Standard Chartered Bank to use iPad to boost business

With more than 1800 branches in 70 plus countries, the Standard Chartered Bank is one the largest banks in the world. With vast experience in the leading markets of the world, the bank has realized that its customers like to bank without the restrictions of time, place or technology.

Therefore, the company plans to cash on the growing iPad and iPhone market. Apple in its press release - "iPad in Business", states that the bank is rapidly expanding its internal iPad usage to add a personal touch to customer service and simplify business.

Mary Huen, the Head of Consumer Banking, Hong Kong, stated, "Standard Chartered is at the forefront of innovation. The iPad helps us innovate by improving the way we interact with customers and provide services. Now we can be with our customers wherever they want to be in the branch.”

But why is it so important?  Because, with a fortune 500 company like Standard Chartered transferring all its business to the iPad, it is liable to raise some questions in anyone's mind.  Lets answer some of them. The epicenter of it all is -

Is it the way of the future? The answer is yes. Maybe not as it is shown in Sci Fi movies, but we are envisioning a future without PCs and Laptops. Tablets are surely the way of the future and yes, the old 'computers' are only becoming obsolete.

With the world recovering from the shock of the Citibank scam, questions like: How does it change things for me, as a consumer? Is it secure? Will my account be safe if it can be carried from one place to another?, crowd the mind. Standard Chartered earlier ventured into portable banking with a mobile banking app called Breeze. It also developed apps such as iNeeds and Tradeport to cater to its customers' demands in a much better way.

In regards with security, both Apple and Standard Chartered come packed with firewall like security. Apple with its features like VPN access and encryption and Standard Chartered using its Exchange Servers and security policies like the remote wipe, assure that the customer information is placed securely and safely at all times.

Talking about the partnership, the Group CIO, Jan Verplancke, said, “a lot of the things that we’re doing existed before, it’s just that you couldn't put them together in an easy way. And that has a value. We want to be on the forefront with devices that clearly are on the forefront of it all: iPhone and iPad".

With Standard Chartered showing the way, many other corporates are expected to follow suit and transfer their banking  to smart phones and tablets.