The Infrastructure & Operations practice area contains competencies intended to help non-financial employees make sense of the banking industry, their own institution and the needs of their clients.

The technology and human resources functions embody what appear to be opposite perspectives: the hard data-and-systems orientation of IT versus the soft psychology-and-motivation outlook of HR. But the functions are alike in two ways. First, both are crucial to the success of the bank's underlying business. Second, IT and HR professionals often lack the knowledge needed to understand the perspective of their clients throughout the bank.

For technology professionals, the material is designed to help put the complex jumble of apparently unconnected tasks - transaction processing, trade revaluation and settlement, P&L aggregation - into the context of the bank's business.

For human resources staff, the competencies are intended to convey the business and product understanding needed to recruit, develop and retain a world-class staff of financial professionals.

The competencies in this practice area focus on the basic industry, finance and product knowledge essential for professionals supporting the line areas of the bank.

Globecon’s educational objectives in this area can be divided into three broad skill sets:

Diagnostics. These focus on analyzing the financial institution's situation and needs.

Alternatives. These focus on the features, mechanics and pricing and use of the products offered by the bank.

Market Conditions. These focus on interpreting the yield curve, credit spreads, equity prices and other market indicators.

Risk/Return Analysis. These focus on using tools to analyze risks to the banks' client and the bank as well as the potential return to the banks' client and the bank for different alternatives.