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CEO Chat: Mazy Dar, OpenFin
Traders Magazine Online News, December 20, 2018
The technology available on both the buy- and sell-side trader’s desktop today is staggering. But getting all these apps – EMS, OMS, messaging, news, charting, etc. – to interoperate seamlessly is no small task.
Leading the charge to facilitate this interoperability and workflow simplification by developing what it calls “the Operating System for Finance” is OpenFin, whose platform is used by over 1,500 companies across the buy side and sell side to connect nearly 1,000 apps. By standardizing the operating environment for financial applications on the trader desktop, the firm allows trading applications to share information in a permissioned manner, in the same way that Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android allows Uber to seamlessly leverage other apps on the device such as maps, chat, contacts, etc.
Traders Magazine editor John D’Antona Jr. recently sat down with OpenFin’s co-founder and CEO Mazy Dar to discuss his firm’s core mission and philosophy, the growth it’s seen among its buy side client base, the goals for the FDC3 consortium it launched, and more.
Traders Magazine: Tell us about OpenFin. What is your philosophy, and what sets you apart?
Mazy Dar: It’s no secret that as technology has advanced, the trader desktop has become increasingly cluttered. Today’s traders have access to thousands of apps designed to ease their workflow, but constantly switching between platforms and re-entering information can result in a one-step-forward, two-steps-back situation. At OpenFin, we believe interoperability is the solution to these administrative difficulties – just as Apple products allow for seamless maneuvering across programs from a wide variety of third-party developers, our operating system supports over 1,000 apps encompassing everything from EMS to market data to TCA. This allows firms or even individual traders to select the very best applications necessary for their specific workflow and make full use of the technology at their disposal without sacrificing any time to the inconveniences that so often come with it.
TM: In addition to serving your clients, dealing with these all these third-party developers must be a major part of running your business. Tell us about the experience of working with such diverse and disparate firms.
Dar: While the developers we work with are often highly specialized, we pride ourselves on having flexible software capable of accommodating all sorts of applications. We enable firms to quickly and safely deploy their applications directly onto the trader desktop, creating more convenient alternative to other systems. In fact, the process often goes both ways – these firms know what works best on our platform, especially when it comes to integrating with other apps, so it’s usually a highly cooperative process. In this way, OpenFin is creating an ecosystem of firms that prize collaboration and innovation, which makes for an exciting workflow. Bringing such organizations together helps drive the digital transformation agenda, and we’re very proud to play a role in that.
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