Internet of Things (IoT) in Banking

What is Internet of Things?

For decades, we as humans have been interacting with devices.   Internet of Things (IoT) enables the devices to communicate to other devices through internet.  In IoT scenario objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.  Simply put, it is the communication between various 'things' over the internet.

How is it achieved?

It is achieved through various mechanisms.  The data could be obtained by sensors, smart phones, wearables (For example: google glass) or from social media interaction.  Data received by such mechanism is sent across the internet to interested parties.  This data is then analysed to make tailored solution for the one who sent it.

IoT in Banking

The data from a banking customer sent across the internet can be consumed by the bank to do realtime analytics and provide the customer with tailored banking solutions that meets his/her needs.  It could be a solution for a loan that the customer is looking for to buy a property.  It could be an offer for managing his debts/investments effectively.

Role of Banks

Banking customers are now well-informed through various channels and they demand focus and attention.  They want to be treated on an individual basis.  Banks should gear up to provide solutions that are tailored to meet the need of the hour for their customers.

The advice provider

While retaining traditional ‘Trusted advisor’ role, strive to deliver tailored personalized advice

The Value aggregator

Develop special alliances and partnerships to provide value added service

The access facilitator

Provide access to non-banking services (eg: Insurance, airlines, hotels) to deliver relevant offers.

Benefits of IoT in Banking

• Fosters customer experience

• Enables cross-selling

• Better KYC – Know your customer from various data channels

• ‘Behavioural Banking’ – banking based on customer’s transaction pattern enabling fraud detection, financial planning etc.

• Extended banking eco-system

IoT and Big Data/Analytics

IoT presents a tremendous opportunity for financial services, but it also presents a serious challenge. In addition to the countless new applications for Internet connected banking, IoT is also expected to generate a plethora of data. This data is coming from a variety of new sources, at high-velocity and in increased volumes (also known as Big Data).

•  The data is received from various channels





• Analytics provide real time information to the customer based on various sources of data eg: Crowdsourcing

IoT Scenarios in Banking

IoT can be applied in various scenarios.  Few of which are given below.  In reality the options are unlimited.  Some of the day-to-day life activities may seem to exclude banking, if they are thought out deeply, the backend of those activities involve banking to an extent.

• Retail banking

Payments based on sensors while shopping online or instore.

• Loans and Mortgages

Offer loan options based on the interest shown by the customer on the property information published over the internet.

• Forex based on geo location

Enable forex and mobile payments based on the geographical location

• Drones

Deliver products and services with the help of drones using GPS positioning.

IoT in everyday life - A compilation

IoT 2015 - Trailer

IoT 2015 - Movie (Compiled)

Eating an elephant using Scrum!

You cannot eat an elephant in one go! can you?  This means that you can only do away with a complex problem by solving it in smaller chunks.  This applies to software projects or any walk of life.  If you try to solve a problem as a whole, it takes longer and you might end up solving unwanted piece of the puzzle.  The whole idea is do what is needed NOW!

I have to narrow down to software projects.  Solving project issues in smaller units is what Agile principle talks about.  Scrum is one of the methodologies.  Typically the team size in a scrum team is 7 plus or minus 2.  So how can scrum be a solution to a larger project which needs multiple teams / workstreams.

In this case, scrum of scrums comes handy.  A representative from each team attends the daily scrum meeting and answers the 3 questions (what did my team do yesterday?, what is my team going to do today?, Are there any obstacles or dependencies?)

This way the individual representative from different teams can help the team that has impediments.  After all scrum is all about collaboration!
  

Google! Search this...

We all use google almost daily.  I've sometimes felt that I need google to search my glasses or keys!  If you want to use google search effectively,  the below website has some tips.

http://www.hackcollege.com/blog/2011/11/23/infographic-get-more-out-of-google.html