More than 3,000 attendees had the opportunity for hands-on time with the newest digital tools transforming the industry.
More than 3,000 employees poured into Morgan Stanley's annual Global Tech Expo, held over three days in October, eager to get their hands on dozens of innovative products and enhancements that the firm is unveiling around the globe.
Each year, this unique event, spanning locations from Mumbai to New York, London to Sao Paulo, invites the firm’s technologists to nominate and vote on technologies to feature at the Expo, affording colleagues the opportunity to learn from one another and foster a collaborative environment within the business. The Expo touched on a range of themes, including technology that streamlines the way teams work with clients and tools that boost tech services for the entire organization.
“The Tech Expo allows us to step back and celebrate all we have achieved and to inspire fresh thinking, which comes from connecting with your colleagues in different disciplines,” says Rob Keenan, Executive Director, Enterprise Infrastructure in Glasgow. “It really helps to build an engaged, motivated and high-performing technology workforce.”
Tools Highlighted Across the Firm
The firm showcased options for Financial Advisors, such as low-cost video conferencing and e-signature services that can seamlessly populate, track and approve forms across multiple digital devices, ultimately helping them provide clients with more convenient service. For those with more tech-oriented responsibilities, the Expo delivered, as well, introducing new automation tools for quality-assurance engineers, and even a spell-check program that reads code—helping programmers find and correct potential security issues.
Multiple panels and discussions allowed attendees to deep-dive into new trends, which they shared across the social network, Jive—a collaboration tool. Users virtually voted on products they found intriguing, and live blogged about their day from the floor.
Innovation: A Top Priority
Technology is of the highest priority to Morgan Stanley. The firm wants its people to have more than just the best tools—it wants digital services and programs to transform the way it supports its employees and its clients. Innovation comes from all quadrants of the firm: Developers program; engineers look for ways to integrate new computing hardware into current operating systems; business analysts explore life cycles of digital tools to identify process improvements.
Morgan Stanley was the first in the industry to develop research apps for the iPad, iPhone and Android. The firm has built strong partnerships with leading software corporations to ensure that it continues to offer top-of-line technology across the enterprise.
“It’s extraordinary to see all the latest ways that technology is transforming the way we do business, and exciting to engage with our creative teams globally that make it all possible,” said Amina Elderfield, Executive Director, Strategic Communications for Technology & Data. “The Tech Expo is a great way to showcase the next wave of innovation for Morgan Stanley and its clients, and the entire division should take pride in this event.”