4.21.2007

Last Spring Carnival. Enjoy.

*chian-chian*
It's Spring Carnival again! I'm always looking forward to the Spring Carnival weekend. Why? Because it's an official excuse for playing, lazing, and celebrating. ^^)v
I love visiting all the booths, especially those that give freebies if you play their games. Spring Carnival without mr. goh around is definitely considered as boring and lonely. Well, no one to act childish with me and no one to pay for rides. T_T) At least this year I got Akiko to go with me, so I didn't appear too stupid to be playing by myself. So here we are at our first stop:

Looks cute eh? The trees and stuff are REALLY pixelated. But there wasn't any games set up and ready to play, so ppl just walk in this end and out from the other. And obviously, no freebies lah. Oh btw, the theme this year is SMALL THINGS MADE LARGE. As you can see, this one features the "inside" of a gameboy, hence "pixelated".

Please do NOT be mistaken. This does not belong to the gameboy booth, but the one right opposite. Conclusion #1: booth ideas this year are quite limited. But this is really cool because you can actually press the A B buttons and it makes a nice ding sound just like a really controller! The actual booth front itself is just *urgh*. I can't figure out what the hell it means so there's no photo to mark its existence. This is also one of the ??? ones that we just....skip lah.

SSA!! I had a hard time finding the SSA booth. It's so inconspicuous, don't you think? It also took me at least 2 minutes to understand what it is about. Conclusion #2: SSA booth fanciness diminishes yearly. A mouse hole. Lots of junk in a mouse hole, including a used packet of Kleenex tissue paper. This Sunkist soda can is my favorite. Here's the game.

A maze! The objective of the game is to lead the mouse through the maze to the goal = kitchen (center) without setting off the mouse trap. How, you might ask. The answer is magnets. Using a long stick with a magnet attached to one end, control the mouse (another big magnet) from underneath the wooden table. Interesting arh? Conclusion #3: SSA is better at designing games.
I was a little disappointed at the engineering of this mechanism though. The underside of the table was not designed properly. There is a half-inch wide border around the edges that makes your magnet impossible to reach the mouse above. ^^||) Just a little imperfection lah. Heh, as long as they gimme my prize. A DIY mouse-pen!

"MONOPOLY!! :D" is my first reaction. Really felt like a kid when I was browsing through this booth...like I'm living in all these board games. Monopoly, The Game of Life, Risk, Chinese Chess, and the fishing game (below) that you can actually fish with. No freebies here, but I enjoyed the tour very much. ^.^)

I don't remember walking into this booth, it prolly doesn't have much in there but has a cute booth front. The bugs on the exterior wall are made "spin-able" but experience tells me that it is VERY FRAGILE. So spin it at your own risk!

...no comment as to what's inside. Heh. The Fringe Trap! Actually looks quite fun, has a couple of games to play, including shooting and mini golf! But we didn't go in.

Battleship looks cool, but not too fun. Originally, it's a hoops game. But they didn't have a hoops, so make-do with a ball. The objective is to hit the red pins i think at least 3 times in 5 throws. Easy as it may seem...I missed it 3 times.

The following two has no relations to one another.

Just to show you the kinds of eye-deers about small things that are made large.

This is actually quite cool. The ugly CMU ID!

And here's my favorite. ^_^)

Looks really pretty inside! You can make your own bee and stick it in the honeycombs...so interactive eh? And there's a picture of Akiko's bee. Mine was just falling apart. T_T) That's not the best part yet.

Our motivation for going into this booth...

Do I look like a bee? ^^)

Last stop of the day...the rainforest thingie. Very very pretty...there's even a waterfall like thingy! (top right) No games, but we get to plant some flower seeds into a small cup and bring home with us. Akiko just dumped hers by a nearby tree. There's mine! Chibi keeps toppling it over. Lost a lot of dirt leh. I have to lock it in the bathroom.

And a random picture. Went back today just to take a photo of it. But disappointingly, there's nothing much inside.

The End. :D

4.11.2007

2nd Life Achievement

So my first life achievement was the dean's list last semester. Here comes the second. Well, maybe third cuz in a sense, I gotta consider getting a job interview from attending a College of Fine Arts career fair another once in a life time thing. Seriously, people of my aptitude...what more can I ask for?

Now...I gotta give myself a pat on the head for achieving such unexpectedly good results. GMAT!! Can you believe it? For someone who has never done well academically...someone whose cumulative GPA < 3.0...someone who got a low 490 on the first GMAT exam...can actually obtain a 700 score on the second attempt! I couldn't believe my eyes! Seems like lady luck was with me when I thought it was wandering elsewhere. ^__^

Conclusion:
An original happy day has turned into a blue blue night. Tsk..moods can change so drastically and suddenly too. Gotta work on some internship stuff for tomorrow. Can't believe ow depressing this could be...T__T

4.09.2007

Banking players to begin a new chapter of "innovation" by leveraging IT

Ain't I proud of my sister!? (^^)v
And I'm proud of myself for understanding the subject...so i haven't wasted 4 years of money and time for nothing. v(^^)v

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Banking players to begin a new chapter of "innovation" by leveraging IT
DigiTimes, April 3, 2007
English abstract

An article in DigiTimes, a major industry publication in Taiwan, mentioned Jessica Tan's participation at the 3rd Annual Banking and Finance Technology Forum in Taiwan, and highlighted her views on the importance of innovation to the banking industry.
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從產品服務、流程到營運模式 看金融業者如何運用IT吹奏「創新」樂章
DigiTimes 2007/04/03
記者廖珮君/台北


 前言:一般來說,企業使用資訊科技的目的有很多,創新是最難達成、卻也最迫切需要的1環,究竟,科技創新的商機有多大?從科技使用量來看,2005年,全球共發出約8.8萬兆封E-mail;2006年,Google搜尋引擎使用次數達80 億,這些數字不僅代表著IT在民眾日常生活中的重要性越來越高,也在提醒企業經營者,唯有掌握運用IT進行創新的訣竅,才能立足於未來的競爭市場中。

近年來,「創新」成為企業經營管理上的熱門議題,如何運用創新工具和新思維來強化業務能力,進而增加產能、創造利潤、擴大客戶層面、與提供附加價值高的服務,成為經營者努力的方向。

日前在台灣舉辦的第三屆亞洲銀行及金融科技論壇上,新加坡麥肯錫顧問公司副董事長陳心穎便指出,創新是企業成長及創造價值的基礎,並透過解構企業股價的方式,來說明創新所能帶來的效益。

一般來說,影響企業股價的因素有很多,其中最重要的就是獲利與未來成長性,如果分析商業周刊(Business week)、財星雜誌(Fortune magazine)等刊物的企業調查報告,可發現前1~3名企業的股價結構,來自未來成長性的比重皆大於盈餘,舉例來說,搜尋引擎巨人Google的股價,其中有73%來自於未來成長性,只有27%是由盈餘所貢獻。

產品服務、流程與營運模式 為金融業運用IT進行創新的3大面向

由此看來,企業進行創新委實好處良多,尤其是金融產業,現正面臨產業同質性高、市場腹地小、外商積極搶進等不利因素影響,在競爭環境日益激烈的情況下,如何運用創新強化競爭力,就顯得更加重要。陳心穎認為,金融業若欲透過資訊科技進行創新,可朝產品服務、流程與營運模式及等3個面向去發展。

第一、產品或服務創新

金融業的特性之一便是商品與資訊系統息息相關,在企劃新商品時,若相關IT系統沒有建置完成,將永遠無法問市,因此,用IT創新商品或服務是最常見的應用,舉個簡單的例子,近2年相當熱門的網路ATM,由晶片及網路共同結合而成的服務,就是運用IT科技創新產品的最佳例子。

最初因為金融卡詐欺事件頻傳,導致主管機關強制規範銀行業者,將金融卡由磁條更換成晶片,而晶片本身具有邏輯運算及儲存資訊的能力,因此,業者只要在晶片內植入幾支簡單程式,即便消費者坐在家中,只要打開電腦連上網路,就能進行金融交易,成為銀行業的新興服務。

另外,位於加州柏克來的富國銀行(Well Fargo),則是將支票存款、儲蓄存款、信用卡、房貸及鉅額存款等5項商品,組成1個優惠組合(value package),藉此創造更高獲利與留客力。

第二、流程創新

在此指的是透過IT改善流程,以加速對客戶的回應速度,或讓組織運作更有效率,例如在導入某項交易系統時,同時進行流程改造,將交易作業天數由15天縮減成10天,「土耳其的Garanti銀行,便因為用IT進行流程創新,因而提升經營績效,」陳心穎說。

在2001~2004年間,Garanti營收的年複合成長率高達38%,客戶數量成長58%,商品交叉銷售的比例由2%增加至2.24%,營運成本卻僅僅多出1.2%,進一步分析其背後所使用的IT工具,可發現主要以客戶關係管理(Customer relation management;CRM)系統為主。

在Garanti的CRM系統內,主要有4大支柱:客戶可以創造的收益是什麼(profitability)?誰是目標客戶群(segmentation)?目標客戶群的消費行為是什麼(Data mining)?目標客戶群購買商品的可能性(propensity modeling)?

再將這些分析結果匯總至交易系統內,當客戶至銀行櫃?進行金融交易時,櫃員只要輸入客戶的基本資料,系統便會主動在螢幕上顯示CRM的分析結果,並告訴櫃員適合銷售哪一種商品給該名客戶,進而創造商品銷售額最大化的效益。

除了利用CRM系統分析客戶習性及獲利貢獻,找出符合客戶需求的商品外,Garanti也改變房貸的申請流程,客戶只要在ATM上,輸入身分證字號便可以申請房屋貸款,改變原有必需親自至銀行提出申請需求的流程。

第三、營運模式創新

最後,則是運用IT科技創新營運模式,讓金融業可以在不同市場運作業務,或是開創新市場。以美國銀行(Bank of America)為例,其所推出的無風險轉移存款的服務,透過1通電話,客戶就能在當日內,將存款轉至墨西哥的帳戶,因而吸引美國境內日益成長的西班牙移民人口。

另外,印度最大私人銀行ICICI Bank,便從印度的農村市場切入,和200家微型貸款公司合作,搶攻印度農人、貧戶與婦女等小額信用貸款市場,希望運用創新營運模式,躋身世界頂尖銀行的行列,ICICI Bank執行長Kamath曾經表示,科技是1種能幫助銀行創造獲利營運模式的工具。

台灣金融業創新應用比重未達50% 未來成長空間大

看完海外金融業者運用IT工具進行創新的經驗後,再回頭檢視台灣金融產業的創新應用狀況又是如何?

根據經濟部技術處「創新資訊應用研究計畫」的調查,目前,台灣約莫有18%的企業運用資通訊科技進行產品創新,若進一步細分這些企業所屬的產業類別,可發現金融保險業比重最高(36.9%),至於流程創新部分,有25%企業表示流程創新與ICT 有關,其中,金融保險業40.2%的比重,同樣位居所有產業之冠。

雖然,金融業是所有產業中,運用IT進行創新比重最高者,但不管在產品創新或流程創新上,皆未超過50%,顯然未來還有大幅成長空間,金融業者除了透過客觀與嚴謹方法蒐集數據,做為創新的參考與佐證外,專業顧問或輔導團隊也是創新成功的關鍵要素。