Waters Rankings 2014: Best Trading Floor Communication System Provider — IPC

As with most forms of enterprise technology, a single platform is the ideal here—one that can handle the full range of electronic and telephony needs that a business might have. Once again, though, it’s surprising how many capital markets firms use one system for turrets, one for soft phones, and another for compliance. With its Unigy platform, Jersey City-based IPC has solved the problem of fractured communications systems by combining them into a single, powerful, unified platform. Judging by the ease with which it has won this category in this year’s Rankings, the level of unification offered by Unigy has met the market’s expectations.  

Unigy comprises a number of components. IQ/MAX, IPC’s flagship turret/dealerboard gives a physical presence to Unigy on traders’ desks, while IQ/MAX Omni and IQ/MAX Sync provide software control to the turret, allowing staff working remotely or at disaster recovery sites full access to the capabilities of the hard phone, along with command capabilities from a PC. Pulse allows for hoot and intercom capabilities, providing a quick communicative advantage for middle- and back-office staff, allowing Unigy to support all aspects of a trade’s lifecycle.

Underpinning much of Unigy’s obvious appeal is a fixation on compliance, which has had a renewed focus on communications through macro regulation such as the Dodd–Frank Act, as well as recent market events. Officers are given the power to build off the single platform and view the communications flow across the enterprise. Further agility is provided by its Blue Wave application development platform, allowing users to build and integrate both proprietary and third-party apps into Unigy, imbuing the entire communications system with heretofore unseen agility from customer relationship management through to post-trade activities.