Digiterre - Delivering real-time big data platforms using agile transformation and cutting-edge data engineering

World-class software and data engineering products and consultancies are hard to come by. In order to provide the best services as consultants in the industry, it is important to have high-value and custom-built technology. This helps companies get services that are collaborative, pragmatic, and efficient.

Digiterre, a software and data engineering consultancy, has standards that are world-class. The founder and CEO, Ian Murrin, established the company in 2000 with the purpose of creating a company that could change the standard of business software products for the better. Digiterre has grown since its inception to become a consultancy that enhances opportunities for their clients by fast-forwarding their technology and data management.

CIO Bulletin had the opportunity to talk to Ian Murrin, founder and CEO of Digiterre about the company’s stance on innovation.

Q. How is Digiterre uniquely setup to build change-making, world-class software and data engineering software for its clients?

Digiterre enables technological and organizational change for many of the world’s leading organizations – be they Banks and Insurers, Energy and Commodities Traders, Investment Managers, Exchanges, Clearing Houses & Brokers.

We have over two decades of agile enterprise experience gained from building and supporting high-demand, data-rich products and platforms for organizations that operate within highly regulated environments. We are passionate about exploring opportunities and solving problems that are critical to organizational competitiveness. We like nothing better than to get to grips with new and unexpected challenges, and we thrive on working to tight deadlines. Above all, we care about delivering an outcome that our clients derive real business value from.

Q. How has Digiterre had to focus on and nourish innovation over the company’s lifespan to tackle some of its clients most challenging problems in probably two of the world’s most important sectors?

Throughout Digiterre’s 23-year history we have seen remarkable advances in technology, trends that come and go. Lately the rate of change, accompanied by unprecedented levels of volatility in both sectors has promoted client organizations to seek external help to solve some of their toughest challenges. Innovation in these cases is driven by need. There is a very real need to respond to regulation, to enable dealers to operate more efficiently through provision of real-time data, to be competitive whilst managing legacy systems, to facilitate the use of renewable energy assets. Quite simply, Digiterre has focused on and nourished innovation by employing some of the world’s experts in their field. We work with problem solvers, who are curious by nature and who are willing to take on the responsibility of fulfilling our side of the bargain, to get to resolution. This experience enables innovative problems to be solved faster and more completely than many of our competitors.

Q. Sometimes having a standard approach to problem solving can be detrimental to innovation. How does Digiterre address this problem?

We construct hand-picked teams that combine the necessary skills and experience in all the following areas:

Appropriate disciplines: UI, full-stack, QA, architecture, cloud
Appropriate technologies (Java, C#, Azure, AWS Redshift, etc.)
Required functional domains: Trading, pricing, risk, regulation, and compliance
Required product and asset classes: FX, equities, fixed income, ILS in FS, oil, gas, LNG, energy, softs, metals, etc. in energy and commodities trading

We teach by doing, not solely by talking. We always deliver — well and fast and as a result, we deliver exceptional overall value to our clients. This matrix of skills, knowledge, and experience enables us to better understand and then solve deep domain-focused, technology-related problems.

Q. With data commanding ever-increasing importance to the way the modern economy performs, what steps has Digiterre employed to provide its clients with an effective way to handle the data they generate?

We are all about helping our clients maximize the benefit of their data and reach a level of data agility and maturity that gives them a competitive advantage, as well as driving efficiencies and reducing operational costs. We do this by building solutions to handle their complex and dynamic data and business requirements. Typically, this can involve providing a single view of the truth (repository) of all the data related to a specific organizational activity (e.g., market trading) and handling complex elements of real-time or near-real-time data management. Our work supports increasing efficiency and business value through the following elements:

Visibility: Knowing where all client data is held
Validation: Ensuring data is accurate
Collaboration: Sharing and democratizing data, not working in silos
Control: Managing use and costs (data can be expensive)
Traceability and auditability: Who used it and for what?

The solutions we provide support reporting and data visualization to maximize business decision-making value. We do not restrict the tools that analysts use for their modeling capabilities, and we enable this through tools such as Excel, Python, R, Jupyter Notebooks, etc.

Q. How is Digiterre innovating within the sphere of AI and ML to implement it in client solutions?

AI and ML offer huge potential for our clients. For example, the use of AI in algorithmic trading provides the potential for improving trading accuracy, efficiency, and risk management. Underpinning effective use of AI is data and until now our role has been to create the necessary conditions. In addition, since joining the Collabera Digital group we have expanded our network of expertise and now our clients have access to some of the world’s leading AI specialists. It is an exciting time!

Q. Recently, Digiterre was acquired by Collabera Digital. What advantages can clients expect to receive as a result of this acquisition?

In September 2023 Digiterre became part of the Collabera Digital group of companies. Collabera Digital’s acquisition of Digiterre is a collaboration with significant benefits to clients of both organizations. By combining our strengths with Collabera Digital’s scale and strong client-facing presence globally, we can deliver a broader range of high-quality solutions across the entire software delivery lifecycle and continue to address our clients’ most demanding business challenges, to help them bring about change, at significant scale, supported by a network of global offices. With this strategic move, we are poised to support rapid evolution among the industries we serve, elevate client experiences, pioneer new avenues of growth, and cement our leadership in the era of AI-driven transformation.

As an autonomous business unit, we will continue to provide the same high-quality services to our clients in energy and commodities trading and the financial services sector, now with the ability to scale and resource projects using nearshore and offshore teams, lowering the total project cost.  

A brief biography of the founder and CEO

Ian Murrin is the founder and CEO of Digiterre. After completing a Short Service Limited Commission in the Army and a degree in Economics and Econometrics, Ian joined the marketing department of Procter & Gamble as a graduate trainee. After stints at United Biscuits, Hewlett Packard, and several other technology-focused companies, Ian founded Digiterre in 2000. He wanted to create software that people wanted, needed, and loved to use.