Category Archives: Business Centric Services Groups

Business Centric Services Group’s Modular Approach Gives Clients Flexibility

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateSpring 2014.

Business Centric Services Group (BSCG) demonstrated how its EE Business apps allow for customizable solutions for individual clients:
“Winning and working on a deal with the UK’s largest Telco has recently demonstrated how we have created a cutting edge platform that allows banks and Telcos to offer value added services to their small businesses. 
The modular approach taken creates a competitive advantage for us. It means that clients can pick and choose from a menu of features to decide which modules they want to have, making the platform completely ‘tailorable’ for individual clients. The platform also offers further flexibility and customization that many businesses are looking for.”
Presenting: John Davis, Managing Director and Andrew Garney, Commercial Manager
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Product Launch: June 2014
Metrics: Our business app market now reaches over 4M small businesses worldwide; hundreds of thousands of SMBs have subscribed to our platforms. The company has quickly grown from 10 employees to 110, with 30% of this staff growth coming in the past 12 months. Our revenue has shown a 56% increase from 2012 to 2013 and a further 40% in 2014.
Product distribution strategy: Through financial institutions, through other fintech companies and platforms
HQ: London, UK
Founded: April 2008
Website: bcsg.com
Twitter: @BCSGcloud

FinovateFall 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 5

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After resting up over the weekend, we hope you’re ready to take a look at six more companies that will demo their newest fintech creation in New York City at FinovateFall this September 23 and 24.

Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve seen:

Don’t miss out; get your ticket here to be a part of the action.



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Business Centric Services Group (BCSG) is a cloud- services brokerage offering business apps for small businesses via FIs with a platform reaching over 4 million SMBs worldwide.
Features:
    • Modularized platform that allows FIs to tailor their offering
    • 24×7 support for SMBs on all apps
    • Client support: from proposition design, to go-to-market strategy, to ongoing delivery
Why it’s great:
Its platform will continue to evolve with the market. Whatever it does, it will always start with the small business need.
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Presenters:

1) John Davis, Managing Director
Prior to BCSG Davis spent 10 years at Barclays where he was Marketing and Product Director for Barclays Business, and also Managing Director of Clearlybusiness.
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2) Andrew Garney, Commercial Manager

Before joining BCSG Garney held various technical and project delivery roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services and De La Rue.

DieboldZenmonics
Diebold’s evolution of Relationship Banking lowers the costs of self-service channels in the branch, combined with a seamless extension of tablet-based Sales, Servicing and Account Opening
Features:
    • Advanced teller transactions moved to self-service terminals
    • Personalized Account Opening, Sales & Service via Tablet
    • Shared customer history and product promotion across channels
Why it’s great:

Diebold furnishes the ability to effectively identify, engage, service and anticipate the needs of customers across your self-service and assisted channels will differentiate your brand.
Presenters:
1) Shelly Ewing, New Business and Solution Incubation for Diebold  
2) Chris Siemasko, SVP Product Solutions for Zenmonics  

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Larky delivers engagement and loyalty through a unique platform that provides point-of-sale discounts at local and national merchants and magically reminds users of offers at the right time and place.

Features:

  • Location-triggered alerts when a discount is near
  • Tracks 2,000+ memberships. Users never miss an offer they deserve (including yours!)
  • White-labeled platform seamlessly ties in with your brand
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Presenter:

Andrew Bank, Co-Founder
Successful start-up entrepreneur with substantial experience identifying and developing products, services, and business relationships with high ROI. Passion for creating compelling new solutions.

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MaxMyInterest by Six Trees Capital LLC is an intelligent cash-management solution that helps investors earn up to 0.80% more on FDIC-insured bank deposits, rebalancing funds automatically as rates change.

Features:

    • Earn up to 0.80% more on cash without changing your checking account
    • Get the best interest rates, automatically, even as rates change
    • Funds move to and from checking as needed
Why it’s great: 
Max brings efficiency and transparency to the $12 trillion market for cash, making it easy for investors to securely and effortlessly increase the yield on the cash portion of their portfolios.
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Presenters:

1) Gary Zimmerman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Zimmerman is an investor and entrepreneur, focused on financial technology. Prior to founding MaxMyInterest, he was an investment banker at Citigroup. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in economics.
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2) Richard Wu, Director of Engineering

Wu leads the technology development team and is an expert in interface design. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in Computer Engineering.  

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Sonavation empowers trust through ultrasound technology by creating more secure environments in which to access sensitive financial data, conduct non-cash transactions and offer peace of mind.

Features:
    • Impenetrable security using ultrasound technology and cloud-based Identity-as-a-service infrastructure
    • Protection of sensitive banking information
    • ATM, credit and debit card protection
Why it’s great:
Sonavation is on a mission to replace passwords and PINs with highly secure biometric solutions, leveraging the power of ultrasound to deliver piece of mind.
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Presenter:

Bob Stewart, Chief Operating Officer
Stewart is the Chief Operating Officer at Sonavation, currently focused on delivering the convergence of physical and cyber security.

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TickSmith has built the first commercial Big Data platform for financial data.

Features:
    • Powerful and scalable Big Data technology and analytics
    • Management of all types of financial data
    • Solve compliance, reporting, analytics and distribution problems on huge data sets
Why it’s great:
TickSmith provides out-of-the-box, previously unavailable possibilities to exploit financial big data.
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Presenters:

1) Francis Wenzel, CEO
Seasoned financial data and technology executive and entrepreneur with 28 years of experience.
LinkedIn
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2) David David Côté, CIO

Entrepreneur, consultant and IT Architect with 17 years of experience developing, architecting, deploying and running technology solutions and infrastructure for banks, travel and IT companies.
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Check back this Thursday to see another six companies that will demo at FinovateFall 2014.

Finovate Alumni News– August 15, 2013

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgANZ Group goes live with Fiserv’s Mobiliti Reach.
  • The Currency Cloud CEO, Mike Laven, explains the issues behind the recent remittance crisis.
  • IND Group & PayPal team up to offer P2P Payment via email in Europe.
  • SunTrust introduces BCSG’s Business Hub and CreditHQ tools; an online package of small business solutions.
  • Bolstr on FOX News Chicago: Local Business Raises $12,000 in under 48hrs on Bolstr.
  • Mint, Manilla featured in Digital Trends list of 12 useful online services and apps for students.
  • Quantopian’s John Fawcett writes about the intersection of social media, algorithms, and the browser when it comes to investing.
  • American Banker takes a look at Credit Agricole’s CAStore.
  • Mobile Payments Today highlights PayConnect from PreCash in a column on mobile wallets and the payment industry.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News– April 9, 2013

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgAG Beat features Entrepreneurial Finance Lab.
  • BSCG, Mitek, and Yodlee selected as Monarch B2B Innovation Award Winners.
  • Lodo Software appoints Matthew Lawlor, former founder & CEO of Online Resources, to board of directors.
  • South African Logistics Company implements Kofax Software to Automate HR. Watch Kofax demo live at FinovateSpring.
  • Business Credit Radio features Sue Heilbronner, PaySimple’s Chief Growth Officer.
  • American Banker highlights Plastyc’s unique approach to serving prepaid card users. Watch Plastyc’s demo at FinovateSpring.
  • Mati Greenspan, senior investment consultant at eToro, explains how eToro will soon support Bitcoin.
  • American Banker looks at Braintree’s multi-merchant approach. Come see Braintree demo at FinovateSpring.
  • Live Science considers how Narrative Science
    automates journalism and report generation. See Narrative Science’s live demo at FinovateSpring.
  • Quantopian announces algorithm development competition.  The company will demo at FinovaeSpring in May.
  • Bank Innovation reports: Intuit will continue to support FinanceWorks.
  • Reuters takes a look at TipRanks. See them demo at FinovateSpring.
  • eDeposit announces major new features in upgrade of mobile app.
  • TradeHero a winner at Echelon Singapore Satellite pitch competition.
  • INTJ Capital gives kudos to Quantopian’s decision to provide for external data sets. Join Quantopian in San Francisco for FinovateSpring in May.
  • American Banker interviews Green Dot CEO and founder Steven Streit. See Green Dot demo at FinovateSpring.
  • Realty Mogul is among the companies highlighted in Upstart Business Journal column on crowd funding. See them demo at FinovateSpring.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

BSCG, Mitek, and Yodlee Selected as Monarch B2B Innovation Award Winners

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Recently, Business Centric Services Group (BCSG), Mitek, and Yodlee were honored at the Monarch Innovation Awards:

Business Centric Services Group (BCSG)

    • Award category: Most Innovative Industry PartnerBCSGLogo.jpg
    • Product: Business Hub, an online subscription service that gives micro business owners access to a suite of tools that provides easy-to-use solutions for common challenges.
    • FinovateEurope 2012 demo video 

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Mitek

    • Award category: Overall Most Innovative Award
    • Product: Mobile Deposit, a solution that enables financial institutions to offer remote deposit capture to their clients.
    • FinovateSpring 2012 demo video

Yodlee

    • Award Category: YodleeLogo2012.jpgHonorable Mention – Industry Partner
    • Product: Yodlee Platform, a product designed to help financial institutions reach valueable customer segments by tapping into Yodlee’s deep understanding of the unique financial needs, goals, and concerns of customers.
    • FinovateFall 2012 demo video

The awards are presented by Minnesota-based Barlow Research Associates to recognize B2B innovations within the financial services industry that provide the most innovative products to business customers.

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See Monarch’s FAQ to learn more about the Innovation Award methodology 

BSCG Launches Business Hub for Small Businesses

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Next, BCSG launched Business Hub for small businesses:
“Business Hub is a cloud-based package that incorporates the most important tools a small business owner needs. For $25 per month, small businesses get access to online accounting software, a website builder, a business planning tool, a legal document creator and online training.
Business Hub is delivered via a fully customizable online platform, allowing business owners to manage key functions in one place with a single username and password. The exact suite of applications can be customized for each bank.”
Product Launched: September 2012 (U.S. launch)
HQ Location: London, UK
Company Founded: April 2008
Metrics: 80+ full time employees supporting 150,000 small businesses worldwide
Website: bcsg.com
Twitter: @JohnDavis_BCSG
Finovate demo videofinovate.com/fall12vid/ (demo video will be posted next week).
Introducing John Davis (Managing Director) and Kyle Herndon (SVP Business Development)
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FinovateFall 2012 Sneak Peek: Part 1

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We’ve selected over 60 leading innovators to take the stage for the sixth annual FinovateFall conference in New York on September 12 and 13.

Each company provided a sneak peek of what they’ll demo next month. Below is the first installment of these teasers. We’ll have more next week.

Don’t miss your chance to see the live demo from each company and meet the execs responsible. Get your FinovateFall ticket here.

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Socialite from Actiance allows financial advisors, agents and sales and marketing to engage with clients, build customer relationships, and create a personal brand – all while being compliant with FINRA and SEC regulations. 
At Finovate you will see for the first time the integration of Actiance’s Socialite platform with Salesforce enabling users to maximize the power of Salesforce, monetize their social involvement and increase revenue. Now users can Link Socialite contacts to Salesforce accounts and send Socialite activity to Salesforce when contacts provide feedback or respond to posted content. In addition, we will be showcasing our new Socialite Mobile application for the iPhone.
Innovation type: Marketing, sales, security

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Come meet Billhighway at the intersection of technology and philanthropy! It’s your chance to witness the debut of a faster, more compelling way to fundraise. Billhighway’s mobile application, unveiled for the first time at FinovateFall 2012, brings a mobile cashless approach for an easy, secure, fun way for folks to give in real time, and perhaps give more! 
The application is specifically developed for nonprofits to effectively increase funding from new sources. A great example of technology used for good, nonprofit organizations immediately collect and put to use mission-critical donor funds, the lifeblood of their efforts to do more good.
Innovation type: Marketing, mobile, payments

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BCSG will be launching an innovative and customizable cloud-based package at FinovateFall 2012, incorporating the most important tools a small business owner needs to manage and grow their business. For just $25 a month, users will get access to several market leading applications via one online platform using a single username and password. This unique package has been developed specifically to address the day to day challenges small businesses owners face and is supplied through financial institutions.

Innovation type: Online UI, PFM, small business

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CommunityLend’s product, Financeit, enables businesses to offer installment loans to their customers at the point of sale. Since launching in January of 2011, they have signed up over 1,200 merchant partners and processed over $130MM in loans. The key verticals are vehicle, home improvement, retail and health.
CommunityLend has raised over $9MM in financing since launch and is now pursuing a U.S. expansion strategy. Lending capital comes from banks and other institutional investors.
Innovation type: Lending, payments

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Can “The Cloud” be trusted to store important files? Are safe deposit boxes still practical in the age of electronic documents? Is there a way to ensure “Total Information Privacy” for the customer? My Virtual StrongBox is the online answer to safe deposit boxes. Customers store electronic copies of important documents in this easy-to-use filing system AND retain ownership of their documents. Files are managed by, and only visible to, the customer. Financial institutions using My Virtual StrongBox add one more sticky product to their list of benefits and keep customers around for years to come. Learn more at myvirtualstrongbox.com.
Innovation type: Banking products, PFM, small business

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Optimize your online marketing and improve your acquisitions strategies with Experian’s Premium Prequalification, a powerful credit-screening tool that allows institutions to proactively utilize individual credit data online in real time to:

    • Empower and educate consumers with a snapshot of their credit health
    • Save consumers time and money by instantly providing them with their most viable options at the very start of their shopping experience 
This best-in-class process also offers Prequalification Triggers, notifying consumers of recent changes to their credit while offering relevant products, and Credit Comparables, which compares individual credit to the average in their area. Redefine your acquisitions strategies today with Experian’s Premium Prequalification
Innovation type: Cards, lend
ing, sales

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Fiserv understands that convenience and supporting user preference are keys to increased adoption and usage of digital payments. Our innovation seamlessly blends a variety of information input modes in our mobile banking application, Mobiliti Enterprise
Using our applications, users can choose from traditional keypad and screen touch interaction, image capture and OCR, or voice-driven commands and inputs to make payments. And a key feature is that users can effortlessly switch modes at any time, whenever they want – even in the middle of a transaction.
Innovation type: Banking products, mobile, payments

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In a world optimized to get us to spend more at every turn, ImpulseSave has made saving your money just as easy and instantly gratifying as spending it. Our simple web and mobile tools incent consumers to turn every point of sale into a “Point of Saving”, as well as every point in between. 
ImpulseSavers are saving close to $4,000 per year on average. While others argue that greater discipline and better budgets are the answer, ImpulseSave represents the exact opposite approach. Instead of trying to change consumer behavior, encouraging more self-denial, we’ve actually transformed saving itself to leverage that very behavior, making saving as impulsive, fun, even addictive as is spending.
Innovation type: Communications, marketing, PFM

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Ready, Set, Locate! See how one easy-to-use API can locate any customer or cardholder mobile phone for authentication or mobile marketing. No apps to download, it works on feature phones, smart phones or on any carrier. Mobile phone network location can be a low cost, high quality, unspoofable authentication factor for mobile payment and credit card identity. 
See Locaid’s live location demo that can be easily integrated into any CRM system, mobile marketing, web services or anti-fraud applications. With a mobile device number and permission, you can locate 350 million devices via our location privacy platform.
Innovation type: Identity, marketing, mobile

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See how financial institutions can save millions by implementing BankFiling, a first-of-its kind innovation that delivers significant ROI yet requires limited investment. A whole new approach to commercial and business banking! Prepare yourself!
Innovation type: Banking products, lending, small business

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The fear of not getting paid and concern over finding new clients is keeping small business owners up at night. PaySimple is launching a “get paid faster while you grow your business” addition to its PaySimple Pro receivables automation solution. The innovation automates pricing to ensure the small business is paid on time and also fosters social engagement as a natural extension of the payments process.
Innovation type: Online UI, payments, small business

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Times are tough. The kids are in college. You’re caring for aging parents. You’re underemployed. You have bills. Bills that are due. But your family and friends want to help. Because that’s what family and friends do. If only there was a way for them to provide this financial help quickly. Conveniently. Securely. Online. Without the hassle of sending cash and checks, or the high cost of wire transfer services. Meet PayTap.
Innovation type: Communications, payments, PFM

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Personal Capital is wealth management for the Internet Age. The company’s online platform combines digital technology with highly personalized service to provide a holistic view of your unique financial picture. The free online dashboard, iPad and iPhone apps present all of your financial data in one place, showing you exactly what you own and what you owe, in real time. 
At Finovate Fall, Personal Capital will unveil new features that enable even greater transparency into your money for the long-term: your retirement. Do you know how much your 401(k) costs?
Innovation type: Investing, online UI, PFM

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Pindrop Security’s technology is being used by banks to identify fraud callers and to prevent fraud transactions. In the Fall of 2012, we’ll introduce our latest solution for financial institutions that rely on the phone for transactions. Join us for the debut at FinovateFall 2012!
Innovation type: Identity, security

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Prepaid Resources introduces BenefitsDirect ‘Direct Deposit Management’.
Capture recurring Federal benefits, State benefits and Payroll deposits through your accountholder website, in-branch, at retail, by mobile app or via live agent. Track enrollment success and measure direct deposit activity to proactively personalize accountholder relationships.
Innovation type: Banking products, cards

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ShopKeep solves the last mile in local. It enables vertical partners from delivery, payments, loyalty, and deals to connect directly to SMBs. A revolutionary iPad based SaaS product, ShopKeep’s POS system makes traditional cash register products obsolete. 
For $2/day merchants receive a high end operating system and can manage their store even when they are not inside it. Made in NYC, ShopKeep now has over 2,500 customers. It provides merchants flexibility to choose their credit card processor and offers unheard of customer support and economics. ShopKeep POS is the simplest way for retailers to make smarter business decisions.
Innovation type: Payments, sales, small business

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Stockr

Stockr is a finance portal for the social web. For most people, investing is more social than scientific, and investment ideas come from close friends, trusted advisors and various periodicals. 
Stockr embraces this social element of investing, creating powerful connections among those who have actionable information and those who are seeking it. While other portals compete on content, our view is that content becomes most relevant and actionable when it’s shared and discussed.
Innovation type: Investing & asset management, PFM

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Everyone has come to expect innovative, reliable and low cost local currency payment services, yet we continue to live with expensive and unreliable international payments. Over $37 trillion in foreign currency payments are sent or received each year. The international payment services offered by the major banks are far from satisfactory. The Currency Cloud evolves the international payments process – we make currencies simple.
Innovation type: Back office, payments, small business

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With Tuition.io, student loan borrowers can easily access all their loans in one visually appealing dashboard, use graphical visualization tools to compare them and get customized optimization plans that take advantage of little-known and hard-to-understand restructuring options.
Innovation type: Banking products, lending, PFM

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The mobile phone is fast becoming a dominant player in payments and banking worldwide. As electronic fraud will certainly be drawn to the new medium, so too must security be made usable, flexible and ultimately reliable. ValidSoft’s proprietary technology can secure all transaction channels, in real-time. All our solutions are telecommunications-based. 
At FinovateFall 2012 we will show you how our advanced mobile payments authentication platform, SMART, supports a mobile wallet product and demonstrate how scalable and flexible it can be.
Innovation type: Identity, payments, security
Stay tuned next week for another sneak peek of FinovateFall 2012 presenting companies.

Finovate Alumni News– May 16, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgBill.com integrates with NetSuite to deliver seamless, cloud-based financial management.
  • Inc.well interviews Candace Klein, CEO of SoMoLend, about crowdfunding.
  • Virtual Piggy partners with World Industries.
  • American Banker considers if Dwolla is a threat or opportunity for banks.
  • Soshable covers Klarna, CoverHound, Giftly, ZipZap, BillGuard, Dwolla and Virtual Piggy.
  • The Next Web takes a closer look at the tech that powers LearnVest.
  • BCSG partners with Sage to offer MyBusinessWorks customers the bookkeeping application Sage One Accounts.
  • ValidSoft announces partnership with Spindle to provide advanced payments security solutions to US-based customers.
  • Fast Company names Laura Mather, Founder and Chief Visionary of Silver Tail Systems, as one of the Most Creative People in Business.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News– March 6, 2012

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  • HelloWallet signs with Mercer to provide PFM tool to employees.
  • The Glass Hammer profiles Lynne Laube, President & COO of Cardlytics.
  • Desert News highlights ReadyForZero’s creativity in helping consumers understand credit card debt.
  • Money Marketing looks at practical ideas from FinovateEurope, uses Meniga as example.
  • Heartland Bank selects ID Theft 911 to provide ID theft protection management, and resolution services to customers.
  • Business Centric Services Group and partners launch new training workshop to empower businesses to market online.
  • Tradeshift introduces CloudScan to simplify invoicing.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You
can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Business Centric Services Group Launches CreditHQ

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Afterward, Business Centric Services Group launched a one-stop shop for small businesses to access customer risk data:

“CreditHQ provides small businesses with unlimited access to a database of customers, outlining their risk profile and payment performance in a simple and easy-to-use format. The platform allows small businesses to develop monitoring plans for each customer/supplier, which sends e-mail alerts directly to the business owner when there is a material change in the credit/risk profile. The platform also allows businesses to create best practice credit terms letters to issue to customers to ensure all parties understand their relationship at the outset of any relationship. 

Should there be any delays in payments from customers, the platform allows the user to create a 10-day final demand letter free of charge, which will be issued directly to the customer. Should this not deliver payment, then the user can issue debt instructions directly through the platform to be collected for a market leading 20% no win, no fee payment by one of the leading business to business debt collectors in the market.”

Product Launched: February 2012

HQ Location: London, UK
Company Founded: April 2008
Metrics: 63 employees,135,000 small business customers
Website: bcsg.com

Presenting John Davis (Managing Director) & Alan Marsh (Product & Marketing Director)
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