In this intensely competitive Financial Services market environment, Banks, Insurers, Securities & Exchanges, and Wealth Management institutions, whether a small business or global enterprise, are increasingly challenged to find the optimum balance to minimize workplace disruptions for remote workers and at brick-and-mortar office locations, protect proprietary data, and understand how hybrid cloud operating models will impact business performance.

Key considerations include the following:

• Ways to accelerate digitization of Remote Work and Trusted Workplace
• Ways to leverage IoT sensors, and networking & security solutions for remote work & branch ATMs
• Secure and compliant remote work enablement
• Safe collaboration across your distributed locations and dispersed workforce
• Aligning employee video conferencing and collaboration use with your security, risk, and compliance requirements
• Leveraging AI to detect compliance, data exposure, and acceptable use risks in collaboration sessions

IDC indicates spending on transformation is expected to accelerate in 2021 and beyond. IT spend will grow almost 6% annually over the next five years, and cloud, security, and process automation will be the focus of intense compliance and governance investments over the next 24-36 months.

Cisco Meraki creates the simplest, most powerful Cloud Managed IT solutions and connect passionate people to their mission by simplifying the digital workplace. According to Ferreol "Fe" Hoppenot ([email protected]), Global Enterprise Segment, US East -South Sales Leader at Cisco Meraki, "...our current pandemic have highlighted challenges in all organizations and especially Financial Services, but has more importantly been a clear digitization accelerator."

Financial Services customers are now embracing this Cloud-first strategy for a broader part of their IT: WIFI6 and High-Performance Wireless, Campus and Branches Switching, Secure SD-WAN, Smart Cameras, and IoT Sensors...across multiple locations.

This Cloud Managed journey has been and is currently helping those organizations:

• Decrease their Time to Market thanks to its agility, a zero-touch provisioning platform and the use of APIs for automation
• Simplify their visibility and troubleshooting while being proactive in the resolution of issues thanks to AI and Machine Learning
• Manage carefully their OPEX and CAPEX budgets
• Focus their extra time, their extra budget and resources on business-oriented, critical to COVID-19 response projects

Financial institutions are successfully moving the business forward to make decisions faster with Cisco Meraki capabilities in innovative ways, while collaborating safely across distributed locations with a dispersed workforce, balancing work from home and returning to brick-and-mortar offices, & utilizing branch ATMs during the pandemic and beyond include the following use cases :

• Deploy a Simple, Secure and Intelligent Remote Workplace for contact center agents, traders, employees, executives
• Leverage WIFI6 devices, Smart Cameras as Sensors in their campus and our Cisco DNA Spaces solution for a safe return to the office
• Create the Next Generation Agile, Secure and Intelligent Campus
• Build together the Secure Retail Bank of the Future

Cisco's Webex video conferencing usage clocked 590 million participants in September 2020, and over 600 million in October amid resurgent pandemic cases with increased testing. This is nearly double the numbers recorded in March when countries started shutting down due to the pandemic.

Cisco Investments portfolio company, Theta Lake, is addressing enterprises' needs for new compliance and security tools built for modern collaboration platforms. Theta Lake detects risks across video, visual, voice, chat, and document content, helping firms identify data leakage, phishing, acceptable use, and regulatory compliance risks while addressing archiving, eDiscovery, and supervision requirements.

According to Anthony Cresci ([email protected]), VP of Business Development and Operations, "the growth in unified collaboration systems has skyrocketed and Theta Lake is helping its customers protect those communication channels by monitoring and identifying security and compliance risks. We are empowering our customers to embrace video conferencing, collaboration chat, and UC tools as well as enable rich information sharing features, such as in-meeting chat, screen share, virtual whiteboards, all while ensuring they meet compliance requirements and providing visibility into what is being said, shown on screen, or shared in chat within these communications."

Check out our recent webinar onDigitizing Secure Remote Work and Trusted Workplaceto learn more about leading practices for your organizations, or visit the FSI home page, or contact sales today.