Claire D. Matthews

Modelling Web-based banking systems: Story boarding and user profiling

Electronic Business applications are often implemented using web-based Information Systems, in which human-to-human interaction is replaced by human-computer interaction. To design systems that meet both the users’ needs and the business intentions of the service provider requires anticipating the users’ behaviour. User profiles can be used to classify user needs as well as the various kinds of system support for them. For this end also analysis and description of story boards, i.e., navigation paths of users through the system can used. In this article the problems of story boarding and user profiling are approached in the context of loan application systems as a typical banking application.

Emphasizing the communication aspects for the successful development of electronic business systems

Abstract.In order to be successful, web-based electronic business systems have to be developed in such a way that both the customers’ needs and the business intentions of the provider are met. As human-to-human interaction is partly replaced by human-computer interaction in such systems, this requires anticipating the users’ behaviour and paying a lot of attention to the communication aspects.In this article a development method is suggested that emphasizes the communication aspects in web-based systems. It is based on user profiling and story boarding. User profiles can be used to classify user needs as well as the various kinds of system support for them. The story board describes stories, i.e. navigation paths of users through the system, which can be used to model the behaviour of users.To discover user profiles and stories, two interleaved activities are suggested: communication analysis and linguistic analysis. Communication analysis addresses typical human-to-human interaction in the application domain and classifies typical communication barriers. We argue that using localisation abstraction and metaphors can help to overcome communication barriers, implying that their use may enhance the users’ understanding and successful navigation through a web site. Linguistic analysis addresses how the activities of the users would be described in natural language. Analysing the used word fields and metaphorical structures may provide guidance for centering the story board around the central activities. We use a typical banking application, on-line loan systems, as an example to illustrate our method.

Communication: Key to success on the Web

Much has been written about what constitutes good principles of web design. Significantly less attention has been paid to the related communication issues. Critical success factors taken from a pilot study of nine organisations are listed in this paper. We show that they imply that communication aspects of design and implementation of web presence of organisations are key. We point out and classify typical communication barriers. We argue that using localisation abstraction and metaphors can help to overcome communication barriers, implying that their use may enhance the user’s understanding and successful navigation through a web site. Our overall implication is that methods for the development of web applications need to shift their focus from technical aspects of applications to communication aspects in particular and on human factors in general.

Information systems design: through adaptivity to ubiquity

In a globalised economy the accessibility of services becomes increasingly important for businesses. This has led to a demand that information systems should be ubiquitous in the sense that they are available to all users under all circumstances, everywhere and at all times, and independent of the access devices and channels used. The authors believe the key to meeting that demand is existence of an omnipresent media of interaction and existence of information systems that within that media adapt themselves to context parameters at run-time. The World Wide Web is considered as that omnipresent media. Thus, the task is left to design adaptive information systems in a way that avoids unnecessary replication. In this article it will be shown how context parameters can be utilised to enable system adaptivity. The latter is supposed to increase usability and targets the quality of use, the content, and the functionality. We propose using an algebraic approach that aids in providing the leanest appropriate interface via user typing and story boarding. Our approach furthermore limits the content delivered to a user to the amount that can be dealt with in a usage scenario. The latter is based on defining hyphenation points within the content.

Price Bundling in the Student Banking Market

Banks in New Zealand have been putting substantial efforts into trying to attract and retain tertiary student customers for a number of years. A popular marketing strategy is price bundling, in which two or more products and services are offered at the same time at a discount. This paper reports on a study into the attitudes of New Zealand tertiary students towards the bank price bundling strategy, and to what extent this strategy assists with the retention of student customers. Most respondents had a student bank account and the results showed generally positive attitudes among tertiary students toward the bank packages that were offered by banks in New Zealand. A relatively low defection rate was found in this study. It appeared to be their satisfaction, especially their satisfaction with banks and service channels, which contributed to their loyalty (or non-defection) rather than switching barriers.

KiwiSaver member behaviour: a quantitative analysis

The KiwiSaver scheme for retirement savings was launched in New Zealand in 2007. This paper examines investor behaviour in the context of that scheme. It uses a unique purpose-built database. The study finds that KiwiSaver members, like other investors, are chasing performance and seeking to avoid fees. However, an unexpected negative relation is found for bank ownership.

Bank Computing in a Changing Economic Environment: The IBIS Project in New Zealand

This paper examines a major bank computing redevelopment attempted in New Zealand in the 1980s – the IBIS project. After the expenditure of some hundreds of millions of dollars this project was not proceeded with and this paper looks at the factors that led to its eventual failure. We find that dreams of banking technology can be as costly as other failures experienced by banks, and that banks must have regard to the competitive environment in building their computer systems.

Enablers and Barriers to Women’s Advancement in New Zealand Banks

Women’s lack of advancement to the most senior positions within New Zealand banks has been evident for a number of years. The reason for this lack of progression has not been specifically researched in New Zealand, although it has been investigated in other countries. Aspects such as aspiration, characteristics, culture, education and experience are cited as either barriers or enablers to advancement in many studies. This paper reports a study involving both male and female staff members at one of the major New Zealand banks, which considered demographic characteristics, education, experience, aspirations, and other enablers and barriers to advancement.The study provides evidence of gender differences, with women in the New Zealand banking industry continuing to struggle to reach the highest management levels. The findings show that there is no evidence to suggest that women are more experienced or more qualified than their male counterparts at the same levels. Major barriers do include the informal networks that can be difficult to access when you are a female, particularly as it is in these informal gatherings that business is often discussed. Work-life balance and stereotyping are also constraints to women’s advancement. Interestingly, both men and women rate the same characteristics as important for successful managers, and both also rate them as predominately masculine characteristics.

Performance Through Financial Ratios of South Asian Microfinance Institutions

This study examines the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) using financial ratios. These ratios are assessed in relation to the dual objectives of MFIs of financial sustainability and outreach. The financial ratios used are categorised as profitability, portfolio quality and productivity ratios. The profitability ratios are hypothesized to be positively related to the financial sustainability and negatively to the outreach, while the portfolio quality and productivity ratios are expected to be negatively related to the financial sustainability and positively to the outreach. Data used in this study is a balanced panel data of 315 MFIs for the period of 1998-2010 and is extracted from the MIX market. Using random effect panel data estimation, we find important ratios in context of performance measurement of MFIs and also conclude that the trade-off between the dual objectives of MFIs is present.

Branches Around the World

This study extends an earlier study looking at the number of bank branches in a country, and considering the factors that influence it. Fourteen countries are involved in this study, and the influencing factors considered are the number of ATMs and EFTPOS terminals, and the level of usage of these branch alternatives, as well as the economic development of the country as measured by GDP. We find that there is no evident relationship between the existence or usage of these alternative channels and the number of branches that exist in a country. However, we do find a relationship with GDP and on the basis of country groupings, suggesting country characteristics may be a key determinant of branch numbers.