Here™ and FDC3: Shaping the Next Era of Desktop Interoperability

At Here™, we’re transforming how organizations work by building the next generation of enterprise productivity. Our Enterprise Browser – the first of its kind – was developed as a turnkey solution to meet the productivity and security needs of the modern workplace, particularly for complex industries like finance. One of our browser’s defining features is interoperability, enabling disparate apps to function in concert, with seamless sharing of data and context to drive workflows and reduce operational risk.

In 2017 we established and collaborated with industry leaders to create FDC3 (the Financial Desktop Connectivity and Collaboration Consortium), an open standard for plug-and-play interoperability among desktop apps. To ensure the standard’s long-term governance and independent development, we contributed FDC3 to FINOS (the FinTech Open Source Foundation) in 2018.

And we haven’t slowed down. Operating under our former name, “OpenFin”, we built FDC3-powered Container and Workspace solutions that enable financial firms to build dynamic and efficient desktop environments. Now, under our new name and with a new focus, Here™ is continuing to champion FDC3 as we work to redefine workplace productivity more broadly.

Our technology is the result of years of collaboration with the world’s largest financial institutions and top global corporations – experience that has given us a unique perspective on knowledge workers, their workflow challenges and the integrations required to truly drive productivity. As pioneers and active participants in the FINOS community, we’re excited to apply this expertise to help drive the next phase of FDC3’s growth.

Next Up: Powering Workflow Harmony

FDC3 has been widely adopted by the financial industry, serving as a core enabler of workplace productivity and standardizing how critical trading, portfolio management, research and supporting applications share data through a set of protocols and taxonomies. As the largest provider of FDC3-powered technology to the financial industry, we see significant opportunity to advance the standard even further by making adoption simpler and more effective than ever before.

We believe that FDC3 has reached an exciting inflection point: widely relied upon, but with room to reach a higher level of efficiency and user-friendliness. We’re excited to help drive its next phase of growth. Here™ remains focused on building the gold standard for enterprise productivity powered by interoperability. Our work to enhance the FDC3 standard and ease adoption will empower firms to unlock even greater innovation.

This effort is in full alignment with our new focus on our enterprise browser, which provides knowledge workers with the most secure, productive environment for completing dense workflows. The browser is where the vast majority of these workflows take place; an industry-focused, FDC3-enabled browser presents powerful benefits for all financial institutions. At the same time, we are actively monitoring for opportunities to drive impactful, FDC3-inspired standards in other industries as well.

We look forward to collaborating with FINOS and the broader financial services community to take FDC3 to the next level. If you’d like to join the conversation or share your thoughts on how we can keep improving this critical industry standard, reach out to our team here – we’d love to hear from you.