Two trends are currently gathering pace in the industry, one is the increased trend towards mobile computing. The desktop is dying, laptops are lagging but mobile usage is surging ahead. In a recent survey conducted at a conference in Barcelona a couple of interesting statistics emerged: 

Almost 30% (29%) of people report that half of their time – or more – is spent using their mobile phones for work

More than half of respondents (56%) report an increase in using their mobile phone for business over the past three years

More clear evidence that any software chosen by an institution should be mobile ready.

Secondly, the days of wildly bespoke software which needs years of configuration are coming to an end. Greyspark partners summarised in a recent report - Trends in Equities Trading 2014 that there is

... a trend towards independent software solutions as the technology stack has become commoditised, and only those functions that offer a competitive advantage will be maintained in-house

It follows that functions such as compliance & regulatory reporting which have no value-add to a financial institution should be packaged and purchased from a specialised independent vendor and ideally one who can provide software which is mobile ready.