Author Posts

It’s About Time

Banking is one of those mature industries that has historically enjoyed a slower pace of change. Universal, societal adoption of newer technology is forcing financial institutions to pick up the pace. This industry-wide quickening is always accompanied by the trend-watchers and salesmen that peddle seemingly guaranteed success if you adopt their newest technology offering (or [...]

Measure Once, Then Cut?

“Measure twice, cut once.” This age-old English and Russian proverb originated in carpentry and needlework1.  It refers to taking special care in understanding requirements and exercising due diligence in execution of work. This proverb permeates modern business practices, from strategic decision making to the smallest manufacturing processes. Modern software development methodologies, like Waterfall2 and Agile, [...]
hammer and nails

Nails in the Drive-Thru

It takes me an hour to drive to work every day and at least one drive-thru breakfast, lunch or dinner a day is the norm. There are probably a lot of us out there that could write the operations manuals for the likes of Starbucks, McDonalds and Taco Bell. Over time, we memorize the exact sequence [...]

MacGyver It

We recently had a situation arise where we on-boarded new banks to our software and they were frustrated right out of the gate that we were not servicing them in the way they expected.  We clearly failed in meeting their expectations and the time for damage control was at hand.  Of course, this prompted a [...]
Innovation

The Edge of Innovation

Innovation has a razor sharp edge.  Customers are more accepting of small improvements, but those only create marginal increases in value. They can go largely unnoticed in the market. Radical innovation makes a big splash, but not every customer wants to get soaked.  It can seem like roulette to pinpoint how far to innovate. Understanding [...]