FlexTrade Partners with OpenFin for Desktop Interoperability

Provides Buy-Side Traders with Seamless Interoperability Between FlexTRADER EMS, FlexNOW & OpenFin Third-Party Applications

London, 10 April 2019 – FlexTrade (@FlexTrade), a global leader in broker-neutral, execution and order management trading systems, today announced its partnership with OpenFin, the operating system (OS) of finance. The partnership provides application interoperability and improves workflow management for buy-side traders using FlexTrade’s award-winning execution management system, FlexTRADER, and FlexTrade’s out-of-the-box cloud-based trading system, FlexNOW, the first cloud EMS available via Amazon Web Services.

Technology updates across trader desktops can prove time and cost intensive as a result of the multitude of independent desktop applications used throughout the business day. By partnering with OpenFin, traders using FlexTrade products are able to seamlessly integrate third-party vendor applications already deployed on the OpenFin OS into their workflows. Not only does this modernize and simplify the desktop experience; traders now have the ability to select the best applications necessary for their daily workflows, and to navigate complex markets while benefiting from full interoperability between these applications.

Leveraging OpenFin’s technology also enables FlexTrade’s products to roll out new desktop applications to its clients faster using a common language that allows desktop applications to communicate with one another and share information, intent and context in a permissioned manner.

“FlexTRADER has operated an open architecture model for many years, ensuring traders have the data and workflows they need right at their fingertips,” said Andy Mahoney, Head of Sales at FlexTrade UK. “OpenFin is the next natural step for this architecture to evolve by providing an interoperability layer connecting FlexTRADER to complementary third-party applications and data, with minimal technology overhead and seamless upgrades.”

Mahoney added: “Connecting with the interoperability bus from OpenFin allows FlexTRADER users to both source normalized data, and control other applications from within the trader’s day-to-day workflow without information leakage.” continued Mahoney. “This opens up opportunities for us to save our users unnecessary mouse clicks or context switches, which frees up their time to work on the more important tasks.”

Adam Toms, CEO of OpenFin Europe, said: “Inefficient trader workflows hamper productivity and introduce an unnecessary level of operational risk. FlexTrade is pioneering change on the buy-side trader’s desktop and we are delighted to partner with them on this journey to build the next generation of financial desktops. Jointly, we empower traders to interact with the market in the way they prefer, with unprecedented levels of functionality and performance, accessing applications they need quickly, easily and securely, and without additional deployment costs.”

“OpenFin also ensures that from a technology perspective, interfaces between the EMS and other applications become normalised, reducing vendor lock-in and redefining the term ‘Software-as-a-Service,” concluded Mahoney.

FDC3 Membership
In addition to the partnership, FlexTrade has joined the Financial Desktop Connectivity and Collaboration Consortium – FDC3. FDC3 was founded by OpenFin in October 2017 in collaboration with major industry participants to help drive application interoperability across financial desktops. OpenFin placed the FDC3 initiative under the independent governance framework of FINOS, who have worked extensively with the community over the last year and published Version 1.0 of the FDC3 standard in March 2019.