BGC Partners enhances business agility with strategic partnership for sourcing IT

Customer challenge

Working in fast-paced financial markets, BGC Partners' business needs to be dynamic to take advantage of new revenue-generating opportunities. To ensure new and existing staff have access to the right technologies, BGC must be able to procure and deploy workstations within very tight timeframes With equipment being procured from up to 40 different suppliers, BGC lacked the responsive service and strategic IT sourcing relationship it needed.

Computacenter solution

BGC has centralised the procurement of workstations, Wintel servers and consumables with Computacenter. Using a customised web portal, BGC can view its standard product portfolio, pricing, stock levels and the status of deliveries to sites as diverse as Copenhagen and Hong Kong. Computacenter also provides BGC with bill and hold facilities, visibility of vendor roadmaps and IT disposal services.

Results

The strategic IT sourcing partnership with Computacenter enables BGC to procure technology faster and with greater reliability, which enhances the firm's business agility and competitive advantage. BGC has also reduced IT costs by taking advantage of Computacenter's buying power and centralised processes. Simplified procurement has enabled the company to halve its procurement team so staff can focus on the firm's strategic IT roadmap.

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Customer profile

Integrated brokering services on a global scale
BGC Partners is a leading global intermediary to the wholesale financial markets, specialising in the brokering of a broad range of financial products, including fixed income securities, interest rate swaps, foreign exchange, equities, equity derivatives, credit derivatives, commodities, futures, structured products and other instruments.

BGC Partners also provides a full range of services, including trade execution, broker-dealer services, clearing, processing, information, and other back office services to a broad range of financial and non-financial institutions.

Through its eSpeed, BGC Trader, and BGCantor Market Data brands, the company operates multiple buyer, multiple seller real-time electronic marketplaces for the world's most liquid capital markets and globally distributed and innovative market data and analysis products for numerous financial instruments and markets. BGC Partners' customers include many of the world's largest banks, broker-dealers, investment banks, trading firms, hedge funds, governments and investment firms.
The firm has approximately 1,400 brokers and more than 2,400 employees in 19 offices around the world.

Business challenge

Staying ahead in a dynamic industry
Due to the nature of financial markets, BGC's business must be dynamic and flexible to maximise profitability and competitive advantage. As Christopher Marino, Global Director of IT Procurement at BGC Partners, explains: "Business agility is extremely important. If a new opportunity arises we need to be able to take advantage of it immediately. This may involve adding new members of staff to a brokering team at short notice or launching a new customer service."

With foreign exchange and bond markets open 24-hours a day globally, BGC's IT team must be able to provide new and existing staff with rapid and continuous access to the technology that underpins core customer services. The firm was purchasing its IT equipment, including brokers' workstations, from up to 40 different suppliers in Europe alone. With such a distributed IT procurement operation, it was impossible for BGC to build strategic or trusted relationships with its vendors. This led to a number of issues, as Christopher explains: "It could take up to a week to receive a workstation that we actually needed the day after the order."

Suppliers also frequently shipped substitute models when a requested device was unavailable – not realising that this replacement would often be useless to BGC. Christopher explains: "We have a pre-prepared image that we use to build workstations. If a device or component is non-standard, we have to rebuild that image, causing delays to user provisioning and a knock-on impact on staff productivity." Similar image compatibility issues occurred when a standard workstation component was withdrawn by the vendor. Without prior notice of the withdrawal, BGC was unable to prepare in advance.

Computacenter solution

Fast and efficient IT procurement
To address its IT procurement and lifecycle management challenges, BGC decided to centralise workstation sourcing through a single provider. The relationship with Computacenter started with a one-off order in March 2008, when a core component of BGC's workstation bundle was withdrawn by the vendor.

Computacenter was able to provide the firm with replacement components quickly and cost-effectively. Since then, the partnership has blossomed, and Computacenter is now responsible for providing all BGC's workstations, Wintel servers and consumables.

The firm orders up to 60 HP desktops and laptops, 50 NEC monitors, and 10 HP Enterprise servers a month via Computacenter. BGC's IT procurement team uses a customised Computacenter web portal to view its standard product portfolio, pricing and stock levels. "We can track deliveries via the Computacenter portal for complete transparency and simplified planning," comments Christopher.

Computacenter liaises with HP on BGC's behalf to ensure that each device meets the firm's specifications. The equipment is then shipped to the appropriate BGC location. This may be one of the company's three London offices; a European destination such as Copenhagen, Milan, Zurich or Paris; or even as far a field as Tel Aviv, Singapore or Hong Kong. BGC receives its orders the following day within the UK, or in three working days at its international sites. Eliminating delays to provisioning through added value services

The breadth and depth of Computacenter's expertise and vendor relationships has been a critical success factor in the partnership. As Christopher explains, "Computacenter provides us with accurate product roadmaps and warns us when products are due to be withdrawn. It will also evaluate any new workstation models against our requirements to enable our configuration team to start preparing a new image." This advice, combined with Computacenter's bill and hold service, means that BGC can get workstations shipped to its employees faster. The firm will order a surplus of devices that is held in stock at Computacenter and delivered as required. Keeping the equipment at Computacenter also eliminates the need for expensive storage space at BGC Partners' offices.

Due to the success of this procurement model, BGC has recently expanded its relationship with Computacenter to incorporate IT equipment disposal via the company's specialist subsidiary RDC. "Disposing of unwanted IT assets in an appropriate manner is important to ensure we minimise our impact on the environment and comply with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive" comments Christopher. "RDC provides security certificates and comprehensive reports so we have peace of mind that our equipment is disposed of correctly."

Results

Lower IT costs and greater competitive advantage
Computacenter is now a strategic IT partner for BGC, as Christopher explains: "As
I am based in New York, I need a European partner I can trust and Computacenter fulfils that need. The account team is very attentive and helpful, and has a good relationship with all members of the procurement team."

By centralising IT procurement with Computacenter, BGC has been able to:

Enhance business agility: The firm can source the technology it needs, when it needs it. As a result it can meet the rapidly changing needs of the business and ensure that no opportunities are lost.

Reduce cost: By taking advantage of Computacenter's buying power and best practice procurement processes, BGC has been able to significantly lower its IT costs.

Free up resources: Simplified procurement has enabled BGC to halve its IT procurement team. Staff are now able to focus on the company's strategic IT roadmap rather than sourcing quotes and chasing up deliveries.

Christopher comments: "By working with Computacenter to source our business-critical technology, we can deploy workstations to new staff with minimal expense and effort. This improves our ability to adapt to changes in the financial markets and helps ensure that we maximise every business opportunity to increase our profitability and competitive advantage."
The relationship between the two companies is expected to grow in the future –
Computacenter is currently in discussion with BGC's structured cabling team around the provision of additional services.