Here's something that I keep on banging on and on to all my client relationship teams and anybody else I can bend from the connectivity desks/departments. Always remember that the client is coming to you because s/he is unable to go touch the markets directly (generally!), and more often than not, they dont know any better from a technical perspective. And they usually are not staffed up to worry about deep technical expertise. More integration becomes commoditised, more trading and processing moves electronic, more products become available electronically, etc. etc. this situation is going to get worse, not better.
So given a choice between investing 1 FTE in my OMS or GUI or Marketing literature or a celebratory dinner, I would plonk that $/€/£ in improving my integration efforts. Best way of doing this would be to create a SWAT team of integration specialists. Tie in with a training provider. Prepare a package. This, by itself, can be a revenue generator. As you can provide essential training to your client's connectivity trading and technology people on upgrades, issue resolution, operational risk, market changes, report generation, feedbacks, and a whole host of other issues. If you package it properly, the client gets attached to you with bonds of steel and it is very difficult to prise them away from you.
But there is a long way to go, see this report by the Tower Group. Are you hearing, you FIX engine suppliers, you WIPRO, TCS, Infosys, IBM's of this world, you middleware providers?
TowerGroup Take-Aways
• Although the banking industry has more than its share of acronyms, the complex and nuanced integration of business (wholesale clients) to banks deserves its own shorthand: B2Bank integration.
• Banks are increasingly focused on how to improve the process of integrating with their wholesale clients' financial and accounting systems.
• Banks of all sizes find it difficult and expensive to support today's rapidly evolving technology and proliferating standards.
• Wholesale clients express deep dissatisfaction with the present integration capabilities of their banking partners.
• Providing connectivity to clients is not in itself a differentiator, but making integration easier and less costly to implement and maintain can spell success in managing the complexity of wholesale banking relationships.
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