Ever played Farmville on Facebook? Apparently, it is the #1 Facebook app by Zynga (who also created Café World and Mafia Wars in Top 10) now with over 73 million users - that's more than twice the size than that of the #2 app. These virtual farm games are getting quite popular even on the iPhone. The most popular in the iTunes App Store is the Tap Farm by Streetview Labs, currently at #35 in Top 50 Free Apps.
I've been playing one myself called iFarm by PlayMesh. I spend time picking out crops that would make me the most profit, and I keep coming back to check on their growth even if it's at 3am - because everything is real time, if you leave a harvested crop for too long, it wilts.
How about playing one that actually returns you with REAL edible harvests? Doing it pretty much the same way as in those farm simulation games mentioned above (except you DO have to pay for this) - pick your crops, plant them, water them and finally harvest them - this creative Italian company will deliver your harvests to your doorstep within 24 hours! Interesting eh?
Unfortunately, this fun and innovative service only operates in Italy right now. And you control your own farm (or "garden") via your web browser. But I wouldn't see it being a problem to establish such services in the United States, where city people are becoming more health-conscious, "cheap" "organic" "home-grown" food would appeal very much to them as well. An even better idea - remotely control your farm on mobile even while traveling! Or send a box of love-filled tomatoes to your family!
Read more
Remote-controlled farming for city dwellers: tailor-made, no-fuss vegetable gardens
Showing posts with label businesses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label businesses. Show all posts
10.29.2009
Same Name - Same Logo - Different Company
I signed up for Social Mention alerts to inform me of any "Cellcity" presence out there in the online social community.
So anyways, I received an alert this morning, which brought me to this page. It's a Facebook Fan Page for a US wireless retailer called Cell City. Despite the name being identical to my current company in Singapore, trust me that we have no relations to this US company at all. Having the same name is actually still quite acceptable - 1. the name has not been patented and 2. as we are both in the wireless industry, it's not hard to think of our businesses as "a cellular city" or "building a city in the cellular world" - thus "cellcity". You can't really tell if anyone did copy the other. But to have the same logo (or very very similar) is a little freaky.
Cellcity @ Singapore:
We have been using our logo (plus a couple very minor variations) for at least a year now. I particularly liked the little city landscape captured in that "cellphone" on the right of the text. And what's also so neat about it is the iconic properties of that "cellphone" shape.
Cell City @ US:
This logo is taken from the Facebook page I found. Almost identical to ours, except for the font type and color (tbh, we had this shade of golden yellow/orange in our earlier variations), plus they used a real cellphone image for the icon with the signal sign instead of a city landscape. Other than that, the style of the text (bubbled letters and how "cell" is white and "city" is colored) and the idea/position of the cellphone icon are identical. This logo was uploaded onto the profile May this year. Another logo was used previously if you check out their Profile Pictures album.
Not really pointing fingers here as I don't have any actual evidence of plagiarism here (who came first??) But just a "sigh" at the professionalism of either designers or companies. It's one thing being inspired by another company's logo, but it's another thing when you actually copy 80% of it, tweak the remaining 20% and take it as yours. Hard for me to believe that these 2 examples are actually genuine and original concepts from two different designers for two different companies. Can you?
BTW, every company should be doing this - keep track of brand name mentions and keywords - stay connected with your potential customers the quick and easy way. Social Mention is a handy tool for brands to monitor and analyze their influence/presence in the social media - blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc.
So anyways, I received an alert this morning, which brought me to this page. It's a Facebook Fan Page for a US wireless retailer called Cell City. Despite the name being identical to my current company in Singapore, trust me that we have no relations to this US company at all. Having the same name is actually still quite acceptable - 1. the name has not been patented and 2. as we are both in the wireless industry, it's not hard to think of our businesses as "a cellular city" or "building a city in the cellular world" - thus "cellcity". You can't really tell if anyone did copy the other. But to have the same logo (or very very similar) is a little freaky.
Cellcity @ Singapore:
We have been using our logo (plus a couple very minor variations) for at least a year now. I particularly liked the little city landscape captured in that "cellphone" on the right of the text. And what's also so neat about it is the iconic properties of that "cellphone" shape.
Cell City @ US:
This logo is taken from the Facebook page I found. Almost identical to ours, except for the font type and color (tbh, we had this shade of golden yellow/orange in our earlier variations), plus they used a real cellphone image for the icon with the signal sign instead of a city landscape. Other than that, the style of the text (bubbled letters and how "cell" is white and "city" is colored) and the idea/position of the cellphone icon are identical. This logo was uploaded onto the profile May this year. Another logo was used previously if you check out their Profile Pictures album.
Not really pointing fingers here as I don't have any actual evidence of plagiarism here (who came first??) But just a "sigh" at the professionalism of either designers or companies. It's one thing being inspired by another company's logo, but it's another thing when you actually copy 80% of it, tweak the remaining 20% and take it as yours. Hard for me to believe that these 2 examples are actually genuine and original concepts from two different designers for two different companies. Can you?
6.11.2009
@ ad:tech singapore, june 9-10
update:
The ad:tech Singapore ended after two days of keynotes, panels, and workshops, touching on the hottest trending topic in the digital marketing world. There were a number of interesting topics I wanted to join in, but unfortunately, it's still a normal work day for me and I only hold a free visitor pass, so I'm usually out after the first keynote presentation of the day. :\
Don't know what the ad:tech show is? Visit www.adtech.com.
My experience
Considerably my first "official" attendence at a conference, which I went in Cellcity's name but didn't have any name cards to exchange! ><; Yes, so the one thing that I failed most at this show is networking. & What a great opportunity to meet lots of people with the same passion! Definitely need to get my cards made for the next show.
* Many of the tweeps I was following were there too, like @claudia10 and @belindaang, but didn't find a chance to say hi. :\
Part of the reason was probably because my attendence was a "last-minute" thing. I only learned about the show a week ago. It was much related to the online/social media direction that Cellcity is going into, so there wasn't much of an "agenda," just listening in to see what can be learned. I took more of a personal interest attitude to the show, but it did help me to rethink certain issues of Twitter and of social media/mobile marketing in general.
The two keynotes I attended were:
Digital Consumers & Interactive Marketing in Asia Pacific - The State Of Play
As the opening keynote of the show, I was a little disappointed with the quality of the presentation, to be honest. While it might have been a good statistical introduction to businesses outside of this trade, I think the insiders would expect a little more insight on the future trending of digital marketing. Steven also appeared to have a specific focus on China and Australia, rather than Asia Pacific in broad, throughout his speech. Perhaps a quick comparison with the trends in North America or the Europe might be an interesting addition to the presentation? Or so I thought..
Still, there were some interesting numbers and consumer profiles to share. And the discussion session (interview + q&a) was a lot more exciting - specifically on the use of social media and mobile marketing! I always enjoyed Don Knox's (VP of ad:tech Global) interview sessions, where he posed key hot questions displaying his clear understanding of the audience and the objectives of the show.
You can download Steven's presentation here.
The Power of Digital Branding through the Lens of the Obama Campaign
I'm sure you've heard a lot of talking about the success Obama Campaign by leveraging the online media, social networks in particular. Much expectations were generated around this talk, and I thought the outcome was a satisfiable one. Scott talked about various key factors in engaging social media and mobile in campaigns, the evolution of online marketing and where it's headed to, using his experience in the Obama Campaign as core case study. In the q&a, he also gave strong advice to young businesses who were still rather new in social media marketing. My favorite word from Scott - tastemakers.
Read about @bleongcw's interview with Scott here.
There was another small talk by the Global CEO of Acronym Media (one of the sponsors) - Anton Konikoff. Real straight to the point, Anton gave his audience compact but valuable and insightful overview of the search marketing revolution(-ing) and the impact of social media, based off their Global KDM (keyword-driven marketing) Officer's - Mike Grehan - new whitepaper New Signals to Search Engines.
The whitepaper is available for download here.
Twitter intervention
Now here is a real-time great example of the power of Twitter and microblogging. The best of ad:tech Singapore were live on Twitter! All thanks to @claudia10, @uniquefrequency, @summerisque, @danielgoh, @youareonvisual, and @armchairdude for filling me up on the discussions I missed out on. :)
You can still read the old tweets on #adtechasia. Other great tools life streaming are TweetGrid and twazzup. Try them out the next time!
- Thanks to @misenscene for sharing his Twitter analysis on the ad:tech show. Go here to download!
- Found @mashable's 8 Ways to Create Paperless Business Cards. Exactly what I needed! I could have made use of this at the show. ><
The ad:tech Singapore ended after two days of keynotes, panels, and workshops, touching on the hottest trending topic in the digital marketing world. There were a number of interesting topics I wanted to join in, but unfortunately, it's still a normal work day for me and I only hold a free visitor pass, so I'm usually out after the first keynote presentation of the day. :\
Don't know what the ad:tech show is? Visit www.adtech.com.My experience
Considerably my first "official" attendence at a conference, which I went in Cellcity's name but didn't have any name cards to exchange! ><; Yes, so the one thing that I failed most at this show is networking. & What a great opportunity to meet lots of people with the same passion! Definitely need to get my cards made for the next show.
* Many of the tweeps I was following were there too, like @claudia10 and @belindaang, but didn't find a chance to say hi. :\
Part of the reason was probably because my attendence was a "last-minute" thing. I only learned about the show a week ago. It was much related to the online/social media direction that Cellcity is going into, so there wasn't much of an "agenda," just listening in to see what can be learned. I took more of a personal interest attitude to the show, but it did help me to rethink certain issues of Twitter and of social media/mobile marketing in general.
The two keynotes I attended were:
- Digital Consumers & Interactive Marketing in Asia Pacific - The State Of Play by Steven Noble, senior analyst at Forrester Research (jun 2)
- The Power of Digital Branding through the Lens of the Obama Campaign by Scott Goodstein, external online director for Barrack Obama's presidential campaign (jun 3)
Digital Consumers & Interactive Marketing in Asia Pacific - The State Of Play
As the opening keynote of the show, I was a little disappointed with the quality of the presentation, to be honest. While it might have been a good statistical introduction to businesses outside of this trade, I think the insiders would expect a little more insight on the future trending of digital marketing. Steven also appeared to have a specific focus on China and Australia, rather than Asia Pacific in broad, throughout his speech. Perhaps a quick comparison with the trends in North America or the Europe might be an interesting addition to the presentation? Or so I thought..
Still, there were some interesting numbers and consumer profiles to share. And the discussion session (interview + q&a) was a lot more exciting - specifically on the use of social media and mobile marketing! I always enjoyed Don Knox's (VP of ad:tech Global) interview sessions, where he posed key hot questions displaying his clear understanding of the audience and the objectives of the show.
You can download Steven's presentation here.
The Power of Digital Branding through the Lens of the Obama Campaign
I'm sure you've heard a lot of talking about the success Obama Campaign by leveraging the online media, social networks in particular. Much expectations were generated around this talk, and I thought the outcome was a satisfiable one. Scott talked about various key factors in engaging social media and mobile in campaigns, the evolution of online marketing and where it's headed to, using his experience in the Obama Campaign as core case study. In the q&a, he also gave strong advice to young businesses who were still rather new in social media marketing. My favorite word from Scott - tastemakers.
Read about @bleongcw's interview with Scott here.
There was another small talk by the Global CEO of Acronym Media (one of the sponsors) - Anton Konikoff. Real straight to the point, Anton gave his audience compact but valuable and insightful overview of the search marketing revolution(-ing) and the impact of social media, based off their Global KDM (keyword-driven marketing) Officer's - Mike Grehan - new whitepaper New Signals to Search Engines.
The whitepaper is available for download here.
Twitter intervention
Now here is a real-time great example of the power of Twitter and microblogging. The best of ad:tech Singapore were live on Twitter! All thanks to @claudia10, @uniquefrequency, @summerisque, @danielgoh, @youareonvisual, and @armchairdude for filling me up on the discussions I missed out on. :)
You can still read the old tweets on #adtechasia. Other great tools life streaming are TweetGrid and twazzup. Try them out the next time!
4.22.2009
Start Go Green on Earth Day
For Earth, every day is Earth Day.
Hit on Google's homepage today and thought "Ooh what's the special occasion today?" It's Earth Day! So I started to tweet a bit about Earth Day. Found some go green/eco websites and tips. Followed few new "green" tweeples. And sad to realize, Singapore is still a quiet city in this aspect.
Some Singaporeans simply do not possess the mindset to go green. And this is reinforced by @AngMoGirl's experience today where she witnessed rejection when a lady asked to have her lunch packed in her own to-go (takeaway) box. Kudos to the lady who brought her own lunch box! Been away from Singapore for few years, I really thought the BYOBD (Bring Your Own Bag Day) was a good change and a good start. I do see shoppers who bring their own shopping bags to NTUC, but seriously not many. And I could imagine a group of those who did not bring their own bags whine about the 10cents they are "forced" to pay for each plastic bags. And reading @AngryAngMo's blog, "Anti-Bring Your Own Bag Day" as one of the top 10 worst consumer behaviors is just not surprising after all.
I don't know what are the best ways to promote green living. It's really up to the person whether they want to do things the better way. But I thought it's not a bad idea to sell money-saving together with energy-saving or the 3Rs - reducing, reusing, and recycling. Especially in Singapore, where I believe most people are more money-minded than eco-minded. I recall receiving a handy booklet in my mailbox couple months back. The booklet contained many tips and guidelines to everyday live, such as save money, look for jobs etc (basically the govt's effort to help its people ease off recession). One of the tips is on air-conditioners: Set temp to 25° for optimal usage and save $X/month (I need to check on the actual number) for every degree you increase! Budgets are tight these days, so these are great tips to follow and really save on money. What's more, it saves energy at the same time!
I think companies should also encourage eco-living in their workplaces. If it's made a "rule" in office, maybe people will start taking similar measures when they are at home (vice versa). There is a corner in my office right by the door, like a small waiting/reception area, whereby most of the time it's empty. But we never fail to switch on the lights in that corner. Whenever I'm the first few to reach the office, I would deliberately leave those lights out. But strangely the next person who comes in will switch it on. I still don't know why, perhaps to light up our big logo hanging by that wall? And I just saw lights in the conference room were left on for the morning. (Sue beat me to switching them off tho :p)
Eco-living is actually beneficial both ways. Helps the Earth, and helps us save some bucks. So why not do it everyday? For one, I reuse plastic bottles that I fill up with water at work. Use the back side of unwanted printed paper for notes. Even in the toilets, I always see the rubbish bin overflowing with crumpled paper towels at the end of the day. Paper towels literally used up every day before 5pm. It's there for our convenience, but we shouldn't abuse it. Dried your hands with a paper towel? Why not bring it back to your office to wipe your desk? Or tear a piece into two so you can save the other half for later. It's all so easy to do, we just need to put our mind at it!
Useful links:
- Earth Day | TreeHugger
- 8 Easy Ways to Start Being Green | Earth911
- Go Green Family Guide | Earth911
- Green Your Shopping | Earth911
- Got 5 Minutes? Do One of These 5 Green Acts | Planet Green
- The Social Media & Web Guide to Going Green | Mashable
- Go Green: Energy-cutting apps for your PC | CNET
4.09.2009
Cut costs vs Up efficiency
Recent news article speaks of this company whose employees are taking up cleaners' roles at work. I don't know how many cleaners this company hired (don't think even 10), but rather than firing cleaners (how much can you pay for a cleaner really), which possibly contributes to unemployment of the less-educated (jobs search already hard for those with tertiary education), and having employees (who essentially make the money for you) clean up the office (thus less time for effective work?), how about having some non-monetary incentives to increase the productivity of your employees, so they deliver twice as much work in the same amount of time?
12.21.2008
name card design 101
Earlier this week, I have scanned over 480 business cards and more than 200 businesses in one and a half day. Quite an accomplishment I would say, considering how much errors the card scanner made. So essentially, I am looking at 960 profiles: 480 during the scan, and 480 during the check. :p
The scanning was not the most boring part (the editing was) because I got to enjoy the 200+ different designs. Some which I liked. Editing was the killer. Can't really put the blame on the card scanner, it's just that most business cards are just not electronic-friendly enough!
These are a few card designs that I picked out, for various reasons:
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Rather than relying on the technology of card scanners (technology is advancing, but there are still limitations), we can actually make a little effort to improve the effectiveness of card scanning.
What constitutes a good business card:
That's all for now. Will add when more comes to my mind. Happy designing! :)
The scanning was not the most boring part (the editing was) because I got to enjoy the 200+ different designs. Some which I liked. Editing was the killer. Can't really put the blame on the card scanner, it's just that most business cards are just not electronic-friendly enough!
These are a few card designs that I picked out, for various reasons:
- ueeeu. I just thought it had the strangest company name. How do you even pronounce it!? For such a cute name, I would expect its card design to be more creative than conventional as it is now
- wilsin. Roughly 6cm on its sides, a diamond shaped business card. Quite unique, but card scanners are not smart enough to detect rotated text. You will have to scan the card at 45 degrees (ie. align the text - not the edges - to the scanner).
- aerodox. Black background with neon white/green text, embossed. Looks cool, but the worst thing to scan. Scanned images retained 0% information. Might have worked with a better and color scanner. The one I used was black & white.
- yeahpoint. When I designed my first name card, I used a similar concept. Cut-out dot from the "i" in "Yeahpoint". This one's actually better, as the concept incorporated the logo as well. Rounded rectangle makes it a very handy size and hard backing makes it more durable.
- wego. Heh I like this. Really cute font and clean design. Text is big and clear, makes it easy for the scanner. But its awkwardly rectangular/ovular shape is hard to align properly.
- upstream. Most interesting logo from the stack. Looks like a fish in the waters, or those mail validation stamps you see at the postage area.
- mapicurious.com. Simple, clean, rectangular slip, like a small bookmark. Picture on back. Includes twitter, blog information.
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Rather than relying on the technology of card scanners (technology is advancing, but there are still limitations), we can actually make a little effort to improve the effectiveness of card scanning.
What constitutes a good business card:
- Design. Yes, you want to stand out, make an impression amongst the hundreds of other business cards. Be representative and unique of your trade. Step out of conventionality. As a good start, try to incorporate your logo into your card design (colors, shapes, etc). Although traditional rectangular sized cards are best for scanning (easy to align), but I personally would give in for a nicely shaped business card. I'm thinking of a circle now... :p
- Font type. Business cards contain important information. So they definitely need to be readable, not only by humans but also by computers. Even the smallest scale businesses will use a card scanner to electronically keep their business contacts. How to ensure that font you pick is font that works? Take note of font spacing and font size. For example, Arial Narrow will not be a good pick for most business cards, unless the words are huge enough in order for the scanner to distinguish spaces between the letters. Same situation when the words are too small.
- Content & Layout Probably best to keep things simple for now (aligned text). For best results, stick to having just one piece of information for each line. If you really want to have two side by side, note the spacing between them. State clearly what each information is. (ie. If it's an email address, use headings like "email:" instead of "e." These tend to be mistaken as part of the email address.)
That's all for now. Will add when more comes to my mind. Happy designing! :)
10.31.2008
Innovolt on NBC 11Alive!
Woo my ex-colleague's on TV!? click.
Awesome job at the GreenBusiness Works Expo, wishing I could be there to witness. :p
P.S: I recently thought of Innovolt.. a rather constructive one for my usual idling personality. Something I've been wanting to do during the early Innovolt days, but failed to do so. Maybe this time I finally have the heart to complete it. :)
Awesome job at the GreenBusiness Works Expo, wishing I could be there to witness. :p
P.S: I recently thought of Innovolt.. a rather constructive one for my usual idling personality. Something I've been wanting to do during the early Innovolt days, but failed to do so. Maybe this time I finally have the heart to complete it. :)
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。
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。
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