A new project

At work we are in the final stages this weekend of testing something we call MemberNote. It should be released in April and as it is the first version of the product it is pretty basic. We don't know of anyone else anywhere having a similar product. Here is what it does:
1. Whenever you use your debit/bank card for an electronic transaction be it an ATM or Interac purchase, an SMS (text message) will be created of information from that transaction and sent to
your cell phone as a text message and/or an e-mail address you choose.
2. From the time the transaction is accepted by the merchant you should be noticed in about 5 seconds with the information.

Very simple so if you get a text message and haven't been using your card guess what - someone else is using your card!

There has been a lot of talk about debit card fraud with a lot of information making the end user aware of the risks. We thought it would be best to find a working solution so this is what we have come up with. We don't know what the competition will do but we hope that it will prod others for solutions or even build on what we have developed.

From some people we have talked about this we have received some great ideas. One was a suggestion to customize notifications based on transactions. [Remember this is for debit cards. Credit cards are the Visa, MasterCard, AmericanExpress cards you carry which is a very different product.] We could notify one of any transactions greater than a certain dollar amount. Or we could move into notification of any items that cleared an account. One that quickly comes to mind is payroll. There are a lot of people that like to know when their payroll deposit has been credit to their account. Or what about a cheque that you wrote that you want to know immediately when it clears. Maybe you post dated it for the end of the month and it now is clearing 5 days early....a big no-no.

All of the suggestions point to a next version. The key strategy at some point has to be that the variables that manage notification would be set by the card holder. That done through a web site would be ideal.

On Thursday I was at a meeting with Xerox discussing print solutions. The showed me their DocuColor 3535 printer/copier and the Creo Spire Color Server as well as a few other software solutions. There were all very impressive products. Xerox seems to be focussing on some great software stuff they have developed. Remember they gave us Parc.
http://www.parc.xerox.com/about/history/default.html
The colour printing world is getting pretty good and for small print jobs the benchmark is pretty high.

End of business report.

Good Friday. Probably one of the most difficult days to try to understand and realize within the context of one's Christian faith what transpired over 2,000 years ago. Peace be with you.