API Technology for Financial Services is Revolutionising the Industry

The market for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) is booming, in particular when it comes to technology for financial services. The number of public APIs doubl ed between 2014 and 2015 alone. APIs let businesses easily hook disparate systems together with a corresponding reduction in integration times. The growth in cloud computing and web applications has driven much of this increase, with API technology for financial services leading the way. Businesses in these sectors are looking for new tools to streamline operations while remaining in control of end user computing. Most APIs are designed to link web-hosted services together, while platforms like iPushPull let you directly connect desktop applications to the cloud.

Cutting edge companies are realising their potential by incorporating API technology for financial services into their platforms. Google Maps for example, is one of the most widely incorporated APIs. Since 2005, it has allowed developers to embed location services into some of the most popular software today. The Facebook Platform, released in 2007, has API at its core and allowed third party apps to access social data. Established organisations within the financial services are also exploring open banking platforms to compete with new entrepreneurial entrants such as PayPal, TransferWise and Tilt. Partly as a result of their integration of APIs in their business models, these companies have become serious challengers in the payment industry. Now large financial organisations are trying to catch up and APIs have become the current backbone of opportunity.

The birth of APIs

The growth of Application Programming Interfaces can be traced back to the early 2000s, when Salesforce and eBay launched the first version of their services. The growth of cloud computing and, in particular, mobile apps accelerated this trend.

Industries outside of the financial sector including media, travel, tourism, and real estate have embraced APIs for their services. This stems from a need to manage the growing quantities of data and enable better processing, therefore developing dynamic operational workflows. The commercial push to access all available data so that it can be monetised, has left a space for a new approach. Santander, for example, is turning to APIs to easily move data between internal and external providers. This solution has allowed Santander to stick with its existing large database providers, while allowing for a more flexible infrastructure.

API technology for financial services, as an effective solution

A common problem for financial services firms is the mix of technologies, computer systems and applications they use to run their processes. As they age these systems become incompatible with new technology and not only slow down processing but also allow for shortfalls. Even with point-to-point integrations, the systems become fragile over time and need maintenance, wasting resources and negatively impacting workflow. Through the construction of more efficient ways of working, institutions can improve existing services and positively impact the bottom line.

One example of a solution for such a problem in the financial services world is iPushPull’s API for live aggregation and distribution of data. Our API lets users share real-time data with their colleagues, customers and clients from even the most complex systems and services, and access it using familiar and flexible desktop applications like Microsoft Excel or on the Web. This helps institutions get the right data to the right people at the right time, without losing control – our security, access controls and monitoring let users control and track exactly who is using their data and how they are using it. To enable integration with the widest possible selection of applications and services, the iPushPull API is available for .NET, JavaScript and as RESTful and streaming web APIs.

October 19, 2016

Real-time Risk Aggregation using iPushPull

Proprietary Traders, Brokers, Clearing Services and their clients all need to know the market exposure and risk to their firms at any given point in time. Risk managers often sit in front of multiple screens monitoring positions in real-time from multiple risk modules on different trading platforms. Without expensive development work or costly enterprise risk systems, there is no way to automatically aggregate market risk, trading positions and P&L’s in real-time from multiple trading and risk platforms in multiple locations.

Principles of Risk Aggregation – BCBS239

In addition to trading risk, since the financial crisis, regulators have introduced new broader rules such as BCBS239, ‘Principles for Effective Risk Data Aggregation and Risk Reporting’, aiming to strengthen risk management at banks and reduce the chances of future instabilities in the global financial system. However, many key challenges such as budgetary pressures, old legacy systems and complexity in consolidating risk from different locations means many banks and other financial organisations are unable to automate necessary risk frameworks. This often leads them to resort to manual workarounds which are slow, cumbersome and can lead to human error.

Consolidate your real-time risk

iPushPull offers a plug-and-play solution which can be set up with no integration or development work. Our service enables the automatic consolidation of risk periodically, or in real-time, from multiple locations and multiple sources.
Risk can be aggregated at any level, from high-level summaries for executive management to detailed reports for risk managers who need to drill down to traders’ individual positions. iPushPull’s technology integrates with popular desktop applications, like Microsoft Excel. It also makes it easy to set up customised alerts, view risk on mobile devices and permission and share risk dashboards with other departments or clients. The platform offers end-to-end encryption and a full audit trail with history of every single price update and who looked at it, when and where from.

Automate and consolidate your risk management controls with no development work using iPushPull and share securely with other departments and clients. Sign up for a free trial today, or contact us for further information.

September 29, 2016January 6, 2017

Research Delivery with iPushPull: A closer look at FuturesTechs

FuturesTechs is an independent research firm that provides technical analysis research to hundreds of paying subscribers. The FCA regulated firm is run by its founder, Clive Lambert, who takes a unique approach to market analysis that has earned the company the Technical Analyst Award multiple years in a row. When faced with the current problems surrounding research delivery, FuturesTechs began using iPushPull.

“[iPushPull] has put us in a position to scale up our business, getting on with what we do best, producing technical analysis rather than concerning ourselves with [delivery]”

– Clive Lambert, FuturesTech founder

Current problems with research delivery methods

For most firms, their research delivery is done via email attachments to subscribers and clients. However, this process forces research firms to relinquish control over their content. PDF attachments lack control and can be forwarded to anyone, printed, downloaded, copied and pasted elsewhere, etc., all without the permission of the research firm. All these detours to the proper research delivery channels are not monitored and therefore readers are not charged for viewing the content. This not only damages potential revenues, but the research firm actively loses money.

Research Delivery via iPushPull

FuturesTechs uses iPushPull to securely distribute their research while maintaining control over what their subscribers can do with the reports. By uploading their research to the iPushPull platform, FuturesTechs is able to share a live page with the latest version of their content to their paying subscribers. There are customisable content control levels that can be specified per subscriber that disable or enable specific features.

By using the reader report feature in the iPushPull platform, research distributors can generate reports including information on their subscriber’s reading patterns. This includes time spent per page, how frequently they read the report, and see a history of reports they’ve read before. This intensive, next-level of research delivery analytics allows FuturesTechs to optimise the content of their reports and ensure that their subscribers are getting the most value from the information they receive. The back-end administration features also allow FuturesTechs to manage their users and enable or disable trial periods, and billing periods.

Learn more about financial research distribution with iPushPull here. Sign up for a free trial today!

September 6, 2016January 6, 2017

How to Share Digital Content in Small Teams without SharePoint

One of the most popular solutions for digital content sharing is SharePoint. Everyone has heard of SharePoint and the beautiful company sites that can be created with it – if you are a developer or if you can pay a large hunk of cash for a SharePoint expert. Another strong feature is SharePoint’s ability to integrate with Office365. Or was it Excel Online? Or OneDrive? Or OneDrive for Business? Microsoft’s SharePoint is undoubtedly a sleek collaboration tool for large companies that can afford developers and SharePoint experts to create their perfect site and train employees to use it efficiently.

However, for small teams that need agility and function over weighty and time-consuming collaborative platforms, there is another solution. That solution is iPushPull.

Drawbacks to Relying on SharePoint for Digital Content Sharing

The need for SharePoint-specific developers and a large amount of resources makes it difficult to use SharePoint to prototype ideas with your team off the cuff. Particularly with small teams, an open communication platform with real-time data sharing can be critical to accomplishing key business functions. Current digital content sharing services either limit employee productivity via out of date files or through a hierarchical structure. Small teams do not need unwanted complexity that inhibits their team’s flexibility and movements.

A Better Solution via iPushPull

For small teams needing to securely share spreadsheets and PDFs, there is iPushPull. A fully integrated Excel add-in with extensive back-end capabilities, iPushPull acts as a way to remotely access your desktop spreadsheets, or give access to other viewers internally or externally. Teams can share content securely between team members from project leaders, sales managers, and sales teams, remotely and securely. For small teams where agility plays an important role, they can focus on the information their team really cares about while delivering it via a simple platform. When working in a small team, accountability is crucial to ensure critical business functions are taken care of and no employee resources are wasted in duplicating efforts. iPushPull spreadsheet auditing and monitoring features provide full data history including a log of changes made to your live data sheets and restore them to their previous versions if need be.

When working with your small team, why reinvent the wheel? Share your most important information with your team. Anywhere. Anytime. Sign your team up for a free trial here.

June 21, 2016June 23, 2016

What makes a good collaboration platform?

Symphony and Markit partnership boost collaboration in Financial Services

Symphony and Markit have announced a partnership to promote the adoption of a Collaboration Platform as a Service (CPaaS) in the financial industry. The news is likely to provide a boost to the adoption of collaboration platforms across a sector which has been traditionally reluctant to entrust its confidential content to third party services. The partners have released few details, but have indicated that the service will combine Symphony’s messaging platform with Markit’s data feeds and analytics to provide new applications, starting with reference data and advanced charting apps. So what makes a good collaboration platform?

Collaboration platform improves business efficiency

Collaboration Platforms aim to improve business efficiency by automating manual workflows and integrating communications into the applications people already use. iPushPull‘s customers, for example, use our plugins for Microsoft Excel to share live data across the office or to the other side of the planet directly from their existing desktop applications, reducing emails and accelerating business processes. However, the term collaboration is broad, incorporating everything from cloud-based productivity tools like Google Sheets to unified communications platforms like Slack and Circuit. It remains to be seen what Symphony and Markit will bring to the party.

Collaboration platforms must be available across every device

To succeed in an increasingly mobile world, a collaboration service must be available across every device. On mobile, lack of integration between applications actively hinders productivity, as Network World recently highlighted:

The process of switching between applications on a desktop is inconvenient, but most users manage. On a mobile device, having to constantly flip between applications while trying to remember data or cut and paste data is inefficient and can make users less productive.

Symphony has been slow to release mobile applications – its iPhone app only debuted this month, and we await the arrival of its Android offering.

Data Security and Encryption

The main sticking point preventing financial organisations from entrusting their confidential data to third-party services is concern about data security. The business and reputational risks associated with data breaches are potentially enormous. Both Symphony and iPushPull incorporate end-to-end encryption to reduce the risk of breaches, but we’ve found that financial service customers still insist on on-premises deployments of iPushPull to keep their data under their control. As the pressure to cut costs continues across the financial sector, the adoption of secure cloud services is likely to grow.

iPushPull lets you share live data between the applications you already use and the web. It automates workflows and simplifies business processes. It’s secure, access controlled and encrypted end-to-end. Sign up here for a free trial.

April 19, 2016April 19, 2016

Google Sheets and Excel Online vs iPushPull – Why choose iPushPull?

We’re often asked about the differences between iPushPull vs Google Sheets and Excel Online. The Google and Microsoft applications attempt to replicate desktop spreadsheets but offer vastly reduced functionality and integration. And they don’t tackle the data security and access control issues that face all users who share spreadsheets with their colleagues and clients. In this respect, web-hosted sheets are not much better than a spreadsheet saved on a shared drive.

We decided to think different. We wanted to let our customers retain all the features of their desktop applications but also give them the convenience of cloud access to their data. So we built iPushPull.

Google Sheets and Excel Online vs iPushPull: Share your data without compromising on functionality

iPushPull integrates directly with your desktop Microsoft Excel, so you retain all the features of the desktop application and can continue to use your local database links, live feeds and custom macros. iPushPull lets you share some or all of the data from your sheet with whoever you choose, wherever they are. And because you’re still using your full desktop application you can still see your data when you don’t have web access – for example, when you’re on the train.

Your latest LIVE data available on any device

Whether the data in your desktop Excel spreadsheet is entered manually, updated by a live feed or imported from a local ERP or CRM system, iPushPull lets you share it with other Excel users and view it on the web or mobile. iPushPull can be easily integrated into any website – we’ve even developed a highly-rated plugin for WordPress-powered sites.

Once you’ve started sharing data from your spreadsheets, iPushPull will be updated every time your data changes – there’s no need to save your sheet. Your colleagues and clients will see the data update live in their spreadsheets or on any mobile device. There’s no need to reopen the file or hit refresh.

Superior access control

When you share a Google or Excel spreadsheet with someone, they get access to all the data contained within it. iPushPull lets you control access at the sheet, range or even at the individual cell level. So you can choose to share just the critical information from your sheet with the individuals or groups of people who need to see it, with no chance of over-sharing.

Complete security – spreadsheet data encrypted from end-to-end

Google Sheets and Excel Online are basically files stored on a cloud service. As such, they’re vulnerable to the kind of security breaches which have, sadly, become a regular occurrence. iPushPull lets you encrypt your data before it leaves your device, so it’s totally secure until it reaches the intended recipient. We can’t read your data, or give anyone else access to it, even if we wanted to! And we have some exciting developments in the pipeline that will give you even greater control over where, when and by whom your data can be accessed.

Consolidate and summarise data from across your business and customer base

iPushPull lets you pull data from multiple remote spreadsheets and mobile devices into a single sheet, automatically. It’s easy to build summary reports using data from across your business, regardless of where the data was entered or the application used to enter it. You don’t need a developer to create your own user-focussed B2B or B2C applications scaling to 10s, 100s or even 1000s of users. This just isn’t possible with web-hosted sheets.

Share data across all the applications you use – even using SMS

The iPushPull Excel Add-In works with all versions of desktop Microsoft Excel from 2007 to 2016. You can also access your data with our desktop and mobile websites (and with our upcoming Google Sheets add-in and Android and iOS apps, too). And when you’re not connected to the internet, you can even push and pull your data using SMS. When you’re using Google Sheets or Office 365 you’re locked into a walled garden.

iPushPull gives you desktop functionality, cloud connectivity, mobile access and enterprise-grade permissioning, security and encryption.

April 7, 2016April 26, 2016

What(sapp) took you so long?

At iPushPull we take our users’ privacy and security very seriously, so we were intrigued that two of the biggest news stories to break this week relate to just that. We think it’s great that everyone is suddenly talking about encryption. Whatsapp‘s plan to incorporate Open Whisper Systems‘ TextSecure protocol for end-to-end encryption is old news, announced way back in 2014. Perhaps the most surprising about this week’s headline-grabbing roll-out is that it took so long to get here. There are significant technical hurdles to overcome when it comes to retro-fitting encryption to an existing platform, but making that additional layer of security convenient for customers to use is and even bigger challenge. Whatsapp have done a great job; most of their billion or so users won’t even be be aware of it. In fact, it’s so seamlessly integrated they had to put a message in the app to let people know it’s there.

Whatsapp end-to-end encryption to Panama Papers

What’s really interesting about the Whatsapp story is that, not only is end-to-end encryption enabled by default, there is no way to opt out and turn it off. It’s a clear statement of intent from Whatsapp that they believe this is the new minimum benchmark for privacy and security.

At iPushPull we designed security from the outset and we always at the forefront of our considerations when designing and developing the platform. We’ve had end-to-end encryption since we started in 2014, but we don’t make it compulsory. We allow our users to enable it on a page-by-page basis, whenever they like, and adjust those settings as their privacy needs change. A new, more intuitive user interface is already in development which we hope will open encryption for spreadsheets to the masses in the same way Whatsapp has done for messages. Just as we strive to let our users take control of their content, we believe that they should have the tools to take control of the security of that content too.

This brings us neatly to the biggest news story of the week: The Panama Papers. Whatever you think about the morals of Mossack Fonseca and some of their customers (and as others have noted, there are genuine reasons for using the services they offer), there is no doubt that it represents a massive failure of corporate and data security. How many other corporations are at risk of a similar leak; how many of those corporations hold information about you?

No matter how seriously an organisation takes data security or how well they think it is implemented, it’s all for nothing if employees are circumventing it by, for example, emailing documents to clients or putting them in their personal cloud storage to work on at home.

There are smarter and more secure ways to share your business or personal content of course. That’s what we do here at iPushPull. Register for free today and start taking control of your privacy?

April 6, 2016April 8, 2016

End-to-end encryption for all Whatsapp messages …but not for spreadsheets!

Hot on the heels from the security fob off from Apple to the US government, WhatsApp is updating its messenger app with strong encryption so that every text and voice call will be highly protected for their 1 billion+ users.

After starting the process in 2014, Facebook owned Whatsapp have fully completed their roll out of Signal Protocol to all of their app users. Developed by Open Whisper Systems, the open source code was made famous by US whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden.

encryption

What does end-to-end encryption mean?

In a nutshell, end-to-end encryption means only the sender and receiver can view a message and no content or information is visible on Whatsapp’s servers without encryption keys, something which Whatsapp does not store, also commonly known as zero-knowledge. Messages are encrypted before they leave a users device which means that if the US government demanded to see users communications, Whatsapp would be unable to provide it due to the encryption and Whatsapp does not store the key to decrypt it.

Secure your spreadsheets with end-to-end encryption

As security is paramount in today’s world iPushPull built its content sharing platform with end-to-end encryption since its inception.

By using iPushPull you can use end-to-end encryption for all of your important spreadsheets that contain sensitive and confidential information. iPushPull already offers server and client-side encryption, providing end-to-end security for your documents and data. In addition, our patent-pending access control will add further layers of security, making iPushPull significantly more secure than the vast majority of commonly-used file and data sharing platforms. iPushPull enables granular levels of security and access on a cell by bell basis within a spreadsheet. Please register for a free trial to find out more.

Technical overview of Whatsapp end-to-end encryption

For a full technical overview of Whatsapp’s encryption please go here and for Open Whisper Systems here.

November 4, 2015November 5, 2015

FuturesTechs chooses iPushPull for Secure Delivery of Financial Research

iPushPull and FuturesTechs Joint Venture

iPushPull is delighted to announce our new partnership with FuturesTechs, the FCA regulated & award-winning technical research company. FuturesTechs is using iPushPull’s new document distribution feature to securely deliver daily technical analysis research to their clients. This new feature enables iPushPull’s customers to share content with their clients across all devices while letting them control access and monitor document usage.

Clive Lambert, the founder of FuturesTechs, said yesterday:

“We feel the future of Research under the new MiFID II unbundling rules set to come in in 2017 will require secure delivery across all manner of devices, with the ability to audit, control and track usage. With the help of iPushPull, Futurestechs will be well placed to partner with all manner of financial institutions, offering a clean, flexible technology-driven solution to ensure white-label clients can control their brand, reach and pricing; offering our well respected and entirely independent analysis to their clients as a viable, compliant and cost effective alternative to the pre-MiFID II options currently available”.

Dan Eccleston, one of the co-founders of iPushPull, said:

“The way in which information is shared is changing rapidly as enterprises try to keep up with the flexibility of the cloud services now commonplace in consumer markets, while at the same time trying to maintain the all-important control and security businesses require. In addition to these challenges, regulators in financial markets are introducing rules which require businesses to show a far greater degree of transparency than has previously been required, particularly in relation to research materials.

We’re delighted that FuturesTechs has chosen iPushPull as a partner both to help them meet these regulatory challenges and to leverage iPushPull’s unique distribution platform to scale up its ability to distribute information simply and securely”.

For a free trial of FuturesTechs on iPushPull, please click here

About FuturesTechs

FuturesTechs is one of the UK’s leading independent technical analysis companies, founded by Clive Lambert in 2000. It is recognised as a leading research house and the winner of multiple industry awards. Clive is a well-known figure in the technical analysis and Futures industries. He was a board member of the UK Society of Technical Analysts between 2003 and 2011 and is still a regular speaker on their yearly Diploma Course, and is the Author of “Candlestick Charts“, published in 2009. FuturesTechs is FCA registered, registration number 460598.

May 19, 2015May 20, 2015

Link Excel spreadsheets so no more email attachments

If you scroll down your email inbox I’ll bet you’ll see a fair few paper clips, highlighting those emails that arrived complete with their own attachment. Let’s take a look at a few, shall we, and see what’s attached? Ah – here’s an MS Excel spreadsheet with those sales forecasts you were waiting for. And here’s the updated pricelist you were expecting from your supplier. And timesheets from your sales people out on the road. And…

Let’s open one of these emails. Done? Right – download that attachment. Then try to work out where it’s been downloaded to. Found it? OK, fire up Excel, open the sheet and scan through it to find the particular range of cells you’re actually interested in and finally copy them into your master sheet. Job done?

If you’re lucky that might be the end of your work. But perhaps you have to generate a company-wide sales report from separate sheets submitted by all your branch offices, or maybe you have to process time sheets from all your remote workers. As companies spread and more staff work remotely, more and more spreadsheets will be dropping into your inbox. And the alternatives to sharing this way are not much better.

You could try a shared sheet on a cloud drive like Dropbox instead. But do you really want everyone working on the same sheet? Should your New York office be able to see London’s figures? Has everyone updated their bit yet? Who’s got the file open now? Which version are we working on again?

There is a better way.

Link Excel Spreadsheets with iPushPull

iPushPull lets you link Excel spreadsheets, whether they’re in the same office or on opposite sides of the world. So every remote office or worker can update their own sheets independently without blocking anyone or accessing anyone else’s data. The instant they make their changes they’re pushed to iPushPull. And the moment the changes are pushed to iPushPull every linked sheet will be updated automatically – there’s no need to save or refresh anything.

Here’s a head office report that consolidates key figures from every branch office in a single place. Each row of the report is linked to a remote sheet and updates whenever the remote sheet is changed:

The Time Updated and Who Updated fields show when each remote site updated their data and who did it, so it’s easy to see who deserves a pat on the back and who needs a gentle nudge (hurry up, Eddy!). Each office can only access its own data so only you can see this big picture. And because you can view your live iPushPull data securely on your mobile phone, you can check it on your way into the office. So you’re ahead of the game.

iPushPull works with all versions of Excel from 2007 onwards and it’s easy to integrate it with your existing spreadsheets. You don’t have to change your business processes – just make them much faster and simpler.

So if you’d like fewer paper clips in your inbox in future, why not try iPushPull free today?

iPushPull – link Excel spreadsheets