Qinthara Fasya | 28 October 2021
David Brown
Chief Commercial Officer, IPC
The pandemic demonstrated the benefits of being able to trade securely and compliantly at any time, from anywhere, and on any device. In this unpredictable atmosphere, this is a big competitive advantage. A freshly created organization, for example, wants a solutions provider that can deliver the most up-to-date, efficient, and cost-effective technology that is scalable.
All organizations are now acutely aware of the necessity of resilience – both now and in the future – and want a solution that includes a future proofing component, allowing them to adapt and preserve their competitive advantage in the face of any unanticipated events or problems. DigitalCFO Asia spoke with David Brown, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), IPC on the role of CFOs in ensuring business continuity.
Significant Shifts in Demand for Technology
Since the pandemic, IPC has observed and handled two distinct streams of advancements in technology and services. The first was voice trading, which raised demand for flexible working options such as business continuity plans (BCP), mobility, work from home (WFH), and online collaboration. This put institutions’ BCP to the test, as several organizations with rudimentary BCP discovered they were ill-equipped to deal with BCP on such a large scale. As BCP, WFH, and mobility necessitated ’emergency budgets’ and action plans to maintain their voice trading capabilities, several companies were compelled to examine their aging voice trading systems.
Second, IPC witnessed a significant change in electronic trading as trade and volatility rose, as did market data bandwidth requirements, resulting in new trading opportunities. Overall, the pandemic had a little influence on electronic trading because the basic notion of electronic trading is that players may trade from anywhere as long as they have access to the internet. IPC Connexus solutions have long supported electronic trading with connectivity, and now Connexus Infrastructure Services helps trading firms expand trading activity quickly and efficiently by assisting with remote hands work and infrastructure in remote locations with reduced lead times and operational overheads.
As many people worked from offshore sites owing to travel limitations, IPC observed a growth in the need for and interest in remote work. Due to travel limitations that caused some carriers’ network fault maintenance and support activities to be delayed, IPC’s ability to provide various, carrier-neutral connectivity solutions enabled us to assist customers in re-routing traffic in a timely way, allowing them to continue trading.
CFOs in Adapting Finance Operations to combat Risk Management
Financial operational resilience is a top goal for institutions and regulators in the Asia-Pacific region, where jingoistic regulatory heterogeneity exists.
The pandemic has also compelled authorities to speed up regulatory frameworks and increased awareness of where trading networks’ future needs to be. This also need excellent business leadership in order to position themselves to operate effectively, which may involve operational changes and investments in vital infrastructural services. Many CFOs consider improving their financial risk management techniques to be a top priority.
Despite the fact that CFOs have been ensuring business continuity, as APAC recovers, institutions are trying to adjust their operations in order to boost productivity, encourage a hybrid work environment, and strengthen resilience in the face of future crises. This aligns with industry expectations that the pandemic will hasten the adoption of digital technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-based goods.
Overall, Business Leaders have the chance to create long-term and sustainable improvements to how financial institutions operate as the primary facilitator.
The challenges we are seeing in the Asia Pacific region are predominantly centered around regulation and security. Putting in place the infrastructure for individuals to work on a longer-term basis from remote locations. For employers who are also members of the financial services community, this challenge is further compounded by the need for security, reliability, resilience, and the ability to demonstrate compliance with exacting regulatory requirements.
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 future-proofing, enabling them to adapt and maintain their competitive edge for any unforeseen events or challenges that may come their way.
David Brown, Chief Commercial Officer, IPC
Asia-Pacific Trends in the Upcoming Year
Software driven solutions, in particular cloud hosted applications, will continue to take center stage and hold a prominent position in the region. For reference, the SaaS market is anticipated to grow at 34.28% CAGR during the forecast period 2018- 20238 in Asia-Pacific. This in turn will spur greater financial inclusion as APAC organizations extend budgets to focus on collaboration, productivity and security tools to support remote working and innovation. For the financial services industry, an era of accelerated cloud adoption is predicted and already taking place largely as a result of the greater willingness to take on cloud based models, hybrid included.
Other factors comprise the increased regulatory clarity as well as the sheer growth in banking requirements (compute, storage, networking, and application workloads).
The rapidly changing business landscape created by the global Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on CFOs’ role and key finance processes such as budgeting, forecasting, and FP&A, making 2021 an unpredictable year for organisations around Asia Pacific. Join DigitalCFO and CCH Tagetik for an exclusive webinar to see how CFOs and finance executives can use predictive analytics to make optimum real-time decisions based on integrated data, allowing them to emerge stronger from the pandemic.
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