Diaphanum was born with the intention of being a disruptive firm in the financial advisory field. From the moment of its creation, the company was aware that in order to be at the forefront of the transformation, it was necessary to bet on technology. This is why Diaphanum relies on TECSENS.
Who is Diaphanum?
Mario González Domínguez, Head of Technology at Diaphanum. He explains that his company was created as a result of the implementation of new European investment regulations (MIFID II). Created to protect investors from crises such as that of 2008.
We are a disruptive element in the securities market, since we are born as the first company at national level whose business model is 100% MIFID II. As well as being disruptive, we are the paradigm of the new European regulations. In addition, we offer a 100% independent investment service aligned with our clients’ interests. This eliminates conflicts of interest and focuses on the best investment options.
The reality of today’s business world pushes us and new technologies have led us to design a technological structure to have access and contact with our customers at any time and place. What we call “figital” philosophy (physical + digital). This made us consider developing tools that facilitate both easy access to information by the customer and the possibility of complying with the rules imposed by regulators in a remote way. With our technological strategy, a client practically does not need to come to the office to manage his investments.
Why Tecsens?
As this manager explains to us, the relationship with TECSENS is not new.
We were born from the hand of TECSENS. We have been operating for 2 years, although we were in the systems analysis and design phase for a year before that. What we needed was and is a robust environment, with adequate security measures, meeting current standards and minimum response times to incidents. In addition, the place where we stored the data had to comply with the LOPD (at that time we were obliged to locate our data warehouse in Europe). And we have it all with TECSENS.
One of the issues we took into account was proximity. In a world of do it yourself technology, we wanted to have someone we knew on the other side. Someone who would understand and know our needs and provide security against infrastructure failures. We came to TECSENS from Weber Solutions.
This point, he continues, is fully in line with what Diaphanum offers its customers: proximity.
I come from a leading bank in Spain, and many times I have found myself in situations where all incidents, new needs or projects were accelerated or decelerated depending on the proximity to the other party entering the equation. So, in an evolving company, speed of response is critical. And although the technical and operational aspects are fundamental, we have also opted for a Spanish company, as have we. In a world where Cloud technology is monopolized by the big players.
The keys to the project
The project is based on two fundamental pillars, explains Mario Gonzalez, our financial core and documentation systems. We also added professional internet lines, both for interconnection with the Cloud environment and for voice and access from our branches. Core and documentation services are mounted in a High Availability environment backed up by backups. In addition to being wrapped in a layer of security that we have improved since we started, incorporating new elements that provide additional measures against attacks.
He adds that the business model is reflected in cutting-edge technology that is easy to use for both our employees and our customers. It is also very complete and technically complex. We are also achieving a tool that differentiates us from our competitors. Constantly evolving and adding new functionalities that benefit our customers above all.
The project was started at the beginning of 2016, and the truth is that when we started with TECSENS we were already very clear about what we needed. We just needed to find that piece of infrastructure that was within our budgetary reach. In conclusion, that it had the elasticity and scalability that we needed to start with and that we would need in our future.
We started in a first phase with all the basic resources available and later we have undertaken service expansions, which have not yet finished evolving.
Have expectations been met thanks to Tecsens?
When choosing TECSENS, we defined clear initial needs for resources, perimeter security and interconnections, and we dimensioned them for the first expansion needs. The advantages we were looking for are those of a stable, robust, flexible Cloud service, low incident rate and quick solutions. And, so far, we have found them. But even though we knew what we wanted, we have had very productive conversations and recommendations with TECSENS that have allowed us to finish shaping the initial idea. In addition, we believe they have improved the usability and responsiveness of our systems.
Once we got going, I think we achieved what we were looking for. Although Diaphanum is a medium-sized company, the demands of our customers are the highest due to the basis of our type of business. Today we have full connectivity: our customers can access their personal information from any place and any type of device. In addition, our employees can work almost equally well from the office as from other locations, so that the functional and operational “offshoring” of our systems is a fact.
Thinking about the future
But now what? Are you considering expanding the project?
In the words of Mario Gonzalez, Diaphanum has only been in business for 2 years, so internally there are a large number of ideas for powerful new financial tools that differentiate Diaphanum from the competition that are evolving until they become reality. We are very aware that financial needs go hand in hand with Fintech tools and we are betting on it.
Recently, together with TECSENS, we have set up a new test environment to start testing a new tool that will definitely set us apart from the rest. It is sure to be launched in the coming months. And, of course, our core is constantly evolving, both to adapt to new regulatory obligations and to create enhancements and new features. In short, an easy to use and very complete environment for both the customer and the employee.
TECSENS, the technological contribution
Adrián Delgado, COO of TECSENS, tells us that Diaphanum is a client that every IT services integrator wants to have. We have been contracted for services in the area of Voice, Networks y Cloud, with demanding requirements and a high level of compliance.
In this case, the most specific needs were several. Among them, the only interlocution with a single global service provider, capable of responding to each and every part of the technological project. To have a qualified technical team with a very close relationship, where the whole team knows the customer’s infrastructure without having to explain our environment every time a request is made or there is an incident. Our technology provides a robust and scalable solution with high service availability.
Speaking of the project, the main core of the service is based on the hosting in TECSENS’ private cloud of all the company’s core servers. Thanks to this, Diaphanum has its servers in a highly available and highly scalable environment with high security measures. VPN services are offered from all Diaphanum offices throughout Spain. In order to access the cloud servers and interconnect the offices with each other. In addition, SIP Trunk service is offered where each and every one of the company’s calls are routed between its offices.
[Fuente] IT User