Building an Open Desktop Ecosystem with Dow Jones, Introhive, IPC and Symphony

Technological innovation in the capital markets has radically transformed the desktop apps and products users rely on, with powerful new capabilities and user-friendly interfaces. Combined with the emergence of new types of market participants and significant market structure reforms, these innovations have created a trading environment that is nearly unrecognizable from that of 20 years ago.

But this rapid proliferation of desktop apps has come with an unexpected downside: a disjointed, inefficient end-user experience. The constant need to search for the right window, rekey information, prioritize discrete tasks and the like can be frustrating for even the savviest employees. To overcome this fragmentation and stand up integrated, streamlined workflows, industry firms must embrace an open desktop ecosystem model. At FinJS New York this past May, OpenFin Chief Digital Officer Vicky Sanders sat down with a diverse group of thought leaders from leading vendors—Dow Jones, Introhive, IPC Systems and Symphony—to discuss that topic in detail.

The conversation centered around how user expectations surrounding connectivity and interoperability have evolved. Through their work with some of the world’s largest banks, asset managers and hedge funds, the four panelists reflected on the explosion in demand for intuitive, digital-first experiences, as well as the need for workflow portability and flexibility in an increasingly complex market landscape.

In response to this demand, these vendors have adapted their offerings to enable traditionally bespoke technologies to seamlessly interact with other apps across all verticals—exchanging information, prompting logical next steps in the process and so on. Through collaboration with firms like OpenFin, their tools—whether client intelligence data, news services, communications platforms or telephony—can be accessed as part of a single, streamlined workflow, maximizing their reach and impact.

“Personalization and saving users time and screen real estate is at the forefront of what we are thinking about when we build our workflow,” said Joe Cappitelli, General Manager, News and Insights at Dow Jones.

“We like to look at connectivity from both a community and workflow point of view ... How do we create an experience that is intuitive, modern and connected?” stated Mike Lynch, Chief Product Officer at Symphony. “We’ve built robust APIs that allow customers to perform integration themselves, while simultaneously investing in our relationship with OpenFin’s Workspace environment, which makes those integrations quicker, easier and less costly.”

Other topics addressed during the discussion included:

• How client insights and relationship management systems can enhance financial services firms’ relationship management and productivity
• The role of voice and chat communication in an open desktop environment
• How OpenFin Workspace drives greater engagement with vendor systems among end users
• The power of industry-wide collaboration in delivering best-of-breed solutions
• And much more

You can watch the full panel discussion below:

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Want to learn more about how OpenFin Workspace can help you establish a frictionless open desktop environment? Drop us a line.