Caplin Systems Ltd, the web trading technology company, and OpenFin, a provider of finance-grade runtime technology, today announced a partnership that brings together the companies' market leading product offerings in a move to accelerate the adoption of HTML5 for development of high-performance trading applications.
Under the newly formed alliance, customers will be able to license an integrated solution that combines Caplin Trader, a complete development suite for HTML5 trading front-ends, and OpenFin App Desktop, a secure application container based on Google's Chromium open-source technology. Caplin will license the integrated offering to customers and both products will also continue to be licensed separately.
The partnership addresses two challenges faced by financial developers when building HTML5 applications. First, many end-users in financial institutions run Internet Explorer browsers which are not HTML5 compliant, requiring applications to fall back to HTML4. Second, native applications have traditionally been able to provide better user experience including the ability to tear-off panels, pop-up windows, deliver push notifications and seamlessly integrate with local applications such as Microsoft Excel.
The joint solution addresses these issues by enabling HTML5 applications to run outside-the-browser with the same user experience and capabilities as native, installed applications. Caplin Trader's proven HTML5 content, built for trading applications, is enhanced when running in the OpenFin container, but provides continued compatibility with existing web browsers, automatically adjusting the user experience where needed.
Patrick Myles, Caplin's CTO, said, "By partnering with OpenFin we can now best cater to those customers who want to run HTML5 trading apps in a local container on the desktop. We are using OpenFin's API to extend and improve the desktop experience for these users with new features such as borderless popups and drag drop integration with spreadsheet applications."
Chuck Doerr, OpenFin's President and COO commented, "We are pleased to be partnering with Caplin, a company that has been leading the way in web trading technologies for more than 10 years. Our product offerings are 100% complementary and this partnership unlocks the full potentpotential of HTML5 for our mutual customers."
Caplin Systems will be demonstrating the integration of the two companies' technologies at the forthcoming North American Trading Architecture Summit in New York on April 23rd.