully external (third-party solution), and hybrid (a mixture of in-house and external solutions). Read the research report.

“As sprawling technologies and inflation consume larger proportions of corporate IT budgets, business leaders are growing increasingly concerned about their ability to sustainably innovate, including tracking spending, governing expenses, and stretching their IT budgets,” said Becky Carr, chief marketing officer at Tangoe. “FinOps programs mature quickly and yield faster time to insights and savings when leveraging a managed solution.”

ITEM Required for GenAI Success

Cloud infrastructure has been dominating IT spending trends due to recent accelerations in digital transformation and because it serves as the underlying enabler for AI innovation and new GenAI platforms. As the data reveals, financial management is central in safeguarding business continuity and innovation performance, especially when cloud spending will soon drain +50% of IT budgets and is only expected to grow with increasing GenAI adoption.

“AI can trigger unpredictable cloud costs, which is why ITEM software and services are being used to ensure innovation doesn’t drive a hidden layer of technical debt,” said Carr.

The findings spotlight the complexity of IT financial management and what’s at risk without it:

When it comes to tech sprawl there’s no end in sight. Respondents predict double-digit spending increases over the next couple of years with cloud infrastructure (20%) and software (16%) investments leading the way. Additional investments in mobile and telecom technologies aren’t far behind.
Business continuity and operational performance are at stake. Late payments cause 85% of organizations to experience outages in their cloud, mobile, and telecom services.
Managing services and expenses is growing increasingly complex. On average organizations handle 39 IT service providers with 60-80 employees involved in overseeing them.
Data analytics are among the top three challenges for in-house ITEM programs. Given the growing number of cloud applications and mobile devices in use today most companies can’t get past the first, most basic phase – applying advanced analytics and turning data into actionable insights.

The Value of a Fully Managed Service

In addition to putting context around the urgency and challenges associated with financial management, the study also reveals the advantage of using a fully managed service for IT expense management:

Businesses with either a fully outsourced or hybrid solution experience process efficiency and productivity gains (90%), faster time to business insights (88%), and faster time to cost savings (88%).
Only 66% of in-house programs deliver results within the first month, while 81% of fully outsourced solutions deliver results within the same timeframe.
Ninety-four percent (94%) of organizations using a third-party to manage IT expenses, also have a dedicated FinOps practice. Additionally, having a FinOps program leads to 20-28% lower spending across cloud infrastructure and cloud software.

The faster a company can find new ways to save and capitalize on those opportunities, the more money it can save to offset the cost of an ITEM service or reinvest into overstretched IT budgets. Eliminating manual processes and ingesting information with AI automation are essential to reducing the administrative work of data compilation and speeding up the time to savings. Fully managed services can make a meaningful difference by helping clients both find opportunities and act on them.

Learn more about Tangoe’s IT Expense Management (ITEM) solutions at the website here.

Embedded Finance Integration Announced by Koxa for PNC Clients Using Workday

The post IT Expense Management Costs 5X Less When Fully Outsourced appeared first on Digital IT News.

Oracle Climate Change Analytics Cloud Service Announced

Taylor Graham — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 17:00:48 +0000

Financial institutions face mounting regulatory demands to understand their environmental footprint and that of the companies they finance or invest in, termed financed emissions. To aid banks in assessing climate risk more effectively, Oracle has unveiled Oracle Climate Change Analytics Cloud Service. This innovative reporting and analytics platform, equipped with AI capabilities, aims to assist financial institutions in comprehending financed emissions, addressing statutory compliance, and mitigating risks associated with climate change.

“While banks work on climate-related financial risks that could affect them directly through their operations, they also need to be cognizant of their effect on climate indirectly through the businesses they finance. This dual responsibility requires the critical management of both risk and their own Net Zero commitments, which demands a significant effort from banks,” said Jason Wynne, global vice president for finance, risk, and compliance product development, Oracle Financial Services. “Oracle Climate Change Analytics Cloud Service enables financial institutions to calculate, and analyze the impact of their carbon emissions, as well as climate targets on current and planned investments to get a full picture of the bank’s resiliency and risk around climate change.”

According to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report, the global average atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2023 set a new record high at 419.3 parts per million. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) adds that “These risks are global in nature, and will have effects across all entities, sectors, and economies….the breadth of climate-related risks – including their possible simultaneous occurrence across multiple jurisdictions and sectors – also has implications for the resilience of the financial system.”

With climate-related risks on the rise, it’s imperative that banks can better understand and account for the impact of their holistic portfolio of assets from both a regulatory and business strategy perspective. With pre-built calculation models and dashboards, the service can help save banks time and effort, address global climate change reporting requirements, and incorporate climate risk into their future risk and investment decisions.

‘Climate Risk’ assessment made easier
Banks are challenged to comply with multiple frameworks across several jurisdictions, and collecting and storing the data necessary to meet these requirements can be daunting. This is especially true when dealing with large and complex global customers. With built-in AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools Climate Change Analytics can scour the internet for publicly available information about climate change initiatives by companies that the bank has invested in, which can aid in their overall assessment of climate risk.

Also according to CDP, a leader in aggregating global climate disclosures on banks’ portfolios, portfolio emissions are over 700x larger than direct emissions – and the risks of inaction are huge. Financial institutions must urgently decarbonize their portfolios, by disclosing the impact of their financing activities, setting science-based targets, and aligning all financing activity with the Paris Agreement.

Oracle’s new cloud service enables financial institutions to calculate emissions across various asset classes and jurisdictions. This encompasses not only greenhouse gas emissions across an organization’s operations and value chain but also financed and facilitated emissions from its customers. This allows for the computation of a climate rating at a counterparty level across the bank’s customer portfolio and incorporates climate change risk into other risk-management functions, such as project planning and risk audits and analysis.

Key feature capabilities of Oracle’s Climate Change Analytics Cloud Service include:

Performing carbon accounting by calculating greenhouse gas emissions based on The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard.
Calculating and disclosing emission numbers for financed, facilitated, and avoided emissions and emissions removal based on the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials guidelines.
Integrating climate risk into overall enterprise risk and investment decision-making with an in-house Climate Scorecard framework, probability of default (PD) and loss given default (LGD) models, and heatmaps.
Accessing more than 100 prebuilt, cross-jurisdictional climate change reporting disclosures, analytics, and visualizations to address requirements for standards boards and regulators.
Using advanced analysis to source, configure, store, and analyze customer climate change data with rich data models for analytics.
Helping to reduce IT investment with cloud-native technology that can meet the ever-changing climate change reporting requirements.

Learn more about Oracle Climate Change Analytics Cloud Service, visit the website here.

Kubecost 2.2 Launches with Extended Cloud Cost Insights and Carbon Monitoring

The post Oracle Climate Change Analytics Cloud Service Announced appeared first on Digital IT News.

What Will Drive Mobile Financial Services’ Growth? Report Released

Taylor Graham — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 17:30:56 +0000

Ericsson, partnering with Juniper Research, presents the report titled “What Will Drive Mobile Financial Services’ Growth?”, offering deep insights into the dynamics of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) and the transformative opportunities available for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) worldwide.

The “What Will Drive Mobile Financial Services’ Growth?” report consolidates insights from 46 senior decision-makers from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) across 35 countries and projects a paradigm shift with an expected 40% user adoption rate and an 80% growth in transaction value over the next five years. This signals a substantial transformation, positioning MFS as a key element in the shift among Telcos to become digital service providers, foreseeing an impressive 45% growth specifically in their MFS revenue.

Key accelerators identified in the report include customer incentives, extensive last-mile networks, and the surge in COVID-19 digital payments. These factors propel MFS success and enable broader financial inclusion and access. However, regulatory challenges, enduring cash preferences, and security concerns pose significant obstacles, demanding strategic navigation from industry stakeholders.

A pivotal aspect highlighted in the report is the evolution of service portfolios towards advanced offerings like micro-finance and investments. This shift not only reshapes revenue models but enhances user experiences, marking a turning point in the industry’s trajectory. MFS providers are strategically pivoting towards these advanced services, fostering innovation and driving economic empowerment across diverse demographics.

Michael Wallis-Brown, Head of Mobile Financial Services at Ericsson, emphasizes, “Mobile Financial Services are transformative for Telcos, positioning them as digital innovators and unlocking invaluable new revenue streams. Integrating MFS enables Telcos to anticipate consumer demands, adapt to market trends, and stay competitive.”

Nick Maynard, VP of Fintech Market Research at Juniper Research commented “What is striking is how massive the changes coming for mobile financial services are. MNOs we surveyed are expecting advanced services to be transformative, both for their service portfolios and for their revenue, and we expect this to have an enormous impact over the next five years”.

Gain in-depth insights into the future of Mobile Financial Services by downloading the full findings of “What Will Drive Mobile Financial Services’ Growth” Report here.

The post What Will Drive Mobile Financial Services’ Growth? Report Released appeared first on Digital IT News.

Kubecost 2.2 Launches with Extended Cloud Cost Insights and Carbon Monitoring

Taylor Graham — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 17:00:13 +0000

Kubecost has revealed the arrival of Kubecost 2.2, which notably enhances the platform’s capacity for overseeing and optimizing cloud costs on a large scale.

“Kubecost continues to innovate quickly, and we’re excited to bring several new major features into GA that make it easier for users to monitor and optimize infrastructure costs without impacting application performance,” said Webb Brown, CEO, Kubecost. “With Kubecost 2.2, we are empowering organizations to not only optimize their cloud bills even more significantly but also to make a demonstrable and quantifiable impact on the environment by reducing their carbon footprint.”

Among the new capabilities included in Kubecost 2.2:

Carbon Cost Monitoring: Kubecost’s new Carbon Cost Monitoring feature, enabled by the underlying OpenCost project, allows organizations to meet regulatory requirements and achieve sustainability goals more quickly and thoroughly. Customers can use Carbon Cost Monitoring to conduct energy audits and easily compare financial and environmental costs across any business cost center (department, application, etc.). Backed by the carbon cost data required to make informed decisions, organizations can meaningfully reduce their carbon footprint while realizing significant cost savings tied to reduced energy usage.

Datadog Cost Monitoring: Kubecost now provides unified cloud cost monitoring for organizations seeking to observe and optimize Kubernetes, cloud, and Datadog costs in one place. By directly integrating Datadog cost data, the Kubecost 2.2 release offers granular and real-time visibility into usage and costs, enabling developers, FinOps, and platform engineering teams to optimize resources and confidently bring down costs. With this unified view of infrastructure spending, teams can make faster and smarter decisions, identify inefficiencies, and streamline operations.

Disk Autoscaler: Built for DevOps teams and Kubernetes administrators, Kubecost automates disk scaling based on EBS persistent volume utilization. By dynamically adjusting disk size, Kubecost users can achieve substantial cost savings (often 50% or more) by ensuring always-optimal utilization without manual intervention. Additionally, the user-friendly deployment—through a standalone open source repository—further reduces implementation time and complexity.

The company also recently added advanced network monitoring, improved cost forecasting, and more automation as part of its 2.0 release in January 2024.With its 2.2 release, Kubecost continues to set the bar for innovative solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to scale their cloud and Kubernetes environments as cost-effectively and efficiently as possible. Kubecost is the industry’s go-to solution, with InfoWorld recently naming the company the Technology of the Year in Cloud Cost Management, stating that: “Kubecost has firmly established itself as the de facto standard for measuring the cost of Kubernetes infrastructure, from start-ups to large corporations. There isn’t a clear alternative.”To learn more about Kubecost 2.2 and schedule a demo, visit the website here.Related News:

Digital Experience Monitoring Added to Cisco’s Newest Innovations

Security Inbox Enhanced by Datadog for Quick Issue Resolution

The post Kubecost 2.2 Launches with Extended Cloud Cost Insights and Carbon Monitoring appeared first on Digital IT News.