TCX Fund: Supporting the IT-landscape

By hedging currency risk, TCX contributes to more sustainable development in emerging and frontier markets.

Question

TCX acts as a price-maker in currencies and maturities not covered by commercial banks or other providers, notably where there are no offshore hedge markets, no long-term hedging products, or (in extreme cases) no hedge markets at all.

Founded in 2007, TCX’s activity has gradually increased throughout the years and currently spans over 70 currencies in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. TCX has ambitious plans for the future, and in order to get there, TCX asked VI Company to help them identify what steps needed to be taken with their IT-landscape to support that ambition.

In the Discovery Phase, our consultancy team works in close collaboration with our clients to identify learnings and areas for improvement. Afterward, the results are captured in a roadmap.

“The VI Company team was a pleasure to work with and the speed with which they mastered the details was impressive. Their approach was flexible, efficient, and pandemic proof. The results are insightful and the Deliverables Hub is a valuable asset for TCX

Daniel Crawley (Updated: Programme Manager at Triodos Bank)

Road map part 1: IST

The first part of the Discovery Phase consisted of identifying the “As-Is” (IST) situation. After all, for us to advise on an envisioned future situation, we first need to understand [the reasoning behind] what lead to the creation of the current situation. During a series of extensive remote interviews and workshops with TCX, we gained and provided valuable insights into the fund's operations.

Aside from learning about vital processes and existing IT-systems, we also informed about how existing processes and supportive tools are experienced by employees of TCX. Together we thought of ways of improving these. All information was validated with the participants, after which we concluded the as-is situation.

Road map part 2: SOLL

The second part of the Discovery Phase was to describe the “To-Be” (SOLL) situation. We used the renewed strategic vision of the TCX board, in the form of leading principles, to provide us with additional directions for the to-be situation.

The leading principles covered multiple areas such as IT, daily operations, and TCX’s risk framework. By applying our “Follow the data”-philosophy, monitoring the effect of every data-related change on procedures and processes, we gradually shaped TCX’s future IT-landscapes.

Before concluding our analysis, the remaining step was to identify the gap between the current and desired situation. To achieve this, we defined, plotted, and prioritized milestones onto a roadmap.

The Results

Along the course of our extensive collaboration, we held many workshops and meetings with TCX and their most important service providers. The outcomes of these sessions were processed into dozens of products such as reports, process flows, requirements lists, and matrices to keep track of relevant observations.

We shared our products with TCX via VI Company's 'Deliverables Hub'. This is a secure and dedicated online environment used by our consultancy team to share their findings and results. Employees of TCX and VI Company can log in and find all the information and deliverables related to and created during the project.

Using the results and the roadmap, TCX will start planning the implementation of the actions we identified as necessary to adapt their existing processes and systems to their future vision. This will enable TCX to continue its growth in the future, facilitated by a scalable and efficient IT landscape.