[ D E PA R T M E N T
transform as fast as possible,”
said Barnaby Nelson, founder
of the ValueExchange. “They’ll
be doing that because: first-
ly, they’ve realised that the
availability of manual resources
is not a given – its now a risk
factor that needs mitigating -
and technology helps that. And
secondly, the threat of recession
is so strong that people will need
to rush through any measures that can
protect their P&L in the short term.
“For other technologies which are still
less understood or still more nascent
– I think they’ll be put on hold in the
short-term, with any resources that can
be stolen being stolen - in favour of the
proven technologies. That’s on the basis
that they don’t yet offer tangible, reliable
answers to business questions. So that
can wait.”
The “other” technologies Nelson refers
to could include the likes of artificial in-
telligence, machine learning, distributed
ledger, and while it’s more of a concept
than a technology, digital assets and
tokenisation.
In their place, suddenly the likes of
cyber security and cloud-based technol-
ogies in the context of a remote working
environment have become more of an
|
H E D ]
essential focus.
Virginie O’Shea, post-trade FinTech
analyst and advisor, added that it might
not just be the nice-to-haves that will be
held back by the current crisis.
“All significant projects that involve a
high degree of project risk will be put
on the backburner due to the increased
level of key person risk, unless they
are absolutely essential for the contin-
ued functioning of the business,” she
explains.
“Individuals that incur high key person
risk tend to be those that have particu-
lar knowledge of certain systems - for
example legacy platforms - so business
as usual can also be challenging in such
an environment if key IT or operations
staff are unavailable. If these individuals
are working on transformation projects,
they are doubly critical and therefore
need to focus on keeping the lights on.”
The use of cloud technologies has
become more crucial than ever before
and any investments in previous years
will certainly be paying dividends now
with firms having to adapt to remote
working. Within BCPs, this practice will
certainly move from nice-to-have to es-
sential, meaning this could take priority
once organisations are ready to invest
again, whether that is in days, weeks or
months.
As Aite Group highlight in their report
on COVID-19 impacts: “This tangential
development will prove to be the linch-
pin that holds together the necessary
elements that will be necessary to get
through these difficult times.”
O’Shea also adds cyber security into
the equation of essential components
to an organisation’s remote working
armoury.
“Firms also have to reassure clients
large and small that operations will not
be negatively impacted by any other
further incidents, so cybersecurity is
also a great concern for many firms,”
she explains. “When crises hit, cyberse-
curity incidents can increase if remote
working isn’t properly setup. Cyberse-
curity should therefore be a number one
priority for all firms.”
It goes without saying that the COV-
ID-19 pandemic has changed everything
from an operational point of view, and
while firms will not abandon their
technology innovation ambitions, they
may be put on hold for the foreseeable
future.
Spring 2020
globalcustodian.com
41