Cloud Computing and Financial Institutions

Every financial institution I have worked for has had the same objective to move its clients to online statements and correspondence. Over time with a small incentive here and there they manage to get 20%, maybe 30% people across the line. The reason why they have never managed to convert me is because I have always feared losing it all (my financial records) when my computer inevitably crashes.

What would I do? I would need to ask for it all again and pay them (when it was free in paper form the first time).

Since joining Carbonite here in Australia, I have wondered about the opportunity to partner with a financial institution, and offer their client base a real incentive to convert to online correspondence. If the client knew that they would be protected, should the inevitable happen, then it sure would add greater weight to the argument compared to a cheap incentive such as movie tickets.

This morning I read a blog by Dr “Mostly Cloudy” Gerlich. He talks about Wells Fargo (large fin inst in US) offering its clients an online safety deposit box for their electronic records. The service is called vSafe. It isn’t a free service but you can’t expect any more from a bank. As he says, they have awoken to the idea and the opportunity.

vSafe will compete with Carbonite, in the US anyway. Over time, I hope to convince some of our financial institutions of the same thing, maybe not going it alone though, but partnering with Carbonite. Maybe it is still a little too soon as online storage still isn’t a mainstream service here (only really known by the technical world).

Stay tuned for more on this.