Industry news & insights.

This week, joining Chris Lees as he takes a look at the FIX landscape, which elements are solved, and which have room for improvement. We cover FIX engines, the challenges of FIX migration, FIX standards, FIX certification, Testing and QA, FIX log parsing, automation, and the importance of machine-readable FIX specifications.

Chris Lees explores doing FIX differently, discussing the systems, tools, and processes that surround FIX, which can help FIX onboarding, and production support to be more efficient. In the #doFIXdifferently series, we will dive into key themes such as automation, and how to be more efficient, and smarter with the resources available.

Machine-readable API documentation is the future. We discuss why firms should invest time to innovate specifications to a point where they are genuinely useful, and why innovation doesn't mean starting from scratch.

In our recent webinar series, we painted (we think) a fairly compelling picture of where we feel automation can help connectivity teams. And, from everyone we’ve spoken to since, although we hit the nail on the head with the vision, the important question remains; how do I get there?

This future-focused webinar discussed what FIX could look like in 3-5 years time, how APIs (and crucially documentation) may have to change, and what role automation will play within connectivity teams.

With the outbreak of COVID-19, firms around the world are looking within to review business continuity plans. In a totally novel landscape, with duration playing an indeterminate role, what are the effects of working from home for business continuity in the long term.

Efficiency is something that all firms aspire to. A universal goal to establish processes, minimise fragmented documentation and make communication clear and consistent. “Getting your house in order” is a simple statement, but often a daunting task.

A good process can work hand-in-hand with software. A poor process creates friction between person and tooling and hinders effective automation. But how do we reach a point of confident automation?

We’ve spoken to numerous firms who have a desire to enable customers to self-serve onboarding and ongoing integration. More often than not, however, it hasn’t been pursued as it is seen as too challenging a project, or are unaware that the tools to do so exist in the first place.

In conversation with UK customers so far this year, one topic keeps coming up time and again - IR35. While this isn't a new rule (its been around since 1999), a new update coming in April will create a significant problem for UK firms employing FIX consultants across their onboarding teams.