OpenFin, the operating system (OS) of finance, today announced the launch of OpenFin Cloud Services, providing every bank, asset manager, hedge fund and wealth management firm with its own FDC3-standard private app store and workspace management solution out of the box, eliminating the need for time-consuming and costly internal builds.

Across the industry, banks and buy-side firms today are focused on digital transformation and working to integrate internal and vendor apps so they can provide end-users with a common desktop experience. Driving digital strategy at many firms is the “app store” concept: once functionality has been unbundled into discrete apps, there needs to be a place where organisations can curate and make discovery an intuitive experience for their employees. The challenge many firms face is that building this capability proves costly and time-consuming. OpenFin Cloud Services provides this functionality turnkey, eliminating the need for a bespoke development effort.

Nick Kolba, Chief Product Officer, OpenFin said: “The approach to our cloud services has been very important to us from inception. Our commitment is to openness and neutrality. For that reason, we don’t mix being a platform provider with being a content creator.”

He added: “We provide the technology, but it’s not Our app store; it’s Your app store. You decide what’s in your store, you set your branding, you decide who has access to what. We ensure the technology works and continuously enhance the offering in the same way we’ve been continuously enhancing OpenFin OS.”

The OpenFin App Store cloud service will offer firms the ability to provide their own private, white-labeled app store that can be used firm-wide, allowing users to choose from internal and third-party apps curated for their organisation. Incorporating FDC3 App Directory standards (which are close to finalisation), the OpenFin App Store cloud service enables all applications to be automatically discoverable and form part of the user’s workflow. The OpenFin Workspace cloud service gives users the ability to store workspace configurations, allowing them to switch computers or work remotely and take their workspace configuration with them. Finally, OpenFin’s Account cloud service enables the easy creation and management of user accounts and single sign-on capabilities to third-party applications.

Mazy Dar, CEO, OpenFin commented: “The OpenFin OS has made phenomenal progress and now powers more than a thousand applications on 175,000 desktops across 1500 banks and buy-side firms. Until today, we’ve never provided an app store solution. It’s something that we have been thinking and talking about for years, but we wanted to make sure we did it at the right time, in the right way, and with a foundation of industry standards.”

OpenFin launched the FDC3 standards initiative in 2017, in response to industry demand for standardised discovery and interoperability between desktop applications. OpenFin contributed the initiative to the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) in May 2018. FINOS is an independent nonprofit organisation promoting open standards and open source in the financial services industry.

OpenFin received 4 industry awards in the last 6 months alone as a result of making the greatest strides in using technology to drive innovation, encouraging successful market collaboration, and driving the adoption of industry-wide standards for application interoperability through the FDC3 initiative.

Source: OpenFin