AFTAs 2020: Best Communication Infrastructure Provider—IPC

IPC Systems once again picks up the award for best communication infrastructure provider for its flagship solution, Unigy, claiming back the award from last year’s winner, TransFICC. 

Unigy, which currently has more than 110,000 users, aims to provide communication continuity of the back and middle offices, as well as other regulated users’ communications across a unified platform.

In the last year, IPC pulled together its two flagship offerings—the Unigy trading floor communications system and the Connexus Cloud infrastructure—to create Connexus Unigy. This is the first time the company has combined the two business lines into a single product offering.

Bruce Bolcer, IPC’s vice president of enterprise engineering, says that as more firms were forced to work remotely amid the Covid-19 pandemic, adapting Unigy to work within the cloud as well as on-premise was an important focus. “Virtually [in] every opportunity that we are involved with now, clients are asking to consume Unigy as a cloud-based offering. Before Covid, it was probably 50/50 in terms of cloud to on-premise,” he says. 

Prior to the pandemic, Bolcer says there was a general trend toward cloud-based technologies, but that the pandemic accelerated interest and necessity in cloud technology. 

In the first quarter of 2021, IPC plans to release a new Common Services Platform that will allow the firm to deliver tools and applications added to the trading platform. The initial release will include a set of tools to help clients manage and operate those adjunct applications more efficiently. 

IPC also held onto the title of best trading floor communication system provider in the 2020 Waters Rankings for an impressive 15th consecutive year.