Finastra Reviews

Pros

Finastra is making a lot of positive changes for its employees such as completely renovating our offices to be state of the art workplaces. They also have lots of events for employees related to corporate social responsibility that are both charitable and fun.

Cons

It is a constantly shifting environment so job security is low. Whatever can be done in a low cost country is being shifted overseas, but that is not unique to Finastra.

Advice to Management

Encourage your managers to allow decisions to be made directly by their employees. Don’t reward micromanagement - it’s demotivating.

Pros

-You can work from home a few days a week. -Generous PTO and flexible schedule

Cons

-Frequent Layoffs every few months and this is not new if you look at the history of the company when it was D+H. Many roles being eliminated from the US and moved overseas. -Products old and outdated. Patches are just put on and many client request enhancements that cannot be done or have been waiting years. -Inconsistency between teams with processes. Everything is handled differently depending on who you... are working with. No written procedures so things often get blamed on someone else if something is not handled correctly or missed. No ownership without written procedures. -Open office space so it is noisy since most people are on the phone all day.

Advice to Management

-Instead of patching out of date software that was created 15-20 years ago, develop new updated software to stay current and competitive. -Create solid procedures so everything is handled consistently across teams -Keep jobs in the US for the US products because they have the working knowledge experience to better help the financial institutions. -Find better tools to manage products

Pros

People and sales and training resources. Also a very good long term vision.

Cons

Very poor customer support for some product groups.

Advice to Management

Slow down and focus on customer support

Pros

Free downtown SF parking for this one exec and her favorite minions who "worked", at most, part-time for 3 days a week.

Cons

Since Vista took over, finastra has gone further down the toilet. The few remaining employees hate it. Rest have happily moved on and told the world about what a toxic disaster finastra is. Customers have fled. The others are locked in and can't exit as fast. Execs know it and don't care because they countibg on the company being sold and running away before it all hits the fan and collapses on the next buyer.... Overseas job candidates are playing Finastra by accepting the offers and no-showing! Beware, Finastra has a terrible rep in banking/fintech, it will damage your career prospects in this industry.

Pros

The paid time off is close to industry standards

Cons

The company vision is primarily focused on Europe and Asia. Management at the highest levels in the firm only care about cost savings, profit margins, and are continuing staff reduction exercises, staff reorganization exercises, and all while waiting to come out of yet another hiring freeze. To add insult to injury the current management structure is callous, cold, and calculating. Long term employees are said... to have a sense of entitlement and it is the long term employees that have built this company. It was through their loyalty that made it what it once was. I don't understand how some of the Senior Leaders could be so callous, so full of themselves, so overly confident and yet have only been with the company for a year or less. It is as one reviewer said a highly politically charged environment where the Senior Leaders are only looking out for themselves, they don't care about our customers, or the employees.

Advice to Management

Revise the current strategy. Hire and promote people that care about the products, the customers, and the employees.

Pros

Company is always looking for new ways to bring technology to help solve problems

Cons

Sometimes it hard to know where to turn to gain insight

Pros

US Bank Holidays are honored

Cons

This is a highly politically charged place to work. Products are old and suffering from years of under investment. The new leadership team brought in by private equity holding company is all about quick fixes, cosmetic changes and competing with each other. There is a lot of activity but it’s mostly surface level presentation stuff. The work has added challenges because teams are increasingly getting smaller. Jobs... are shifting to lower cost overseas centers. Attrition and US hiring freezes have taken a toll on knowledge transfer. The software products tend to be complex, buggy and slow to improve. Management has a way of demanding progress by setting impossibly tight deadlines around marketing events and expecting teams to work day and night to accomplish. This kind of crush is not sustainable. The more talented resources are burning out and leaving. Turn over is a problem.

Advice to Management

Think long term and invest accordingly. Focus more on understanding and really listening to and helping customers. Focus less on internal politics and managing up. Solving client problems is more important than furthering you own career. Embrace the domain and get some real US community banking experience.

Pros

VERY committed to sales. Excellent job working through integration issues. VERY engaged executive

Cons

Product continues to be a challenge as a single revamped offering takes shape. Confident we will be there soon

Advice to Management

Make customer #1