Handbook of Technology in Financial Services

The calculus of IT support for the banking, securities and insurance industries has changed dramatically and rapidly over the past few years. Unheard of just a few years ago, corporate intranets are now used for everything from job postings to enhanced team communications. Whole new departments are being created to support e-commerce. And the Internet/Intranet/Extranet triple-whammy is the most critical component of most financial IT shops. At the same time, new intelligent agents stand ready to take on such diverse functions as customer profiling and data mining. Get a handle on all these new and newer ripples with Handbook of Technology in Financial Services. Here, in this exhaustive new guide and reference book, industry guru Jessica Keyes gives you the no-nonsense scoop on not just the tried and true IT tools of today, but also the up-and-coming "hot" technologies of tomorrow, and how to plan for them. Keyes gives you extensive, example-driven explanations of such topics as: digital check imaging and Internet-based billing e-commerce and Internet banking portfolio management systems for the 21st century GIS technology in financial services and much more. Focusing on problems from both a technology perspective and a business perspective, the Handbook also addresses challenges and solutions associated with: supporting the self-service revolution by servicing kiosks and ATMs efficiently and economically straight-through processing for the securities industry outsourcing business communications in the insurance industry distributed integration as a cost-effective alternative to data warehousing and putting inbound fax automation to work in financial organizations. Packed with real-world case-studies and practical solutions to problems confronting financial services IT managers every day of the week, Handbook of Technology in Financial Services covers everything from system security to IT support for the Web marketing of financial services. In short, it is a compendi