An enduring truism about the financial services industry is that capital markets firms live and die by the judiciousness of their day-to-day business and investment decisions. The accuracy, transparency and repeatability of those decisions are, in turn, largely contingent on the software underpinning them. Granted, capital markets firms’ decision-makers are still ultimately responsible for making the calls that collectively determine the overall direction and performance of the business, although scratch below the surface of those decisions and you’ll find a system or process supporting them that is invariably reliant on software.
In an industry characterized by firms seeking to differentiate themselves and provide their clients and investors with services and returns commensurate with their expectations, one of the only ways for them to achieve that goal is by developing and deploying software that captures the essence of their “secret sauce”—the variables that collectively help to separate firms from one another.
This whitepaper, based on a recent survey—The DataArt Custom Software Development Survey—carried out by WatersTechnology on behalf of DataArt, investigates current custom software trends across the capital markets and how these firms can make the all-important business case for developing and deploying proprietary applications. It also covers the business and operational initiatives and IT risk factors capital markets firms will be focusing on in the foreseeable future, what they look for in a potential engineering partner, and the critical, business-enabling role cloud computing plays in the development and delivery of mission-critical systems developed to cater to the specific needs of the firms that commission them.
