Collaborative Messaging for the Financial Industry

Global Relay Communications is a Vancouver based company offering online compliance archiving services to the financial industry. The company is interested in growing its existing customer base and expanding new revenue streams through the development of a new collaborative messaging platform for regulated financial firms. In order to accomplish this goal, Global Relay will need to leverage its existing Message Archive product by embedding it into an Instant Messaging platform, specifically tailored to meet the compliance requirements of financial firms. This report analyzes current Instant Messaging trends in the financial community and examines IT adoption rates of collaborative software applications. An online community lifecycle model is then presented with key success factors to help Global Relay achieve a level of critical mass for its potential new product offering. By combining the market analysis with an online community framework, this report is able to provide a clear business model while taking into consideration the company’s core competencies and strengths. The primary mode of distribution for achieving strong network effects for this new product will be top down through key vendors, suppliers and partners.