Eugene Sefanov

Very good news out of Oracle this week. After a thorough review of solutions on the market, Pfizer chose to implement what can essentially be seen as Oracle’s complete suite of clinical and drug safety applications. This doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, since the pharma company has been a long-time user of Oracle’s legacy […]

In April of this year, the U.S. Department of Labor finalized a new rule that is meant to protect individuals from receiving retirement investment advice that, in reality, may not be in their best interest. It’s a complicated rule that addresses the conflict of interest that financial advisors frequently encounter, such as receiving commission or […]

Michael Porter, a colleague of mine, is live-blogging at this week’s Forrester CXNYC event, a conference for customer experience leaders, innovators, and practitioners. I wanted to share a session he sat through in which John Dalton, an analyst at Forrester, interviewed Alice Milligan, the chief customer and digital experience officer of Citi Cards at Citi. […]

Smart machines, which encompasses a group of cognitive computing technologies such as advanced machine learning, natural language processing, and prescriptive analytics to make decisions and solve problems without human intervention, have been receiving more attention in recent years due to the rise and success of solutions like IBM’s Watson. A smart application learns and adapts […]

If you’re in the biotech business, you’re likely closely following the Sarepta saga, or, at the very least, you’re hearing about it in passing because everyone around you is talking about it. Sarepta Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company focused on the discovery and development of unique RNA-targeted therapeutics for the treatment of rare, infectious and […]

MasterCard is looking at using artificial intelligence (AI) to help make businesses operate more efficiently. The global payment-technology company recently announced that it will be piloting a robot called Pepper, created by SoftBank Robotics. The robot will leverage MasterPass, MasterCard’s digital payment service solution that enables consumers to purchase from merchants. The first test for […]

The cloud is not new, but it remains incredibly important. Yes, leaders at financial services institutions continue to worry about the cloud’s ability to meet their strict security and privacy requirements. However, threats like cyberattacks are not stopping them from moving to the cloud. There are simply too many more advantages to operating in the […]

Recent news from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) reminds us of the importance of having a solid anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program. A well-known financial services company was fined $17 million for not having sufficient processes that could enable them “properly prevent or detect, investigate, and report suspicious activity.” While the organization significantly grew […]

Then we’ve got a special webinar, just for you. On July 21, we will be having a fireside chat with our client, Alliance Foundation Trials (AFT), a research organization that develops and conducts cancer clinical trials. The chat will include a few presentation slides, so that you’re not looking at a blank screen, but much […]

If there is one trend making more headlines than cybersecurity, it is digital. In a world in which people are now performing more searches on their mobile phones than on their computers, it is no surprise that financial institutions with legacy business models and strategies are flocking to adopt new technology that meets the expectations […]

HSBC recently announced that it’s going to cut 840 jobs in the UK and send them to offshore facilities. But, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s all part of their grand plan to become a more efficient, cost-conscious financial services provider that can compete against competitors on a more even playing field. If you […]

My colleague, Elizabeth Dias, recently pointed me to a white paper from Akamai, the global leader in content delivery network (CDN) services, which discussed eight considerations for enabling digital transformation in financial services. For those not familiar with digital transformation, the trend revolves around using newer technology to improve the overall customer experience. It’s about […]