Soprano Design Subsidiary Achieves Vendor OSPAR Attestation by the Association of Banks in Singapore

SINGAPORE,Oct. 22,2019 -- Soprano Design,a global leader in cloud-based enterprise messaging solutions has plenty to celebrate after its Singapore business gained attestation as a secure vendor by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS).

Soprano's Singapore business operations received the Outsourced Service Provider Audit Report (OSPAR) attestation as part of the ABS's efforts to reduce the amount of risk the finance sector takes on when outsourcing services. As a result,it has produced a list of companies that have been marked as safe to outsource services to,delivering peace of mind to banks and their clients.

Mohamed Odah,Chief Technology Officer for Soprano comments,"Soprano is committed to ensuring the right person receives the right information at the right time. We have built our reputation in Singapore on enabling intelligent and trusted mobile interactions. We're extremely proud to have completed the rigor OSPAR audit and together,with our telco partner StarHub,we're looking forward to helping even more financial services firms deliver secure and trusted communications to their customers."

Soprano and StarHub enjoy a strong partnership with Soprano supporting the leading communications,entertainment and digital solutions provider with the delivery of safe and trusted messaging for its enterprise customers.

Thomas Eugene Chia,StarHub's Vice President of Enterprise Sales & ICT Engagement says Soprano's certification by the ABS further demonstrates the basis for this positive relationship which was founded on capability and trust.

"Our corporate customers operate in an environment with greater IT complexities and we need to respond by providing them with more capabilities,and global and secure connectivity. With Soprano's partnership,we offer a comprehensive suite of feature-rich mobile messaging applications and help streamline and automate critical business communications. Their latest accreditation provides us and our customers with further confidence in Soprano and the vital solutions they deliver to the market."

According to industry analyst IDC,the worldwide communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) market is forecast to grow from $2 billion in 2017 to $10.9 billion in 2022. Mobile messaging has rapidly become a mainstream channel for those seeking to engage with customers in a secure and cost-effective way.

Odahadds that like the growth in CPaaS,outsourcing has become business normal for many organisations including banks. "For today's modern workplace,it delivers both business efficiencies and cost savings by allowing companies to delegate many of its non-core,yet essential services to third-party providers. However,there is always risk with attaching responsibility and confidential information with a secondary company. That is why the ABS stresses that while the service can be outsourced ... the risk cannot."

IT service advisory company Gartner[1] predicts that by 2022 75% of organizations that outsource email and collaboration tools won't meet their critical recovery objectives during a supplier outage.Email and collaboration applications are considered mission-critical resources for most organizations. Conducting business without them can impede production,result in lost transactions and hamper crisis management activities. When an organization outsources these applications,many suppliers do not provide recovery with short timeframes.

IT service advisory company Gartner[2] predicts that by 2022,75% of organizations that outsource email and collaboration tools won't meet their critical recovery objectives during a supplier outage.

Odah explains that email and collaboration applications are now considered mission-critical resources for most organizations. "Conducting business without them can impede production,many suppliers do not provide recovery with short timeframes.

"To meet OSPAR requirements,ABS audits outsourcing companies to ensure they're able to deliver a service that meets industry standards. As a result,financial institutions can be reassured that OSPAR certified companies are secure,delivering peace of mind and mitigating any potential security or outage risks."

Soprano's trusted messaging platform is known for creating efficient and fast communication throughout finance ecosystems. "The platform is built for scale,speed,and deliverability along with geo-redundancy to handle volume spikes and maintain high platform availability," Odah says. "Real-time,two-way mobile interactions offer a seamless,personalised customer experience across all digital channels- voice,SMS,RCS,WhatsApp,WeChat,voice email and interactive IP messaging. Equally importantly,the platform integrates easily with banking IT systems and empowers financial organisations to automate customer service processes on a variety of communication channels. And being attested by the ABS gives our customers in Singapore an added layer of confidence in our business and the assurance that what we deliver is secure and trusted.

[1] Smarter with Gartner: "Tackle Tomorrow's Digital Business Security Risks",Katie Costello,March 25,2009

[2]Smarter with Gartner: "Tackle Tomorrow's Digital Business Security Risks",2009https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/tackle-tomorrows-digital-business-security-risks/

About Soprano Design:

Founded in Australia in 1994,Soprano Design is an award-winning global software design firm that delivers trusted mobile interactions via its powerful cloud-based mobile communication platform,which has revolutionized the way enterprises and governments around the globe do business. An array of smart applications,programmable interfaces and sophisticated governance controls allow organisations to integrate using little or no code and to automate communications (and audit all interactions) to become more productive and make life easier and safer for their customers. Over 70% of Soprano's business is conducted offshore including in Singapore where it operates with subsidiary Orange Gum Pte Ltd.

https://www.sopranodesign.com

BACKGROUND - OSPAR Overview:

What is OSPAR?

The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) has issued Guidelines on Control Objectives and Procedures for the financial institutions Outsourced Service Providers (OSPs) operating in Singapore since 2015.

OSPs must undergo an audit for 12 months by a reputable auditor. Upon completion of the audit,an Outsourced Service Provider Audit Report (OSPAR) is issued and made available to the OSP's FI clients.

All OSPs should adopt these guidelines in Singapore that undertake material outsourcing arrangements for financial institutions in Singapore.

Which Soprano product has been certified with OSPAR?

OSPAR does not certify individual products,instead,it is focused on process controls.

A company is deemed to be "have completed an OSPAR audit" after going through the rigorous process before being issued with a letter of approval by the ABS.

Soprano's MEMS platform has been OSPAR audited through subsidiary Orange Gum Pte Ltd and added to the OSPAR registry

https://www.abs.org.sg/docs/library/ospar_audited_osps_04102019.pdf

Who does it impact?

OSPAR primarily concerns financial institutions in Singapore

It provides others with confidence in OSPs given the strict regulations around finance providers in Singapore,especially regarding data protection.