Vienna once again, SWIFT CEE Regional Conference once more. As accustomed for the past years, Allevo is a sponsor and exhibiting partner and its delegation will be present at this year’s CEERC. So, if you wanna say hello to Sorin, Corina or Mihai, just take a trip to the City of Music, stop at the Intercontinental and make your way up to Allevo’s stand 🙂 Or up to Allevo’s chat room if you can make it on Tuesday, June 5th, where starting 11 o’clock sharp, we’ll have the “Meet the Partner” session. 15 minutes times 5, for each group of attendees, to talk about FinTP (Financial Transactions Processing) initiative, Remittances and SEPA.
Interested by the sampling we provided during the chat room? We’ll be more than happy to welcome you to our stand so that you can get the change to follow more in depth the above mentioned topics.
Moreover, our CEO, Sorin Guiman is part of the innovation plenary panel, to share his opinion on whether successful innovation is crucial for financial market participants as they strive to capitalize on new opportunities in the current challenging and changing financial landscape, on how it is not simple to innovate and experiment while also retaining the highest levels of security, resilience and reliability.
As Vienna was ranked 1st globally for a culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and 2nd globally after Boston in 2009 from 256 cities, I think you’ll find more than appropriate the discussion on such an innovative initiative as FinTP, that is to develop an open source application for financial transaction processing and to build a community around it. A fan of bold ideas? Our delegates will show you the reasons for which you wanna be part of this one and join the FINkers United community.
Until next week, be open 🙂
By: Ioana Moldovan
OnWindows talks about Allevo’s FINkers United event:
Allevo realizes value of open source by Karen McCandless
“Romanian software vendor and SWIFT partner Allevo held its first user event and ‘unconference’ in Bucharest,Romania on 24 May 2012 – called FINkers United.
Users and customers from the financial industry, legal, technical and business experts, thought leaders got together to talk about and share opinions on Allevo’s initiative to develop an open source application for financial transactions processing and to create a community around it.
Attendees include Kosta Peric,head of innovation and co-founder of Innotribe, SWIFT; Petru Rares,president, Romanian Banking Institute; Radu Ghetea, President CEC Bank; and Rodica Tuchila, Director ARB (Romanian Banking Association).
Delegates described the event as being “innovative”, “unique”, “visionary”, “revealing” and “challenging”.
Peric had previously written an article for Forbes about the value of Allevo’s decision to open source its core business.
Allevo has made the source code for its core product available to anyone to use and adapt – its qPayIntegrator product has now become FinTP, an open source version.
For more on the event, including videos, photos and blog posts, visit the FINkers United Facebook page.”
Market Watch FINkers United event organized by Allevo on May 24, 2012
“Allevo a organizat recent, in parteneriat cu Institutul Bancar Roman (IBR), Asociatia Romana a Bancilor (ARB) si SWIFT, evenimentul FINkers United (denumire provenita din prescurtarea sintagmei “Financial thinkers united”), dedicat prezentarii noului proiect open source demarat de companie.
Evenimentul, care i-a avut printre vorbitori pe Radu Ghetea, presedinte CEC Bank, si Petru Rares, presedintele IBR, a reunit in audienta specialisti din piata financiar-bancara romaneasca si internationala, reprezentanti ai mediului academic, dar si ai mediului de afaceri. Sorin Guiman, general manager Allevo, Ruud van der Horst, consultant independent international, Kosta Peric, Head of innovation SWIFT, Walter van Holst, consultant MITOPICS, si Rodica Tuchila, director ARB, au detaliat si analizat avantajele si beneficiile concrete pe care le ofera solutiile open-source, dar si riscurile aferente acestui tip de aplicatii, insistand pe provocarile specifice mediului financiar-bancar.
Strategia Allevo initiata pe zona open source s-a concretizat in lansarea noului produs FinTP, versiunea OS a aplicatiei de procesare a tranzactiilor bancare qPayIntegrator, una dintre principalele solutii promovate de companie, pe piata locala si regionala.” by Radu Ghitulescu
In which industries is FOSS being used? Why some projects succeed and some fail?
I would like to start this article with lyrics from the song we ended the FINkers United event with, yesterday: “it’s a beautiful day / don’t let it get away”.
Why? Because this is how you feel when the effort of hard late-night hours of work and preparations do pay off. And I won’t let it get away, without thanking each and every one of you who was present, for turning FINkers United into a successful event. We made it and we made it together. I am, no, we, at Allevo, are overcome and deeply moved by the fantastic cooperation and level of networking achieved. It was quite refreshing to get different people to openly discuss a theme of interest (at least for us).
So, Thank You, for your substantial contribution, for sharing your experience, your knowledge, your valuable opinions and ideas. Thank You to our guests, Thank You to our facilitators, Thank You to our distinguished panelists, Thank You Mela – our director of the event :), we couldn’t have done it without you.
I think what was even more exciting is the fact that we accomplished all that while also having fun. It felt that way and was even confirmed by a post-it on the “FINkers United in a word or two” board where participants were asked to post short impressions on the event. Some of the other words pined to the board were: “collaborative”, “innovative”, “constructive”, “unique”, “visionary”, “revealing”, “challenging”, “useful”, “awesome”, “inevitable reality”, “interesting”, “provocative”, “new vision”, “novel”, “cooperation”, “courage!”, “super!”, “very successful”, “new and different”, “+++++++”, “good initiative”, “gorgeous”, “great”, “opportunity”, “educational”, “outstanding”, “the world is watching”, “ideas provider”, “pioneer”, “very good”, “extraordinary effort”.
As I said before, we have the heart to go all the way, because we truly believe in this project, but it feels very good to have people like you appreciate it and support it.
So, that’s why today is a beautiful day. Because we can still feel the sweet taste of success in our mouth, as 40 out of 43 respondents would ABSOLUTELY recommend this event to a colleague! An Innotribed event!
Guess I’ll see you at our next event then 🙂 In the meantime, stay in touch through our website, blog, tweets, Facebook page, FINkers United community page, to get first impressions and photos from the FINkers United event. Anything you want to discuss? You can use our FinTP forum.
By: Ioana Moldovan
The 24 of May has been an important day for Allevo and for the open source initiatives. FINkers United, the first “unconference” event in Romania, gathered experienced users and customers from the financial industry, various legal, technical and business experts, recognized thought leaders, to talk about and share opinions on Allevo’s initiative to develop an open source application for financial transactions processing and, simultaneously, to create a community around it.
The participants debated on the challenges of such a project, bringing valuable contributions based on their diverse knowledge and experience, therefore helping co-create, with us, at Allevo, the foundation of this innovative solution. It was so refreshing to get different people to openly discuss a theme of interest and overcoming to achieve such a fantastic cooperation and level of networking.
The event also benefited from the distinguished presence of our panelists:
Kosta Peric, Head of Innovation and Co-founder of Innotribe, SWIFT
Petru Rares, President Romanian Banking Institute
Radu Ghetea, President CEC Bank
Rodica Tuchila, Director ARB (Romanian Banking Association)
Ruud van der Horst, Independent Consultant
Walter van Holst, Consultant, MITOPICS
Many thanks to all the participants for making FINkers United a successful event.
Read more on Allevo’s blog and follow us as we’ll share the conclusions of the event.
They say that user-centered design is a cutting-edge trend that involves customers and end users in the design of products and services. It has been proven that the highly experienced and knowledgeable users of today are a great source of insights, and if involved, can ensure that companies create better products and services that address real needs.
In this unconference event, we are counting on you to jointly co-create with us at Allevo the foundation of a solution for financial institutions, using a groundbreaking approach inspired by the open-source community. It is our belief that you with your diverse knowledge and experience can make valuable contributions to this bold initiative. As I said in my previous posts, at this event, every guest is a special guest.
But this event is only the beginning. It is a long way to go, but we are prepared and we have the heart to go all the way. And we need you, our partners, our customers, innovators, developers, legal experts, technical and business specialists, to join us in this journey, to apply our collective intelligence to building this community, to solving the very concrete problems that such a project may face, to turn this bold initiative into a great accomplishment, for everyone involved.
It may sound pretentious, it may sound hard to achieve, but we, at Allevo, believe in this initiative and I surely hope that you will believe to after the FINkers United event, on May 24.
We can do this, but we can only do it together. I say we give it a shot 🙂
Speaking of together, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Kosta Peric, Head of Innovation at SWIFT and Co-founder of Innotribe, for his article on Forbes, talking about Allevo and our FinTP project.
See you tomorrow 🙂
By: Ioana Moldovan
Told you I’ll be back with updates 🙂 On what? Well, on our FINkers United event, of course.
Don’t have the date booked in your calendars yet? It’s time you do. Because I promise you, we’ll have the “unconference” time of our lives.
Here is how the show will go on, and on, and on 🙂
09:00-09:30 – Registration and welcome coffee
09:30-10:30 – Setting the scene. Sharing ideas. Creating value
Start of our journey. Take a short tour to setup a common map. We’ll visit the regions of: impact of open source in banking, bankers’ perspective on adopting it, projects and initiatives in other industries, financial market’s current status and trends, government regulations, impact on the operational business model, the financial community as a key to success. Final destination: finding ways to make this a compelling alternative.
10:30-11:15 – Workshop preview session
Just a short interactive discussion to see what we need to pack for our voyage and to sketch together the coordinates we need to touch on the map.
11:15-11:30 – Coffee break
11:30-12:30 – Workshop: From closed to open
First checkpoint. Trying to identify together the routes to take us from close to open. The easiest ones (in terms of implementation), the safest ones – with less obstacles/risks, the legal ones (not to get any fines), the most operational ones, the ones that even the acquisitions would take, the ones that the entire community will find agreeable.
12:30-13:30 – Lunch
We’ve come a long way. Let’s stop for a little feast to give us strength for the road ahead. We all deserve some culinary delights for our efforts.
13:30-14:30 – Workshop: How open is open?
Next checkpoint. Analysing in more details some of the most viable routes we have identified. How open are they? Cause we don’t want road blocks. Pay attention to the road signs that show the directions towards IT town, Legal region, Operations lake, Acquisition /investment plateau, Marketing city. Help each other if we have a flat tire or run out of gas, because we need travel companions to make it to the final destination.
14:30-14:45 – Coffee break
14:45-15:30 – Wrap-up session
The end of this short tour, but far from being the end of our journey. Sketch a line on our map that takes us to our destination (a trusted open source application and a reliable community). Mark the stops that we have to make. Calculate distances. Come up with solutions for our first kilometres. In a few words, summarize this trip’s journal.
15:30-16:00 – Awards session
There is a reward for everyone who joined us in this voyage. Also, for those who packed their business cards, there is a chance to win one of the two Apple tablets or one of the two huge champagne bottles.
Important people will accompany us on this trip, guiding our way in finding the right paths. And for that, we would like to thank them:
Kosta Peric, Head of Innovation and Co-founder of Innotribe, SWIFT
Petru Rares, President Romanian Banking Institute (to be confirmed)
Radu Ghetea, President CEC Bank
Rodica Tuchila, Director ARB (Romanian Banking Association)
Ruud van der Horst, Independent Consultant
Walter van Holst, Consultant, MITOPICS
I hope now you want to take this tour with us. See you next week 🙂
By: Ioana Moldovan
