8 | FinTech Awards 2025 Best Wealth Management Platform 2025 – EMEA We’ve been there: How GBST managed its own platform upgrade without disruption. Delivering large-scale technology change is often likened to changing a plane’s engine mid-flight. The stakes are high: how do you modernise critical systems while maintaining uninterrupted service for clients? At GBST, we understand the challenge because we’ve lived it. When the time came to enhance our flagship Composer platform to the latest technology, we committed to a transformation that safeguarded continuity, met evolving expectations, and ensured long-term value, all without requiring any data migration or disrupting our clients’ day-to-day operations Financial institutions worldwide face a common challenge. Technology is evolving rapidly, and so are regulators’ and clients’ expectations. Many firms operate with legacy infrastructure that was never designed for today’s interconnected, digital-first environment. At the same time, they are under pressure to control costs, launch new propositions faster, and provide better client experiences across every channel. Upgrading core systems can seem like a logical step, but it’s also daunting . Any disruption to day-to-day operations can create reputational risk, damage client trust, and trigger compliance concerns. Many of our clients face this reality, and it’s exactly the challenge we navigated ourselves when we upgraded Composer. Here’s what we learned from our experience and how it can help you navigate your own technology journey. GBST has partnered with many of the world’s leading financial services organisations since 1983. Forty years in this sector have shown that technology firms must innovate to succeed. Our flagship product, Composer, has long served as a strong, reliable wealth administration platform for some of the world’s leading financial institutions. But expectations have shifted. Clients now demand faster onboarding, greater automation, cloud native SaaS, and seamless integration. Anticipating these needs and recognising some of our architecture limitations, we decided to modernise Composer and ensure it would continue to deliver strategic value in a fastevolving market. Technology transformation is rarely just a technical exercise. It’s as much about culture and coordination as it is about infrastructure and code. One of the key reasons our transformation succeeded was the level of cross-functional collaboration across the business. Product managers, engineers, compliance leads, and client support teams all actively shaped the programme. Everyone understood what was at stake and were committed to protecting our clients from disruption. We also adopted a continuous feedback loop. This helped us course-correct early, spot issues before they escalated, and build confidence in the process. Strong leadership alignment played a crucial role in driving the programme forward. Our executive team recognised early that this wasn’t simply a technology upgrade. It was a business transformation affecting nearly every part of the organisation. By tying the programme to GBST’s broader strategic goals, we ensured that decisions were guided by long-term priorities rather than short-term convenience. This clarity helped the teams stay focused and aligned, even when the programme encountered complexity. We learned firsthand that technology transformation cannot, and should not, be rushed. Our multi-year timeline reflected our deep commitment to safeguarding our clients’ operational integrity. Carefully rebuilding Composer’s foundations allowed us to deliver a modern, stable platform that seamlessly integrates with client operational and servicing workflows. Rigorous planning and testing ensured our upgrade never compromised our clients’ ability to meet their obligations or serve their customers effectively. Our experience in proactively upgrading Composer means we deeply understand how to support our clients in their modernisation and transformation initiatives. Composer is now cloud-native, highly secure, and specifically designed to adapt as your business evolves. Clients benefit from faster onboarding, reduced operational overheads, and smoother compliance processes with consistent outcomes. Whether it’s new regulations, digital innovation pressures, or changing customer demands, Composer is built for adaptability because we’ve navigated these challenges ourselves. Our journey offers practical insight for financial services organisations navigating their own technology transformation. Every programme differs, but the risks, complexities, and opportunities often follow familiar patterns. We know what it takes to change the engine mid-flight and still land safely, so we can help you build a roadmap that protects operations, supports growth, and sets your business up for long-term success. If you’re planning a platform upgrade or facing pressure to modernise, GBST and Composer can help you move forward with confidence. We’ve done it for ourselves and we can do it for you. Contact: Andrew Boniface Company: GBST Web Address: gbst.com GBST consistently delivers outstanding investment administration technology so its clients can continue providing the best possible service to their customers. The company’s ongoing investment in upgrading Composer has given it unique insights into successfully managing complex technology transformations, positioning it as a trusted partner for your own future challenges. We hear directly from GBST CEO Robert DeDominicis, as the company is highlighted in our FinTech Awards 2025 and awarded its esteemed title.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUyMDQwMA==