This firm served the financial-services industry. The body copy of this brochure is written in a
very formal "white paper" style, at the insistence of the client (not that I think white papers have
to be pedantic).
The company evolved into a company specializing in Internet technologies. I also wrote
that brochure, and in the process, moved the client to a more
readable yet businesslike tone.
Headline:
Turning data paths into business intelligence speedways
Cover Visual:
Watch for opportunities
Page Two Headine:
We know your industry, we understand your needs
Page Two Visual:
Proceed with knowledge
Body Copy:
Expansion and realignment within Financial Services and other industries brings many
new opportunities. Secada & Company brings quantified evaluation of all your
options -- and specialized insight into building the right solutions for you.
Secada & Company specializes in strategic planning and implementation of Information
Technology for financial service providers, and for firms in other IT-intensive industries.
Since our company began concentrating in this area more than half a decade ago,
we have served an array of clients in New York, London, Zurich, Boston, San Francisco and
other financial centers. Our continuing research into the business intelligence needs and
practices of more than 100 financial and e-commerce companies
helps make Secada & Company one of the financial service industry's leading
providers of technology guidance.
The financial industry's needs are accentuated by unique internal and external factors.
Within, financial conglomerates are rapidly forming, and new products are emerging
that were unimagined just a few years ago. The industry's accelerating growth and consolidation
require that technology be implemented quickly and intelligently, with built-in continuity
so systems don't have to be rebuilt every year.
From outside, the industry is both confronted and potentially advantaged by various forces:
The Internet -- with its new opportunities in communication and commerce
Competition from non-financial and e-commerce concerns
Unprecedented stock market behavior and individual investor participation
Stockholders' increasingly high, rigid demands for corporate performance.
These market forces raise fundamental questions
for business strategies and IT planning:
What technology should a company build to remain competitive?
What marketable value-added products will not be cannibalized by e-commerce?
What choices must be made to leverage expertise globally?
Quantifying technology's added value
Secada & Company creates methodologies to evaluate strategic technology issues for our
clients and the software vendors who
serve them. The resulting data enables our clients to make more directed, more
productive decisions. In turn, more efficient decision-making helps these companies
strategize and operate more effectively in the face of aggressive, worldwide competition.
We have long viewed financial services as one industry, envisioning the amalgamation
of its brokerage, asset management, insurance and commercial banking components. We
have interviewed and assessed the practices of more than 100 leading financial services
groups in relation to the whole. Through the use of focus groups, surveys and other techniques,
our comprehensive research delineates benchmarks and the best practices for technology use.
These guidelines have figured prominently in CIO,Wall Street and Technology and other
publications' evaluations of IT and financial industry leaders.
Secada & Company's practical evaluation methods may be employed in system selection, development, testing and throughout production, enabling you to assure your systems will keep delivering maximum competitive strength.
Better risk analysis,
for better rewards
Many corporations spend as much money on technology as a large software firm does,
but they do not enjoy the same return on investment. This increases the importance of
risk-definition when describing system benefits for these companies.
Using our comprehensive understanding of needs within the specific industry, we help
IT groups select paths and technology that align risks with rewards, while keeping the focus
on business intelligence strategy.
By quantifying our client's risk/opportunity relationship from the outset, realistic
expectations may often be set higher. And by assigning certain IT strategic projects to an IT
solutions specialist, a company enables its IT employees to take the larger business-project
view (rather than solely IT).
Meanwhile, the specialist resolves problems such as these:
[ETC.]
Back Cover closes with:
We'll help you get
it done more quickly.
Optimized performance requires optimized performers. Today that frequently means the IT staff
is more integral with the organization as a whole. It's also why Secada & Company has
developed the insight and understanding to work alongside our clients -- bringing special
savvy that enables us to evaluate and implement solutions that will better achieve your
company's business goals.
And we are experienced at working with you wherever you are in the world.
Often Secada & Company becomes a continuing partner with firms seeking IT vendors,
matching our clients to virtual IT companies that are willing to accept risk and commit
to legally binding deliverables while sharing technology ownership. Many other solutions
are also very possible.
Finding the optimal solution begins with quantified analysis. Talk to us about our various
support programs, and learn how they can make your IT program proceed more
quickly and smoothly for you.