Following approval by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, BT announced the completion of the acquisition of IP Trade, a provider of unified communications and collaboration solutions for trading floor environments and command-and-control dispatch centres, on 2 May.
Re:sources asked BT’s Tim Furmidge, Head of Product Management for Unified Trading, BT Global Services Group about what it will mean for traders.
What do you see as the main challenges facing IT departments today, and how will this acquisition help meet them?
Traditional trader voice systems were standalone and often supported by a specialist trader voice IT and operations team. These days, the drive for enhanced functionality at reduced cost means the pressure is on IT teams to provide solutions that are no longer standalone, but instead build on the standard enterprise infrastructure and communications systems.
A “one size fits all” turret solution and silos of voice trading technology are
no longer sufficient.
BT’s new solution helps IT teams address these challenges. Our IP Trade technology runs on standard IT virtual server infrastructure, operates over standard enterprise network environments, adheres to standard security and operational policies and integrates with enterprise directories, making life much smoother for IT and operations staff.
The recent Greenwich research sponsored by BT indicates that voice communication still plays a big part in trader workflow. Why do you think this is?
Person-to-person communications help build trusted relationships between trading firms and their clients and counterparties. They help sales traders add colour and value for their clients about what is going on in the market and enable them to deal with large block trades effectively. And in times of volatility, traders often turn to voice communication to manage positions. So voice complements electronic trading, right across the trade workflow.
The research also shows that new voice tools like softphones, Skype, virtual turrets and chat are gaining ground and sales traders need to be more mobile. How does BT’s IP Trade acquisition help with this trend?
Until now, specialised trader phones – known as turrets or dealerboards – have met traders’ needs. For years, trader voice systems were a self-contained island of technology and almost everyone was equipped with a physical turret. These solutions met the specialist functionality, performance and reliability demanded in the trading environment. But this also meant that trader voice systems and front office trading staff were cut-off from advances made in enterprise infrastructure and unified communications.
These days cost pressures and a desire for front office trading staff to benefit from the more unified collaboration tools such as messaging, presence, screen sharing, soft phones and video used in the broader enterprise, mean that a “one size fits all” turret solution and silos of voice trading technology are no longer sufficient.
Our newly acquired IP Trade capability is an ideal fit for these requirements, benefiting traders, IT and operations staff and compliance teams alike. It integrates very tightly with Cisco and Microsoft unified communications platforms and supports the range of devices and applications that users now require: from button and touchscreen turrets, to PC-based turret and intercom apps, to integration with Cisco and Skype endpoints, plus mobile phones and tablets.
We read every day about the increased compliance and security challenges that firms face. How will the acquisition help with this?
With increasing regulatory pressure and threats, compliance and security is certainly at the top of the agenda. Blending our newly acquired portfolio with existing products and services, BT is able to help IT teams assure that all voice communications are properly recorded and archived, enabling compliance teams and senior managers to fulfil their compliance obligations.
With a heritage in national and enterprise security, BT is also able to help firms take a streamlined approach across information security and compliance and use advanced surveillance solutions to help prevent rogue behaviour.
How does this acquisition help BT deliver its Cloud of Clouds roadmap?
BT One Cloud is a global scale cloud-based unified communications solution, supporting over one million live users today. It allows global firms to provide a hosted solution for all their enterprise users and contact centre staff. IP Trade fits perfectly with BT One Cloud, enabling BT to extend cloud-based services to firms’ trading floors and control rooms. We can therefore give firms a choice of deployment options, from on-premise, to fully cloud-based, to a hybrid environments, where main trading floors are supported from the customers data-centre, with smaller regional floors being hosted by BT.
How will BT and IP Trade work together? Will they operate from different locations, and will the portfolios of the two companies be completely merged?
We’re combining the IP Trade team and its technology with BT’s specialised voice trading unit and portfolio. This means customers will benefit from the functional richness of the IP Trade product and BT’s global scale for service delivery and support and we can also offer our existing customers the benefit of IP Trade capability integrated with their existing systems, plus a clear migration path for the future.
Read the BT release about the completion of the acquisition
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