FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
George M. Tomczyk, (716) 275-8189
Nadia Bolalek, (716) 273-4806
SIMON SCHOOL HOLDS FIRST CONFERENCE ON ELECTRONIC BANKING AND COMMERCE
Partners With Citigroup and Internet Business Leaders to Develop Competitive Strategies for Banking Industry
Rochester, N.Y.--March 24, 1999--In keeping with its reputation for innovation and relevant research, the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration held its first annual Conference on Electronic Banking and Commerce in New York City on February 11-12, 1999. Funded by an educational grant from Citigroup, the conference provided a unique opportunity for Internet business leaders, academicians and senior bankers to discuss the impact of high technology on the banking industry.
"Banks have always been leaders in the use of information technology; indeed, Citigroup has always been ahead of the curve," said conference co-chair Abraham Seidmann, Xerox Professor of Computers and Information Systems and Operations Management at the Simon School. "However, banks are now facing the entrance of Internet-based competitors to the financial services marketspace. These new entrants focus only on technology delivery channels--and not on 'personal relationship' issues like community branching and teller services--to capture business currently conducted by banks, such as securities trading, investment management, mortgages, leasing and small-business loans."
The challenge for money centers, according to Seidmann, is to reposition themselves and develop new channels that leverage on electronic commerce and the Internet, without cannibalizing their current sources of profitable business service delivery.
"It became very clear at the conference," said Seidmann, "that areas in banking such as lending, borrowing, bill-payment services and risk management are going to go through major changes in the next few years due to the rapid deployment of electronic commerce."
Conference participant Ed Horowitz, corporate executive vice president of Citibank, commented: "The transformation of the world economy through the introduction of global digital delivery channels requires new business models, strategies, organizations and leaders." With its planned series of annual conferences on electronic banking and commerce, Citigroup and the Simon School hope to lead the way in communicating the outcome of cutting-edge academic research to the banking community, thus enabling banks to find sophisticated and applicable ways of leveraging new technology to develop a sustainable competitive advantage.
"This is a pioneering conference model, where we listen as well as communicate," explained co-chair Rajiv M. Dewan, assistant professor of computers and information systems at the Simon School. "We have established an ongoing dialogue between academicians and the business community that will allow us to present our research and receive feedback on what does and doesn't work."
In addition to Citibank's Ed Horowitz, attendees at the first conference in February included Wendy Brown, vice president/strategy, America Online; Nicole Vanderbilt, group director/digital commerce, Jupiter Communications; Gregor S. Bailar, executive vice president and CIO, NASD Inc. Technology Services; Dean Charles I. Plosser, Simon School, University of Rochester; Professor Andrew Whinston, MSIS Department, University of Texas, Austin; and Professor Florian Zettelmeyer, University of California, Berkeley.
The next Simon School Conference on Electronic Banking and Commerce will take place in New York City in February 2000. For information on the conference series, please contact Professor Abraham Seidmann, (716) 275-5694, E-mail: [email protected] or Professor Rajiv M. Dewan, (716) 275-3827, E-mail: [email protected].
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The Simon School is ranked among the top 25 U.S. graduate schools of business by U.S. News & World Report in its March 1999 survey, and 21st among the top 50 business schools in North America and Europe by the Financial Times of London in its January 1999 survey. With one of the most highly regarded faculties in the country, the Simon School is one of the nation's premier research institutions. The School, recognized for its leading scholarship in management, employs a distinctive approach to business education because of its flexibility, innovation, youth, size, global outlook and vision.
Information about the Simon School is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ssb.rochester.edu
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