The Special Needs of Financial Contact Centers
7 Jul, 2011
By: Patrick SalgFinancial institutions, and especially trading firms, present a much more demanding set of requirements for communications recording and quality monitoring than other organizations. In addition to preserving a hybrid system of TDM and IP communications, they must address an entirely separate infrastructure for their trading system, often just as critical for enterprise-wide success.
Communications recording solutions for trading companies must verify customer interactions, meet a patchwork of government regulations in multiple countries and provide protection from liability.
Vendors must therefore meet a much more rigorous set of standards for their systems including fail-safe operation, the ability to meet strict PCI DSS security requirements and the handling of encrypted communications. Central operation and storage of recorded interactions must often integrate with multiple locations around the world.
Case Study: Optiver
Optiver, a global market maker, is one of the fastest growing and most successful proprietary trading firms. It adds liquidity to international exchanges, takes advantage of relative pricing differences between related securities and narrows the spread to help pension funds, institutions, retail investors and all other market participants, including the investing public.
Optiver used an IPC voice trading system and a mix of TDM and IP communications, primarily through the Avaya Communication Manager, using DMCC with CTI. It supported 150 channels for its traders and 120 Avaya users and required a robust, flexible and extensible voice logging solution based on proven technology.
The solution chosen by Optiver provided bulk recording and was closely integrated with the company’s complex infrastructure. It provided central storage through an IAS database. The ability to handle PBX users and traders with one solution saved costs, and features such as “last call repeat,“ to play back the most recent communication, proved invaluable to the enitre firm. The system complied completely with diverse government regulations, avoided system downtime and ensured total protection from liability.
Choosing a Communications Recording Company
Just like public safety organizations, you don’t want traders in financial institutions to worry about the equipment. They must be totally focused on the job at hand because the flow of huge sums of money is at stake. The best communications recording system becomes part of the background, a reliable element in the trader’s environment.
It takes time for companies to develop the expertise and solutions capable of meeting this rigorous demand. When choosing one, you should research years of experience in the market, development of second and third-generation products and any awards or certifications received. Communications recording solutions for financial institutions are operating in a highly complex environment, and creating a closely integrated system only happens over time, even for the highest-quality vendor. You should also peruse the vendor’s client base for any prominent firms.
Finally, you should determine what kind of technical support the company offers. Is there a subsidiary near you? If not, any problems you have could easily be amplified before help arrives.
