Convercent, the leading provider of ethics and compliance software, today announced new platform capabilities designed to help global customers achieve compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements via the Convercent Ethics Cloud platform.

GDPR represents the most sweeping change to data legislation in decades, designed to protect citizens' rights. On May 25, 2018 thousands of global organizations will be required to comply with its regulations or be subject to fines. As a continuation of Convercent's ongoing innovation for global customers, enhanced GDPR capabilities, available later this month, will give customers of all sizes and industries a solution for not only staying compliant with GDPR, but also doing so with unmatched flexibility and control.

Convercent's new enhancements are integrated directly into the existing Ethics Cloud platform, designed to target the biggest challenges of GDPR compliance. Specifically, GDPR introduces a right for individuals to have personal data erased. In such Right to Erasure cases, compliant organizations run the risk of losing precious historical data - context that's critical in future analysis or investigations requiring the ability to identify patterns of behavior. With Convercent's new features, customers can redact only the sensitive information subject to GDPR, while preserving important context and maintaining overall data fidelity.

"GDPR reform marks a dramatic shift in how businesses handle sensitive data and requires that organizations make massive adaptations to comply with this new standard in global data privacy," said Philip Winterburn, chief product officer at Convercent. "We steadfastly believe in the power of data and the Convercent cloud software to streamline compliance programs and drive ethics to the center of business. That belief extends to the critical area of data privacy, and our new offerings will enable customers to comply without sacrificing the fidelity of their valuable data history."

GDPR requires organizations to implement structured systems for accessing, editing, and deleting personal data. Convercent's platform allows customers to easily track changes, control access, and manage personal data throughout the design and development of any new products or services. Finally, Convercent's Audit Program maintains a record of redaction events, while removing any historical reference to personal information.

"The GDPR regulation is a positive move forward for consumer privacy, yet it creates challenges for chief ethics and compliance officers who rely on this data to identify and manage ethical issues and cases in the organization," said Michael Rasmussen, industry pundit with GRC 20/20. "Convercent's Ethics Cloud platform enables global companies to comply with GDPR regulations without compromising the integrity of the overall case and campaign data which is essential for a successful compliance program."

Convercent is a strong advocate for the protection of individual privacy and is making GDPR capabilities available to all customers, providing global employees the same protections as their EU employees should they so choose. To learn more about Convercent's GDPR capabilities and support, visit our website.

Appian announced the 2018 AppMarket Award winners at its annual user conference, Appian World, in Miami Beach, FL. Organizations were asked to submit solutions that further enhance the development of enterprise applications on the Appian Platform. The winners were selected based on three key areas; creativity, innovation and effectiveness. The applications are now available in the Appian AppMarket, which serves as an online source for pre-built business solutions on the Appian platform, as well as tools and extensions to help build any application faster.

The 2018 winners are:

Cognizant's Digital Contact Center - App Innovation in Customer Journey 
This application provides seamless omnichannel capabilities that support interactions over the telephone, email, mobile and the web. It offers various integrations across channels and systems to deliver a complete digital experience to customer contact centers. Integrations include robotic process automation (RPA) integration for intelligent routing of cases to bot and Amazon's AI/Machine Learning models for insights into customer behavior based on spending patterns and demographics.

Princeton Blue's Automated Label Management with RPA - App Innovation in Business Operations 
This application addresses a core Pharmaceutical business operations area, Label Management, which is often burdened with many human tasks and activities. The application leverages Appian RPA with Blue Prism combined with the process orchestration and exception handling capabilities of Appian to automate Label Management from end-to-end.

Appcino's User Audit Application - App Innovation in Governance and Compliance 
This application is designed to meet the auditing, compliance, security, and governance policies of companies implementing applications on the Appian platform. It offers details of a user's activity in the Appian environment with comprehensive analytics, proactive monitoring, and notifications. A robust set of out-of-the-box configurable alerts are also included to inform and control suspicious user behavior.

Malcolm Ross, Vice President of Product Marketing at Appian, says, "The winners this year showcased the business value that can be added to any organization through software applications. The sophistication of enterprise applications is continuing to grow and we were especially pleased to see submissions leveraging emerging technologies, such as RPA, to further automate and streamline operations. Any of our Appian customers can now learn more about these applications through our AppMarket in the Appian Community."

Sydney will become a blockchain capital on May 29, as the Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Australia with top experts will take place. The event will gather trusted and respected blockchain leaders from the biggest corporations, who will answer questions regarding digital coins and initial coin offering.

Topics:

Sphere specialists will consider the way blockchain is currently regulated in Australia and in the whole world. They will offer explanations about the changes blockchain brought to our life, its integration into business network and benefits and disadvantages of ICOs. Experts will also give information about tokenization and how it is done and about payment modernization.

Speakers:

Benjamin Hall is a specialist in innovation and technologies, contributor to machine learning projects, and the analyst of business system as well. Currently, he has a position of the Australian Ambassador at ETHLEND. During the Australian blockchain event, the expert will introduce a presentation “Payment Modernization: The FinTech & Regulation evolution spurred by Blockchain Technology.” Benjamin will discover how current financial systems operate and explain how blockchain influences the operations and the whole sphere in general. He will also look into blockchain uses and challenges which could be met in the future, and finally, will provide his view on blockchain situation in Australia.

Zachary Reece is a digital assets and investment expert, and an operations manager at BlockTrade Investments. Zachary will be a speaker and a moderator of the panel discussion – important conference’s highlight. Speakers taking part in the discussion, with Zachary Reece, will introduce the topic “ICOs: Opportunity or Threat?” and will share their knowledge. Daniil Girdea, entrepreneur, virtual reality expert and the founder of the Arcona Digital Land, will join the discussion as well. To answer the main question of the discussion, Zachary, Daniil and other speakers will talk about ICO scams and potential danger, and ICO’s impact on the economy in general, on micro and macro level.

Stefano Virgilli, a trusted advisor for ICO start-ups and projects and the chief strategy officer at Invictus, will be a participant of the event as well, presenting the topic “How do I explain blockchain mining to a 6 years old”. During his speech, Stefano will make sure that mining process does not seem complicated to the listeners anymore, clarifying difficult concepts, using simple examples. To do this, the expert will simplify encryption and hash calculations. He will also look into blockchain security and explain how to ensure it.

More highlights of the event:

• Demozone, where various start-ups and companies which take blockchain as the basis for their work, will introduce their products and new interesting solutions.
• Pitch session is a part of the Australian event as well, providing a possibility for companies to present their ideas during the small presentation and emphasize their strengths.
• Networking time is a great way to discuss potential projects and start cooperating with other blockchain enthusiasts.

Organizer:

Smile-Expo is the organizer of the conference. The company has already been to 16 countries with its blockchain events and continues exploring new horizons.

To learn more about the conference and register for the event, go to the website

Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Prague, the fourth annual event dedicated to the blockchain, cryptocurrencies and ICO, will be held on May 17. This is one of the largest platforms in Europe for the exchange of experience and search for potential partners.

Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Prague is an event organized by the Smile-Expo company, which created a network of blockchain events in 20 countries around the world. The organizers intend to exceed last year's success: experts from IBM, PwC and other companies known in the crypto community will be among the speakers. Guests will hear presentations:

On blockchain and its impact on business and the economy

Rene Bostic from IBM will analyze cases of blockchain application in business and tell you the key points of the process. The blockchain developer from the American IT company CA Technologies Alexandru Popa will tell about the impact of blockchain on user identification systems.

The head of consulting company VOX ICO Consulting Stefano Virgilli will clearly explain the blockchain basics. The representative of the European Organization for Nuclear Research Manuel Martin Marquez will talk on the acceleration of scientific progress after blockchain was introduced.

On ICO and cryptocurrencies

Guenther Dobrauz, the partner in PwC Legal Switzerland, will explain how affordable investments in ICO will be in the future and whether token sale will replace venture capital. The co-founder of GRAFT Blockchain, Dan Itkis, will explain how to make the integration of crypto payments ubiquitous. 

Co-founder of the blockchain platform Crowdgolding Alex Bozhinov will explain how power, politics and finance transformed the ICO. The co-founder of ICO accelerator Iconiq Lab Sandris Murins will talk on how to create a token and what is needed for this.

Exhibition area

In addition to the conference, an exhibition area will be available to Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Prague guests. Companies representing the blockchain industry will demonstrate their achievements here:

• hardware and software for mining;

• blockchain developments;

• trading, marketing and technological services.

Venue

The event will be held in the fashionable Hotel Ambassador Zlatá Husa, which is located in the historical center of the Czech capital. Guests will enjoy diving not only in the world of cryptocurrencies, but also in the atmosphere of one of the most beautiful European cities. Address: Václavské náměstí 840/5, 110 00, Prague 1.

Registration, the full program and news of the event >>> https://goo.gl/iik85y                                             

Numerix, the leading provider of risk technology, and OpenFin, the operating system powering digital transformation across financial desktops globally, today announced the details of a new partnership.

Numerix will deploy Oneview, the industry’s leading front-to-risk platform, on the OpenFin desktop operating system (OS). Building on OpenFin will enable Oneview’s front office XVA trading and risk applications to run in a high performance, multi-window, desktop environment, while ensuring interoperability between applications and into existing workflows, for an enhanced desktop user experience.

Numerix Oneview offers powerful trading applications for front office XVA management, structured products sales and trading, as well as desk-level pricing and risk. In the XVA context, front office risk systems place great emphasis on pre-deal checks, XVA sensitivities, PnL explain and cheapest-to-trade strategies. Traders utilize these screens throughout the day to make vital pricing and hedging decisions. As such, UI, visualizations and workflow are the top technology concerns and of critical importance for both derivative trading desks as well as sales and structuring.

OpenFin OS is designed specifically for financial services and deployed at more than 400 financial firms, modernizing desktops and standardizing the operating environment for hundreds of industry applications. With OpenFin, banks, brokers, asset managers and hedge funds can now unify a fractured ecosystem of financial applications to build their own unique desktop environment, selecting the very best applications necessary for each end user’s workflow. These can include trading applications, ultra-fast market data grids and visualisation apps, the latest research and charting tools, predictive pricing engines, chat functions, and a host of supporting applications for compliance, risk management and related corporate areas.

“OpenFin OS enables us to lift Oneview out of the web browser. For our users, this enhancement transforms Oneview trading, pricing and risk applications by providing the full richness of a desktop experience while retaining the best of HTML5 UI technology and web deployment,” says Steve O’Hanlon, CEO of Numerix.

O’Hanlon continues: “Many apps that fit many kinds of workflows is a trader’s reality. What OpenFin accomplishes is getting these workflows working more proactively, focusing on application interoperability. The UI creates a native user experience, in which traders can pull an integrated workflow together in a visual way. At Numerix, the user experience for sales, traders and XVA front office risk is central to accelerating the IT modernization and digitization for our clients, and with OpenFin we’re not only accomplishing this, but we’re also building software that customers love.”

"OpenFin OS will transform the Numerix desktop experience by enabling interoperability across capital markets applications,” says Mazy Dar, CEO of OpenFin. “Collaborating with market-leading providers to accelerate their product innovation is central to our strategy.  We are delighted to welcome Numerix to OpenFin and look forward to supporting their mission to further digitize business processes in the risk management ecosystem."

CloudTrade, the leading provider of cloud-based e-invoicing and e-document services, was today named as one of Cegedim e-business’s worldwide e-invoicing partners. Its proprietary, patent protected PDF capture solution is now available to all Cegedim e-business users. 

CloudTrade’s enterprise PDF capture technology solution will form a critical component of Cegedim e-business global offer and will ensure 100% accurate data is uploaded within minutes of a supplier submitting a PDF document. Ensuring users see back office savings in the region of 60% and supplier adoption rates of over 80-90%.

CloudTrade’s unique technology offers cutting edge Artificial Intelligence / Robotic Process Automation for document transfer, managing complex document structures with multi-line and line level data.  CloudTrade’s simplicity, accuracy and speed make it the best choice for businesses, such as Cegedim, to bolster their existing P2P solutions and ability to serve users and suppliers across all sectors.  

Patrick Schuller, Business Development Director at Cegedim e-business, says: “CloudTrade provides a non-disruptive way for Cegedim’s network suppliers to send native PDF invoices straight into our processing application, and for buyers to receive accurate data to fully automate the accounting process.”

“CloudTrade offers an easy to use, single integration point with Cegedim’s wider multichannel supplier and customer e-invoicing service. For all our users, that will result in quicker processing, eliminating manual entries and the associated human errors, and removing paper from the invoicing and P2P process.”

Cegedim e-business specializes in digital transformation through electronic data exchange, B2B portals and network, electronic signature and legal archiving, with over 120,000 connected companies and 350 million flows processed every year.

Cegedim’s e-business e-invoicing portal enables users to switch 100% of their invoices to electronic, with a 100% data accuracy rate, in a fully compliant manner. Partnering with CloudTrade brings Artificial Intelligence benefits to achieve higher results, faster.

David Cocks, CloudTrade’s co-founder and CEO, says: “When you’re doing business internationally and interacting with thousands of suppliers every day, your P2P process and EDI systems rely on accurate data to be highly efficient, easy to use and most importantly, operate on a global scale. Two thirds of e-invoices are exchanged in PDF format, so our solution encourages as many of Cegedim’s users’ suppliers as possible to move away from paper and onto electronic document submission methods. Because CloudTrade is incredibly cost effective and easy to use,we enable Cegedim’s usersto maximise efficiencies and transform their back-office functions.”

CloudTrade is one of the world’s fastest growing e-invoice and e-document networks, connecting hundreds of global organisations to thousands of their trading partners electronically, across numerous sectors and regions. 

Saxo Bank, the leading Fintech specialist focused on multi-asset trading and investment, today announces that Vitali Butbaev will rejoin Saxo Bank in the role as CEO of Central and Eastern Europe. Vitali Butbaev has worked with Saxo Bank for 13 years in previous roles. 

Vitali Butbaev will report directly to Damian Bunce, CCO of Saxo Bank. 

In his role, Vitali will assume overall responsibility to grow and develop the business and client base in the CEE region. Furthermore, he is tasked to ensure alignment and execution of global strategic priorities and make Saxo Bank first choice for traders, investors and wholesale clients.

Vitali joins Saxo Bank with extensive international experience in the financial industry. He most recently served as a Founder and CEO of Velstand Capital. Vitali also spent a year at the Presidents Institute as a Group Regional Director. Prior to this, he worked with Saxo Bank for 13 years. As Regional Head of CEE & Russia, Vitali successfully led Saxo Bank’s offices in the region for seven years. He has also held various sales positions for Saxo Bank’s retail, HNW and institutional clients.

Vitali graduated from Bauman Moscow State Technical University and Moscow Financial University. Recently he finished TRIUM Executive MBA, which is one of the world’s leading degree programs for global leaders jointly issued by NYU Stern School of Business, LSE and HEC Paris school of Management.

Commenting on his appointment, Damian Bunce, CCO of Saxo Bank, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Vitali back on board to grow and develop our business and client base in the CEE region. Vitali is an excellent senior hire with a wealth of experience and deep knowledge of the region. His leadership has been a big part of Saxo Bank’s success and we are confident that he is the right person to lead our growth journey in the CEE region going forward.”

Vitali Butbaev commented on the new role:

”I am very pleased to return to Saxo at a time when technology, regulation and macro trends all play into Saxo’s core strengths. I had the pleasure of being part of the journey from the Bank’s more humble beginnings to an international fintech with clients in 170 countries.”

“Saxo is really a quite unique combination of cutting edge technology and good service from talented people. Saxo Bank’s core strength is delivering unparalleled access to global capital markets to traders and investors through market leading trading platforms. And by delivering ‘Banking-as-a-Service’, Saxo has a strong offering to other banks and brokers that look to leverage Saxo’s technology to service their end-clients.”

Coupa Software, a leader in business spend management (BSM), today announced new product innovations to advance the company’s BSM capabilities. Debuted at its annual Inspire conference in San Francisco, the innovations include enhancements to community intelligence, third-party systems, and user-centric experiences that will provide businesses even more visibility into spend, processes, and performance. 

“Traditionally, finance and procurement teams faced numerous challenges that have prevented effective visibility throughout their organisations,” said Raja Hammoud, senior vice president of products at Coupa. “Our BSM solution brings everything together with a single, easy-to-use cloud platform, and our new product enhancements take that holistic approach even further, enabling spend-focused analysis by decision makers.” 

Community Intelligence

The new product release focuses on business fraud, category spend, and employee responsiveness to help customers make accelerated, data-driven decisions usingprescriptive community intelligence.

Spend Guard uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse employee spend transactions to help detect potential fraud. Spend Guard takes an important step in transforming fraud auditing by analysing employee behaviours across all spend applications on the Coupa platform to help detect potential fraud. This application is currently available in an early access program. 

Commodity Insights helps businesses optimise category spend. Insights include identification of top suppliers for critical commodities, spend benchmarks, and recommendations to maximise spend value.

Approver Cycle Times empowers users to speed up or slow down the approval process by comparing individual performance to peer performance.

Open Platform for Third-Party Systems 

The new release extends the value of BSM with third-party systems to support end-to-end business processes that span different functions across an enterprise.

Coupa Inventory is now voice activated. Users can access Amazon Alexa® voice commands to locate items, adjust inventory balances, and reorder stock. The voice capability is currently available in an early access program. 

Coupa Open Buy expands to include supplier items and pricing content from additional suppliers such as Imperial Supplies, Office Depot, and Staples. The additional suppliers are currently available in an early access program. 

Coupa Risk Aware monitors hundreds of data sources to reduce supply chain risk. The application can now integrate with customers’ own sources of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) data and enables customers to calibrate the data sources to create their own supplier health score.

User-centric Experiences

Coupa continues to deliver more user-centric experiences to increase productivity such as:

·        Automatic tax coding for supplier invoices

·        Contract creation from Coupa Sourcing Optimisation

·        Improved handling of business requests that do not result in purchases

“Coupa’s cloud platform coupled with its continuous innovation is a strategic asset for businesses,” said Mickey North Rizza, program vice president, enterprise applications and digital commerce at IDC. “The company’s rapid development of innovative digital tools for business spend management has improved the user experience across business spend and enhanced the value to focus on the supplier. This is why we have recognised them as a global leader in our recent IDC MarketScape reports.”

FIME and Barnes International today announce that their jointly-developed personalization validation tool (PVT) is qualified against the latest Mastercard PVT Tool Release 2018 Requirements v11.3 March 2018, (“Mastercard Requirements”). FIME believes that the test tool significantly accelerates the certification and launch of secure chip products for issuers, card manufacturers and personalization bureaus. These products include contact, contactless and dual interface EMV cards, as well as near field communication (NFC) and contactless-enabled solutions such as smartphones and wearable devices.

“EMV migration is reaching critical mass globally, driven by increasing demand for advanced contactless and mobile payment solutions,” comments Raphaël Guilley, Vice President Solutions at FIME. “FIME PerservalPro Issuer test tool has been qualified against the Mastercard Requirements which allows issuers to ensure their product is compliant with the latest Mastercard requirements throughout the development process. This helps them to ensure a smooth, cost-effective route to market for their solutions.”

“Emerging technologies are contributing to an increasingly complex payments ecosystem,” adds Brian Summerhayes, Managing Director at Barnes International. “Our strong and enduring partnership with Mastercard means clients spanning 100 countries can use our tool to deliver fast, secure, and interoperable payment solutions to consumers.”

Barnes and FIME have combined their expertise since 2011 to effectively meet the requirements of Mastercard with FIME PersevalPro Issuer, their co-developed Personalization Validation Tool.

FIME is the implementation partner of choice for the financial services sector and is accredited by major international and domestic payment brands for card personalization validation services. Issuers can also benefit from dedicated training programs, which equip attendees with the skills and knowledge to consistently deliver successful projects within the shifting payments landscape.