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Sentinels’ risk-based model boosts accurate detection rates and provides flexibility to monitor transactions across all B4B Payments’ solutions

Amsterdam, 30th November 2021 – Sentinels, Europe’s leading transaction monitoring platform, today announced a partnership with leading global provider of card issuing solutions for businesses, B4B Payments. The Sentinels platform will facilitate B4B Payments in meeting anti-money laundering (AML) compliance requirements by improving the accuracy of fraudulent transaction detection across its portfolio of products. 

A leader in innovative fintech solutions, B4B Payments requires a flexible AML solution that meets the monitoring requirements of the company’s diverse product and customer range – encompassing both corporate accounts and individual cardholders. The solution must also be scalable to support its increasing number of transactions as it expands its portfolio of payment solutions for businesses.                                                    

Sentinels was selected due to its ability to monitor transactions globally, together with the platform’s highly adaptable risk-based approach which results in quicker and more accurate identification of fraudulent transactions.

Using data-driven insights, Sentinels optimises AML and transaction monitoring processes and generates real-time insights to streamline workflows and compliance. Rules-based alert shaping reduces the number of false positives and provides a clearer, more comprehensive view into the transaction environment.

Paul Swinton, CEO at B4B Payments, explains: “The AML solution from Sentinels offers an intuitive environment for our compliance officers to monitor transactions, as well as the ability to easily edit monitoring rules. As compliance requirements become more stringent across Europe, partnering with Sentinels ensures that we are in the strongest position to meet these obligations and provide our stakeholders with the highest assurance that we are committed to supporting anti-money laundering efforts across the board.”

The Sentinels platform combines information from different data silos with external sources to feed its insight engine. Historical data and client feedback shape recommendations for next steps so that the platform’s insights continuously improve and grow in sophistication.

Joost van Houten, CEO of Sentinels, comments: “We’re excited to onboard B4B Payments to provide highly accurate data-driven insights that improve AML detection rates and increase efficiency across compliance workloads. Our partnership stems across multiple jurisdictions, enabling B4B Payments to operate in line with the varying AML requirements of its current regulators – the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of Lithuania. We look forward to providing the nuanced support required as it expands its services further across the globe.” 

Industry-first global research shows EDA a key IT priority for optimizing business, despite ‘early days’ of adoption

Ottawa (November 30, 2021) – Solace, the leader in powering real-time event-driven enterprises, today announced the results of an industry-first survey on event-driven architecture (EDA), shedding light on how organizations are striving to incorporate real-time data and event-driven architecture into their IT landscape.

Led by independent research firm Coleman Parkes, the global survey of 840 respondents, in roles ranging from C-Suite to IT architecture, discovered:

●The majority of organizations, 85%, recognize the critical business value in adopting EDA
●Adoption is still ‘early days’, as only 13% claim to have achieved full EDA maturity
●The IT department is bought in, but more work needs to be done with business leadership

Gartner® asserts “as the mastery of EDA is essential to digital business, and achieving this mastery is a multistep process, application leaders — still lacking a plan of action for strategic use of EDA — must begin now.” *

The benefits of EDA become clear
The findings show the majority of organizations surveyed clearly recognize the value of EDA and know what they want to achieve with it. The top priorities for EDA implementation were as follows:

●Improving application responsiveness (46%)
●Improving customer experiences (44%)
●Responding to events and changes in real-time (43%)

Overall, 71% of businesses see the benefits of EDA outweighing the costs, or at least equaling them. This is partly driven by what businesses stand to lose by failure to invest in real-time data capabilities. With a lack of EDA, businesses are most concerned at the following outcomes:

●Decision-making based on inconsistent & out of data information (46%)
●Prevention of rapid response to threats and opportunities (45%)
●Hindered ability to innovate (44%)

“The appetite for real-time data sharing as a means of coping with constantly changing landscapes is increasing. Businesses are under unprecedented pressure, with shifting customer demands pushing them into adapting and innovating,” said Mychelle Mollot, chief marketing officer, Solace. “For many, a business model underpinned by event-driven architecture has already proven its value, the benefits by far outweigh the costs, and they are on the way to implementing EDA across a variety of use cases.”

EDA maturity: early days to adoption, but progress undeniable
Despite high levels of enthusiasm for EDA, just 13% of global businesses surveyed claim to have made it to the ‘promised land’ of full EDA maturity. For those still on the journey, a number of obstacles lie in their way:

●75% of organizations cite lack of adequate technology as a key roadblock to EDA
●59% say they haven’t yet identified the right tools and vendors to meet their needs
●A lack of education on the benefits (38%) or talent to execute implementation (37%) were also notable obstacles

Bringing the C-Suite in
Furthermore, for EDA to succeed, the survey found organizations need greater buy-in at the business leadership level. On the IT side, 61% already appreciate the value of real-time event-driven data distribution, pointing at an appetite for EDA. This number, however, drops off to just 35% when looking at business roles, where decision makers might have a harder time reconciling how the bottom line can benefit from EDA.

“Whatever their level of maturity, organizations know they must face some common challenges, which center around education, skills, and efficiency,” added Mollot. “Crucially, IT already knows the possibilities of EDA: now is the time to prove the value to the bottom line and bring business leadership onboard.”

For these and other insights, read Solace’s The Great EDA Migration report here.

* Source: Gartner “Maturity Model for Event-Driven Architecture”, Yefim Natis, Massimo Pezzini, Keith Guttridge, Roy Schulte, 30 November 2020.

Gartner Disclaimer- GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

About Solace
Solace helps large enterprises become modern and real-time by giving them everything they need to make their business operations and customer interactions event-driven. With PubSub+, the market’s first and only event management platform, the company provides a comprehensive way to create, document, discover and stream events from where they are produced to where they need to be consumed – securely, reliably, quickly, and guaranteed. Behind Solace technology is the world’s leading group of data movement experts, with nearly 20 years of experience helping global enterprises solve some of the most demanding challenges in a variety of industries – from capital markets, retail, and gaming to space, aviation, and automotive.

Established enterprises such as SAP, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Canada, multinational automobile manufacturers such as Groupe Renault and Groupe PSA, and industry disruptors such as Jio use Solace’s advanced event broker technologies to modernize legacy applications, deploy modern microservices, and build an event mesh to support their hybrid cloud, multi-cloud and IoT architectures. Learn more at solace.com.

We are delighted that even in these times of uncertainty, the UK200Group can rely on its member firms to deliver sufficient deals to produce and publish its widely anticipated annual Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Valuation Index 2021.

This year’s index shows a recovery of multiples to pre-pandemic levels. Following the volatility of the deal market in 2020, the success of the vaccine rollout alongside continued government support at the start of 2021 resulted in the easing of lockdown measures, allowing for economic growth and increased confidence to return to the SME M&A market. Deal volumes have remained strong throughout the period as capital continued to be available from corporates, Private Equity and banks with interest rates remaining low. A positive pandemic outcome for the deal market was the success of technology in supporting the demands of working remotely which has given some acquirers confidence to widen their geographical boundaries.

The UK M&A market experienced a significant increase in activity in the run up to the March 2021 budget due to the assumed changes to Capital Gain Tax which never transpired.

The UK200Group’s SME Valuation Index shows the Median and Mean of the Price to Earnings Ratio (P/E) and EBITDA and the average deal sizes of SMEs. The Index has proved invaluable to SMEs, and to corporate financiers, forensic accountants, insolvency practitioners, investors, banks and tax planners who work with these enterprises.

The UK200Group’s Corporate Finance Panel is made up of individuals from UK200Group member firms, who specialise in corporate finance within their companies. Together, the panel successfully gathers a generous number of deals throughout the organisation to produce this document for public awareness. The data provides key information on actual transactions involving the purchase or sale of UK businesses over this year with data from previous years available. Most importantly, the deal data provided by our Panel has been included in a format which allows comparability in a manner not available from publicly published data.

Speaking about the SME Valuation Index 2021, Simon Blake, Chair of the UK200Corporate Finance Expert Panel, says:

‘I am delighted to present the latest update of the UK200Group SME Valuation Index, which is widely used for valuation of SME’s for a variety of purposes, including Expert Witness and tax valuations. Many thanks to the UK200Group firms providing the data from deals that they have advised on over the past year, and thanks to MarktoMarket for assisting in the collation of the data.’

To view the UK200Group SME Valuation Index 2021, please click here.

New data from online talent sourcing specialist, Talent.com, shows that recruiters in the hospitality sector are having to invest more and refocus budgets to find the best talent amidst a skills crisis.

The company found that the hospitality arena has seen one of the greatest spikes in the investment being channelled into finding the right candidates, seeing a significant spike from March to September 2021, up a staggering 1,060%. This is indicative of the struggles facing the recruitment sector in a post-Brexit and Covid-hit environment, with staff switching industries during the uncertainty of the last year and non-UK talent returning home, following the UK’s exit from the EU.

This data is in line with a report from UKHospitality, who found that 51% of business leaders felt that staff shortages have been more challenging than expected.

As Noura Dadzie – VP Sales UK & International Markets at Talent.com – explains, while investment is needed to find and encourage individuals to join the hospitality sector, where these budgets are channelled will be a key driver of success:

“At a time when skills shortages have reached a critical point across the UK, many hiring managers in the hospitality sector are pumping investment into recruitment activity in the hope that this will be enough to give them an edge over the competition. However, as the war for talent intensifies, recruitment budgets must be strategically directed if businesses are to benefit from any tangible return on this investment. When talent is so thin on the ground, only the most tactical approaches will assist in attracting the top candidates.”

“We are increasingly having conversations with hospitality hirers who are moving funds into sophisticated tech tools to help them look outside of the usual channels to find talent, which is perhaps the reason why financial spend has increased. The rise of job aggregators and programmatic platforms, for example, is one area that more businesses are budgeting additional finances for to streamline their hiring. For those that are facing an increase in recruitment budgets, looking at where else this investment can be channelled strategically rather than throwing more money at the same problem should certainly be a priority.”

Interest in healthcare vacancies has increased, but recruiters are having to invest more and refocus budgets to find the best talent amidst a skills crisis. That’s according to new data from online talent sourcing specialist, Talent.com.

Following a spike in demand and offers in February, the company reports that the Healthcare sector has seen a drop in the number of candidates actively clicking on adverts and is now down 49% from February to September, highlighting the increased shortage of workers in the field.

Data from the National Care Association further supports this dearth of talent, warning that there could be a severe staffing shortfall of 170,000 by the end of 2021.

As Noura Dadzie – VP Sales UK & International Markets at Talent.com – explains, while today’s healthcare sector needs investment to find the right candidates, where these budgets are channelled will be a key driver of success:

“At a time when staff shortages have reached a critical point across the UK, many hiring managers in the health and social care sector are pumping investment into recruitment activity in the hope that this will be enough to give them an edge over the competition. However, as the war for talent intensifies, it really is crucial that recruitment budgets are strategically directed if businesses are to benefit from any tangible return on this investment. When talent is so thin on the ground, only the most tactical approaches will assist in attracting the top candidates.”

“We are increasingly having conversations with healthcare hirers who are moving funds into sophisticated tech tools to help them look outside of the usual channels to find talent, which is perhaps the reason why financial spend has increased. The rise of job aggregators and programmatic platforms, for example, is one area that more businesses are budgeting additional finances for to streamline their hiring. For those that are facing an increase in recruitment budgets, looking at where else this investment can be channelled strategically rather than throwing more money at the same problem should certainly be a priority.”

The number of new jobs published in London continues to rise, with over 20,000 vacancies in October, marking an all-time monthly high. That’s according to new research from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), the trade association for the recruitment sector.

The data, provided by business intelligence specialist Vacancysoft, reveals that companies in London have published over 171,400 vacancies in 2021 to date, surpassing 2020’s total by 76%. IT specialists are in most demand, with firms in the capital publishing over 54,600 new jobs for these professionals, accounting for 30.4% of all vacancies in 2021. With the pandemic propelling the UK’s adoption of technology and the continued need for talent to manage both remote and hybrid working strategies, it is perhaps clear to see why IT specialists are so highly sought after.

Elsewhere, the data shows that Amazon continues to lead the table of most active hires in the capital. The firm has published over 2,700 vacancies in 2021 and is up 16.4% year-on-year. Despite this, Citi and Sky follow closely behind with even larger hiring surges of 120% and 131.2% retrospectively.

Ann Swain, CEO of APSCo comments:
“The capital is continuing to show incredible signs of recovery after a difficult 2020. With a record month of vacancies reported in October and job numbers continuing to climb for the second half of the year, London looks set to end 2021 on a high, setting the staffing sector up for a strong start for next year. As businesses continue to adapt to a more permanent shift to hybrid working, demand for IT specialists has naturally risen and looks set to continue to grow in the immediate future.
“What will certainly remain a concern, however, is the availability of skills. Staff shortages have been rapidly growing as the entire UK economy begins to recover from the pandemic. Combine the less-than-desirable immigration route into the UK for highly skilled professionals with the rollout of Off Payroll rules, and it’s unsurprising that so many staffing firms are struggling to meet employer demand.”

Ann Swain, Founder and Global CEO of the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), has once again been recognised as one of the most influential females in recruitment by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), appearing in its coveted 2021 ‘Global Power 150 – Women in Staffing’ list.

Now in its seventh year, this annual list recognises women for their excellence as leaders and influencers in the global talent marketplace. Ann Swain has featured in every edition thus far.

The news comes following an incredibly eventful year for the trade association. Since 2020, APSCo has supported its members in navigating the roll out of IR35 into the private sector, Brexit, and the furlough scheme. It has also successfully lobbied government to delay a return to in-person Right to Work checks as well as launching a number of new initiatives. These include a new trade body, APSCo OutSource, a ground-breaking, powerful mentoring programme, EmpowerMe, and a dedicated Clinical & Healthcare sector group to support clinical and healthcare recruitment firms – all in the midst of a pandemic.

Responding to the accolade, Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo commented:
“The last 18 months have been a phenomenally demanding time for the professional recruitment sector and I’m incredibly proud that what my team and I have achieved on behalf of our members has been recognised and celebrated in this way. We’ve tackled the challenges of the 20 months head on and we will continue to adapt to whatever the staffing sector faces in the coming months.

“The passion I have for our sector is absolute, and to be recognised alongside the most influential, visionary and successful recruitment leaders in this year’s Global Power 150 is a genuine honour. I’d like to say a huge congratulations to everyone who featured in this year’s list and especially to our members who were recognised globally for their outstanding contribution to our profession.

“As our latest research demonstrates, women continue to be underrepresented at senior level across the recruitment sector – with almost a third (30%) of recruitment firms reporting that females make up less than 5% of their leadership teams. While there clearly needs to be a significant step-change in order to enable more women to fulfil their full potential, this ranking offers an opportunity to celebrate those who are excelling and providing inspiration to others. Everyone on the list should be incredibly proud of their achievements, and I’m honoured to be in such great company.”