Insights

Notes from inside vendor selection.

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Architecture

Operational Resilience and DORA: Mapping Vendor SLAs to Important Business Services

Aligning vendor SLAs, disaster recovery and incident response with Important Business Services and DORA expectations.

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Architecture

The Dual-Core Playbook: Running Legacy and Modern Cores Without Losing Control

Five principles for running legacy and modern cores in parallel without vendor over-dependency or permanent fragmentation.

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Tech Strategy

Adopt Over Adapt: The Case for Minimal Necessary Change

How model bank configurations and minimal necessary change reduce cost, risk and time to market on major platform implementations.

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Vendor Selection

Vendor Ecosystem Maturity: Why Assessing the Core Is Not Enough

Why the partner ecosystem, integration, data, payments and identity, matters as much as the core platform in vendor selection.

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Tech Strategy

Why You Need a Business-Aligned Technology Strategy Before Vendor Selection

Vendor selection without a business-aligned technology strategy quietly hands the strategy to the vendor. What needs to be settled first, and why.

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Tech Strategy

Why the Build vs. Buy Question Is Almost Always Asked Too Late

Most organisations frame build vs. buy after the budget has already been shaped. How to bring the conversation forward to where it can still change the answer.

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Architecture

How to Tell a Vendor AI Roadmap From a Vendor AI Story

Five architectural signals that distinguish a genuine AI capability from a marketing response to market pressure.

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Vendor Selection

Key Considerations During Market Scans, Before Shortlisting Vendors

What a defensible market scan looks like, and what gets lost when the first four vendors on a list become the only four.

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Vendor Selection

Why Financial Firms Need Logical and Structured Vendor Selection Processes

Five reasons why regulated financial firms must use a structured vendor selection process, from regulatory accountability to service continuity.

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Vendor Selection

5 Reasons Why Regulated Financial Institutions Need Transparent, Methodical and Collaborative Vendor Selection Processes

Why regulated financial institutions need transparent, methodical and collaborative vendor selection processes, from stakeholder buy-in to risk mitigation.

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Framework

AI Adoption Strategies in Finance, Banking and Pensions

A six-mode framework, from passive ghost AI to commercialised AI products, for placing your organisation honestly on the adoption spectrum.

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Case Study

The Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP)

A case study on the EU's PEPP, with a focus on technology, innovation and engagement, featuring contributions from Dr. Francesco Briganti, Jorik van Zanden and Gianluca Mauro.

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Case Study

Technology Strategy, Architecture & Roadmap

How a mid-market UK bank moved IT from a support function to a growth partner with a capability-based architecture, cloud-native operating model and iterative delivery roadmap.

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Case Study

Core Banking Vendor Assessment & Selection

How a mid-market UK bank selected a modern core banking partner through a structured, no-dual-core vendor assessment grounded in UK regulatory and social impact requirements.

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Team Sheet

Strawpath's World Cup UK Startup XI

A finance-CTO's scouting report on seventeen UK deep tech startups quietly reshaping the infrastructure beneath banking, payments and trading.

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