July 2012: People Power
Technology is important to our industry. Remove it, and pretty much everything grinds to a halt. But that doesn’t mean that other things aren’t similarly important. Take, for example, people and their relationships. They are crucial to maintaining harmony within large parts of any financial services firm.
Relationships come in many shapes and forms: There’s the relationship a CIO has with the rest of the organization; there’s the relationship portfolio managers have with their traders, tasked with executing orders according to various parameters; and then there’s the chief risk officer, who has—often tepid—relationships with large numbers of people from a variety of departments within the organization. Compliance managers are also important, and so is the quality of the relationships they maintain internally, primarily with front-office staff, and externally with trustees representing institutional investors, and, of course, the industry’s regulators.
And then there’s the CTO, who touches the lives of just about everyone in the organization, directly or indirectly, on a daily basis. But perhaps the most crucial relationships that any organization has to maintain are those between the CTO and the firm’s ensemble of technology providers—partnerships that tend to have a direct bearing on the effectiveness and optimization of whatever technology has been selected and implemented.
In his feature, What Lies Beneath, Steve Dew-Jones considers the variables that CTOs contemplate when evaluating technology providers during a typical beauty contest. It’s a stressful, potentially career-limiting exercise for CTOs, but one they need to successfully negotiate on a regular basis. Make the right call and you’re a hero, but make the wrong one and the company is wed to a potentially financially debilitating and long-term nightmare.
Waters speaks to a lot of CTOs from a range of financial services institutions. And while they are generally happy with the levels of service they receive from their providers, that isn’t always the case. A number of CTOs I have spoken to over the years have expressed their frustration at vendors’ “cutting and running once the contract work has been done.” While it’s only fair to hear both sides of the story—one thing I have learned over the last decade is that there is always another side to the story—what is clear is that certain vendors have built up unblemished track records in terms of responsiveness and flexibility, while others have exhibited increased levels of inertia when it comes to complying with clients’ requests once the deal has been inked. Looking after one’s clients is as straightforward as delivering on your promises. If you cannot deliver on a promise, don’t promise it. It’s that simple.
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (point 2.4), printing is limited to a single copy.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (clause 2.4), an Authorised User may only make one copy of the materials for their own personal use. You must also comply with the restrictions in clause 2.5.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Emerging Technologies
Waters Wavelength Ep. 300: Reflecting on humble beginnings
It is our 300th episode! Tony and Shen reflect on how it all started.
An inside look: How AI powered innovation in the capital markets in 2024
From generative AI and machine learning to more classical forms of AI, banks, asset managers, exchanges, and vendors looked to large language models, co-pilots, and other tools to drive analytics.
Asset manager Saratoga uses AI to accelerate Ridgeline rollout
The tech provider’s AI assistant helps clients summarize research, client interactions, report generation, as well as interact with the Ridgeline platform.
LSEG rolls out AI-driven collaboration tool, preps Excel tie-in
Nej D’Jelal tells WatersTechnology that the rollout took longer than expected, but more is to come in 2025.
The Waters Cooler: ’Tis the Season!
Everyone is burned out and tired and wants to just chillax in the warm watching some Securities and Exchange Commission videos on YouTube. No? Just me?
It’s just semantics: The web standard that could replace the identifiers you love to hate
Data ontologists say that the IRI, a cousin of the humble URL, could put the various wars over identity resolution to bed—for good.
T. Rowe Price’s Tasitsiomi on the pitfalls of data and the allures of AI
The asset manager’s head of AI and investments data science gets candid on the hype around generative AI and data transparency.
As vulnerability patching gets overwhelming, it’s no-code’s time to shine
Waters Wrap: A large US bank is going all in on a no-code provider in an effort to move away from its Java stack. The bank’s CIO tells Anthony they expect more CIOs to follow this dev movement.