Q:

Why STB?

A:

With the fastest growing market share wherever we go, and with a number of replacements of competitors systems under our belt, and with a total focus on regulatory and compliance, you cannot go wrong. There is more to this answer, of course, but no space here.

Q:

How long have STB been in business

A:

STB has been in business a long time, since 1984. STB started in the regulatory market in the early nineties, and here many years later STB are market leaders, and continue to show impressive growth. For STB, regulatory and compliance reporting is a strategic business line, it is why we are here. For other vendors, their regulatory business may rarely be noticeable on their business plan and as a client you should query their intention to still be in the regulatory and compliance business in years to come.

Q:

How extensible is an STB installation?

A:

Very! One of the major competitive differences between STB and other applications is that any initial installation can always be extended to include management reporting, more or different regulatory outputs, anti-money laundering, credit risk, exception reporting, head office outputs, reconciliation reports and so on.

Q:

What do you mean by Key Business Indicators, and Continuous Business Audit?

A:

This is the difference between management information, and management decision support. Information is hardly in short supply, whereas STB delivers decision support. By using STB's data management and management reporting tools, you are able to obtain key indicators about your business such as performance relative to target or relative to last month, or to highlight abnormal trading patterns or unexpected trends. Continuous audit is achieved by using STB's tools to perform permanent automated data reconciliation between sources systems and targets, or between transaction processing systems and data warehouses, or between totalised reports and underlying sub reports. This approach means that you don't end up (as you would in the traditional cyclical audit) trying to unravel inaccurate data, or to recast management information that turned out to be wrong.

Q:

But what really makes STB different?

A:

Ease of interfacing to multiple different source systems has always been one of the major aspects of STB's difference, although there are many others.

Q:

What do you really mean by ease of interfacing?

A:

Client data may be presented to STB in any format that is convenient for the client. Any number of database tables, or any number of text files, fixed length or not, with or without fixed record types, with fields in any order, containing any codes, or combination of codes. Whatever you have we can most probably read, which means that you get an easy project, and an easily understood and maintained installation, as it uses your data and presents audit trails and drill-downs in your codes.

Q:

Who are your clients?

A:

There are hundreds across continents to choose from. If you are seeking a specific reference site, please let us know as there will be a happy
customer close to you.

Q:

How much is it?

A:

We'll let you know once we have been able to agree the scope of your requirements. STB's professional consultancy-driven approach means that we'll not just read you a price list. STB's applications are an appropriately priced, affordable solution from a specialist vendor, that will interface from anything, and easily, is extendable for other reporting, covers more bases in one project than you probably thought possible, has a genuine answer yes to all your questions, and has been in this business for a decade. What does price have to do with working with STB?

Q:

What's special about STB's technology?

A:

STB have deliberately abstracted financial processing from our applications, with the result that STB have a unique set of software tools
which can be combined, without writing program code, to deliver a whole range of financial, regulatory, compliance, or head office reporting. Crucially, this means that STB's developers focus on producing functionality whilst our analysts produce products. This means that STB's products are created "by our users for your users".

Q:

So, lots of powerful software features and punchy product functionality - that's it then?

A:

Yes, but that's not all. After installation, because of STB's unique software design, clients are able to manage their installation themselves, with minimal need to call STB nor indeed internal technology staff for support.

Q:

What database can I run?

A:

STB is database independent. You are able to utilise any one - or mixture - of industry-standard databases.

Q:

What are STB's plans for the future?

A:

STB already is established as a leading supplier of focussed and fit-for-the-purpose financial reporting applications. The company is continuing to grow across regions, and across regulatory boundaries. Our product lines are scheduled to continue to widen to include other forms of regulatory, compliance and financial reporting specialisation.

Q:

Is STB approved by regulators?

A:

Indeed, where the central regulatory authority issues approvals then STB get to be on this. For example, STB is recognised by the Bank of England as outputting reporting data according to their required format. We sit on a number of regulatory round table forums with regulators and naturally keep abreast with legislative and regulatory changes.

Q:

Why are STB's regulatory applications marketed on the basis of an annual licence?

A:

This unique approach ensures that customers always possess up to date regulatory software, and ensures that for a known budget all regulatory reporting changes will be included in the service, without extra charge. No surprises.

Q:

Can I come and work for STB?

A:

If you are the right kind of person, with the right aptitude, a service orientation, and all those other good qualities, we'd be happy to hear from you!.