Accelerating Financial Services Digital Innovation With Low-Code

Digital innovation projects in financial services are extremely complex. It sounds self-explanatory, but it’s become part of the app development cycle. Many banks are hampered by a lack of resources, outdated and inflexible core systems, meaning roadmapping is more an exercise in need than aspiration. Innovation feels like a faraway dream when faced with a litany of compliance- and maintenance-related must-haves.

When an IT project gets moving, lack of expertise, resources, and time mean that many banks are faced with the choice of needing to see immediate (and often incomplete) results, or commit early to spending months, years, and untold amounts of money to get to the finish line.

These issues feel so baked into the IT of a financial institution that you plan around them and scale back your plans as a result. and felt that pain. It can often feel like you don’t have complete control of your projects and roadmap.

Instead of throwing your hands up in frustration, let me show you how low-code application development enables digital innovation in financial services and creates business value through solutions that deploy easier, faster, and cheaper, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

Coming up to Speed

If you’ve never heard of low-code, imagine a visually-based application development platform that allows you to prototype, test, and release in weeks instead of years. These apps connect to your core system and are designed with the customer experience in mind from the outset.

With low-code, you can leverage your existing resource base and start to make meaningful progress on digital transformation. Allow yourself to think about the innovative strides forward your institution could take. That’s the power of low-code.

[To read more, check out The Definitive Guide to Low-Code Development. For some more banking perspective, take a look at 5 Things I Wish I Knew About Low-Code For Financial Services Digital Transformation.]

Leading the Market With Innovation and Purpose

Mendix is a leader in the low-code development space. That’s not just me saying it. The analysts at Gartner agree. Mendix is a leader in the 2021 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms. But is low-code development something that can help accelerate digital innovation in financial services? The answer is 100% yes.

Mendix offers some things to banks that other providers simply can’t, allowing you to take back control of the digital user experience. One of these is environmental flexibility. Whether you’re looking to keep your development on-premises only, in the cloud, or somewhere in between, Mendix can cover all your needs.

The flexibility of Mendix also enables financial institutions to expand their resource base with a practice called citizen development. Because Mendix is visually-based and easy to use, anyone can work within it. That means that if someone in the business sees a problem, they can build and prototype within Mendix. You should absolutely have robust governance around development, but this type of app development lessens the need for shadow IT and allows the business to innovate at all levels.

[Learn more about the Mendix platform. Check out some key features and a video demo.]

Mendix is continually developing accelerators designed to be a jumping-off point for financial institutions. These templates come with decades of industry experience behind them, are totally customizable, and connect to core systems like Fiserv, FIS, Jack Henry, or your proprietary core system. Here are just a few examples:

Customer Onboarding: Bring a modern customer experience to your financial institution. Help customers register and view their information in one simple, elegant portal.
Native App: Create a native mobile app that connects with your systems and works on both iOS and Android.
Loan Origination: Help your customers apply for a loan. Give your team the tools to manage that process effectively.
Start with these, iterate, find success, and continue innovating. And if you need help, Mendix offers expert services that can support, train, and work with your teams to execute faster.

All of this is within your bank’s grasp. Let’s discuss how Mendix has been able to help some different financial institutions on their journey.

Exceptional Experiences Through Digital Innovation

Mendix helps financial institutions create solutions that stand out. It’s as simple as that. Here are a few examples.

Washington Federal Bank

Washington Federal Bank, a retail and commercial bank managing around $18 billion of assets, needed to innovate its UX. Competitors were moving, and customers were demanding change. A migration could take up to 3 years, so there was no time to waste.

Washington Federal tried an off-the-shelf solution, but they couldn’t customize that solution to their needs, and they scrapped it after eight months. Needing a solution that could get them ahead immediately, Washington Federal turned to low-code with Mendix.

Within six weeks, Mendix was able to help Washington Federal eclipse what their previous vendor had done in eight months. Less than a year later, Washington Federal has an online banking portal built on low-code. Customers can enroll, see their information, transfer, and pay bills. All of this is personalized to each customer. And, maybe best of all, the portal integrates seamlessly with Washington Federal’s existing APIs and systems.

They’re now able to call themselves an innovator and are just scratching the surface of what Mendix can offer them.

[Discover more about how Washington Federal uses low-code to drive their business.]

Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)

BDC has the mandate to support entrepreneurship and innovation in Canada, processing 30,000 loan applications and over $4 billion per year. However, supporting modern businesses meant that BDC had to modernize its core and rethink how it served its customers.

BDC built and deployed a new Core Lending System in just eight months using low-code. This project was considered mission-critical and had over 100 integration points, and would have taken nearly three years with traditional development. Now, BDC has reduced their loan processing time by 80% and ensured that they’re doing everything they can to meet their customers’ needs.

[For more on BDC, read their story.]

Rabobank

Rabobank faced a big issue with their customer-facing savings experience, used by 500,000 people each year. Customers were having trouble with the interface, leading to churn. However, any kind of upgrade would be complicated. Being multinational meant that Rabobank had unique IT in each country. Plus, shifting regulations and compliance requirements would always take hold over CX upgrades.

By selecting Mendix for their new online portal, Rabobank realized a 50% reduction in IT cost. Their existing teams were able to develop on the Mendix platform quickly and easily. The results brought a revived energy to the Rabobank team, and they’re working on utilizing Mendix in a wide variety of ways.

[Read more about Rabobank’s success.]

Turn Vision Into Reality. Today.

Low-code application development redefines and brings value to financial institutions.

When you’re in the cycle of doing what’s needed, it takes a conscious effort to get your roadmap into the places you want to be. Similarly, low-code can feel like a change to how your institution develops. But change is a constant part of the banking industry, and you have the power to make that change work to your advantage.

Embrace that change and look at your development schedule and roadmap. Is there something that you wish you could do but haven’t been able to? That may well be a spot where Mendix can help you to innovate. Explore the possibilities and take back control of your future.

If you’re interested in more information, do read Accelerating Financial Services Digital Innovation with Low-Code blog from Mendix.

Post by Richard Eastley