Finance MARKET REPORT
“The need for secure, reliable solutions can be at odds with innovation. It’s a fast-moving target for the channel,
necessitating access to the best technology and resources to succeed.” Will Emm, CEO of Oak Innovation
are well positioned to deliver
more relevant solutions for the
nance sector – likely to the
detriment of more traditional
resellers with more limited
o erings.
We are seeing strong take-up
for remote working capabilities,
including stronger integration
for mobile devices but also for
more analytical services – like
transcription for voice media and
integration with line-of-business
platforms.
We absolutely see that
customers are increasingly
looking to consolidate their
supply chain and see huge
value in working more with
capable partners that can handle
more of their requirements
directly. at can work as an
integrated partner to deliver
entire solutions rather than
focussing on smaller pieces of
work – to that end, led by our
CEO Mark Brooks-Wadham
we have embarked on a journey
of strategic acquisition which
ramped up earlier this year with
the acquisitions of both Lloyds
and NETConnection Systems
to bolster our capabilities in
the Microsoft and Networking
Managed Service spaces
respectively. We see that journey
continuing strongly and o ers
our clients in the nancial
sector a really strong partner
to support their infrastructure
from Connectivity through to
Collaboration with a full Cybersecurity
wrap alongside.”
James Taylor of Nuvias added
“Large nancial organisations
are probably the more Cyber
Aware and Risk averse businesses
out there, and they are de ning
their own protection. Smaller
organisations that do not have
a large security teams in place,
can bene t from channel
support and expertise in
devising their security strategy,
especially in view of the ever
more sophisticated cyberattacks
and the sensitive data
assets at stake. A Zero Trust
approach for both users and
devices is necessary today, hand
in hand with user sensitisation
and education as, ultimately,
the user is the last bastion
of defence. Zero Trust and
Identity Access Management
(IAM) are the way forward
when it comes to protecting
sensitive assets in the nancial
sector. Large organisations are
deploying intelligent, AI-enabled
cybersecurity solutions, based
on behavioural science to spot
indicators of unauthorised
activities. is is a trend set to
continue and gather momentum.
Legislation is increasingly
requiring that organisations
o er more stringent security
– for example through dual
transaction authentication – so
there is added pressure in terms
of legal compliance for all.”
Another interesting aspect
is the protection of vulnerable
users, maybe those less cyberaware
and more likely to click
on malicious links. Currently,
government legislation puts
the burden on the banks to
refund victims of these scams
but perhaps an educational
campaign or an active
intervention to secure accounts
could prevent a situation that
implies losses for all.
Jason Roos from Cirrus said
“ e Channel has access to
a range of innovative, cloudbased
solutions that can deliver
Will Emm, CEO of Oak Innovation
Cirrus also enables banking
and nance companies to make
a step change in the way they
interact with their customers.
ey can quickly expand the
communication channels over
which they operate, provide
customers with the choice they
are demanding, equip agents
to operate across an omnichannel
model and provide the
valuable holistic insights into the
customer experience across all
touchpoints.
What we are seeing at the
moment and believe will be
the new focus for the future,
is organisations not looking
for cost driven infrastructure
refresh, but value driven
innovation that enables them
to retain customers and be
highly competitive in a dynamic
market.”
Selling well?
We asked our vertical experts
what is currently selling well in
the sector?
Will Emm from Oak
commented, “With more
employees working at home, call
recording and reporting is key to
managing resources, supporting
compliance and upholding
service levels. Increasingly,
nance organisations are moving
to extension side recording and
need solutions that securely
store calls for as long as they are
signi cant value to this sector.
Cirrus’ Contact Centre-as-a-
Service (CCaaS) o ering is a
perfect example of a solution
that can address the immediate
challenges while creating a
new level of agility that better
positions organisations in this
sector for the future.
For a CCaaS solution like
Cirrus, it does not matter where
contact centre agents reside; they
could be grouped together in a
centre, dispersed across regions
or working from home. e
ability to not only support but
to manage virtual working will
accelerate cloud adoption.
Innovative platforms like >
James Banks, Technical Director –
Charterhouse Voice & Data
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