Here are the best articles that I’ve read during the last week:
Weekly reading list
Tag Archives: payments
Reading tab list over the holidays
We were extremely busy at work during November and December, so I spent a few hours over the holidays catching up on blogs which I follow. Continue reading Reading tab list over the holidays
Digital Media predictions in 2015
Each year I forecast some predictions in the Digital Media/ Internet world, and at the end of the year I score those predictions to see whether they came true or not.
1. Self-service: Next generation self-service offerings
Expect to see more companies offering portals for customers to service themselves.
For instance, think of the last time you bought an airline ticket – you probably bought the ticket through a website and checked in online or through your smartphone.
This will become more commonplace. I can’t remember the last time I put coins in a parking meter – I use my smartphone to pay for parking instead.
Through 2014 we’ll see coins used less, and you’ll be calling help desks less because you’ll be buying and servicing your needs online instead. Continue reading Digital Media predictions in 2015
Review of 2014 predictions
How did my 2014 Digital Media predictions from last December turn out?
2014 has been another interesting year in the digital world. The end of a terrible recession has forced most companies to place digital at the heart of their strategy. #Fintech has become a recognised term for banks, insurance companies and other financial services organisations trying to update their systems to become ‘digital‘.
1. TV will change
Last December I predicted Ultra HD will become production ready, 3D TV will disappear and we’ll start seeing transparent TVs on the market. Continue reading Review of 2014 predictions
Isn’t Uber super?
I’ve started using Uber in the last few days, and it’s transformative to the taxi industry. It’s one of those concepts which makes you think “I wish I thought of that first”. But not everyone agrees, and unfortunately for them, that resistance is probably one of the success factors in any consumer digital transformation offering.
In essence, Uber is a mobile app to call a taxi. It replaces the call to the minicab/ taxi office, and provides more functionality than the old model, because as soon as you call a car, you can literally watch that car drive towards you on a map. Continue reading Isn’t Uber super?
Bitcoin introduction, key facts and opportunities
Firstly, I want to set some context about Bitcoin and this article. I started this blog when I found myself explaining something to one person, then another, and another, and I thought there had to be a more efficient method of distributing information (together with my opinion!) Three years later, this mantra still holds true. However this article has taken the longest to write because when I have met people to discuss Bitcoin, every conversation seems to approach the subject from a different perspective and I’m asked many great questions, so I’ve delayed this article while I’ve tacked those extra points to this article. At times I felt that I should just write a book, but I never had the guts to ask my wife for the time during our summer holiday!!!
This article is split into five sections mainly to specifically answer some presumptions that people have about Bitcoin:
- Introduction, and Bitcoin key facts
- Anonymity & Illegality
- Opportunities
- Conclusion
- Further reading
Continue reading Bitcoin introduction, key facts and opportunities
The Future of Digital #Payments
For the past 3,000 years payments hasn’t been the most exciting industry, but in the last 5-10 years, there have been dozens of new entrants into the market.
It took 3,000 years to give us pretty much seven payment options: coins, banknotes, debit cards, Diners club, Visa, Mastercard and American Express. In the last ten years, we’ve seen an explosion of disruptive players, all driven through the adoption of the Internet and/or mobile technologies.
Yesterday we hosted an event “The Future of Digital Payments” in London at the magnificent, if slightly warm, Royal Exchange. It was one of the best attended Endava events that we’ve held, despite the World Cup and Wimbledon trying to compete with us!
Do you work in Skopje or in the payments industry?
I’ve got a busy few weeks coming up – next week I’m visiting our new delivery centre in Skopje, Macedonia where I’m planning to meet some local creative agencies and generally lend a hand in the new office. If you work in Skopje and would like to meet next week, please drop me a line.
And then on the 26th June, I’m speaking at an Endava hosted event in London called “The Future of Payments”. I’ve almost finished my presentation, and I’ll share parts of it here over the coming weeks. The payments industry is undergoing massive change at the moment, with new innovative competitors appearing almost weekly.
These changes are creating huge new opportunities – with technology innovations around identity and mobile creating a payments ecosystem which is probably going to look very different to the current one.
If you’d like to come to the payments event, please contact me and I’ll give more information.
Digital Finance Masterclass London, 2014
Earlier today I gave a short presentation to the Digital Finance Masterclass in London. I only had ten minutes, followed by 8 sessions of pretty intense ‘Digital Surgeries’ – a great format, but quite tiring.
Before the event, I had been told that the Digital Surgeries were like speed dating – thankfully I got married before speed dating, because I can’t imagine going through that process in a relaxed, sociable setting.
With only ten minutes for the first presentation, to a varied audience across Financial Services, I focussed on the following topics, shown in the attached Slideshare presentation:
- Putting the User First
- Development
- Cloud
- Mobile first?
- The future
Using premium rate mobile services to monetise a site
This is the penultimate post in the monetisation series. We’ll be discussing how to use premium mobile services to monetise digital properties.
‘Traditional’ premium rate services
There has been some negative publicity about premium messaging in the UK, mainly surrounding television programmes. One key issue is the “bill-shock”, of when a customer’s mobile phone bill arrives a few weeks later, and the customer is surprised at the number of premium messages they’ve sent during the month. Mobile operators have walked a tightrope by offering some payment opportunities on their customers’ handsets, without turning phones into complete wallets (yet).
Continue reading Using premium rate mobile services to monetise a site