Essay --

1. The development of the astrolabe was an important invention that helped measure altitude. Maps were also very important in determining location. The sailors understanding of wind patterns allowed them to determine route and the most prompt way to reach their destinations. The improvement of the Spanish and Portuguese caravel sailing ship allowed them to be quicker on their expeditions. Combined, these technical developments allowed transoceanic trade and travel to be possible. 2. The Ming dynasty, in 1644 was taken over by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Hongwu was the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, when he drove out the mongols he then brought back the sholar-gentry. The Chinese society began to be strict on education. They began giving the youth exam questions which was a reflection of what the Chinese values had become. 3. Columbian Exchange Intentional effects Unintentional effects Brought in domesticated animals Brought diseases Brought in crops Contaminated land Weeds Wild animals 4. Mining in Spain was the foundation of its power in the indies. Latin America was b...

Preparing For A Tropical Cruise Vacation :: Process Essays

Vacationing to certain tropical destinations might require more than what you think. After making reservations for the Cruise accommodations and flight arrangements you would think the tough part is over. I personally had no idea that going to the Bahamas would require more than valid state identification. I soon realized that I not only had to prepare for my financial needs, wardrobe attire, but also have proper documentation to go on the Cruise. First, you must figure out how much money or what type of credit cards or money can be used at the ports and on the ship. Although your room and board, meals and drinks are paid for you will need money for optional services and shopping. You can do this by contacting the Cruise Line or the Consulate of the ports you will be visiting. By being financially prepared you will be conscious of your spending ability for your trip. However, you might want to take a little extra money for the unexpected or the deal you might not be able to resist. Next, deciding what your wardrobe will consist of is very important. You will need to pack all your essentials and then some. Start off with the basics, T’s, shorts and comfortable shoes for daily walks and sight seeing, you must pack swimwear if you plan on sunbathing or going swimming. Exercise attire if you intend to work out. Since most Cruises have formal dinning rooms, you will want to pack after five or formal attire for the fine dining experience. If you will be doing other activities such as snorkeling you will want to pack appropriately for your excursion. Packing essential attire will leave you with more time to enjoy your trip and not have to worry about shopping and spending extra money on your vacation. Finally, while making reservations and flight arrangements you will want to ask for the proper documentation needed for trip. You will want to confirm that the information your Agent has given you is correct by contacting the appropriate consulate for your destinations.

Marketing of Lucky Charms

General Mills Goes Ceriously Retro Target is running a 1-month exclusive with General Mills showcasing retro packaging around Cocoa Puffs, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Trix, Kix and other brands within their cereal portfolio. A collectable t-shirt is promoted on the new retro-themed packaging, offering consumers the chance to get a vintage-styled tee of their favorite morning munch. Overall, its a smart play. Target gains exclusivity, consumers feel rewarded with a limited piece of throwback merch, and wearing the fashion creates conversations around the cereal brands and must-have appeal for young-ins. A website has been built to offer up a chance to win the tees. This isn’t the first time General Mills or others have tapped the retro look. Junk Food was wildly popular with teens a few years back via licensed t-shirts using iconic General Mills logos and characters such as Lucky Charms, Trix and others 70’s and 80’s characters. Mountain Dew and Pepsi recently announched retro packaging and product formulated with real sugar in their Throwback LTO. Dew has also used their past icons successful in recent campaigns such as Green Label Art showcasing their legenday Hillbilly character. General Mills is likely reaching a younger consumer, a savvy trend follower that will still rock the retro tee, which will likely fare well when it’s time for parents to write their grocery lists. This type of straightforward offer often favors well in a value-focused economic environment where there is a lot of pressure on established name brands to keep generic from brands taking market share. Hell, even I’d consider rocking a Boo Berry t-shirt to the gym for anyone looking to pick me up a gift on my b-day (which is a only a month away)! General Mills to make all its cereals from healthier ingredients By Bob Faw NBC News updated 12:37 p. m. ET, Thurs. , Sept. 30, 2004 Each year the average American downs 160 bowls of cereal. Thursday will see a tremor in this $9-billion-a-year industry as General Mills announces that all of its cereals — not just Wheaties and Cheerios, but Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms — will be made with whole grains. â€Å"Emerging science continues to support the benefits of whole grains in people's diets whether t be heart health or maintaining a healthy body weight, and we are trying to make it easy,† says John Haugen, vice president of marketing at General Mills. â€Å"When the †¦ consumer trend of being more health conscious came out, we lost sales to competitors who were already in that space,† says Tony Alvaraez, CEO of Interstate Brands. While General Mills says it's spending millions on the switch to whole grains, the amount of sugar in its cereals — 13 grams, for example, in just one cup of Trix — won't change. So some industry observers are accusing General Mills of gimmickry. â€Å"Certainly it's a marketing ploy. This is about marketing. It's not really about nutrition,† says Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University. Still, many mothers are applauding General Mills. â€Å"If it's to better the health of kids and whoever eats it, it's about time they started getting it done,† says Kris Simonson. Die-hard consumers like her daughter Kali Simonson could care less. As long as the cereal tastes good, she doesn’t care what's in it.  © 2008 msnbc. com_ Reprints_ *General Mills Thrives on Increased Marketing Spending: *Boosting TV Ads Hiked Cereal Sales, But Digital ROI Even Higher BOCA RATON, Fla. AdAge. com) — General Mills, one of the package-food industry's top performers, laid out a number of recent marketing successes at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York conference this morning, and offered a preview of the rest of its fiscal year. The company has staunchly supported consumer-marketing spending increases — 19% in the first half of fiscal 200 9, which began in June — while competitors, including Kellogg and Kraft, have begun to scale back on the heady marketing outlays of 2008, instead preaching bundling and greater return on investment. General Mills estimates that its consumer-marketing spending will be up by â€Å"double digits† for the full fiscal year. CEO Ken Powell has repeatedly said that it's particularly important to support well-known brands during the current economy. â€Å"We're meeting here in Florida at a time of great economic uncertainty around the world,† Mr. Powell said. â€Å"General Mills has weathered the storm due in large part to the strength of our product categories and the strength of our brands. † He underscored that the company has a number of well-known 50-year-old brands, such as Cheerios and Pillsbury, as well as 30-year-old brands such as Yoplait and Nature Valley, that consumers trust. Positive response General Mills' sales have responded well to increased marketing support as consumers are eating more at home. Sales grew 11% in the first half of fiscal 2009, to $7. 5 billion. The company has raised guidance with each of the first two quarters. General Mills is doing so well that analysts had been expecting the company to raise its earnings guidance again this morning. For the balance of 2009, the company said it is planning a broadcast blitz for its cereal brands. Ian Friendly, chief operating officer of U. S. retail operations, said he expects the ad program to generate the biggest bump in sales. The company's Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Multigrain Cheerios and Lucky Charms have been faring particularly well. General Mills is launching Banana Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Chex, and Fiber One Frosted Shredded Wheat cereals in the coming months. Some of these products are likely to be advertised to baby boomers, who Mr. Friendly noted will make up about half of the U. S. population by 2010. When I started here in 1983, we didn't do much advertising to baby boomers,† he said, adding that boomers are eating more cereal as they age. â€Å"We're targeting them directly now. † The company is also working harder to target Hispanics, with Progresso products such as Menudo being tested in Texas. Mr. Friendly said the company credits Hispanic-targeted advertising for Honey Nut Cheerios with a 35% increase in year-to-date sales with those consume rs. Bromley Communications is General Mills' Hispanic agency. Online growth But while the bulk of the company's spend remains on TV, Mr. Friendly said in a conference with reporters that it has begun to see significantly higher return on digital investment. General Mills has been diverting funds online, driving traffic to recipe sites such as BettyCrocker. com. The company's cooking sites had about 8 million visitors last month. General Mills also recently launched a free Betty Crocker iPhone application, which offers meal suggestions based on what's in a consumer's pantry. â€Å"We are seeing very high returns from digital than broadcast,† Mr. Friendly said, declining to give the percentage of spending that's moved online. â€Å"It's ot that our TV ads don't work, but when you're watching TV you're doing it for a different reason. When you go to a website you have a very specific purpose. † General Mills Thanks Its Lucky Charms, Melinda Peer, 06. 18. 08, 5:45 PM ET http://www. forbes. com/2008/06/18/general-mills-guidance-markets-equity-cx_mp_markets38_print. html With higher ingredient costs eating int o food companies' profits, General Mills surprised investors with news that full-year results would be better than expected. That's because they've been serving up extra costs to consumers. Shares of General Mills, Inc. gained $1. 1, or 3. 2%, to close at $62. 64 on Wednesday after the company said year-end results would top guidance thanks to a 13. 0% sales increase in the fourth-quarter. The food company, which boasts popular brands like Cheerios, Yoplait, Green Giant and Haagen-Daz, now expects 2008 earnings of $3. 71 a share and sales of $13. 7 billion. Earnings, adjusted to exclude a favorable tax ruling and gains from valuations of commodity holdings, are expected to be $3. 52 a share–an 11. 0% increase from last year's earnings of $3. 18 a share. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $3. 48 and sales of $13. 4 billion. The company's previous guidance had been for adjusted earnings between $3. 45 and $3. 47 a share. But with commodity prices showing no signs of falling, it's unclear how long the General Mills can expect consumers to foot the bill. Cocoa U. S. futures soared to a 28-year high at $3,122 a tonne as investors responded to reports of pressured supply in the Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower. Corn for delivery in July 2009 matched Monday's high of $8. 07 a bushel before settling ahead by 6 cents at about $8. 01 a bushel. General Mills, however, expects growth to meet or exceed expectations through 2009. It guided for adjusted earnings in the range of $3. 78 to $3. 83 a share. Analysts have been expecting earnings of $3. 81 a share in 2009. Rival company Kellogg's, raised prices in January to offset expensive raw material costs. Rather than hiking prices again, the company said it would shrink the size of cereal boxes instead and sell them for the same price (See: Kellogg's Crumbling Profits). Kellogg's skimmed an average of 2. 4 ounces from boxes that will be used for 14 products under brands like Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks. The boxes shipped to U. S. stores earlier this month.

Chain of Command

I'm often asked what the elements of command are for the U. S. Marine Corps. Much of the below information was provided by apacherat, a member of our message forum, and a former Marine (actually, there is no such thing as a â€Å"former† Marine): The Marine Corps has the â€Å"RULE of THREE. † I believe it was invented during the Anna Wars by Edison who invented the fire team concept that is used today. In a nutshell, the rule is this: each Marine has three things to worry about. Three men to a fire team commanded by a Corporal (so there are actually a total of four on the team, when you count the team leader).Three fire teams to a rifle squad commanded by a sergeant. Three rifle squads to a platoon commanded by a Lt.. Three rifle platoons to a company commanded by a Capt. Three companies to a battalion commanded by a Lt Col. etc. Team: Four individual Marines assigned to a specific team (Three team members, plus the team leader). Squad: Three Teams are assigned to a sp ecific squad. Platoon: Three squads are usually assigned to a specific platoon. Company (or Battery): Three platoons are assigned to a Company (sometimes called a battery).The Company/battery is the lowest level of command with a headquarters element (example, a Company Commander, or Company First Sergeant). Battalion: Three companies/batteries are assigned to form a battery a battalion. Regiment: Three battalions form a Regiment (Sometimes called a Brigade). Division: Three Brigades are assigned to make up a Division. Marine Corps: Three or more divisions make up the Marine Corps. MEU: In addition to the above, there are also MEUs (Marine Expeditionary Unit). With a strength of about 2,200 personnel, the MEU is normally built round a reinforced battalion, a composite aircraft squadron, and by a MEU Service Support group. Commanded by a colonel, the MEU is employed to fulfill routine forward deployments with fleets in the Mediterranean, the Western Pacific, and periodically, the Atl antic and Indian Oceans. The MEU is deployed on up to four Naval amphibious ships. The ground combat element (GCE) is the battalion landing team (BLT), an infantry battalion reinforced with artillery, amphibious assault vehicles, light armored reconnaissance assets and other units as the mission and circumstances require.The aviation combat element (ACE) is a Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron augmented with four types of helicopters into a composite squadron. These units include CH-53E â€Å"Super Stallions,† CH-46E â€Å"Sea Knights,† UH-1N â€Å"Hueys,† and AH-1W â€Å"Super Cobras. † Ace assets may also include the fixed-wing aircraft such as the AV-8B â€Å"Harrier† jet. The combat service support element is the MEU Service Support Group (MSSG) formed primarily from force service support groups assets. The MSSG contains all the logistics specialists necessary to keep the GCE, ACE and organic equipment functioning.Included within the MSSG are me dical, dental, maintenance, engineering, and other technical experts. The command element (CE) provides command and control of the other three elements. In addition to the MEU commander and his supporting staff, the CE includes specialized detachments providing a direct action capability, naval gunfire liaison capability, reconnaissance, and surveillance and specialized communications and electronics warfare capabilities. Marine Aviation The Marines structure their aviation commands a little differently. The structure for aviation commands are: Squadron: (applied to flying & non-flying units).In aircraft squadrons, the number of aircraft varies from 4 – 24, depending on the type of squadron. Non-flying squadrons include Marine Aviation Logistics Sqns (supply), Marine Wing Support Sqns (construction), Marine Air Control Sqns (air defense), Marine Air Support Sqns (Airfield control), Marine Tactical Air Command Sqns, Marine Wing Communications Sqns, Marine Wing Headquarters Sqn s (Admin). Group: (3 or more squadrons) Includes Marine Aircraft Group (MAG), Marine Wing Support Group (MWSG), Marine Air Control Group (MACG). The MAGs are usually all helo or all fixed-wing (MAG-36 in Okinawa has a KC-130 sqn attached)Wing: 3+ Groups. 2 or more MAGs + MWSG, MACG. For example, 1st MAW has 1 fixed-wing MAG (MAG-12)+ 2 helo MAG (MAG-36 + Aviation Support Element, Kaneohe). 2nd & 3rd MAW each have 2 fixed-wing + 2 helo MAGs. 4th MAW (Reserves) has 4 mixed MAGs There is no set size (number of troops) assigned to any specific element. The size of an element of command depends primarily upon the type of unit and mission. For example, an aviation squadron would have a different number of troops assigned than an infantry company because it has a different mission, different equipment, and therefore different requirements. Chain of Command With out the chain of command there would be no real order in how we as a whole work. The purpose of the chain of command is to tell people what they can and cannot do. So why we as a grown adults follow the chain of command, it is simple we choose to because of the fact that we raised are right hand and said yes I will. No matter how much we disagree with someone or something we should do it and then ask questions later that is the purpose of the chain without it what would we be.Consequences for disobeying the chain of command inside of the US Army are endless from as small as corrective training, verbal counseling, to being negatively counseled or given an Article 15. No matter what the circumstance's may be you should not go to someone outside of your chain of command first. Even if they are trying to help you, its still not following your chain of command. The people that should find out first about any problem is your NCO. For many reasons.One of the purposes of the chain of co mmand is to keep everyone informed of the situation at hand. The importance of the chain of command is that it provides stability when incidents come about that need to be dealt with. It sets up the structure for which you report all good and bad things, accidents, mistakes, tardiness and so on. All incidents in essence are intended to be dealt with on the lowest level before it is brought up to higher personnel as well as other reasons.It helps build leadership responsibility and common knowledge of how to run a stable work place. It helps people who are or would not normally be able to take control of situations and control how things are ran they can they can take control and help whoever it is with the problem. The chain of command allows for a problems to be dealt with on lower level and try to help this Marine with whatever issues they might be having. This is where the chain of command really starts to come into play.When a problem cannot be solved then the next higher up wil l attempt so on and so forth until every and all options have been attempted or tried is when you go to the top of the chain of command and have them deal with it how they feel is necessary. Other reasons the chain of command is important is that for instance there is an accident, health issue or personal problem. Someone needs to know what is wrong and where you’re at. Accountability is very important, not just to make sure you’re not Unaccounted for, to ensure that you are alive and well.You should follow your chain of command for the simple fact that alot of the problems or consequences of an incident could be lessened or the incident could not have any at all. Notifying your chain of command is not always beneficial meaning you get in trouble but they can start to figure out how to fix the problem. It is certainly more beneficial to you then trying to go around or above them and they find out that you tried to do this you be in alot more trouble than you probably w ould have been in the first place, again facing either corrective training, verbal counseling, negative counseling or Article 15.That was the way the chain of command is supposed to work even though we all in the military service know that fifty percent of the time it does not go that way because of the new regulations and all of this open door policy stuff yes that is a good way of alerting your chain of command of things you feel are wrong with the section of the chain that is directly above you. Yes, it is a good way to use the chain of command but always alert your immediate chain of command that you wish to speak to a higher level of the chain before you just up and do it for the simple fact that if you do jump the chain and no one knows.When that higher ups come and talk to the NCO’s you’ll get into trouble for not notifying your chain of your actions and hurting your purpose of what you may have been doing or tried accomplishing. The Chain of Command is simply c onstructed however. IF you have a problem or you want to attempt to get paperwork or have something done. You must first Go to your first line Supervisor, Which is normally your Team leader, but in some cases it may end up being your Squad Leader.But from your First line supervisor, it goes on up to the Squad leader, then Platoon Sergeant or Platoon Leader (again, all depends on your platoons’ structure). From there it works it way up to the Company First Sergeant, then Company Commander, From there it continues up the chain of command, to your Battalion Command Sergeant Major, Battalion Commander. Then to the respective Brigade CSM and Commander, up to Division, and so on. Until it hit the top and the Commander in chief, The President of the United States. Chain of Command I'm often asked what the elements of command are for the U. S. Marine Corps. Much of the below information was provided by apacherat, a member of our message forum, and a former Marine (actually, there is no such thing as a â€Å"former† Marine): The Marine Corps has the â€Å"RULE of THREE. † I believe it was invented during the Anna Wars by Edison who invented the fire team concept that is used today. In a nutshell, the rule is this: each Marine has three things to worry about. Three men to a fire team commanded by a Corporal (so there are actually a total of four on the team, when you count the team leader).Three fire teams to a rifle squad commanded by a sergeant. Three rifle squads to a platoon commanded by a Lt.. Three rifle platoons to a company commanded by a Capt. Three companies to a battalion commanded by a Lt Col. etc. Team: Four individual Marines assigned to a specific team (Three team members, plus the team leader). Squad: Three Teams are assigned to a sp ecific squad. Platoon: Three squads are usually assigned to a specific platoon. Company (or Battery): Three platoons are assigned to a Company (sometimes called a battery).The Company/battery is the lowest level of command with a headquarters element (example, a Company Commander, or Company First Sergeant). Battalion: Three companies/batteries are assigned to form a battery a battalion. Regiment: Three battalions form a Regiment (Sometimes called a Brigade). Division: Three Brigades are assigned to make up a Division. Marine Corps: Three or more divisions make up the Marine Corps. MEU: In addition to the above, there are also MEUs (Marine Expeditionary Unit). With a strength of about 2,200 personnel, the MEU is normally built round a reinforced battalion, a composite aircraft squadron, and by a MEU Service Support group. Commanded by a colonel, the MEU is employed to fulfill routine forward deployments with fleets in the Mediterranean, the Western Pacific, and periodically, the Atl antic and Indian Oceans. The MEU is deployed on up to four Naval amphibious ships. The ground combat element (GCE) is the battalion landing team (BLT), an infantry battalion reinforced with artillery, amphibious assault vehicles, light armored reconnaissance assets and other units as the mission and circumstances require.The aviation combat element (ACE) is a Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron augmented with four types of helicopters into a composite squadron. These units include CH-53E â€Å"Super Stallions,† CH-46E â€Å"Sea Knights,† UH-1N â€Å"Hueys,† and AH-1W â€Å"Super Cobras. † Ace assets may also include the fixed-wing aircraft such as the AV-8B â€Å"Harrier† jet. The combat service support element is the MEU Service Support Group (MSSG) formed primarily from force service support groups assets. The MSSG contains all the logistics specialists necessary to keep the GCE, ACE and organic equipment functioning.Included within the MSSG are me dical, dental, maintenance, engineering, and other technical experts. The command element (CE) provides command and control of the other three elements. In addition to the MEU commander and his supporting staff, the CE includes specialized detachments providing a direct action capability, naval gunfire liaison capability, reconnaissance, and surveillance and specialized communications and electronics warfare capabilities. Marine Aviation The Marines structure their aviation commands a little differently. The structure for aviation commands are: Squadron: (applied to flying & non-flying units).In aircraft squadrons, the number of aircraft varies from 4 – 24, depending on the type of squadron. Non-flying squadrons include Marine Aviation Logistics Sqns (supply), Marine Wing Support Sqns (construction), Marine Air Control Sqns (air defense), Marine Air Support Sqns (Airfield control), Marine Tactical Air Command Sqns, Marine Wing Communications Sqns, Marine Wing Headquarters Sqn s (Admin). Group: (3 or more squadrons) Includes Marine Aircraft Group (MAG), Marine Wing Support Group (MWSG), Marine Air Control Group (MACG). The MAGs are usually all helo or all fixed-wing (MAG-36 in Okinawa has a KC-130 sqn attached)Wing: 3+ Groups. 2 or more MAGs + MWSG, MACG. For example, 1st MAW has 1 fixed-wing MAG (MAG-12)+ 2 helo MAG (MAG-36 + Aviation Support Element, Kaneohe). 2nd & 3rd MAW each have 2 fixed-wing + 2 helo MAGs. 4th MAW (Reserves) has 4 mixed MAGs There is no set size (number of troops) assigned to any specific element. The size of an element of command depends primarily upon the type of unit and mission. For example, an aviation squadron would have a different number of troops assigned than an infantry company because it has a different mission, different equipment, and therefore different requirements.

Report on Mobile Banking

Table of content Tropic Introduction Part Introduction of the Report Mobile Banking Background Challenges for a Mobile Banking Solution Basic Mobile Banking Technologies Objectives of the Study Methodology of the Report Literature Review Analysis Part History of Mobile Banking in Bangladesh History of Mobile Banking in Abroad Features/Mobile Banking Services Advantages of Mobile Banking disadvantages of Mobile Banking Future Prospect of Mobile banking in Bangladesh: Current position of Bangladesh Findings & Recommendations Findings of the Report Recommendations of the study Conclusion Conclusion of the reportBibliography Reference Introduction Mobile Banking: Mobile banking (also known as M-Banking, m-banking, SMS Banking) is a term used for performing balance checks, account transactions, payments, credit applications and other banking transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). The earliest mobile banking services were offered ov er SMS. With the introduction of the first primitive smart phones with WAP support enabling the use of the mobile web in 1999, the first European banks started to offer mobile banking on this platform to their customers.Mobile banking has until recently (2010) most often been performed via SMS or the Mobile Web. Apple's initial success with i-Phone and the rapid growth of phones based on Google's Android (operating system) have led to increasing use of special client programs, called apps, downloaded to the mobile device. A mobile banking conceptual model: In one academic model, mobile banking is defined as: Mobile Banking refers to provision and a ailment of banking and financial services with the help of mobile telecommunication devices.The scope of offered services may include facilities to conduct bank and stock market transactions, to administer accounts and to access customized information. According to this model Mobile Banking can be said to consist of three inter-related co ncepts: Mobile Accounting Mobile Brokerage Mobile Financial Information Services Most services in the categories designated Accounting and Brokerage are transaction- based. The non-transaction-based services of an informational nature are however essential for conducting transactions for instance, balance inquiries might be needed before committing a money remittance.The accounting and brokerage services are therefore offered invariably in combination with information services. Information services, on the other hand, may be offered as an independent module. Mobile phone banking may also be used to help in business given situations: Trends in mobile banking: Over the last few years, the mobile and wireless market has been one of the fastest growing markets in the world and it is still growing at a rapid pace. According to the GSM Association and Ovum, the number of mobile subscribers exceeded 2 billion in September 2005, and now exceeds 2. billion (of which more than 2 billion are G SM). According to a study by financial consultancy Client, 35% of online banking households will be using mobile banking by 2010, up from less than 1% today. Upwards of 70% of bank center call volume is projected to come from mobile phones. Mobile banking will eventually allow users to make payments at the physical point of sale. â€Å"Mobile contact less payments† will make up 10% of the contact less market by 2010. Another study from 2010 by Berg Insight forecasts that the number of mobile banking users in the US will grow from 12 million in 2009 to 86 million in 2015.The same study also predicts that the European market will grow from 7 million mobile banking users in 2009 to 115 million users in 2015. Many believe that mobile users have just started to fully utilize the data capabilities in their mobile phones. In Asian countries like India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines, where mobile infrastructure is comparatively better than the fixed-line infrastructure , and in European countries, where mobile phone penetration is very high (at least 80% of consumers use a mobile phone), mobile banking is likely to appeal even more.Mobile banking business models: A wide spectrum of Mobile banking models is evolving. However, no matter what business model, if mobile banking is being used to attract low-income populations in often rural locations, the business model will depend on banking agents, i. e. , retail or postal outlets that process financial transactions on behalf telcos or banks. The banking agent is an important part of the mobile banking business model since customer care, service quality, and cash management will depend on them.Many telcos will work through their local airtime resellers. However, banks in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and other markets use pharmacies, bakeries, etc. These models differ primarily on the question that who will establish the relationship (account opening, deposit taking, lending etc. ) to the end customer, the Bank or the Non- Bank/Telecommunication Company (Telco). Another difference lies in the nature of agency agreement between bank and the Non-Bank.Models of branchless banking can be classified into three broad categories – Bank Focused, Bank-Led and Nonbank-Led. Bank-focused model: The bank-focused model emerges when a traditional bank uses non-traditional low-cost delivery channels to provide banking services to its existing customers. Examples- range from use of automatic teller machines (ATMs) to internet banking or mobile phone banking to provide certain limited banking services to banks’ customers. This model is additive in nature and may be seen as a modest extension of conventional branch-based banking.Bank-led model: The bank-led model offers a distinct alternative to conventional branch-based banking in that customer conducts financial transactions at a whole range of retail agents (or through mobile phone) instead of at bank branches or through bank employees. This model promises the potential to substantially increase the financial services outreach by using a different delivery channel (retailers/ mobile phones), a different trade partner (telco / chain store) having experience and target market distinct from traditional banks, and may be significantly cheaper than the bank-based alternatives.Non-bank-led model: The non-bank-led model is where a bank has a limited role in the day-to-day account management. Typically its role in this model is limited to safekeeping of funds. Account management functions are conducted by a non-bank (e. g. telco) who has direct contact with individual customers. Mobile Banking Background: A woman counts her cash after a withdrawal from the first cash point machine in London, in 1967. For 30 years, financial institutions have been on a quest to satisfy their customers’ need for more convenience.First came the automated teller machine (ATM), which New York’s Chemical Bank introduced to the Ame rican public in 1969. It did little more than dispense cash at first, but the ATM evolved over time to become a true bank-away-from- bank, providing a full suite of financial transactions. Then come Internet banking in the mid-1990s, which enabled consumers to access their financial accounts using a home computer with an Internet connection. Despite its promise of ultimate convenience, online banking saw slow and tentative growth as banks worked out technology issues and built consumer trust.Today, Internet banking has reached a critical mass, with about 35 percent of U. S. households conducting bank transactions online. Not so with mobile phones. They can be carried anywhere and are — by an enormous number of people. More than 238 million people in the U. S. have mobile phones. That’s a whopping 78 percent of the population. And worldwide there are more than 3. 25 billion mobile phone subscribers, with penetration topping 100 percent in Europe. If mobile phones only d elivered voice data, then their use as a vehicle to deliver banking services would be limited.Most phones, however, also provide text-messaging capabilities, and a growing number are Web-enabled. That makes the mobile phone an ideal medium through which banks can deliver a wide variety of services. Banks classify these services based on how information flows. A pull transaction is one in which a mobile phone user actively requests a service or information from the bank. For example, inquiring about an account balance is a pull transaction. So is transferring funds, paying a bill or requesting a transaction history.Because banks must respond or take some action based on the user request, pull transactions are considered two-way exchanges. A push transaction, on the other hand, is one in which the bank sends information based on a set of rules. A minimum balance alert is a good example of a push transaction. The customer defines the rule — â€Å"Tell me when my balance gets be low $100† — and the bank generates an automatic message any time that rule applies. Similar alerts can be sent whenever there is a debit transaction or a bill payment. As these examples illustrate, push transactions are generally one way, from he bank to the customer. We can also classify mobile banking based on the nature of the service: Transaction-based services, such as a funds transfer or a bill payment, involve movement of funds from one source to another. Inquiry-based services don’t. They simply require a response to a user query. The chart below summarizes these various types of mobile banking services: Push Pull Funds transfer Transaction Bill payment Share trade Check order Minimum balance Account balance inquiry Inquiry alert Account statement inquiry Credit/debit alert Check status inquiry Bill payment alert Transaction historyClearly, push transactions are not as complex as their pull counterparts. Mobile banking solutions also vary in their degre e of complexity, and some only offer a fraction of the services you would find in a bricks-and-mortar branch. In this respect, mobile banking isn't always full-service banking. The factors that affect this are the type of phone being used, the service plan of the mobile subscriber and the technology framework of the bank. We’ll look at these technologies next. Challenges for a Mobile Banking Solution: Key challenges in developing sophisticated mobile banking applications are: Handset operability:There are a large number of different mobile phone devices and it is a big challenge for banks to offer mobile banking solution on any type of device. Some of these devices support Java ME and others support SIM Application Toolkit, a WAP browser, or only SMS. Initial interoperability issues however have been localized, with countries like India using portals like R-World to enable the limitations of low end java based phones, while focus on areas such as South Africa have defaulted t o the USSD as a basis of communication achievable with any phone.The desire for interoperability is largely dependent on the banks themselves, where installed applications (Java based or native) provide better security, are easier to use and allow development of more complex capabilities similar to those of internet banking while SMS can provide the basics but becomes difficult to operate with more complex transactions. There is a myth that there is a challenge of interoperability between mobile banking applications due to perceived lack of common technology standards for mobile banking.In practice it is too early in the service lifecycle for interoperability to be addressed within an individual country, as very few countries have more than one mobile banking service provider. In practice, banking interfaces are well defined and money movements between banks follow the IS0-8583 standard. As mobile banking matures, money movements between service providers will naturally adopt the sa me standards as in the banking world. On January 2009, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Banking Sub-Committee, chaired by CellTrust and VeriSign Inc. published the Mobile Banking Overview for financial institutions in which it discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Mobile Channel Platforms such as Short Message Services (SMS), Mobile Web, Mobile Client Applications, SMS with Mobile Web and Secure SMS. Security: Security of financial transactions, being executed from some remote location and transmission of financial information over the air, are the most complicated challenges that need to be addressed jointly by mobile application developers, wireless network service providers and the banks' IT departments.The following aspects need to be addressed to offer a secure infrastructure for financial transaction over wireless network: Physical part of the hand-held device. If the bank is offering smart-card based security, the physical security of the device is more important. Security of any thick-client application running on the device. In case the device is stolen, the hacker should require at least an ID/Password to access the application. Authentication of the device with service provider before initiating a transaction.This would ensure that unauthorized devices are not connected to perform financial transactions. User ID / Password authentication of bank’s customer. Encryption of the data being transmitted over the air. Encryption of the data that will be stored in device for later / off-line analysis by the customer. One-time passwords (OTP’s) is the latest tool used by financial and banking service providers in the fight against cyber fraud. Instead of relying on traditional memorized passwords, OTPs are requested by consumers each time they want to perform transactions using the online or mobile banking interface.When the request is received the password is sent to the consumer’s phone via SMS. The password is expired once it has been used or once its scheduled life-cycle has expired. Because of the concerns made explicit above, it is extremely important that SMS gateway providers can provide a decent quality of service for banks and financial institutions in regards to SMS services. Therefore, the provision of service level agreements (SLAs) is a requirement for this industry; it is necessary to give the bank customer delivery guarantees of all messages, as well as measurements on the speed of delivery, throughput, etc.SLAs give the service parameters in which a messaging solution is guaranteed to perform. Application distribution: Due to the nature of the connectivity between bank and its customers, it would be impractical to expect customers to regularly visit banks or connect to a web site for regular upgrade of their mobile banking application. It will be expected that the mobile application itself check the upgrades and updates and download necessary patches (so called â€Å"Over the Airâ €  updates). However, there could be many issues to implement this approach such as upgrade / synchronization of other dependent components.Basic Mobile Banking Technologies: There are four fundamental approaches to mobile banking. The first two rely on technologies that are standard features on almost all cell phones. Interactive Voice Response (IVR): If we have ever called our credit card issuer and meander through a confusion of prompts — â€Å"For English, press 1; for account information, press 2† — then you’re familiar with interactive voice response. In mobile banking, it works like this: Banks advertise a set of numbers to their customers. Customers dial an IVR number on their mobile phones. They are greeted by a stored electronic message followed by a menu of options. Customers select an option by pressing the corresponding number on their keypads. A text-to-speech program reads out the desired information. IVR is the least sophisticated an d the least â€Å"mobile† of all the solutions. In fact, it doesn’t require a mobile phone at all. It also only allows for inquiry-based transactions, so customers can’t use it for more advanced services. ObjectiveThis report focuses on the role of Mobile Banking and its potential to provide basic banking services to the vast majority of unbanked people in world. The rationale for M- banking as an appropriate tool for transforming banking stems from two observations; traditional retail banks do not deliver services tailored to fit the currently unbanked which has led to a gap in the market. Further, the fast diffusion of mobile telecom networks has enabled M-banking service operators to draw on the geographic coverage of mobile networks and diverse needs of the client base.Hence, the common assumption behind M- Banking ventures is the potential of mobile phones as a channel for undertaking financial transactions. The objective of the study is to take a fresh loo k at the current M-Banking experience in a selected number of countries using primary and secondary data from the existing pool of literature. Methodology The study has been done mainly based on primary and secondary sources of data or information. The first is an exploratory research based on secondary data obtained through the Net, books and related journals.Secondly, survey questionnaire was administered to empirically assess the level of adoption of m-banking in Bangladesh including different publications: (i) Bangladesh Institution of Bank Management (ii) Bank for International Standard Working (iii) Papers International and local Publications (iv) Different seminar papers (v) Information from Internet Data collection procedure Primary data sources: Primary data has been collected from Dhaka based some selected banks e. g. Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd. , BRAC Bank Ltd†¦ These banks are considered as the private commercial banks and foreign banks respectively.Primary data collecti ons are done by the interviewing method with proper questionnaire. Secondary data sources: Secondary data has been collected from different publication material and web site as well as the books and material from different libraries, the hand note of the various seminars. Literature Review El-Sherbini et al. (2007) Investigated the customers' perspectives of mobile banking, their perceived importance for it, usage patterns and problems rising on its utilization. The paper discussed the strategic implications of the research findings.Empirical data were gathered from bank customers in Kuwait to achieve the research objectives. All bank customers in Kuwait were considered as population of research interest. The results showed the perceived importance of internet banking services by customers, current and potential use of MB services in Kuwait and problems perceived by bank customers in using MB. The researchers' main hypothesis tested that top five services considered relative importa nt in Kuwait banks were â€Å"Review account balance†, â€Å"Obtain detailed transactions histories, â€Å"Open accounts†, Pay bills† and Transfer funds between own accounts†. Sathye (1999)Analyzed the factors affecting the adoption of Mobile banking by Australian consumers. His sample was from individual residents and business firms in Australia. The study focused on the capital cities where use of mobile internet and population was likely to be high. White and yellow pages were used as the frame of reference for personal and business customers, respectively. The findings suggest that security concerns and lack of awareness about mobile banking and its benefits stand out as being the obstacles to the adoption of mobile banking in Australia. He also suggests some of the ways to address these impediments.Further, he suggests that delivery of financial services over the Internet should be a part of overall customer service and distribution strategy. These me asures could help in rapid migration of customers to mobile Internet banking, resulting in considerable savings in operating costs for banks. Rotchanakitumanuai and Speece (2003) Investigated why corporate customers do not accept mobile banking, which can assist banks to implement this self-service technology more efficiently. Many Thai banks are currently implementing mobile banking. Banks that offer service via this channel claim that it reduces costs and makes them more competitive.However, many corporate customers are not highly enthusiastic about mobile banking. They used in-depth qualitative interviews methodology for collecting their data. The interviews with Thai firms suggested that security of the Internet is a major factor inhibiting wider adoption. Those already using Internet banking seem to have more confidence that the system is reliable, whereas non-users are much more service conscious, and do not trust financial transactions made via Internet channels. Non-mobile b anking users tend to have more negative management attitudes toward adoption and are more likely to claim lack of resources.Legal support is also a major barrier to Internet banking adoption for corporate customers. Ahmed Ali said†¦ I think I should clarify some of the suggestions you gave. 1. I agree that GP should have an option to link to bank accounts. But until now they have refused to allow such a link. 8 Banks already have this technology but GP has prevented them from serving GP customers. Banks have taken the initiative but GP has stopped it just because they can and thinking that their proposal will pass. 2. Yes GP will not pay interest. But that doesn't stop GP from earning interest on this money (the simply put it together and put it in a FDR) 3.As much as GP wants you to belive, Bangladesh isn't the only country where there are more mobile users than bank users. (I will get into that in another article). None of those countries are considering GP's version of mobil e banking. 4. Short term deposits are more crucial to the banking industry than what you estimate. Nowhere in the world has a mobile company been put in charge of short term deposits. GP clearly didn't have good intentions. Otherwise all the foreign banks wouldn't group with local banks to oppose this outlandish proposal. Again this is not only me that feel this way.The entire world acted in opposition to GP's Mobile Banking Thesis. GP's Mobile Banking is not the same as ‘Mobile Banking' History of Mobile Banking in Bangladesh â€Å"Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited† (DBBL) has for the first time introduced its mobile banking service expanding the banking service from cities to remote areas. Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman yesterday inaugurated the service by depositing Tk 2,000 and withdrawing Tk 1,500 through Banglalink and Citycell mobile networks in Motijheel area. Bangladesh Bank has already allowed 10 banks to initiate mobile banking. Of them DBBL kicked off first. Mobile banking is an alternative to the traditional banking through which banking service can be reached at the doorsteps of the deprived section of the society,† the central bank governor said at an inaugural press briefing at Hotel Purbani. Atiur Rahman said through mobile banking various banking services including depositing and withdrawing money, payment of utility bills and reaching remittance to the recipient would be possible. By going to the DBBL-approved Citycell and Banglalink agents throughout the country the subscribers on showing necessary papers and payment of a fee of Tk 10 can open an account.To avail of the banking service a subscriber will require owning a cell phone of any provider and he will be given a four-digit PIN. By using the PIN he can operate all types of banking services including depositing and withdrawing money maintaining security and secrecy of his account. The customer will hand over cash to the agent and the agent will initiate the transactio n from his mobile phone, the agent will help the account holder to do the banking using his PIN. A customer can deposit or withdraw money five times a day and he can deposit or draw Tk 5,000 per day.One percent of the transaction account or Tk 5, whichever is higher, will be taken as cash-in-charges. In case of cash out the charge will be 2 percent of the transaction amount or Tk 10. However, the registration fee, salary and remittance disbursement services will be provided free of cost. Features/Services of DBBL Mobile Banking: Customer Registration Cash-in (cash deposit) Cash-out (cash withdrawal) Merchant Payment Utility Payment Salary Disbursement Foreign Remittance Air-time Top-up Fund Transfer BRAC Bank Limited† is set to introduce mobile banking secondly, a top official said the service will enable millions of banked and unbanked people to deposit, withdraw and transfer money through mobile phones. BKash, a joint venture between BRAC Bank and US-based Money in Motion, will provide mobile banking with a fully encrypted VISA technology platform for transactions through mobile phones. Any mobile user can register and open up a bKash account and then do transactions through their mobile phones in easy, convenient and reliable way. bKash will fundamentally change the way people now do transactions, as all transactions will be possible through mobile phones in future,† said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of the bank. â€Å"Customers will not need to come to the bank; rather the bank will go to them,† he said at a press conference in Dhaka on the occasion of its 10th founding anniversary. The bank said a bKash account will act as a digital mobile wallet and anybody can take the service. â€Å"Your mobile phone will become your wallet. Customers can get financial services through phones, even by the handset that costs the lowest,† Rahman said.Under a partnership with UNDP and Local Government Division, bKash is rollin g out mobile banking in 4,501 union parishads in the country. bKash has already signed a deal with a leading mobile operator and is in talks with others to enable all mobile users — currently around 7. 5 crore — to have individual digital wallets, said Mamdudur Rashid, deputy managing director of the bank. BRAC Bank launched its operation 10 years back with the objective of bringing unbanked people under formal banking coverage. The business model of the bank is to mobilise deposits from urban areas and disburse it to rural areas.The country's youngest bank has already set some records: it has acquired over 12 lakh customers, bringing full banking services not only to small and medium enterprises, but all strata of the banking industry, said the bank â€Å"Being the youngest Bangladeshi bank, we have emerged as the largest SME bank serving about 3. 65 lakh entrepreneurs at grassroots level, an achievement that helped global recognition for this Bangladeshi bank,† said Rashid The bank believes in 3P philosophy — people, planet and profit and has been active in Green banking.It has already turned 22 of its SME Unit Offices solar-powered and plans to convert the rest in the same manner by 2012. History of Mobile Banking in Abroad: Improving access to financial services, such as savings, deposits, insurance and remittances, is vital to reducing poverty. Savings can help poor people to invest in productive assets like livestock, a loan may help to expand business activities, and insurance can provide income for a family if a breadwinner becomes sick. In many developing countries, however, 9 out of 10 people do not have a bank account or access to basic financial services.Poor people are often not considered viable customers by the formal financial sector as their transaction sizes are small, and many live in remote areas beyond the reach of banks branch networks. Informal banking services such as microfinance and village savings and loan associations remain limited in their reach. The first mobile banking and payment initiatives were announced during 1999 (the same year that Fundamo deployed their first prototype). The first major deployment was made by a company called Pay box (largely supported financially by Deutsche Bank).The company was founded by two young German’s (Mathias Entemann and Eckart Ortwein) and successfully deployed the solution in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Spain and the UK. At about 2003 more than a million people were registered on Pay box and the company were rated by Gartner as the leader in the field. Unfortunately Deutsche Bank withdraws their financial support and the company had to reorganise quickly. All but the operations in Austria closed down. Another early starter and also identified as a leader in the field was a Spanish initiative (backed by BBVA and Telephonica), called Mobi Pago.The name was later changed to Mobi Pay and all banks and mobile operators in Spain were invited to join. The product was launched in 2003 and many retailers were acquired to accept the special USSD payment confirmation. Because of the complex shareholding and the constant political challenges of the different owners, the product never fulfilled the promise that it had. With no marketing support and no compelling reason for adoption, this initiative is floundering at the moment. Many other large players announced initiatives and ran pilots with big fanfare, but never showed traction and all initiatives were ultimately discontinued.Some of the early examples are the famous vending machines at the Helsinki airport supported by a system from Nokia. Siemens made announcements in conjunction with listed and high-flying German e-commerce company, Brokat. Brokat also won the lucrative Vodafone contract in 2002, but crashed soon afterwards when it runs out of funds. Israel (as can be expected) produced a large number of mobile payment start-ups. Of the many, only one survived – Trivnet. Others like Adamtech (with a technically sound solution called Cell pay) and Paytt disappeared after a number of pilots but without any successful production deployments.Initiatives in Norway, Sweden and France never got traction. France Telecom launched an ambitious product based on a special mobile phone with an integrated card reader. The solution worked well, but never became popular because of the unattractive, special phone that participants needed in order to perform these payments. Since 2004, mobile banking and payment industry has come of age. Successful deployments with positive business cases and big strategic impact have been seen recently. Features/Mobile Banking Services (In General):Mobile banking can offer services such as the following: 1) Account Information: Mini-statements and checking of account history Alerts on account activity or passing of set thresholds Monitoring of term deposits Access to loan statements Access to card statements Mutual fu nds / equity statements Insurance policy management Pension plan management 2) Payment, Deposits, Withdrawals & Transfers: Domestic and international fund transfers Micro-payment handling Mobile recharging Commercial payment processing Bill payment processingA specific sequence of SMS messages will enable the system to verify if the client has sufficient funds in his or her wallet and authorize a deposit or withdrawal transaction at the agent. When depositing money, the merchant receives cash and the system credits the client's bank account or mobile wallet. In the same way the client can also withdraw money at the merchant: through exchanging sms to provide authorization, the merchant hands the client cash and debits the merchant's account. 3) Investments: Portfolio management services Real-time stock quotes Personalized alerts and notifications on security prices 4) Support: ? Status of requests for credit, including mortgage approval, and insurance coverage Check (cheq ue) book and card requests Exchange of data messages and email, including complaint submission and tracking 5) Content Services: General information such as weather updates, news Loyalty-related offers Location-based services Based on a survey conducted by Forrester, mobile banking will be attractive mainly to the younger, more â€Å"tech-savvy† customer segment. A third of mobile phone users say that they may consider performing some kind of financial transaction through their mobile phone.But most of the users are interested in performing basic transactions such as querying for account balance and making bill payment. Advantages of Mobile Banking: The biggest advantage that mobile banking offers to banks is that it drastically cuts down the costs of providing service to the customers. For example an average teller or phone transaction costs about $2. 36 each, whereas an electronic transaction costs only about $0. 10 each. Additionally, this new channel gives the bank ab ility to cross-sell up-sell their other complex banking products and services such as vehicle loans, credit cards etc.For service providers, Mobile banking offers the next surest way to achieve growth. Countries like Korea where mobile penetration is nearing saturation, mobile banking is helping service providers increase revenues from the now static subscriber base. Service providers are increasingly using the complexity of their supported mobile banking services to attract new customers and retain old ones. A very effective way of improving customer service could be to inform customers better. Credit card fraud is one such area.A bank could, through the use of mobile technology, inform owners each time purchases above a certain value have been made on their card. This way the owner is always informed when their card is used, and how much money was taken for each transaction. Similarly, the bank could remind customers of outstanding loan repayment dates, dates for the payment of mo nthly installments or simply tell them that a bill has been presented and is up for payment. The customers can then check their balance on the phone and authorize the required amounts for payment. The customers can also request for additional information.They can automatically view deposits and withdrawals as they occur and also pre- schedule payments to be made or cheques to be issued. Similarly, one could also request for services like stop cheque or issue of a cheque book over one’s mobile phone. There are number of reasons that should persuade banks in favor of mobile phones. They are set to become a crucial part of the total banking services experience for the customers. Also, they have the potential to bring down costs for the bank itself. Through mobile messaging and other such interfaces, banks provide value added services to the customer at marginal costs.Such messages also bear the virtue of being targeted and personal making the services offered more effective. The y will also carry better results on account of better customer profiling. Yet another benefit is the anywhere/anytime characteristics of mobile services. A mobile is almost always with the customer. As such it can be used over a vast geographical area. The customer does not have to visit the bank ATM or a branch to avail of the bank’s services. Research indicates that the number of footfalls at a bank’s branch has fallen down drastically after the installation of ATMs.As such with mobile services, a bank will need to hire even less employees as people will no longer need to visit bank branches apart from certain occasions. With Indian telecom operators working on offering services like money transaction over a mobile, it may soon be possible for a bank to offer phone based credit systems. This will make credit cards redundant and also aid in checking credit card fraud apart from offering enhanced customer convenience. The use of mobile technologies is thus a winwin pro position for both the banks and the bank’s customers.The banks add to this personalized communication through the process of automation. For instance, if the customer asks for his account or card balance after conducting a transaction, the installed software can send him an automated reply informing of the same. These automated replies thus save the bank the need to hire additional employees for servicing customer needs. Disadvantages of Mobile Banking: Security: Security experts generally agree that mobile banking is safer than computer banking because very few viruses and Trojans exist for phones.That does not mean mobile banking is immune to security threats, however. Mobile users are especially susceptible to a phishing-like scam called â€Å"smishing. † It happens when a mobile banking user receives a fake text message asking for bank account details from a hacker posing as a financial institution. Many people have fallen for this trick and had money stolen throug h this scam. Online banking is usually done through an encrypted connection so that hackers cannot read transmitted data, but consider the consequences if your mobile device is stolen.While all banking applications require us to enter a password or PIN, many people configure their mobile devices to save passwords, or use insecure passwords and PINs that are easy to guess. Compatibility: We need a smart phone to get the most out of mobile banking. Mobile banking is not available on every device. Some banks do not provide mobile banking at all. Others require you to use a custom mobile banking application only available on the most popular smart phones, such as the Apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry. Third-party mobile banking software is not always supported.If we do not own a smart phone, the types of mobile banking we can do are usually limited. Checking bank account balances via text message is not a problem, but more advanced features such as account transfers are generally not avai lable to users of â€Å"dumb phones. † Cost: The cost of mobile banking might not appear significant if we already have a compatible device, but we still need to pay data and text messaging fees. Some financial institutions charge an extra fee for mobile banking service, and we may need to pay a fee for software.These extra charges quickly add up, especially if we access mobile banking. Future Prospect of Mobile banking in Bangladesh: Based on the ‘International Review of Business Research Papers' from World business Institute, Australia, following are the key functional trends possible in world of Mobile Banking. With the advent of technology and increasing use of smart phone and tablet based devices, the use of Mobile Banking functionality would enable customer connect across entire customer life cycle much comprehensively than before.With this scenario, current mobile banking objectives of say building relationships, reducing cost, achieving new revenue stream will t ransform to enable new objectives targeting higher level goals such as building brand of the banking organization. Emerging technology and functionalities would enable to create new ways of lead generation, prospecting as well as developing deep customer relationship and mobile banking world would achieve superior customer experience with bi-directional communications.Illustration of objective based functionality enrichment In Mobile Banking Communication enrichment: – Video Interaction with agents, advisors. Pervasive Transactions capabilities: – Comprehensive â€Å"Mobile wallet† Customer Education: – â€Å"Test drive† for demos of banking services Connect with new customer segment: – Connect with Gen Y – Gen Z using games and social network ambushed to surrogate bank’s offerings Content monetization: – Micro level revenue themes such as music, e-book download Vertical positioning: – Positioning offerings over m obile banking specific industriesHorizontal positioning: – Positioning offerings over mobile banking across all the industries Personalization of corporate banking services: – Personalization experience for multiple roles and hierarchies in corporate banking as against the vanilla based segment based enhancements in the current context. Build Brand: – Built the bank’s brand while enhancing the â€Å"Mobile real estate†. Current position of Bangladesh: Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) is the first bank in Bangladesh, who introduced mobile banking service to bring poor people from remote area under smart banking service.Bangladesh Bank has already allowed 10 banks to initiate mobile banking with the aim to connect the deprived section of the society with the modern banking system; DBBL is the first runner among of them. DBBL is operating this new innovative banking service through Banglalink and Citycell mobile operator and their approved agents thro ughout the country. One can create a bank account visiting any of the approved agents showing proper documents with a fee of Tk 10. Subscriber must own a mobile phone to get the service.Once the account is created, a 4 digit mobile banking PIN code will be provided to perform all sort of banking activities securely and secretly. Subscriber can withdraw and deposit cash amount from his mobile going to the agents and agents will guide and help the customers if there is any difficulty. Since, mobile network is extremely insecure and data are sent unencrypted, a customer can deposit or withdraw money five times a day and he can deposit or draw Tk 5,000 per day. One percent of the transaction amount or Tk 5, whichever is higher, will be taken as cash-in-charges.In case of cash out the charge will be 2 percent of the transaction amount or Tk 10. However, the registration fee, salary and remittance disbursement services will be provided free of cost. M-banking has become one of the most fa miliar banking service providing technologies in different western countries. Now-a-days billions of inhabitants of Bangladesh are within a network through mobile network coverage. But in the commercial sectors like banking, m-commerce technology has not been adopted broadly yet.Considering m- commerce perspective in Bangladesh a SMS based m-banking system has been proposed which is able to provide several essential banking services only sending SMS to bank server from any remote location. This proposed system is divided into five major phases: interfacing module, SMS technology adoption module, SMS banking registration module, service generation module, and data failover module. This system facilitates bank customers by providing four major services like balance enquiry , balance transfer between authenticated customers, DPS payment and bill payment without going to bank physically and save their precious time.At least, after evaluating each module of this developed system a satisf actory accuracy rate 93. 18 % is obtained. Findings In this assignment we can see some Findings Mobile Banking drastically cuts down the costs of providing service to the customers. Service providers are increasingly using the complexity of their supported mobile banking services to attract new customers and retain old ones. A very effective way of improving customer service could be to inform customers better. Credit card fraud is one such area.The banks add to this personalized communication through the process of automation. Mobile banking is not available on every device. Some banks do not provide mobile banking at al. The cost of mobile banking might not appear significant if we already have a compatible device, but we still need to pay data and text messaging fees. Recommendation In this assignment we have some suggestion about mobile banking All banks should provide this opportunity than mobile banking limitation can be reduced. Government should provide help about mobile b anking. ? Rules and Regulations must be stricken about mobile banking. Conclusion Mobile banking is suspended to become the big killer mobile application arena. However, banks going mobile the first time need to step the path cautiously. The biggest decision that banks need to make is the channel that they will support their services on. Mobile banking through an SMS based service would require the lowest amount of effort, in terms of cost and time, but will not be able to support the full breath of transaction-based services.However, in markets like India where a bulk of the mobile population users' phones can only support SMS based services, this might be the only option left. On the other hand a market heavily segmented by the type and complexity of mobile phone usage might be good place to roll of WAP based mobile applications. According to the Gartner Group, mobile banking services will have to support a minimum of 50 different device profiles in the near future. However, curre ntly the best user experience, depending on the capabilities of a mobile phone, is possible only by using a standalone client..Mobile Application based banking is poised to be a big m-commerce feature, and if South Korea's foray into mass mobile banking is any indication, mobile banking could well be the driving factor to increase sales of high-end mobile phones. Nevertheless, Bank's need to take a hard and deep look into the mobile usage patterns among their target customers and enable their mobile services on a technology with reaches out to the majority of their customers. Reference 1. www. google. om 2. www. answer. com 3. The Daily star-Friday, July 22, 2011 http://www. thedailystar. net/newDesign/news-details. php? nid=195176 4. Dutch bangle bank ltd Mobile banking http://www. dutchbanglabank. com/electronic_banking/mobile_banking. html 5. BRAC Bank mobile bank news. 6. Shirali S. and Shirali S. M. H. , â€Å"Mobile Banking Services in the Bank Area,† SICE Annual Confer ence, Kagawa University, Japan, pp. 2682- 2685, September 17-20, 2007. 7. Taiton Al. and Sorensen C. â€Å"Supporting Mobile Professional in Global Banking: The Role of Global ICT-Support Call Centers,† IEEE Transaction, Proceeding of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004. 8. Benamati, J. S. , ; Serva, M. A. (2007). Trust and distrust in online banking: Their role in developing countries. Information Technology for Development, 13(2), 161-175. 9. Brown, I. , Cajee, Z. , Davies, D. , ; Stroebel, S. (2003). Cell phone banking: Predictors of adoption in South Africa–an exploratory study. International Journal of Information Management, 23(5), 381-394. 0. Burt, R. S. (1992). Structural holes: The social structure of competition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 11. Castells, M. (1996). The rise of the network society (Vol. 1). Malden, MA: Blackwell. 12. Chipchase, J. , Persson, P. , Piippo, P. , Aarras, M. , & Yamamoto, T. (2005). Mobile ess entials: field study and concepting. Paper presented at the 2005 Conference on Designing for User eXperience. From http://portal. acm. org/citation. cfm? id=1138301 13. And many other PDF report on Mobile Banking collect from internet

Financial Aid Appeal Essay

Dear Office of Financial Aid, My name is ——– and I am writing to appeal my suspension from financial aid. I hope that you will reconsider your decision and grant my financial aid. I would like to begin thanking you in advance for taking the time to read this letter and consider my request to reinstate my financial aid at Metropolitan State University at Denver. I admit, I took so many credit hours in college, but I would like to explain the reason. As Spanish person, and because I speak English as a second language, I had to take ESL(English as a Second Language) classes for my first two years (four semesters) at CCD (Community College of Denver). The ESL program was not something that I had chosen, but something that I had to get done in order to follow my general education. I did not mean to spent so much time in college and take so many credit hours, but I did not have other options. Now that I have completed the ESL program, I feel so excited and motivated about taking regular classes. I love being student at Metropolitan State University at Denver and it would mean so much to me if I was able to finish my degree and graduate at this school. I already had completed most of general course, I’m done with my Math and some major course. I am currently registered for next spring 2013 classes and a few classes for the upcoming to get done with my degree. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and I assure you that my education is, and will continue to be, my main priority. I just hope you’d help me achieve my goals quicker by reinstating my Financial Aid. Thank you for your time and consideration.

The One Minute Manager Reaction Paper Essay

The One Minute Manager provides a concise and simple method for planning, coaching and evaluating people for organizational and personal success. For many, the book sets forth the principles for productive relationships between a manager and his or her associates. There are three different methods portrayed that will help employers and employees find such a relationship. The first is One Minute Goal Setting. The second is One Minute Praising. Lastly, the book suggests One Minute Reprimands. With these work ethics in practice, a friendly, more productive work place results for everyone. These three ideas will help simplify life, increase productivity, reduce stress and help the reader find peace of mind. One minute goals, one minute praising and one minute reprimands are ideas that if used effectively can help to increase ones success in life. These are the three different methods in One Minute Manager. The first one is the one minute goal is about being aware of what is expected from the beginning. It is recorded on a single sheet of paper and should only take one minute to read it. It can help your staff to produce efficient results. The second step in one minute management is to catch people doing something right or the one minute praising. It hardly takes a minute for you to tell someone that he or she did a good job. One minute praisings include praising the people immediately, telling them what they did right, how you feel about it and encourage them to do more of the same. And the third one is the One minute reprimands are given as soon as an employee does something wrong. One minute reprimand has three parts. One: praise them for their usual good work and reliability. Two: point out the error and let them know it’s unacceptable. Three: Remind them how much they’re capable of, and that you value them. And once it’s over, it’s over. One minute reprimands are highly effective because the feedback is immediate, unlike the annual reviews where you are charged for things committed several weeks or months ago. This book has helped me to understand how to become a good leader and a manager in the future. It shown me that by setting attainable one minute goals will keep the business moving forward and by giving one minute praising’s when the job is done right will help the business move forward and keep moral up in the work place. Also that if the job was done wrong and the goal is not obtained  you must give the one minute reprimand to get back on track and once the reprimand is over it’s over. If I will be a manager on my own business or become as an HR Manager in an organization someday. I will use these skills that I have learned to make my business and workers as efficient as possible. I will use these lessons as the base of my management and all new managers that work for me will take a course on one minute managing. This will allow me and my employees to enjoy more success with less stress.