Money 20/20: That “other” event…

In the lead up to this year’s NonStop Technical Boot Camp, there was another event that took place. Held in Las Vegas it attracted a very large crowd and for those focused on the payments industry, it really was the “must attend” event of 2019. Under the overall heading of Navigating the Future, it featured many well-known financial institutions, most of which have a connection to HPE and to the HPE NonStop platform. Payments and NonStop are almost synonymous as the history of one is very much tied to the other – in the world of mission critical systems there is probably nothing more important than getting money to those who need access to it and any interruptions to the delivery of cash doesn’t bode well for the customer experience.

In our latest post to the Paragon Edge blog, Money20/20 Recap: Navigating the Future Paragon CEO Jim Perry opened with:

Money20/20 has grown to become one of the premier events for the payments industry. Companies big and small come to display their latest innovations and see what everyone else has been working on. It is a great atmosphere, with a tremendous amount of energy, enthusiasm, excitement. 

For those who have never been, this is a big event. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the size and scale of the conference. There is simply no way to take in all that is going on.

With that said, it was very satisfying to walk across the show floor and see many long-term customers—like American Express, Fiserv and Mastercard—who continue to influence and drive the payments industry. 

Some familiar names as already noted but just as important for Payments and NonStop were the topics covered during the event. To start with, there was the Customer Experience – a topic central to many conversations at a time when banks and fintechs and even parties just touching the perimeter of the payments industry all are working hard to capitalize on improving the customer experience with none more vocal than:

The Chief Customer Experience Officer from the Bank of America spoke on this topic. She said that it doesn’t matter how good the branches look, or how good the payment systems are, or what interest rate the bank might be charging if these things do not translate into a great customer experience. 

Of course, there were many sessions devoted to privacy and data security as payments veterans and pioneers gave us their take on what is happening of late:

Mastercard presented their global policy on data privacy and talked about the difficulties organizations are facing as they deal with the multitude of data privacy and protection legislation that is being enacted in different countries. Therefore they’re pushing for global adoption of GDPR to ease the burden of dealing with numerous and sometimes conflicting national standards. As GDPR matures, there is sure to be additional discussion and debate on this issue. 

However, perhaps it was left to co-founder & CEO of NerdWallet to get us all thinking when he broached the topic of what’s possible today for any individual looking to break into the world of payments:

… turning an $800 investment into a 500 million dollar company that just about everybody has heard of. With some background in finance, the NerdWallet team decided that the market was ready for an easier, better way for people to figure out which credit card to get and how to manage it and their personal finances. 

So just another Silicon Valley success story, right? Yes and no.

The thing I found most interesting about his comments were his thoughts about where the world is today and where it may be tomorrow. He is asking the question, “How do we prepare our children to look for work in industries that don’t exist yet, in jobs that haven’t been created yet, using technology that hasn’t been invented yet?” His main takeaway: teach kids to learn and learn quickly! And that’s the same message for our businesses. 

While the focus of Money 20 / 20 is on payments today and on the impact a rapidly changing world is having on all financial institutions worldwide, nevertheless it cannot be taken for granted that the NonStop community we have known and worked with for decades continues to push ahead with product offerings that cater to the world of payments. If you would like to read the full post, referenced here, then just click on the embedded link above or cut and paste the following into your browser:

https://www.paragonedge.com/blog/money2020-recap-navigating-the-future

Should you have any questions on this and on what else we observed at Money 20 / 20 just give us a call or drop us an email; we would really like to hear from you!

Written by the Paragon Team

Steve Gilde | Director, Global Product Marketing | Paragon Application Systems

Direct: +1 919 741 4422 | Mobile: +1 404 844 7893