BBI Ideology
Author: Alexey Kutsenko
With the recent lockdown, canceled events, and semi-frozen life, there has been more time to think and reflect than we usually had before. I have spent a lot of my time analyzing the situation in general and the trading industry in particular.
Those businesses that were fortunate enough to come out of the quarantine and still make profits are nevertheless struggling as economies shrink, and purchasing power decreases. While some of the companies grew or simply maintained their levels of sales and production out of luck, most enterprises that we see thriving today are the ones that were the healthiest before pandemic started.
That brings me to the question — what is a healthy business? As I look at TFB and our peers, I see the tendencies that lead to better resilience. Some of the things that I have mentioned that help companies:
- Clear vision and goals. Every action is a result of a thought through strategy, not an accident.
- Employees are a team, share the values, and are ready to help each other out.
- Flexibility across all departments. That means adapting to change, big or small, and adapting quickly.
Another thing that, in my opinion, increases the chances of business staying afloat is the willingness to go the extra mile. That ‘mile’ can mean different things for the companies:
- Hiring an extra employee instead of spreading extra tasks on everybody in the team.
- Providing an additional service to the client to stand out from the competition.
- Or investing in that extra software product that seems handy but not essential.
I see the latter often causing problems for the companies. Let’s take backup solutions. Everybody knows that they are needed, yet there is constant news about a hospital, an airline company, or a bank losing the data.
A similar example to that in the trading business would be data intelligence products. Proactive support and safety provided by reports, alerts, and many more tools are often undermined. If we have a look at TFB’s Brokerage Business Intelligence (BBI) solution — it gives brokers that peace of mind, as any and every aspect of the operations can be monitored and alerted about. Yet, oftentimes our partners get BBI only after a disaster.
It is human nature to postpone things and think that nothing bad will happen. And most of the time there really is no big dramatic issue, just so-called inconveniences. That makes businesses believe that everything is fine. In reality, there is almost always room for improvement, whether it’s automation, optimization of resources, or increased efficiency that prevents all kinds of unpleasant cases from coming up.
Brokerage Business Intelligence (BBI) was designed to primarily make brokers' lives easier and less troublesome. If used fully, BBI gives you data reporting, business analytics, and risk management. In a way, it is another member of the team — always there for you, monitoring every activity and alerting you if something suspicious happens.
So when brokers think of BBI, or for that matter any other data intelligence product, I want them to see a necessity, rather than something secondary. Knowledge is power and strength. Only the businesses that have full information on their operations, understand this information, and use it in their everyday jobs will excel.
OF ANY PRODUCT
RIGHT NOW