“Visionary” multi-experience development platform makes user experience seamless
Temenos’ multi-experience development platform (MXDP) gives banks a low-code environment to develop new customer touchpoints, putting innovation in the hands of the user and ensuring a seamless channel hand-off every time, says Brian Abele
In the world of banking software development the delivery of seamless and unified digital experiences has been a core priority for many years.
Nowhere has this been more true than in the user experience – for the customer as much as the bank employee. First there was online banking, then mobile banking. This became multi-channel, then omni-channel as banks tried to accommodate customer demand precisely. But time and again, customers’ needs have shifted, pushing banks to think afresh how they interact with them. And in each case, the bank needed an army of developers to be able to quickly respond and deliver.
The way people switch between bank communication channels today is behind the latest change. They want to be able to move just as easily and seamlessly between mobile, online, wearable, face-to-face, chat bots and digital assistants, such as Alexa, when dealing with their bank. A customer might want to start an online conversation about a loan, for instance at home before picking it up on their mobile while on a train.
In the omni-channel world, each channel is a silo, unconnected to another, making it impossible for the bank to give the customer the freedom they want. What the bank needs is to connect all its digital channels and touchpoints so information can flow between them.
This unified digital experience has been like the proverbial pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. But now, thanks to a new breed of multi-experience development platforms (MXDPs), the coveted seamless customer experience is within reach for banks.
MXDPs let banks be nimbler and more efficient, pushing multi-channel solutions to the next level. They provide all the tools a bank needs to create new digital touchpoints using a low-code approach. This provides banks with a development environment where common tasks are automated yet customisation can still occur using small pre-configured pieces of code. It leads to faster development, saving time and money, and getting what the customer wants into their hands sooner.
Take for example the idea of quickly creating an experience on wearable tech. Once a bank has worked out what it wants within the confines of a wearable one-inch screen, developers – using multi-experience technology – need only open up a low-code tooling screen. Then all that’s needed is to drag and drop widgets to optimise the presentation and integrate the wearable. The platform is already connected to the back end for all the data. It really is that simple. And of course this ease of use dramatically reduces the number of highly skilled developers a bank requires on a given project.
MXDPs In Action
A North Americanbank that Temenos recently helped wanted to look into integrating Alexa to allow account holders to pay bills, check balances and order forex. Setting aside the bank’s security and compliance reviews of using voice, the technical steps took just four weeks, compared with perhaps three or four months to code and integrate traditionally.
Indeed, the MXDP is so flexible that a bank can bring in its own client-facing applications and still use our experience API layer to orchestrate the data and hand it to the front end. This interoperability and the depth of features means banks can continue to use technology they have already acquired, while the use of low-code means developers will never hit a wall – they can adapt and change according to need, something that is not possible with a no-code platform.
The boost to productivity is also significant. The bank can build, validate and move on. Testing is only needed for the integration, not the build. This means banks can afford to develop specific touchpoints for even limited time periods.
Some community banks, for example, in the US and elsewhere have significant numbers of account holders who haven’t adopted online banking, preferring to go to branches in person. During Covid-19 lockdowns, these customers still need to be supported and have access to banking facilities. Using our multi-experience technology, banks can create a simplified interface specifically for these less tech-savvy customers. Connecting to existing systems is fast and the banks just need to roll out the new interface under a new URL or deploy as a native app – product launched.
A low-code platform such as Temenos’ Quantum – the only pure play banking MXDP recognised as “Visionary” by analyst group Gartner – will ultimately reduce friction across every aspect of the bank – for customers and for employees.
It allows staff to develop their own solutions for their own specific challenges, making their roles more efficient, as well as deliver new or just improved experiences to customers. It makes the idea of the citizen developer a reality. It’s this constant ability to innovate and change that means banks and their developers will obtain their pot of gold for real this time.
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