Come gather 'round people, wherever you roam

As Mr. Dylan said, the times, they are a-changin'. I spent a good deal of one day last month on the telephone with various banks discussing their "brand new services": computer and telephone banking.

Before you scoff at me for being so backward as to believe that computer or telephone banking are "new" ideas, please remember, I'm in Canada. We have a system somewhat different from the US and I have no idea how progressive or backwards things are there (or anywhere else in the world). Here, there are only six major "chartered banks". This is a huge oversimplification, but basically, Canada has strict rules that a bank has to adhere to in order to get "bank" status. This (supposedly) makes the banks much more secure institutions and (definitely) keeps the number of them limited. Again, a gross oversimplification but...

Recently one of these "chartered banks" launched a massive television campaign with the classic, The Times They Are A-Changin', as background music (and you thought the Rolling Stones were the only ones who could be bought). Basically, the service that this bank is pushing is electronic banking from your home by phone, modem, Internet or even courier.

Shortly after these commercials were launched, I noticed another Canadian bank (that I deal with) is pushing its own brand of home-banking. After being deluged by the first bank's commercials and then seeing the second bank offering a similar service, I got interested. I called them and spent a while arranging to pay my various credit card and utility bills over the telephone and, when the software arrives, with my PC and modem. Now I can do all sorts of fancy stuff, in fact, pretty much everything short of getting cash through the telephone receiver.

Why bother, you ask? Sound like a worry coupled with a hassle? Well, as Bob said, if your time, to you is worth saving... The fees for telephone of computer transactions are the same as through an automated teller machine (less than the charge for writing a cheque) and the walk down to the bank machine can be very unpleasant during the winter here in Canada.

What does this have to do with OS/2? Well, as many of you already know, most of the automated bank machines in North America are basically PCs running OS/2. Not the flashy version of Warp 4 on my Desktop, but still OS/2. And stepping inside many banks in Canada (including the one I signed up with) will reveal that it's not just the bank machines running OS/2; loans officers, receptionists and others are using it. Again, you may be more likely to find OS/2 2.11 than Warp, but still...

So now that I've ordered my (free) software to interact with my bank's computer network (talk about a network vision of computing), guess what operating system I am required to have? Windows 3.x.

How much are the times a-changin'? Do you think a nationwide bank that uses OS/2 as a client extensively on its many networked computers will provide me with an OS/2 client for my computer? Probably not.

I knew the answer before I asked but I requested an OS/2 version of the software anyway. They didn't have one.

The reason for this is the same one that keeps OS/2 software out of many other markets. The software in question was written for the bank by a separate company (by IBM according to the information I received over the phone!) and the bank had to pay for it (I'm assuming). The bank logically asked for a version that will run on as many people's computers as possible. I can understand that, it's the same decision I would have made if I could afford to commission only one version of the software.

But think about it, this particular bank already has an OS/2 client running on its bank machines. They're not exactly desktop machines but I have been told that at there hearts they are simply Intel-CPU-containing PCs (as always, please correct me if I'm wrong). Obviously some parts of the software would need to be rewritten to use a phone line instead of the permanent network connection a bank machine has, but basically, the software already exists for us OS/2 users. Text mode, sure, but it's there.

One of the advantages of our system of nationwide banks is that almost every one of the major ones has customers from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And almost every person in Canada that can afford a computer with OS/2 has a bank account. If we pessimistically assume that only 7 million licenses of OS/2 worldwide are being actively used today and that half of them (3.5 million) are in the US, we can guess that Canada, with 1/10th the population of the United States has about 350,000 OS/2 licenses from coast to coast. I know this is crude logic but I'm going somewhere with it, stick around.

If only 10% of those 350,000 Canadian licenses are used at home -- and remember, IBM Canada was selling Warp 3 Red Spine for $49.95 here in 95/96 -- we have 35,000 home users of OS/2.

There are only six major chartered banks in Canada. If those six have only 50% of the personal banking market, then 17,500 OS/2 home-using Canadians deal with them. (This, I admit, is pure speculation. The Canadian Bankers Association tells me that in the 3rd quarter of 1996 those six banks had 73% of the total banking assets in this country but that does not necessarily mean that they have that high a percentage of the personal accounts.) If those six banks each have equal market share (which they don't; mine has 21.3% of total banking assets, second highest in the country), that makes just under 3,000 (2,917 to be exact) OS/2 home-users for each bank, coast to coast.

Are there more than 3,000 home-using OS/2ers across Canada patronizing the same bank as me? Whether my estimates are accurate or not is debatable but rather than try to prove them the hard way, I'm doing three simple things:

1. I'm writing to the person in charge of the computer banking program at my bank and requesting that they make an OS/2 version of their client available.

2. I'm asking him or her how many users they need to have requesting the software before they will develop it.

3. And I'm asking you, if you are a Canadian OS/2 user who deals with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) to send me your name and e-mail address. If the demand exists, I'll start a petition/campaign and take our requests to the bank en masse.

Will any of this make a difference? Who knows? This is a completely new world we're getting into, but one thing is certain, we won't get this software if we don't speak up now. Right now when these programs are just beginning is when we OS/2 users need to tell those in charge that we prefer to do our banking the way we have always done it -- on OS/2.

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