Kris Sharma, Financial Services Sector Leader at Canonical
From robotic dogs to the framework of hybrid cloud infrastructure, open-source technologies are a part of a wide range of components across the modern economy. The benefits range from a collaborative and open approach to development, to the agility it can give teams if they wish to build across their business. The advantages are also important because financial services companies need to meet the ever-changing market conditions and customer expectations, while ensuring that they meet regulatory requirements.
Under these conditions, the use of publicly-accessible designs and frameworks provides a compelling way for financial services companies to not just adapt to an ever-changing competitor landscape, but thrive now and into the future. To tap into the potential, businesses need to formalise how they approach the technology, start small, and consider the licences needed for development.
A strategy for the future
The first step for financial services organisations looking to adopt open source into their business lies in the hands of the IT team. It is their responsibility to devise a strategy for implementation that won’t negatively impact legacy systems during the transition. Teams need to choose which technologies to innovate with, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and where they can scale up their solutions to help service their work. For example, if a bank were to update its systems and take a more open-source approach, they must do so with security in mind. Due to the sensitive information they hold on their customers, they need to figure out how there is no opportunity for security to be compromised during the transition. Major benefits such as the use of AI can come later, but at an early-stage teams first need to identify how to safely implement the changes without compromising on stability.
By first devising a strategy for open-source, IT teams are likely to gain approval more easily from internal stakeholders as well, to validate and approve the transformation. IT teams will naturally want to start the changes as a gradual process, easing the organisation they serve into the new system as they explore the benefits of open-source and emerging technologies. Rather than a drastic shift that could impact both employees and customers, a gradual change will be easier to implement over time to minimise the chances of disruption. From the firm foundations set by the progress can come a great expansion of open-source – and with it the benefits of the technology.
Start small
A steady implementation is beneficial not just for internal approval, but safe system integration as well. Extensive changes from the get-go could cause irrevocable harm for consumers and businesses if rushed; change can be steady over time, at the capacity level of the organisation. The implementations can focus on one or two technologies or use cases, and then expand from there into new areas. For example, financial services can first look into how to become more agile and responsive to changing market conditions via the use of open-source, then look into how AI can support the business.
In the future, digital and IT leaders at financial companies will realise that it can help them accelerate the development of emerging tech, while executing their digital strategy and mitigating their own risks. Over time, it can become a valuable complement to the existing technology ecosystems at financial institutions.
Get licencing in order
Another key aspect that businesses need to consider when exploring open-source is choosing the right software and terms of service for the job. A license stipulates how the code can be used, and under what protection it us under when it comes to the rights of the author. Teams cannot simply place their code without a licence into their system; freely-available code without a licence is still subject to its author. Because of this, it can be unsafe to use unlicensed code as businesses are not fully protected from a legal perspective.
Many companies make their licences details explicit, so it is clear how they can be used. For example, our own Ubuntu runs the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) which lets users run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve our software. A lot of open-source code can be found online, and teams can find the right sets which they can use as part of their projects. Choosing systems with the right licence is vital to ensure that systems are protected from a legal standpoint, without unexpected ramifications in the long run.
Open-source improvements
The success of financial services companies largely relies on its ability to be more agile, responsive, and scalable than its rivals. The winners will be the companies that successfully adapt and implement systems that allow them to innovate fast – this is where open-source technologies come in.
By leveraging the potential of open-source, financial services can expect a next-generational approach to systems that level up their work. The technology also opens new opportunities, such as minimising time spent on administrative tasks via automation, or teams spending less time on writing bespoke code when it can be pulled from trusted libraries and communities. The key is to determine which strategic steps are necessary, and to focus on the tasks that matter. What it takes is a level approach where IT teams can implement the changes steadily and with care – before flourishing into a team driving innovation within the sector.
