Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, today announced the introduction of its New Cloud Bundles. These build on its channel initiative for the commercial market segment launched in 2020. The next generation of bundles enable customers to standardise on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) while offering channel partners streamlined options to integrate with their value propositions and grow their share of the market.

Highlighting its ongoing leadership position in cloud computing and Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) technologies, Nutanix recently announced it was named a Customers’ Choice in the 2022 Gartner Peer Insights ‘Voice of the Customer’ for HCI software for the fourth consecutive year. When HCI is coupled with intelligent software, we see the evolution of solutions like our NCI platform, which creates flexible building blocks that replace legacy infrastructure previously consisting of separate servers, storage networks, and storage arrays. 

“Our NCI solution is known for simplifying IT environments with a server-based software-defined model. The New Cloud Bundles extend this to make it easier for our channel network across EMEA to order hybrid cloud infrastructure, multicloud management, unified storage, database, and desktop services solutions. Nutanix is a partner-driven organisation, and we want to equip our extensive channel base with innovative solutions on which they can deliver their own value-added services to ensure their end-user customers are ready to scale in an increasingly cloud-based world,” says Adam Tarbox, Vice President of EMEA Channel Sales at Nutanix.

Organisations are increasingly reliant on technology ecosystems that enable innovation at scale. The New Nutanix Cloud Bundles integrate a diverse stack of Nutanix solutions to equip channel partners with the means to deliver demonstrable business returns in the cloud for their customers.

“Business and technology leaders must undergo an intensive process to identify which cloud environment is right for their organisation. Nutanix channel partners have the skills and experience across industry verticals to ensure business deliverables are aligned with cloud-driven innovation. Our New Cloud Bundles simplifies this process and delivers an integrated environment while still offering the flexibility and scalability of NCI,” adds Tarbox.

The New Cloud Bundles for the commercial market are available in three versions:

• The Starter Bundle provides commercial customers with the core components of a hyperconverged environment with NCI Starter, which converges the entire data centre stack, including compute, storage, networking, and virtualisation.
• The Pro Bundle sees NCI Pro and Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Starter both on cores. NCM provides coverage for Nutanix and VMware private clouds. NCM can also be tailored to create an ‘invisible cloud’ by having developers access hybrid multicloud resources through a marketplace-like platform, controlling what is visible to them, or having governance policies around resource consumption.
• The Ultimate Bundle comprises NCI Ultimate and NCM Starter. It delivers hyperconverged performance at scale across a varied application environment. The solutions deliver the highest performance and SAN features that organisations use daily.

The three bundles are available with production-level support. Any of the offerings can be quoted for a core capacity of between 72 and 192 cores. This means that unlike previously, the new bundles do not have a fixed configuration but are only limited based on the minimum and a maximum number of cores. A promotional NUS Pro bundle can also be added to any of the three versions. This bundle can be quoted for a capacity of between 5 to 10 TiBs.

Any existing Nutanix Cloud Bundles offers are valid until the end of December 2022, when the transition to New Cloud Bundles will be complete. For legacy bundle customers, Nutanix is working on the process of selling them the New Cloud Bundles at the time of renewal.

Nutanix partners benefit from the same level of marketing support that they would otherwise receive when addressing the enterprise market. New partners interested in the Nutanix commercial packages must first register for the Nutanix Partner Program.

Temenos, today announced that Sacombank, one of the largest banks in Vietnam with over 15 million customers, has selected Temenos Infinity to elevate its digital banking and deliver a seamless omnichannel experience to retail and business customers.

Since Kony’s acquisition in 2019, Temenos Infinity has been selected by over 200 new customers and the product's leadership has been cemented with multiple analyst accolades. Temenos has been named a leader in the Forrester Waves™: Digital Banking Engagement Platforms and Digital Banking Engagement Hubs evaluations in 2021. Temenos was also the only vendor rated best-in-class in Aite Matrix Evaluation of US digital banking solutions.

Sacombank has a customer-centric business strategy focused on providing high-quality financial products and services to individual and corporate customers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. Temenos Infinity will enable the bank to reimagine the way it interacts with customers and meet the growing customer demand for digital products and services and fast, frictionless customer experiences.

Vietnam is leading the way in digital banking in Southeast Asia. It has a largely younger demographic of digitally savvy consumers and a vibrant local fintech and e-commerce industry. Vietnamese enjoy quick and easy digital experiences for a wide variety of services and expect the same from their banking.

Temenos Infinity is a true omnichannel, multi-experience platform-based product that enables a comprehensive 360-degree customer view, helping Sacombank to acquire, service, retain and cross-sell to customers, on multiple channels and devices using native features. Offering pre-composable banking services – built on microservices and accessible via APIs – the platform enables Sacombank to develop innovative products quickly that bring real benefits to consumers and businesses.

The bank plans to introduce fully digital customer onboarding and origination as well as enhance the service experience for existing customers through digital channels. Additionally, Temenos’ open and composable platform will help Sacombank connect with e-commerce providers, social networks and other online services to accelerate a cashless ecosystem, a priority for the Government of Vietnam.

In selecting a new digital banking platform, Sacombank looked at various leading solutions in the market and after a thorough evaluation decided on Temenos Infinity. Sacombank is a longstanding Temenos customer and will run Temenos Infinity on top of its existing Temenos Transact core, providing complete front-to-back banking capabilities on a single platform.

Temenos Infinity is the world’s best-selling digital banking platform used by over 850 financial institutions, from global tier-one banks to digital challengers. It can connect to any core banking system as a standalone solution for larger banks or to Temenos Transact. Temenos Infinity can run on any cloud or as SaaS on the Temenos Banking Cloud.

Bui Van Dung (Mr.), Deputy CEO, Sacombank said: “The omnichannel platform project is an unavoidable step to make a breakthrough in the digital business of Sacombank. Sacombank believes that Temenos has the best reputation, capacity, and technology in omnichannel, along with a consultant team experienced in implementing similar projects at the leading banks, and financial institutions in the area and worldwide, hence, Temenos is able to support Sacombank in implementing its digital business strategy to comprehensively innovate in quality.”

Craig Bennett, Managing Director – APAC, Temenos, said: “Vietnam is a strategic market for Temenos. More than 20 Vietnamese banks run on our core banking technology, and we see growing adoption and interest for our Temenos Infinity digital banking platform. As one of the biggest banks in Vietnam and the Southeast Asia region, we are hugely proud to extend our relationship with Sacombank. Adding Temenos Infinity to the bank’s technology stack will propel the bank forward, opening new opportunities and delivering outstanding customer experiences.”

Utimaco, a leading global provider of IT security solutions, announces that it has been selected by CLOWD9 as a service provider for a cloud-based Payment Hardware Security Module (HSM). CLOWD9 launched in October as the world’s first cloud-native, decentralized payments processing platform.

Darren Busby, Global Head of Sales MYHSM, at Utimaco, commented: “I am delighted with this partnership between Utimaco and CLOWD9. With our MYHSM solution, we are pioneers as a Payment HSM-as-a-Service provider globally and a true business enabler, helping leading-edge companies like CLOWD9 bring their ideas to market. Under the visionary leadership of Suresh Vaghjiani, together with the world-class team of people that support him, CLOWD9 is extremely well positioned to disrupt the industry and offer a truly unique set of products and services, with Utimaco supporting that as an integral component."

Suresh Vaghjiani, CEO at CLOWD9, added: " We’ve worked incredibly hard and assembled the very best expertise to build a new generation processing platform to better serve the banking and fintech industry. With the support of Utimaco’s MYHSM Payment HSM-as-a-Service, we are well placed to push the envelope on payments processing in the cloud and are pleased to have found an equally future-led partner.”

A new analysis published today by the Money Advice Trust (the charity which runs the National Debtline service) and data company, Experian, has revealed new insights about the pressures being experienced by UK consumers.  

It shows that three in 10 (29%) UK adults are worried about their finances every day, while one in seven (15%) say they are regularly losing sleep due to the cost-of-living crisis.  

The findings offer a detailed analysis of the lives of the people contacting the service. Four in ten (39 per cent) callers to National Debtline, the free debt advice service, wait a year or more before seeking advice about their debts and more than a quarter (28%) wait two years or more. 

With household budgets under huge strain as costs continue to rise, the Money Advice Trust is encouraging anyone worried about their finances to talk money and seek free independent debt advice as soon as possible.

The findings have been published in a new briefing, ‘Talking Money’, as part of Talk Money Week, an annual awareness campaign coordinated by the Money and Pensions Service to encourage people to open up about money. 

The briefing also explores some of the reasons for debt amongst callers to the charity and the underlying challenges they face.

·                Income too low to cover essential costs is currently the most common reason cited for debt amongst callers to National Debtline (33 per cent). 

·                One in five callers cite mental health (20 per cent) and 19 per cent say an unexpected bill. 

·                45 per cent of clients now have a deficit budget, where they do not have enough coming in to cover essentials – up from 37 per cent in 2021.

Experian’s analysis, which used financial behaviour and geo-demographic modelling, showed that callers to National Debtline were over-represented in household groups that tend to be on the lowest incomes, live in rented or social housing with stretched budgets.  

The findings help build an even greater understanding of who is seeking debt advice and who may be in need of support from the charity. 

Jane Tully, director of external affairs and partnerships at the Money Advice Trust, the charity that runs National Debtline and Business Debtline, said:

“This is a challenging time for millions of people as day-to-day costs continue to rise and household budgets come under ever-increasing pressure. Seeking advice about your finances can feel like a hard step to take, but the difference it can make to both your financial and emotional well-being is huge. It is never too late to seek advice, however as our findings show many people wait over a year before doing so. If you are worried about your finances, I would encourage you to contact a free debt advice service as soon as possible.”

Colin Grieves, of Experian UK&I, said: 

“Many people are currently experiencing financial upheaval and it is important they are aware of the support organisations such as the Money Advice Trust can provide. They can help before it is too late.

“Our analysis shows the three most common groups seeking help share some of the same characteristics households with limited disposable income and savings, many of which are in full-time employment – but the challenges are impacting all age groups at different life stages.

“Younger, single people are seeking help. This group is made up of people in their 20s and 30s, renting properties in city locations, and again are in full-time employment but are struggling to make ends meet.

“Meanwhile, both families with young children, and older workers in the latter half of their career are also found in the analysis, indicating how widespread money worries are.

“By developing a deeper understanding of who is and isn’t seeking help, MAT can tailor its outreach and support, helping more families and people get the advice and support they need at what is a difficult time.” 

James Jones, head of consumer affairs, Experian UK&I, said:  

“If you are in financial difficulty, it is wise to get support sooner rather than later. It will feel like a big decision, but it is the first step to getting the timely help you need. 

“Not doing so could make things worse, exacerbating the issue and your worries, including prolonging any damage to your credit score.” 

Finastra, a global provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, and Modefin, a global fintech solution provider helping banks to thrive in the digital age, today announced their partnership to offer Finastra’s Fusion Trade Innovation and Fusion Essence solutions to banks in Africa and several Indian subcontinent markets. With Finastra’s solutions, Modefin will help its customers embrace open finance today and future-proof their banking and global trade operations.

“We are excited to partner with Finastra and bring its proven solutions to our current and future customers,” said Amit Darda, Co-Founder and Director at Modefin. “We have a longstanding relationship, having partnered previously to bring our own solution to market via its FusionFabric.cloud platform. It’s a pleasure to continue strengthening our relationship, and I look forward to bringing together Finastra’s solutions and expertise with our knowledge of the regional market and strong customer base.”

Finastra supports banks as they continue to adapt to changing market requirements and customer expectations – while futureproofing for tomorrow. Fusion Essence, the cloud-enabled next-generation core banking solution, combines sophisticated functionality and advanced technology to increase enterprise agility and operational efficiency while using AI to unlock data for smarter business decisions. The SaaS offering covers every stage of the user journey, enabling financial institutions to deliver end-to-end experiences for differentiation.

Fusion Trade Innovation is Finastra’s end-to-end solution with industry-leading capabilities for frictionless trade and supply chain finance. It uses straight-through processing, digitalization, and data analytics to enable intelligent trade for growth, with the ability to evolve with evolving compliance, customer and competitive demands.

“At Finastra, we believe that finance is already open,” said Wissam Khoury, EVP, Partner Ecosystem and Treasury & Capital Markets at Finastra. “Our open ecosystem and best-of-breed solutions enable banks to leverage advanced technology and value-added services for ongoing innovation and growth. Our partners play an integral role in helping us to deliver this. With its strong team, track record, on-the-ground presence and shared passion for open finance, we are pleased to partner with Modefin to help propel banks forward in the region.”

SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, is pleased to share its multiple awards wins over the last week. 

SFF Global FinTech Awards 

On 3 November 2022, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Singapore FinTech  Association (SFA) announced the award winners of the SFF Global FinTech Awards, at an awards ceremony held in conjunction with the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF). 

SC Ventures emerged second in the ‘Partners in Fintech’ category, a testament to its good work in engaging with both the fintech community and corporate clients to rewire the DNA of banking with the aim of reconnecting banking and society.  

Incubated at SC Ventures, Standard Chartered nexus represented Standard Chartered in the  ‘Singapore Financial Institution’ category and won second place for its banking-as-a-service solution. 

Additionally, a second venture, letsbloom, was nominated in the ‘Singapore FinTech (Singapore  Founder)’ category for its solution aimed at democratising bank-grade security on the cloud. 

IDC Future Enterprise Awards 

SC Ventures was crowned Singapore’s ‘Future Enterprise of the Year’ on 7 November. SC Ventures received this top accolade for its diverse venture and investment portfolio which serves to re-imagine how banks will serve society. 

World-leading digital ID verification company OCR Labs Global, is today announcing its partnership with Synectics Solutions, a data management and software solutions provider and the creator of the digital identity verification solution SynID.

The partnership between OCR Labs Global and Synectics Solutions will enable all eligible people who need to prove their right to work or rent in the UK to do so. By combining OCR Labs Global's recently DIATF and Good Practice Guide (GPG) 45' accredited technology with Synectics' SynID trusted digital data from the public and private sectors, customers will benefit from certainty and efficiency in the verification process.

Reports from UK Finance say that £600m were lost in the first half of 2022 due to fraud across the UK finance sector.

To address this issue, Synectics Solutions partners with public and private sector organisations to build data-sharing syndicates such as SIRA. Through this syndicated cross-sector customer risk intelligence database, contributors can gain meaningful insights and solve a common financial crime, money laundering, customer identification and financial inclusion challenges.

Chris Lewis, Head of Solutions Consultancy at Synectics Solutions, says: “We are tremendously excited to partner with OCR Labs Global. Fraud controls and positive electronic verification form the backbone of digital identity and the Digital Identities and Attributes Trust Framework. We believe that right-to-work checks will be a great test bed for digital identity as the market matures in the UK.”

Russ Cohn, General Manager at OCR Labs Global, says: “We needed to make sure we could help our customers like Reed Screening deliver an end-to-end employment solution, with OCR Labs Global’s market-leading ID Verification in partnership with SynID’s data capabilities.”

OCR Labs Global is already supporting clients across many industries, including governments, crypto and a variety of platform-based businesses, such as SaaS providers. Customers include Cognito, HSBC, Reed, Coinmetro and many other customers and partners.

Fenergo has announced that payments service provider iBanFirst will automate compliance across multiple jurisdictions and accelerate client onboarding following the selection of its software as a service (SaaS) Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution.

iBanFirst’s business simplifies international trade for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as corporates, helping them to manage international payments and FX exposure. Fenergo's cloud-based CLM and know your customer (KYC) solution will integrate with iBanFirst's Salesforce CRM to digitalise and enhance the end-to-end customer cross-border payments journey. The solution enables iBanFirst to streamline how it manages KYC and Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) regulatory processes on a single platform while driving operational efficiencies through greater automation.

Commenting on the agreement, Diane Reille, Chief Operations Officer, iBanFirst, said: "The Fenergo SaaS solution means we can future-proof our business and deliver a faster and more effective digital customer onboarding process. As we continue to expand globally, it's crucial that we have the ability to deliver an exceptional customer experience while ensuring we are compliant with complex global regulatory frameworks."

"Today's forward-looking businesses like iBanFirst require CLM solutions that provide seamless automation, in addition to a complete view of their clients and ensure full compliance with global and domestic regulations," said Stella Clarke, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Fenergo. "Through our SaaS platform, iBanFirst can focus on delivering an exceptional overall client experience within a compliant environment. We look forward to continuing to be a trusted partner as iBanFirst continues to drive innovation across the payments industry.”

emerchantpay, a leading payment service provider, today announces a new strategic partnership with Umbraco, an open-source content management system (CMS) platform. emerchantpay is the first payments company to be directly integrated into Umbraco Forms and enables payments for businesses in the UK and the rest of Europe using the CMS platform.

The new partnership will allow businesses to add one-off payments to any forms they create through Umbraco, which are then securely processed by emerchantpay. Once businesses have their emerchantpay account set up, they will be able to create a payment form within minutes and start accepting online payments. For example, a business using Umbraco Forms may sell tickets to an event or accept donations in the form of pre-set amounts. 

Jon Horddal, Chief Product Officer at emerchantpay comments: “Many businesses want to accept one-off online payments, but do not have the means to quickly set this up. By using the emerchantpay integration with Umbraco Forms, businesses can now set up payments and open up new revenue streams, without the barriers of cost, time, and technical knowledge.”  

Jesper Lyngbye, VP of Tech Partnerships at Umbraco adds, “This new integration with emerchantpay further extends the capabilities of Umbraco Forms, already one of our most popular products. This new partnership gives us the ability to offer payment processing in a simple, fast way. It is a major feature for any business that wants to be able to accept one-off payments without a full eCommerce solution.”