Welcome to SGSS' Outsourcing magazine

Outsourcing has today become a natural trend or even a necessity that can be observed in all industries at a certain level of maturity.

Firstly, for obvious cost-control reasons: in our activities that are subject to regulatory changes, the risk of fraud and cyberattacks, substantial and continual investments are necessary. The notion of critical size is therefore a constraint imposed on all players, and notably on banking service providers who will have to transform their offers, digitise them, comply with regulatory requirements, secure their IT Systems and enable their clients to benefit from these pooled investments.

Outsourcing makes it possible to focus on, and allocate efforts and scarce resources to, one’s core activity, and thus to create more and distinctive added value to win greater market share. Despite this trend and the market’s infatuation with it, some players are opting not to outsource. For what reasons? If we want to comprehensively address this outsourcing topic, we need to look at the issue of control, and in particular data control, and not ignore the difficulties that go hand in hand with these organisational developments, such as the loss of oversight, flexibility and responsiveness.

Furthermore, it should not be forgotten that outsourcing also means learning to forego and accepting to standardise in order to fully benefit from the scale effect. So how should these challenges be addressed? By developing essential control processes, but also thanks to numerous innovative responses, sometimes by new players, by new outsourcing methods combined with new offer models. Beyond traditional forms of outsourcing by delegating, other cooperation initiatives are emerging: collaboration or partnerships between a number of players who combine their strengths to improve market practices providing examples of collective intelligence and development. The emergence of new technologies such as APIsare facilitating collaboration between players. Maintaining an open architecture approach makes it possible to retain the flexibility that is essential to these new combinations: connection with a number of subcontractors, internal developments versus the use of software packages, integration of external data within one’s IT system.

In this magazine, we wanted to give the floor to those who are contributing to innovation through the viewpoint of fintechs with their fresh and youthful eyes but also more established and experienced players like SGSS. Feedback on usingCrossWise front-to-back offer is hence discussed at the end of this magazine and illustrates opportunities to integrate services within outsourcing offers.

All in all, this magazine provides a vast overview of opinions and possibilities for making the most of outsourcing solutions and partnerships. I am sure it will bring to readers’ minds an experience, an opportunity to rationalise their organisation, or simply provide a window into these outsourcing trends. In these difficult times, I would like to wholeheartedly thank everyone who has contributed to this magazine, accepted to share their expertise and worked hard to produce it. Its content has been created before the Covid-19 crisis and therefore doesn’t deal with its potential consequences both on outsourcing and, more generally, on the investment industry. We are well aware this event will have a significant impact on the financial world and this is a topic we will definitely address in our future publications. I hope you enjoy reading this magazine as much as we have enjoyed putting it together.

Mathilde GUERIN Head of  Transformation & Technology Delivery - SGSS Mathilde Guérin began her career at Societe Generale in 1991 and held various positions within the investment bank and the Custody Services Department. She participated in the analysis of all IT and operational aspects of the SGSS acquisition of UniCredit’s securities services in 2005. She was then appointed programme manager for the migration of Pioneer Asset Management’s Luxembourg funds. In 2008, Mathilde Guérin became Global Relationship Manager of Pioneer AM, before being appointed Global Head of Sub-custody Network Management in 2011, followed by her appointment as Head of Product Engineering in 2016, in charge of developing SGSS products and solutions. Mathilde is a graduate of the Ecole des Mines in Saint-Etienne, France.