Pandemics shake the foundations of our world. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of people to work from home in an attempt to arrest the spread of the deadly virus. Past pandemic diseases and other crises have changed the way we lived, and future incidents are likely to, also.
Amid this uncertainty, business must keep functioning, providing goods and services for the world that needs them. How your investment management company weathers this storm can affect how your clients view you in the future. Up to date financial technology should be a key component of your strategy.
This crisis presents unique challenges to companies. In PwC’s first COVID-19 CFO Pulse Survey, North American financial leaders said concerns of global recession were paramount (84%), followed by worries over financial impact to their companies (64%).
Let’s look more closely at how to prepare to keep your business operations going during a major crisis like a pandemic, and also at how Empaxis’ TAMP1 can help.
Financial firms’ technology infrastructure may be strained or show weaknesses as more employees work remotely for extended periods of time and security and remote connectivity issues increase. IT should be on alert these issues, in addition to the regular maintenance and updating of in-office systems. Crises could create new risks as phishing attacks rise in all the confusion.
These issues could be alleviated with a solid business continuity plan that takes into account the new realities of COVID-19 and other crises to come.
Having strong business continuity planning (BCP) in place is key for keeping things going during uncertain times. Most companies already have such plans outlined already, but are unlikely to be prepared for the fast-moving and unknown variables of an outbreak like COVID-19.
Typical BCPs don’t generally take into account the quarantines, community and business disruptions, and added travel restrictions of a global health emergency like this one.
Here are some ways you can adjust your BCP to meet your new needs.
Traditional BCPs follow a process of planning, preparing, responding and recovering to a crisis. Pandemic planning, however, requires identifying and prioritizing essential functions, employees and resources. Here are some things an investment manager’s BCP should provide for, according to Shearman & Sterling LLP:
Other technology-specific procedures to review include:
Investment managers need assurance and operational continuity, and our articles can help.
Find out tips for organizational strategy and business management, compliance, investing, client relationship and prospecting, and more.
Another area of consideration for you as an investment manager is how fintech can help ensure continuity for your firm. TAMP1, a cloud-based turnkey asset management platform offered by Empaxis as one example, will make sure your critical data is secure and accessible, while continuing to provide the services your clients need. TAMP1 will continue to run data and create reports while you manage operations in a crisis.
Here are some risks you take with legacy software, and how fintech can help you, during a significant business disruption (SBD).
When SBDs occur, it is common for more business functions to occur remotely. With more working from home, access to in-office systems is ever more critical. The problem is remote connections can be lost, and locally stored servers can crash, thus work can't get done.
Relying on people to be physically present in the office during a pandemic is quite a risk, and a cloud-based setup would eliminate that necessity and risk of employees having to show up to a physical location.
Locally stored servers are costly, and with each passing year, the value and return on investment goes down holding on to such legacy technology.
On top of that, paying employees to maintain the increasingly outdated systems only adds to increasingly unnecessary costs.
When less expensive, more agile and scalable systems are available, including those automatically update, these alternatives could serve investment firms well.
As more financial firms respond to client demand for all-hours access to their accounts, as well as cross-channel connectivity, the challenges for securing their data increase. During significant business disruptions, these demands will only increase as operations move to remote access.
Our ebook, “Why Move From Client-Server Software to TAMP,” offers insights about the virtues of web-based solutions over server-based software to manage your clients’ accounts. After you’ve downloaded and read the ebook, we invite you to take a free tour of our web-based solution, TAMP1.
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