SimCorp IUCM 2016 Decomp

We were around 650 client representatives, partners and SimCorp staff at the IUCM conference this week in a very sunny Hamburg. Thanks to all who helped make it a busy and rewarding experience.

I'd like to share my own take-aways. Please by all means share any views or comments! And points if you can guess what the photo shows...

Security

Nobody would ever say security isn't important, but this year is the first time that cybersecurity has generally been considered an important topic. The heist on the Bangladesh Central Bank and subsequent attacks elsewhere certainly has something to do with it. The continued digitisation of the industry and removal of manual handling combined with increased use of cloud based solutions means there is more attack surface and less human attention to detect wrongdoing - and the attacks are getting increasingly sophisticated.

Collateral management

The migration of what some of us used to consider back office functions into the front office continues. Collateral management is a good example of that. SimCorp is investing in an expanded modern feature set in this area combined with a great new user experience. It was great to get confirmation from the attending audience that collateral management is indeed the most important near-term area of interest.

User experience

I've been to this conference probably 8 times now. For years we've been talking about the importance of user experience - and always to a polite response. It was great to see this year how user experience has become a natural part of the conversation about software. It's not just about functionality. Also, there was solid interest in our upcoming mobile alerts.

Cloud

In my teams we are driving the cloud agenda at SimCorp. We have set the direction now for a sequence of transformational initiatives. Now the build must commence. At IUCM we shared a high-level overview of where we are going and where the value will be initially for clients. It was great to see how more than half were ready to connect to our upcoming cloud services. Also, it was great to get confirmation that we are on track when we are considering configuration transport a valuable area to focus on initially.

Disruption

We all know retail banking is attempting to innovate at a feverish pace to keep up with disruptive start-ups. Asset management is different. But it was interesting to see that some asset managers are starting to see themselves as technology firms too. It's too early to call what the main trends really are in this segment, I think. But it's clear that blockchain will have an impact in due course, distribution is open to disruption (if for no other reason simply due to generational differences in attitudes to which brands you trust, eg younger crowds are more likely to trust Apple than their parents' traditional bank), and analytics - perhaps machine learning in particular - is a potential differentiator. I think we are still waiting for the good clear compelling showcases of how technology-based disruption in the industry can be leveraged this time around, but it appears gears are starting to turn.

Kryptonite

Lastly, we learned that analog is to a digital business what kryptonite is to Superman, and that the only fish you'll encounter in Hamburg's Fischauktionshalle these days are the ones carefully prepared and served on a plate.

Thanks for a great IUCM!