Each organisation is different, in terms of the business they run, the infrastructure that they use and the challenges they face – there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to solving complexity. And our rich experience in solving different challenges inside capital markets firms makes us well positioned to help you succeed.

Combining technology and business process into an enterprise wide solution, we provide an integrated solution – not either or – to your challenge. Our experience across diverse organisations, geographies and jurisdictions means we know the ‘how’ is as important as the ‘what’ when delivering transformation and we are accomplished in taking your stakeholders along this journey.

Post-trade infrastructure is complex and highly bespoke, as a by-product of business model evolution and institutional history – it’s “too big to fix” in one step.

• Traditional transformation strategies underestimate this complexity, attempting standardised platform solutions to ‘rip-and-replace’ infrastructure in its entirety
• Wholesale digitalisation as a solution becomes challenging, with in-house legacy technology needing to be blended with cutting edge vendor solutions
• Programmes typically end in failure or significant cost-overrun, due to mismatch of solution approach with strategic objective
• We believe that transformation has to be a staged, multi-phased approach, based on key principles:

– Pragmatic: each step must be achievable by all stakeholders

– Integrated: IT and Business processes have to be integrated into a single solution

– Results-Based: tangible programme outcomes to be delivered in each phase

– Sympathetic: recognises competing interests from different stakeholders

We leverage the expertise developed out of delivering complex and time-bound transformation during multiple internal engagements within capital markets firms.

• We apply these skills in a practical and pragmatic way – our journey focuses on delivering renovation not revolution
• Combining IT and business process transformation together ensures stakeholder alignment with the technology solution. Our approach blends both together to deliver enterprise-wide
• Harnessing the power of  FinTech solutions requires an understanding of where you are, what you are trying to achieve and how to get there. Our approach ensures alignment of the business objective with the right integration approach to deliver a successful outcome
• Committed outcomes are tied to our engagements – we phase our deliverables to provide clear checkpoints throughout our work that maps to our commercial structure
• We have a deep network but are vendor agnostic – no ‘reselling’ obligations – ensuring our independence over your solution
• Our model is expertise and skills based – who you see, is who you get and who you pay for !
• Ultimately, our positioning is simple – we are here to solve your problems, not sell you people

When their Custody implementation project was stalled after 3 years in execution, a G-SIB organisation asked Ascendant Strategy to diagnose the problem. A rapid assessment revealed key issues, along with a remediation plan. ASL managed  the implementation of this plan and the project concluded successfully 6 months later.

“When Ascendant Strategy came on board, they told us exactly where and why our project was stalling. They followed this up by establishing a strong project framework, advising on resourcing, and developing our staff with the benefit of their extensive operational knowledge. Ascendant Strategy is a thoroughly professional and highly experienced firm”

COO at G-SIB

 

A UK bank were planning an investment in cash and inventory management systems, but wanted a broader view of the market and their strategy than their teams had bandwidth or capability to accomplish. Ascendant Strategy provided this analysis, with some fresh thinking about how to approach the change. This allowed the teams to re-think their strategy to deliver better ROI in the project 

“Ascendant Strategy over-delivered against the brief, and exceeded my expectations significantly. They have disrupted our thinking and made us look at different architectures for moving forward”

MD Markets Operations, UK Bank

 

The Operations head at a European investment bank was falling behind his IT counterparts in defining the future state model for the organisation as a large change was being planned in post-trade infrastructure. Ascendant Strategy were able to define and capture the future state and communicate this across the organisation, ensuring the Operations roadmap was integrated  into the transformation planning.

“Thank you for the work you did to get us to this position, it was extremely valuable”

Global Head of Operations, Finance and Risk Technology, European investment bank

 

Contact Ascendant Strategy for a different transformation experience, one which is tailored to your challenges to deliver the right outcome.