Modernizing voice communications for traders
Enabling existing telephony soft client to be FDC3 compliant, to work as a fully enabled Here™ Workspace for seamless integration of telephony across the desktop including Salesforce, Microsoft Teams and beyond.
Enhanced Software Interface for Communication Hardware
Use Case
Unigy by IPC is a sophisticated, integrated platform designed to enhance trading communications and compliance within financial markets. Implemented across thousands of trading floors, its innovative capabilities extend to Wealth Management, Client and the IQ/MAX Touch turret, it fundamentally advances the way finance professionals communicate and work.
IPC’s vision was to further extend Unigy’s capabilities by delivering an unprecedented level of integration of voice with third-party applications and workflows, with the ultimate goal of driving end user productivity and client-centricity. Here™, the leading framework for desktop interoperability, was the perfect technology partner. But that was just the beginning.
IPC engaged Expero, a long standing Here™ Certified Development Partner, to bring this vision to life. With expertise in financial workflows, Expero's User Experience design team worked closely with product leadership at IPC to detail this vision, and create a detailed roadmap for Expero engineers to implement as an Here™ compatible application delightfully integrated with third-party applications.
The result: OneView portfolio, a game-changer in financial service workflows, with deep integration of voice communication into end-user workflows and applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Dynamics, Teams and Salesforce. Fully configurable at the enterprise and end-user level, it fits many patterns of use, and with established design patterns and technology in place, other proprietary data and applications can be integrated, with Expero ready to help."OneView Portfolio represents a significant leap forward in how Unigy can empower financial professionals. By integrating seamlessly with the applications our clients use every day, OneView eliminates the need for context switching and keeps critical information at their fingertips. This singular focus on user experience, along with the deep integration with communication workflows, is a game-changer for productivity and client service. We're excited about the positive feedback we've received from early adopters and look forward to bringing OneView to a wider audience,” says Brett Berkowitz, Sr. Product Manager, IPC Systems.
Customer Challenges
The project demanded a unique combination of creative thinking, agility, enabling rapid iteration and swift market deployment. It also required a thorough understanding of web technology, especially FDC3 and Here™, and expert knowledge of the core target workflows. There were also many “known unknowns” - requiring a disciplined approach to scoping and project management.
- Most deployments of Here™ Workspace had been from the perspective of an institution, looking to build and integrate multiple applications within their enterprise. This solution was more ambitious, as it was inspired by a single product vision and the opportunity to reposition that product in the context of a broader solution set. The solution needed to demo well, to help sell that story, while also delivering a logical path for clients of IPC to adopt the solution.
- OneView needed to intuitively marry the world of voice and telephony with solutions for contact and account management. And while the vision was in place, the detailed use cases had not been fully articulated and there was a knowledge gap when it came to what capabilities from Here™ existed, and what needed to be developed anew.
- The underlying code of the Unigy Soft Client application needed to be modified for it to work properly with Here™.
- A number of the application adapters that were developed by Here™ were relatively new, and other adapters, such as for Microsoft Dynamics were not yet in place.
Delivered Results
UI and User Experience - The Expero team created new and innovative designs for the advisors and workflow patterns with an interactive application with the desired feature requests. These were curated and defined using an agile project with low and high fidelity work products. The end goal was a comprehensive application and customer experience for the overall suite of products including the new portfolio experience
Custom Software Development - The team was able to build the new features with a single page application with REACT and extend the current customers platform and expand the current systems feature, over all usability and bring a new easy to use product to market
Expero Solution
Expero delivered OneView on time, and incorporated all of the target functionality required to demo the solution at the product’s global launch. By leveraging core aspects of the Here™ Workspace, and writing custom code to bring additional functionality to life, the project delivered a fully functional implementation that was innovative, intuitive and demonstrated deep integration with third party applications: Features delivered included:
- Ability to launch Unigy in the Here™ Workspace via Home
- Ability to search for contacts not just from Unigy directories but across other enterprise applications like Salesforce and Teams
- Unigy functionality embedded into external application views, including click to dial capability initiating calls
- FDC3 compliance for context and intent handling
Additionally, the Expero team delivered the ability for click to dial from external websites, and integrated sample holdings and market data to aid in demos at the launch event.
This allowed IPC pre-sales activities to proceed on schedule, and in an impressive fashion (see below).
Overview
Unigy by IPC is a sophisticated, integrated platform designed to enhance trading communications and compliance within financial markets. Implemented across thousands of trading floors, its innovative capabilities extend to Wealth Management, Client and the IQ/MAX Touch turret, it fundamentally advances the way finance professionals communicate and work.
IPC’s vision was to further extend Unigy’s capabilities by delivering an unprecedented level of integration of voice with third-party applications and workflows, with the ultimate goal of driving end user productivity and client-centricity. Here™, the leading framework for desktop interoperability, was the perfect technology partner. But that was just the beginning.
IPC engaged Expero, a long standing Here™ Certified Development Partner, to bring this vision to life. With expertise in financial workflows, Expero's User Experience design team worked closely with product leadership at IPC to detail this vision, and create a detailed roadmap for Expero engineers to implement as an Here™ compatible application delightfully integrated with third-party applications.
The result: OneView portfolio, a game-changer in financial service workflows, with deep integration of voice communication into end-user workflows and applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Dynamics, Teams and Salesforce. Fully configurable at the enterprise and end-user level, it fits many patterns of use, and with established design patterns and technology in place, other proprietary data and applications can be integrated, with Expero ready to help."OneView Portfolio represents a significant leap forward in how Unigy can empower financial professionals. By integrating seamlessly with the applications our clients use every day, OneView eliminates the need for context switching and keeps critical information at their fingertips. This singular focus on user experience, along with the deep integration with communication workflows, is a game-changer for productivity and client service. We're excited about the positive feedback we've received from early adopters and look forward to bringing OneView to a wider audience,” says Brett Berkowitz, Sr. Product Manager, IPC Systems.
The Challenge
The project demanded a unique combination of creative thinking, agility, enabling rapid iteration and swift market deployment. It also required a thorough understanding of web technology, especially FDC3 and Here™, and expert knowledge of the core target workflows. There were also many “known unknowns” - requiring a disciplined approach to scoping and project management.
- Most deployments of Here™ Workspace had been from the perspective of an institution, looking to build and integrate multiple applications within their enterprise. This solution was more ambitious, as it was inspired by a single product vision and the opportunity to reposition that product in the context of a broader solution set. The solution needed to demo well, to help sell that story, while also delivering a logical path for clients of IPC to adopt the solution.
- OneView needed to intuitively marry the world of voice and telephony with solutions for contact and account management. And while the vision was in place, the detailed use cases had not been fully articulated and there was a knowledge gap when it came to what capabilities from Here™ existed, and what needed to be developed anew.
- The underlying code of the Unigy Soft Client application needed to be modified for it to work properly with Here™.
- A number of the application adapters that were developed by Here™ were relatively new, and other adapters, such as for Microsoft Dynamics were not yet in place.
Our Solution
Expero delivered OneView on time, and incorporated all of the target functionality required to demo the solution at the product’s global launch. By leveraging core aspects of the Here™ Workspace, and writing custom code to bring additional functionality to life, the project delivered a fully functional implementation that was innovative, intuitive and demonstrated deep integration with third party applications: Features delivered included:
- Ability to launch Unigy in the Here™ Workspace via Home
- Ability to search for contacts not just from Unigy directories but across other enterprise applications like Salesforce and Teams
- Unigy functionality embedded into external application views, including click to dial capability initiating calls
- FDC3 compliance for context and intent handling
Additionally, the Expero team delivered the ability for click to dial from external websites, and integrated sample holdings and market data to aid in demos at the launch event.
This allowed IPC pre-sales activities to proceed on schedule, and in an impressive fashion (see below).
Our Approach
From Initial Idea To Release in 6 Months!
As always, Expero took a design-led approach - starting with multiple design sessions culminating in a set of interactive (Figma) designs that would form the basis of the build.
For the implementation, Expero assembled an experienced team - with subject matter and technical experience across all the required domains. The team worked closely and collaboratively with the engineering and product teams at IPC and Here™, making sure that all aspects of the incumbent systems were considered.
The team rapidly prototyped key aspects of the platform - such as the way that contact records on multiple systems were synchronized. Regular demos ensured that there was constant alignment with the product team at IPC.
As the launch event approached, the team moved to harden the application, making sure that the application was responsive to user inputs, and that each integration delivered the expected response. The team also provided demos to the sales teams, ensuring that they were fully aware of the custom and native functionality of the application.
All this work culminated in successful launch events in New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Designed For Expert User Audience
The finance user case for telephony is amongst the most demanding - with end users often needing to react to market moving events, servicing the right clients quickly with highly targeted insights and actions. Similarly, when a client calls the end user needs to quickly pivot to client relevant data, so that the response can be tight and to the point.
Expero’s designs needed to leverage not only the IPC soft client to initiate a call, but also allow end users to dial from within one of the third party platforms. Expero’s focus on design led development and the use of interactive designs to model a “day in the life of” a trader provided the perfect vehicle to test and validate the approach.
Ease of Deployment, Configuration and Support
The solution design also needed to anticipate the wide variety of possible implementations required by a multitude of IPC customers. Failure to build this into the design would slow client implementations, and raise support costs for the end customers.
The innovative design and implementation speaks for itself - check out the video below:
Desktop Toolbar, Left-right Call Monitor,Favorites Dialer, Desktop Notifications, and 3rd-party App Call Integration
Directory, and 3rd-party App Call Integration
Notification Sidebar, Contect Detail, and 3rd-party App Call Integration
