MONETT, Mo.–Symitar said it is introducing “Financial Innovations Voice Experience (FIVE),” a solution that will enable personal assisted and voice interaction devices, such as Amazon’s Echo or Microsoft’s Cortana, to act as banking touchpoints. The initiative was developed by Best Innovation Group (BIG).
BIG worked through Symitar’s services-based programming interface, SymXchange, to create an integration between these technologies and the Episys core processing platform that enables consumers to conduct routine online or mobile banking activity via voice commands, the company said. According to Symitar, through FIVE, members can engage with their credit union to:
- Ask about an account balance or pending payment.
- Begin the request for an additional account.
- Report a lost card or change of address.
- Make a payment or transfer money, among other things.
“Their virtual personal assistant would then perform the task and the associated core changes,” Symitar said in a statement.
“I believe that the next level of service isn’t about adding new channels, but about how we can enable the channels members are using to be more intuitive,” said John Best, president and CEO of BIG. “We were very pleased when Symitar understood our vision and helped bring it to life with an interface that greatly expedited our time to market.”
Symitar said its Episys solution is flexible and easy to integrate, even with emerging technologies such as Echo and Cortana, and that its SymXchange component enables credit unions and third parties to more easily access and personalize data and business rules.