The Show Must Go On

Following our announcement of them last week, the website and nominations are now open, and can be found here.

Although the format of the SST Awards is broadly similar to that of the BST Awards, aimed at the third-party vendor community, being nomination-led and decided by a panel of industry experts and Waters journalists, the entry method is new. Rather than e-mailing us with details and supporting documentation, you can now use our intuitive online form to handle your submission, or indeed, multiple submissions. The process is explained in detail on the website, but please don't hesitate to get in touch with our London or New York offices if you need any assistance.

The Great White North
Despite being primarily based in London, I flew out to New York on Thursday, and spent most of the weekend being buried alive under the white stuff. It's nowhere near as bad as some of the freak weather that this city has experienced recently, of course, but the fact that all flights were cancelled on Friday, and the Long Island Rail Road was pretty much down all weekend still shows that disaster recovery is top of the agenda for any firm. Unless you're Suffolk County, of course, in which case salt trucks seem to be a halcyon technology for which only the most hopeful reach.

But lessons have been learned from Sandy and similar episodes, particularly on the depository side. Recently, I've been speaking to a fair few about dematerialization, or moving paper stock certificates to an electronic format. Nobody is more keen on this than the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, who suffered badly during the hurricane flooding last year. They estimate that, from a height of around 30 million certificates, two million are left, and they'll be fully electronic within a few years.

Either way, business flexibility, disaster planning and recovery and other areas, as demonstrated by a few feet of ice and water, still present significant challenges. But if your sell-side product can handle it, let us know by nominating yourself for an award.