The building blocks for bespoke trading technology

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Picture the scenario: an old trading IT system at a broker has grown unwieldy and costly but still manages all the key order and trading data for the broker. Down at the trading desk, traders are unsure if they’re making the most of intraday market opportunities; compliance is worried the audit trail isn’t as complete as it should be; and the sales team is keen on an exciting new trading service or market data service solution they can take to market, but the business doesn’t have the capacity to create the technology to support that for the planned Q4 launch. A visit to the IT team finds them under huge pressure just to keep things running, and managers are seeing difficulties finding (never mind retaining) the skilled IT staff they need.

These are just a few of the real-world problems faced by financial market participants under pressure in a market being accelerated by developments in technology, with new fintech challengers always keen to pick up any dropped batons.

“We’ve been dealing with these kinds of issues for a long time,” says Hamish Adourian, Head of Sales and Marketing at Sinara Consultants. “The question most technology executives will eventually be faced with is whether to buy in an existing software solution or build something new, whether that’s for making operations more efficient or delivering new products or services.”

Once a decision is made to build something new, a well-run software project will start with an analysis stage to fully identify exactly what it is the business needs. Good communication and project management are vital, with skilled engineers and business analysts who can ‘translate’ between business and IT. With market pressures demanding ever shorter delivery times, a more agile project might be the means to deliver something the business can start testing and even using for real, then gradually over time add more features and perhaps migrate from an older system.

Another choice for the business might be whether to try to increase their own internal software engineering capacity to deliver the project. In practice, the reality of attempting to hire, retain and develop talent and build up the associated infrastructure can hit budgets hard. This is where established software houses such as Sinara can offer real value, allowing financial firms to concentrate on their core business and maximise the benefit from their IT investments.

“You could still well ask why you shouldn’t just go for something already well-established that everybody else uses, and yes – sometimes you should,” says Adourian. “But there will be times where to get that competitive advantage, to become the market leader and to bring a business idea to life, you’ll need to invest in building something new. At Sinara, we’re able to do that while taking advantage of pre-built solutions like SinaraTLC – so you get the best of both worlds.”

Talk to Sinara about your trading technology plans and challenges by visiting tlc.sinara.com/welcome

Originally published on Business Reporter