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.

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 16, 2016June 16, 2016

Microsoft LinkedIn Acquisition Creating New Opportunities for Data Collaboration

Microsoft sent shockwaves across the Fintech industry this week as they announced their LinkedIn acquisition for a whopping $26.2 billion! Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, released a public overview of the agreement that begins to touch upon how this will transform data collaboration and integration on the web; things that iPushPull has been working to improve with their Excel plugin.

The negotiations for the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history began a few years ago when Nadella and LinkedIn CEO, Jeff Weiner met at a networking event. Until now, Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp has held second place for the world’s biggest tech purchase of $19 billion in 2014; more than 12% of Facebook’s total market value at the time. AOL remains the industry’s clear largest with their $106 billion acquisition of Time Warner. Despite being acclaimed as the most expensive merger, it is also considered to be the least successful, often being labelled as the worst merger of all time. Let’s hope that Microsoft won’t be following suit.

Nadella and Weiner recently began working more closely, meeting for dinner in April this year to discuss future plans for the companies. Public opinion suggests that they are looking to maximise their synergies after the recent troubles they have been facing. The question on everyone’s mind seems to be how they are going to amalgamate the different services?

Integrating Microsoft Office with LinkedIn

Nadella explained how the purchase of LinkedIn is “the coming together of the professional cloud and the professional network.”This is the key focus as they start diving into the best means of integrating their services. They are looking into ways of including the Microsoft Office suite in order to enhance the LinkedIn user experience. So far, a great deal of emphasis has been put on the development of LinkedIn’s newsfeed. Other examples include incorporating PowerPoint and Excel spreadsheets, as well as data collaborations to help connect users through their email, calendar and Skype.

LinkedIn acquisition integration of services with Microsoft — Snap shot from Microsoft’s brief on their LinkedIn acquisition regarding integration of services

At the moment, Microsoft needs to rely on other platforms such as Facebook to access a social graph as they don’t have their own. LinkedIn offers that social graph and due to its professional nature, will be directly beneficial as Microsoft offers professional based services.

Microsoft is particularly interested in one of LinkedIn’s subsidiaries, Lynda, a service for professional training videos. They have already suggested at looking into embedding those videos into Excel and their other services.

Data Collaboration and Security

The problem of sharing and consolidating data from different locations is a huge problem today. As these companies merge, they will attempt to minimise this issue by pulling together the silos of information available on user’s LinkedIn and Microsoft Office platforms. Microsoft will be gaining access to more than 400 million LinkedIn user profiles which can give them helpful insight into what people value when searching for jobs. By utilising this knowledge, they can future develop their software to new heights. However, as it helps to share people’s information, cyber security issues are always close to follow.

Here at iPushPull, we also realise and attempt to solve issues of data collaboration, sharing, and security by working with Excel. Together these types of technologies will all work together in creating a more coherent web with easier and safer access to information.

March 10, 2016March 15, 2016

Excel Add-In for iPushPull: Download our new version now

We’ve been working hard here at iPushPull developing a host of exciting new features to help you get the most out of our Microsoft Excel Add-In. It’s available to download now for registered users. If you haven’t already registered, why not do it now (it’s free!)?

Download the latest Excel Add-In for iPushPull Now

What’s new with the latest version of Excel Add-In

Our new ribbon makes finding your pages and sharing Excel content a breeze. Search and preview pages before pushing or pulling

Insert live pushes and pulls as new worksheets in your existing workbooks and automatically overlay web formatting over a live pull

New ‘URL’ option for our =iPullDisplayInfo(...) worksheet function allows you to create clickable links from your spreadsheets to iPushPull pages

New =iPullTime(...) worksheet function allows you to control exactly when your live pushes occur and reliably push cells containing volatile functions

Share Excel Charts Online

Charts! You can now share Excel charts online by pushing them to an iPushPull page just as you would any other Excel range, and even include them in a wordpress site just like this one:

We’ve added support for Excel 2016 and high-resolution displays

Vertical alignment added to cell formatting

There’s a lot more to discover too, so why not download it now and check out our support site for more information, tutorials, and videos. Want to know more about our popular WordPress plug-in? You can find out all about it here: Embed live Excel spreadsheets in web pages using our Free WordPress Plugin

About iPushPull

iPushPull‘s services enable its customers to securely share live data between desktop applications like Microsoft Excel, and distribute documents and research on a fully access-controlled and audited platform. With iPushPull’s Research Delivery Platform you can take control of your research distribution. To date, it has won two UK Government grants for its innovative research and development work.