Ganesh Iyer, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, IPC
The last year brought around a monumental change to the way most people work due to the impact of the pandemic, and the financial services industry was no exception. The last few months, though, have provided hope that life could very soon return to ‘normal’ with the strong vaccination efforts around the world.
This time provides the perfect opportunity for all of us to consider the best aspects of remote working in a bid to create a new concept of what a healthy work-life balance should look like. One way financial firms could achieve this is through developing distributed hub-and-spoke offices or putting in place the infrastructure so people can work on a longer-term basis from remote locations. But for this to happen, the financial services community needs to overcome the challenges of ensuring security, reliability, resilience, compliance, all while adhering to strict regulatory requirements.
Importance of flexibility
As we look towards the future, banks such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have recently informed their employees that they should be prepared to return to offices again in the coming weeks. News like this may seem like the financial services sector is keen to return to pre-pandemic ways of working, but this is not necessarily an outlook supported by the whole industry.
For example, the Financial Times reported that there are differences between North America and Europe over the speed at which bankers should return to their desks, with some US executives calling for a swift return to pre-pandemic normality while many European banks – such as London-based HSBC and France’s Société Générale – are taking a different approach. These variations demonstrate a need for banks to remain flexible to the ever-changing circumstances and differing views, especially as the sector has been quite effective in working productively away from the trading floor.
However, even for larger institutions, the balance between flexibility, security, reliability, and scalability is a challenging task. There are many firms that are still experiencing significant pressure on costs and resources, and there is still uncertainty around what the future will bring. It is important that firms consider whether there needs to be an even split between homes and offices, or if some employees will prefer to permanently work remotely, as well as prepare for any future scenarios that may require remote working at scale again. The list of questions goes on and they may be difficult to answer, but they are fundamental to the choices that financial firms will make regarding the vendors they work with and the technologies they implement.
Fortunately, many of the elements that address these concerns already exist – it is just a matter of implementing them in a way that is right for firm-specific needs. In the last 10 years, there has been a growing trend towards firms utilising the cloud and taking advantage of the subscription model, which has enabled technology vendors to create solutions that combine flexibility with reliability, and scalability with certainty. The subscription model benefits firms of all sizes and ensures everyone has access to the same state-of-the-art technology as their competitors.
There are also several well-proven benefits of leveraging technology solutions through a subscription, or software-as-a-service (SaaS). As most businesses adopting a cloud-native environment will know, subscriptions mean companies only pay for the solutions they need, while also having the choice to expand and consume more as the business grows. A subscription model also means firms will not be implementing aging technologies, as SaaS is evergreen given it can be seamlessly updated and upgraded in the background, with new delivery channels, access mechanisms and markets added and made available on-demand.
Adaptable trading environment
Being able to trade at any time, from anywhere and from any device in a way that is secure and compliant is a huge competitive advantage during this uncertain climate.
For example, a newly established firm requires a solutions provider that can offer the latest, most efficient, and affordable technology that is scalable. Additionally, all businesses are now very much aware of the importance of resilience – both now and for the future – and require a solution that offers an element of futureproofing, enabling them to adapt and maintain their competitive edge for any unforeseen events or challenges that may come their way. This means technology and infrastructure providers need to provide a higher standard of service and constantly evolve, update, and upgrade their tech so that it operates seamlessly and transparently for clients.
Supporting the post-COVID trading world
There are many unknowns and uncertainties about what our post-COVID world will look like, but one thing that is certain is that there will be change. Regardless of whether firms choose to revert to pre-pandemic ways of working or not, almost every industry has learned valuable lessons based on the experiences of the last year of the vital need to be flexible and adaptive in order to be able to pivot in whatever direction the business needs to take to thrive and maintain resilience. By leveraging the right technologies, adopting a cloud-native environment, and using the subscription model, financial firms can ensure they are ready to embrace the working environment of the post-COVID world in whatever form it takes.
