fading in to dream sequence…

After 9 months of a conversion process and testing, your FI is finally ready to roll out the new online banking solution. At 2am, you finally bring the new system online. You run some transactions and everything seems to go well. At 3am, you head home to get a couple hours of sleep so that you can be back by 8am.

10:17am - All seems to be going well, until you get that dreaded phone call. Customer Service has escalated the support call to you:

You: Hello, this is speaking. How may I help you?
Customer: This is Brian and I’m having trouble logging into your new online banking system.
You: Ok sir, what problem do you seem to be having?
Customer: Well, I got my new login ID and password, but when I try to login, I get a 5230 error.
You: Alright sir, give me a moment while I check and see what the problem is.

You Alt-Tab over to your vendors Knowledge Base and look up the error code. To your horror, you read the explanation:

5230 Error - Occurs when customer tries to login using Firefox/AOL/Safari/Konqueror/Opera browser. Have customer use Internet Explorer instead.

You unmute the phone…

You: Sir, which browser are you using?
Customer: Safari
You: Well sir, it seems that our new system is only compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer. You’ll have to use that browser to access your account online.
Customer: You mean to tell me that I have to use that buggy browser to access my account? I don’t think so.
You: Well sir, IE 7 has really improved. It has no more security problems than Firefox or Safari.
Customer: I’m not using that *expletives* browser. If this is what your bank calls new and improved, then maybe I need to close my account.
You: I’m sorry sir…

fade out of dream sequence…

Do you and/or your vendors develop web-based software or websites for Internet Explorer only? Although IE still has a commanding 80% market share, Firefox and Safari make up close to 14.5% and 4.5% respectively. Personally, I believe I am the only person in my entire bank that primarily uses Firefox at work. Everyone else is mostly on IE6 with a few IE7 users sprinkled in. A lot of our vendors require IE in order to have the software work properly. Fortunately, our online banking provider can accommodate all of the popular browsers. I wish I could say the same about our HR, check images, document management and core reporting software.

Being a web developer, I understand that there are all sorts of neat tricks you can do if you develop just for IE. On the flip side, IE6 doesn’t conform to web standards. So all those CSS tricks I can do are pretty much useless. As for vendors, having IE only software could hurt them. Some companies are moving to Firefox because of security concerns and because it is standards compliant. As for your customers, the more web savvy are most likely already using Firefox. Most bank websites are compatible with the most popular browsers. The ones that aren’t cause me to shake my head and click the little “x” on my browser tab. I’ve even come across a few state bank organization and bank magazine websites that are only IE compliant. Hopefully, some decision maker is going to realize that this really makes them look technically challenged.

What about you? Does your organization’s websites work for the popular browsers or are you still stuck in 1999? What about your vendors?

Originaly from Source