BANKING
models around Lean / Agile and DevOps . This has not only decreased time to market but also created an inherent focus on what is most important for the industry .
He says lean and agile principles provide an opportunity to pivot more quickly . “ This was the driver for the recently launched IPC Agility , a transformational application platform that simplifies development and deployment of tools , applications and new technologies alongside mission-critical Unigy trading systems . IPC Agility provides the same ability to quickly innovate and pivot without risk to the primary trading system .”
Strickland-Wright agrees . He believes cloud has played an essential role in developing the fintech sector because they enable companies to streamline product , pricing and collaborations .
“ Cloud service providers are making systems available to engineers and product teams that enable concepts to quickly be proven .”
He elaborates , “ We ’ ve done this a few times at Fluent Money in the last 12 months , rolling out a number of projects , quickly spinning up a platform in Azure , assessing how it works , testing and proving a concept . It ’ s costing us very little and takes very little time .”
Forming digital partnerships Traditionally , incumbent banks have been self-contained entities , handling their own data storage , aggregation and technical requirements in-house . However , fintechs take a different approach and rather than blowing budgets on high-cost technology systems , they outsource to expert partners , creating what is now described as the fintech ecosystem . This ability to reach out and form collaborations when required is part of the lean and agile mindset .
“ Outsourcing and in-house both have their place in a development strategy , and in many ways Lean / Agile actually makes this even more true by creating more frequent checks and balances ,” explains Carmody .
Although he isn ’ t averse to in-house development – he says that in this current climate , it has its place . “ In-house development is best when developing fundamental core competencies or ‘ special sauce ’. Outsourcing is helpful when your team does not have ( or need ) the technical or domain expertise and spike capacity . But this is only successful if you bake this into your work culture predictably and from the outset ; otherwise , it is very challenging to maintain product quality and corporate morale .”
Lean and agile banking trends The past two years have seen momentous changes being ushered in terms of the digital transformation of financial services . But much more is to come , and 2022 to 2025 will see massive shifts being made by incumbents to keep up with the trends .
46 October 2021