The market of technology offers a plethora of services that optimizes the development of businesses. Every business today relies on technological and digital services to perform day to day activities with precision and quality. Hence, it is essential for these services to be advanced to match up to the pace of swift business growth. With an exclusive focus in capital market technology services, CPQi Group, a leading technological company specializes in sectors such as managed services, digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence for financial markets, payment and cash management systems and many more. Under the expert guidance of their CEO, Terry Boyland, CPQi Group is growing rapidly with their innovative ideas to help their clients’ businesses. Terry is leader of skills and intellect, making the right decision and leading his team on the path of success. In this article we have highlighted a few interesting insights from industry specialist himself, Terry Boyland.
What were your dreams and aspirations while growing up? What led to the foundation of CPQi Group?
From an early age I had a strong interest in both banking and technology. I recall at the age of 13 I wrote to the British company ICL and asked how I could work for them. Their kind reply, enclosing very useful material, was a strong encouragement to work hard and keep the faith!
What were the initial challenges and setbacks that CPQi Group faced?
CPQi Group was set up in 2007 which is right before the global economic crisis of 2008/2009. With an initial focus on the European markets, offshoring to Brazil we faced two main issues. 1. The economic climate in Europe was deteriorating 2. People’s knowledge and acceptance of Brazil at the time was not strong.
Tell us in brief about the services of CPQi Group.
CPQi leads clients in their Digital Transformation of financial markets systems across the major American Economies. This means we get to work with all the modern principles of DevOps and AI as well as with major trading and risk platform providers like Murex, Calypso, Finastra and Openlink. We also partner with Salesforce, Pega, ServiceNow and Moody’s.
How do you define the growth of CPQi Group over the past few years?
CPQi has a great history of growth since our inception with only 2 brief pauses, once for economic environment and once to rest a little. Typical of this was our 2018 performance where we took the company through a 35% revenue increase.
What is the vision of the company and key factors that distinguish you from the lot?
CPQi Group has an enviable track record in the financial markets’ technology services area. Our deep expertise comes from 5 differentiating factors:
- We only work on financial markets technology, and the more complicated the better.
- As this is difficult work, we spend as much money educating our people on banking as we do on technology.
- Our mixed site resourcing uses our offshore Centre in Fortaleza, in the Northeast of Brazil, meaning we not only provide exceptional value, but operate on the same time zone and are able to maintain a strong cultural alignment with our North American clients.
- We are highly respected partners for the major platform manufacturers including Murex, Calypso, Finastra, Moody’s and Open link.
- Our mindset is the same as an internal bank IT department because many of us (like me) come from banks.
Give us a brief of your life before CPQi Group.
I have been afforded many privileges in my life. Although growing up in a working-class family in London, England, my work has enabled me to travel to four continents and execute groundbreaking projects for major companies. Prior to forming CPQi Group I worked for Centrica in a lead role. However, one of the most enjoyable roles in my career was serving as Chief Technology Officer and then as Global Business Manager for JP Morgan Chase Bank. So much of what I apply today was learnt from giants in these companies.
Tell us about your roles and responsibilities as the CEO of CPQi Group and how they makes you feel?
CPQi set up an offshore Centre in the Northeast of Brazil in order provide high quality jobs to an area that has excellent education but limited opportunity. The management team has been delighted to see the growth of that Centre, which today houses some of the worlds leading experts in capital markets technology. I still see the mission as providing opportunity and employment to those who are willing to take the greatest advantage of it.
What inspires you to do what you do every day?
Aside from my God and my family, it is the desire to contribute. To construct things which are of value beyond the person.
What are some of the factors that continue to be a roadblock? How do you overcome Them?
As with all growing businesses we carefully consider our growth to match our cashflow. People businesses tend to burn cash at a higher rate than manufacturing and product-based ones. Banks are also more willing to fund things they can own rather than people that create value. Over the years we have become adept as a management team in determining where we invest to ensure we are not only creating the right growth and profit for the company but also where it is morally correct to do so.
What keeps you and your employees motivated?
The feeling that we are adding value in what we do. We believe that the world is changing fast, not always for the better. However even in our field of banking technology we are motivated to apply our knowledge in the right way.
What does the future of CPQi Group look like, globally? How do you plan to widespread the business?
2020 is looking very exciting for us. All the countries we operate in are showing promise, however Brazil and the USA look like the strongest growth areas for next year. It’s incredibly pleasing to see how Brazil is improving. Our continued growth in Brazil, Chile and Argentina will help us provide additional employment opportunities in Latin America and drive productivity into some of these markets. We really feel that strong investment in the USA can see our business there achieve 40% growth which would be excellent. Finally, our continuing migration into transformation managed services (cloud, DevOps, AI and Channels) has been shown to provide great value to our clients and we believe will continue to expand strongly in the coming 3 – 5 years. CPQi Group has come a long way and they are here for the long run. Terry and his team are gearing up for an exciting future that will see the company soar new heights paving the way to overachieve their goals.
