Coupa Software, a leader in cloud-based spend management, today announced the availability of its solutions on AWS Marketplace. Customers can now quickly discover and subscribe to Coupa Spend Management Solutions through AWS Marketplace. 

AWS Marketplace  is an online store from Amazon Web Services (AWS) that helps customers discover, purchase, migrate and immediately start using the software and services they need to build products and run their businesses.

“Many of our customers are seeking solutions to digitise their spend management processes and acquire software faster to enable innovation on the cloud,” said Dave McCann, Vice President of AWS Marketplace, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “We’re delighted that Coupa’s proven solutions are now available on AWS Marketplace and provide the more than 154,000 active customers using software from AWS Marketplace with a SAAS business spend management solution they can subscribe to with a simple click, enabled by Coupa integrating to our SAAS Contracts API.”

First announced in December 2015, Coupa and AWS’s collaboration has grown over the last 24 months with market innovations such as Coupa Open Buy with Amazon Business, which streamlines the employee buying experience and increases organisational compliance.

“We are excited that our spend management solutions are now available on AWS Marketplace, bringing customers’ organisations measureable value,” said Rob Bernshteyn, CEO at Coupa. “With the availability of Coupa on AWS Marketplace, organisations can start maximising the value of every dollar they spend.”

For more information, visit the Coupa website for insight into the collaboration between Coupa and AWS, and visit our AWS Marketplace listings for Coupa Procure-to-Pay for AWS and Coupa Expense Management for AWS.

The Emerging Payments Association (EPA) gained a new Benefactor, Clearsettle, for Project Regulator, one of its eight projects to drive change, connect the payments eco-system and encourage innovation.  

Project Regulator is focused on ensuring and shaping a level regulatory landscape for non-bank PSPs and EMIs in the UK. The project delivers this by engaging with regulatory bodies to promote and champion the regulatory concerns of EPA members and drive industry-critical change. A recent success from Project Regulator has been in engaging with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to allow the use of ‘banking services’ for non-bank PSPs - as long as its usage is not misleading. 

EPA Director General, Tony Craddock said, “Regulations are what make payments such an exciting industry. But we need to ensure they are fit for purpose, well understood and correctly adopted. With Clearsettle’s backing as Benefactor behind our EPA Project Regulator, we can use our collective voice to make sure this happens.”

"As an emerging payments company, we are eager to help shape the regulatory landscape in which we and our peers operate," said Iana Dimitrova, General Counsel of Clearsettle. "By becoming a Benefactor of Project Regulator, we can contribute to the EPA’s mission of promoting a level playing field for payments companies—ultimately creating greater value for consumers."

Project Regulator lead and Head of Advisory of fscom, Alison Donnelly also commented, “It is great to see that Clearsettle has come on board as the Benefactor of the Emerging Payments Association’s Project Regulator and shares our keen focus on developing a fairer regulatory landscape for all. Over the next year, Project Regulator will focus on defining banking terminology, how payment systems will be governed and controlled, and putting passporting on the Brexit negotiation agenda. There’s a lot to achieve, but given the credentials and enthusiasm of those involved, we are confident we will make an important contribution to making the UK the best environment for the emerging payments market”.

Loom Systems, the leading end-to-end AI-powered log analysis solution, today announced the release of its newest Streaming 2.0 platform, which enables more precise log analysis in Enterprise IT environments, ultimately reducing the manual work needed to optimize the product by up to 80%.

Loom Systems utilizes AI and machine learning in order to provide root cause analysis for issues across the IT stack, and provides IT professionals with recommendations for resolving problems before escalation. Loom’s solution changes the current paradigm of IT support, allowing companies to handle potential IT issues proactively, instead of once a problem has already occurred. This improves business productivity, alleviating the tedium of reading logs, and frees up time for operations to concentrate on other IT matters.

“We are very excited to introduce our Streaming 2.0 version,” said Gabby Menachem, CEO of Loom Systems. “Our latest update increases the level of precision of our AI technology, shortening the time to value, and enabling users to quickly and effectively produce meaningful insights from the vast amount of log data collected.”

Some additional features of Streaming 2.0 include:

• New Data Architecture – every event streamed to Loom is mapped to a Source Type, which has all relevant information in order to analyze the event properly

• Better Options to Structure Data – large organizations with complex infrastructures will benefit from improved usability and flexibility in structuring their data

• Improved Integration with Notification Systems – enhanced email preferences

• Additional Enhancements – script-less mapping of sources; custom alerts with almost no syntax required; more options for granular feedback for the machine learning engine

Loom Systems is a sponsor at this year’s AWS re:Invent 2017 conference, which runs from November 27 to December 1 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will be demonstrating their AI-Powered Log Analysis solution at booth K10.

Barclays Bank UK PLC, Barclays’ future ring-fenced bank, is pleased to announce that Avid Larizadeh Duggan, general partner at Google Ventures (GV), will be joining its new Board, subject to regulatory approval.

Avid, who was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2016, has been heavily involved in tech ecosystem since 1998. Prior to GV, Avid co-founded Boticca, a global marketplace for independent brands of fashion accessories.

Avid will be one the eight Independent Non-Executive Directors of Barclays Bank UK PLC, all of whom come from a broad range of backgrounds, and who have been appointed to bring a diverse range of experience and perspectives. 

The new Board has been created in readiness for ring-fencing legislation which will see the Barclays UK business transfer from Barclays Bank PLC to a separate legal entity, Barclays Bank UK PLC. The transfer is expected to take place in April 2018, subject to Court approval. The Board will, on separation, assume responsibility for the Barclays UK business.

The search for Board members has been led by Sir Ian Cheshire, Chairman of the Barclays Bank UK PLC Board and Non-Executive Director of Barclays PLC. The non-executive director appointments will take effect from 1 January 2018, subject to regulatory approval. In addition to Sir Ian and Avid, the Board will comprise:

Executive Directors:

• Ashok Vaswani, Chief Executive Officer
• Anna Cross, Chief Financial Officer

Independent Non-Executive Directors:

• Michael Jary
• Kathryn Matthews
• Andrew Ratcliffe
• Sir John Timpson CBE

Two further appointments are planned for early next year to complete the Board.

Announcing the Board, Sir Ian Cheshire said:

“Barclays UK has a financial relationship with 24 million customers and clients in every community in the UK. It is therefore crucial that we have a Board not only of the highest calibre, but of diverse perspectives and broad experience.

“This is a Board who will speak their minds as leaders from a range of different backgrounds. It brings together people with a strong entrepreneurial mindset, real knowledge of the impact of digital transformation in business, and a deep understanding of the needs of consumers and of consumer-centric businesses.

“My Board colleagues bring a wealth of experience and insight to the bank and embody the highest standards of corporate governance and oversight. I look forward to working with them as we help Barclays UK continue to meet the aspirations of our customers and clients.”

Additional notes:

• Avid Larizadeh Duggan is a leading venture capitalist and a general partner at GV, the venture arm of Alphabet. She has spent her career in technology as a founder, operator and investor. She was a co-founder of Boticca, a global marketplace for independent brands of high end fashion accessories. Avid serves on the Harvard Business School European Advisory Board as a Non-Executive Director on Wonderbly and is on the Board of Trustees for Founders4Schools, a leading foundation for promoting entrepreneurship in education.
• Michael Jary is Chairman of Duchy Originals and Senior Partner and co-founder of OC&C Strategy Consultants. He previously served on the board of Nationwide Building Society, where he was a member of the Remuneration Committee and was involved in overseeing their investment in digital and cyber resilience. He is Chair of the Board of Trustees for Fairtrade Foundation and Chair of Itad, the leading advisory firm in international development.
• Kathryn Matthews has spent her entire career in investment management, most recently as chief investment officer, Asia Pacific for Fidelity International. She previously held senior appointments with William M Mercer, AXA Investment Managers, Santander Global Advisers and Baring Asset Management. Kathryn is on the boards of BT Investment Management PLC, APERAM, Rathbones and JP Morgan Chinese Investment Trust. She also sits on the board trustees for the Nuffield Trust and is a Council Member of the Duchy of Lancaster.
• Andrew Ratcliffe is a Past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). He was an audit partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 29 years, during which time he was the lead audit partner for several large international groups including Barclays PLC. He also served as chairman of the PwC network’s Global Board. He is now a trustee of the University of London and other charities.
• Sir John Timpson CBE is Chairman of the family owned Timpson service retail chain with over 1,900 stores in the UK. He is famous for radical management thinking including his practice of ‘upside-down management’ that empowers front-line colleagues with the freedom to take decisions, and also for a pioneering programme that successfully employs a significant number of ex-offenders.

The Barclays UK business comprises retail banking (including Premier and Mortgages), business banking, Wealth and Investment Management UK and Barclaycard UK.

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.  (NYSE:BR), the global leader in investor communications for banks, mutual funds and public companies, has partnered with Aite Group to publish a new report on the updated Shareholder Rights Directive, a European regulatory initiative designed to encourage shareholder engagement in listed companies in Europe and improve the transparency of related processes including proxy voting.

The report, Shareholder Rights Directive: Advancing to a State of Readiness, highlights the need for stakeholders to engage with regulatory authorities to help shape an outcome that is equitable and commensurate with the corporate governance benefits of the directive, as well as ensuring orderly adherence to the incoming rulebook as the 2019 deadline approaches. The report identified several anticipated challenges in the introduction of the legislation, including the need to achieve a market standard for implementation by avoiding differing interpretations by national regulators. 

“The Shareholder Rights Directive will bring a welcome level of transparency and governance, particularly in relation to proxy voting processes and issues such as director remuneration,” said Demi Derem, general manager, Investor Communication Solutions International at ‎Broadridge. “Broadridge is building collaborative model solutions and actively working with the industry to help its clients and all market participants involved in the shareholder communications value chain to prepare to meet their compliance and business objectives for the new rules well ahead of the EU’s deadline for implementation”.

The report also points to the problem of “regulatory fatigue”, highlighting a large volume of on-going regulatory changes, as well as the likelihood that many firms have not yet assessed the full impact of the directive on their operations.

“The directive will drive greater transparency and enable more well-informed voting decisions by shareholders, however, the new requirements could create a myriad of operational challenges,” said Virginie O'Shea, Research Director, Aite Group. “For example, national regulators have been given a relatively wide scope to interpret the new rules, which could lead to fragmented adoption and the absence of a common market standard. Industry stakeholders must use the review period to engage with regulatory bodies and address problems before they arise.”

The majority of the directive, an amended version of the original 2007 legislation, must be translated by individual European member states by June 2019.  The European Commission (EC) is now working with ESMA to produce technical standards that will guide national regulators.

Duo Security, one of the world's fastest growing cybersecurity providers, today announced the launch of its Managed Service Provider (MSP) and invitation-only Security Solution Provider programme in the United Kingdom. Duo's formal partner programme, which launched in the U.S. earlier this year, expands to the UK as the company has quadrupled its overall EMEA customer count from 450 to nearly 1,900 in the past two years.

Duo helps defend organizations against breaches by making security easy and effective. Anchored by its flagship two-factor authentication (2FA) app, Duo's cloud-based "Trusted Access" product offering verifies the identity of users and the health of their devices before granting them access to data and applications - helping prevent breaches and account takeover.

Unlike traditional security vendor programmes with tiered levels, Duo now offers a bespoke programme and enablement plans for security-centric UK-based solution providers invited to join the programme. The company expects more than half of its UK-based business to come through security solution provider and MSP partners as the programme progresses.

"Duo removes the pricing and implementation complexity of traditional partner models, allowing partners to be more profitable while providing their customers what they need to protect their data," said Matt Smith, Vice President of Worldwide Channels & Business Development. "Our comprehensive offering combined with our partner's expertise provides organizations a complete trusted access solution to protect their users, devices and applications without the typical complexity of most security products."

Duo's UK security solution provider business is led by EMEA Partner Manager Fiona Doak, a recent Duo hire with more than 26 years of experience in cybersecurity and technology. Doak previously held positions at RSA, Juniper Network, F5 Networks and WhiteHat Security.

"Duo brings a targeted, hyper-tailored approach to meeting the specific needs of partners and their customers," said Doak. "Each of the security partners we select has a strong practice with dedicated security architects and consultants, meaning the service they provide their customers is among the best in the industry."

Duo's UK Security Solution Provider programme already boasts partners such as Teneo, Saepio and Infosec Partners, and continues to expand with a select group of security-centric solution providers.

"It's so important today that security processes can be easily adopted and viewed by employees as business enablers, rather than a drag on productivity," said Marc Sollars, Chief Technology Officer at Teneo. "Our partnership with Duo means our customers can embed security much deeper into their company culture, because Duo's technology is such a pleasure to use. At Teneo, we've innovated around Duo's leading authentication technology to deliver a quick-to-implement and easy-to-use solution 'as a Service,' making security even simpler and intuitive for IT teams and employees. I deployed Duo in minutes via my own smartphone and was so amazed by how simple and effective it was, we immediately rolled it out across our own organization."

"The world's leading enterprises trust us to provide them sound advice and product recommendations, which is why we make sure each of our partners is of the highest caliber," said Andrew Pitt, Director at Saepio. "Duo's stellar reputation and proven track record of securing customers with an easy to use and effective product make it one of our hallmark product offerings for clients."