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level of business in the managed services area. Currently, it is growing at 25% in terms of annual revenue and within the past five years between 25%–35%.
“In the early days, it was about looking for opportunities that would leapfrog the company to where I envisioned it to be,” Kaddoura says. “Then the next year the focus turned to AI, blockchain and other emerging technologies. That led to the launch of the Innovation Lab in Vienna in 2018, which explores the ideas we have about how to evolve the business.” The Innovation Lab has since played a vital part in developing groundbreaking solutions, often with the aim of embedding AI into core back-office functions such as reconciliations, data management predictive analytics and more.
The idea has always been to leverage AI in such a way as to address specific pain points, and that goal has clearly been reached with some of SmartStream’s more recent product launches. SmartStream AIR is a prime example.
The solution uses the power of AI to match any set of structured or unstructured data in seconds – rather than minutes or hours as happened previously. It can autonomously build and learn matching behaviour, rapidly transforming the reconciliation process. Just this year, the company has further enhanced the solution with a new intelligent exceptions management capability, which will provide real-time insights and analytics to reduce the number of touchpoints in the management of exceptions. Or one could look at Affinity, a cloud-based observational learning tool for data management and discovery. The solution observes how individual users work, learns from their behaviour, then incrementally increases its understanding of the workflow. Once trusted, it can automate the entire process. “It’s like the Formula 1 model – innovative technologies get introduced into racing cars before becoming commercialised and making their way into regular vehicles,” explains Kaddoura. “I find that new, fresh ideas come from the younger people, which get augmented with the wisdom and expertise of the more seasoned professionals in the company,” he adds. “In talking to my executive team and some of the new joiners, we focus on how to embrace innovation often by going back to basics and examining everyday challenges of the industry.” From his first days as CEO, in short, Kaddoura has made changes, many of them small and subtle, that over time have changed the face of the business and reinvigorated its financial performance. “All of this represents a massive change for the business,” he says. “We focus on technologies in light of what is good for our clients. That is our top priority.”
Chief Executive Officer /
www.the-chiefexecutive.com
The never-ending process of reinvention Despite SmartStream’s turnaround in fortunes, Kaddoura is not one to rest on his laurels. He is a passionate advocate of renewal and wants to see the company continue to reinvent itself. This is fundamentally possible thanks to the corporate culture he has instilled, which aims to balance internal competition with a commitment to collaboration and growth.
“SmartStream maintains a culture that promotes healthy competition among its many solutions,” Kaddoura says. “We see the value of internal competition, but we balance that competitive approach with collaboration across the organisation.” “I am a stakeholder who believed in the capability I was bringing to the company,” he continues. “My goal now is about ensuring that the company has the bandwidth to experiment without losing sight of our clients’ needs and our return on investment. “We are lucky because we work closely with many tier one institutions on aligning our strategy with their needs,” Kaddoura explains.
“It’s like the Formula 1 model – innovative technologies get introduced into racing cars before becoming commercialised and making their way into regular vehicles. I find that new and fresh ideas come from younger people.”
“I am also a firm believer in change,” he states. “Continuously evaluating the way things are done; it’s important that the business remains agile and we don’t stand still. I like to challenge people, to break things down and to think outside the box about how we can do better as a team and as a company.” The next hurdle could well be the emergence of a new technology, the application of an emerging technology, such as blockchain, or the redirection of existing solutions to solve a new problem – all of which stimulate innovation and adaptation. “We are embedded in the fabric of the financial services industry and whatever the next challenge is, we will face it together,” Kaddoura says. “We are a big family and we love it.” Kaddoura’s humility, openness, collaborative approach and commitment to his team go hand-in-hand with one more key quality – positivity. For him, every failure is a chance to learn, an opportunity to do better in the future. As for the future of SmartStream, “it’s all blue skies ahead,” he says. ●
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