ben brown

February 27, 2023

Business

5 FinTech Services That Rely on Custom Software Development

ben brown

February 27, 2023

Business

FinTech companies depend on high-functioning software that not only differentiates their platform from traditional financial institutions but also ensures a great overall experience for users. When done properly, the ultimate goal is to be able to consistently revise and innovate to build a platform that’s solid all around for users.

Imagine a World With Poor Quality Software

When it comes to the role software development plays in delivering FinTech services, this is an area that truly requires full attention. Think about it like this: a software system is like the foundation of a building; to support anything built on top, there needs to be a solid base. When it comes to the software foundation of FinTech service providers, a poorly built or unkept system can lead to several problems including:

Glitches
Poor user experience
Cybersecurity breaches
System downtime
Integration issues

What’s at Stake

The list certainly runs much longer, but this gives you a glimpse into the kind of obstacles that appear down the road with poor quality or unkept software. Globally, the FinTech market is currently worth well over $165 billion. If we wanted to narrow this down to financial services in just the United States, then we’re looking at a market worth around $4 trillion, which accounts for about 7.4% of the country's GDP.

Financial services aren’t just big in North America— this is a global market with an audience of a little under 4 billion people. These services are sought after for more than just their convenience; they are necessities that people depend on which means that performance optimization is a race with no finish line for businesses.

How to Pair FinTechs and Custom Software

The demand for FinTech services is present and rampant which means that if we want to look at how custom software development enhances system performance, we have to first look at the services that depend on it:

1) Mobile Payments:

This is one of the most common services in the industry and for good reason. Take for instance that Apple Pay (48 million users), Venmo (75 million users), Google Pay (150 million users), and PayPal (377 million users) are some of the most notable providers that just about anyone would be able to recognize.

Mobile payment speaks for itself in terms of its value as it eliminates the need for physical payment methods and makes it easier for everyone to operate on the go. Additionally, these services can interconnect across multiple devices, and the more that aspect of the service grows, the more competitive this market will become.

To deliver this seamless experience that users are so drawn to, there needs to be a solid software infrastructure in place that is frequently updated to implement new features and adjust to the demand from the market.

2) Investment Platforms:

Many FinTechs offer investment platforms that allow users to manage and track their investments online. These platforms commonly use custom software to provide real-time updates on things like investment performance as well as offer personalized recommendations based on the user's risk tolerance and financial goals.

In this area, some of the most notable providers are Questrade and Robinhood, though most banks offer their own version of this service.

3) Personal Finance Management:

FinTechs who do really well in the market are the ones who create custom software that helps users track their spending, create budgets, and save money. These tools often use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to categorize transactions and provide insights into the user's financial habits.

4) Lending:

Fintech lending platforms should be a focus when it comes to maximizing the use of custom software in the financial service industry. These services use systems to perform tasks such as streamlining the loan application and approval process.

This software can also analyze a potential borrower's credit history, income, and other financial factors to determine their eligibility and the terms of the loan. Super technical stuff that would be a headache to research and input manually is why they turn to custom software integration.

5) Digital Banking:

This is pretty much standard practice for banks in 2023 and rightfully so. The introduction of digital banking changed the industry forever. You’re now able to access your bank account on almost any device, make payments, and even open new accounts from just about anywhere.

Custom software development goes hand in hand with the creation and customization of digital banking services. Beyond creating an ideal user experience, it tackles the most important asset when it comes to FinTech services: security. With these features combined and maximized, institutions will find themselves in a very competitive space with digital banking.

What’s Next?

The future of using custom software to enhance the experience of FinTech services for users is certainly a bright one. For instance, the innovation we’re seeing through AI and ML as well as blockchain technology suggests that the peak of this technology is yet to be discovered.

For FinTech startups looking to start their digital transformation journey through custom software, the best piece of advice would be to recognize what aspect of the industry you’re getting into and identify how you differentiate from competitors. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to avoid making mistakes and bad investments in systems and instead be able to dedicate all your energy towards your niche.

Written By Ben Brown

—

ISU Corp is an award-winning software development company, with over 17 years of experience in multiple industries, providing cost-effective custom software development, technology management, and IT outsourcing.

Our unique owners’ mindset reduces development costs and fast-tracks timelines. We help craft the specifications of your project based on your company's needs, to produce the best ROI. Find out why startups, all the way to fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Heinz, and many others have trusted us with their projects. Contact us here.

ben brown

February 24, 2023

Business

6 Fundamentals When Developing an App in Finance

ben brown

February 24, 2023

Business

In most businesses, executive teams will look at the big picture for their company and make decisions/implement procedures that they believe are in its long-term best interest. These decisions are often reactive, influenced by the actions of others such as competitors and leaders in their industry.

The financial sector is no different in this aspect; businesses are in an incredibly competitive industry that focuses solely on the big picture of financial services. With influence from so many outside sources, including newly emerging FinTechs, it can certainly make financial institutions feel anxious to get their vision for digital solutions out to market as fast as possible.

It’s completely acceptable to think like this, however, there are certain nonnegotiables when it comes to strategizing. For example, finding a solution to any problem in an organization first requires leaders to put their egos aside and admit there’s a problem.

Barriers to Success in an Organization

Let's say that a company is seeing a decline in revenue, and the organization's leaders are struggling to identify the root cause of the problem. Even after multiple meetings and brainstorming sessions, they are unable to reach a consensus on what needs to be done.

We see here that it may be necessary for the executive team to set aside their egos and admit they don't have all the answers. It may also involve bringing in outside consultants so they can get an unbiased perspective and help them identify areas for improvement.

This is in contrast to finding something to pin the blame on for revenue loss and going with a reactive solution without totally understanding the underlying issues. Often, technology can get caught in the middle of these situations and “quick solutions” are implemented without adequate reason.

App development is notorious for running into this kind of trouble because organizations tend to overthink (and underthink, in some cases) the kind of experience and features their users want. Developing an app starts with a grand vision and then leads into logistics in terms of how it will function, what features it will have, and how it will be marketed. This is where the executive team needs to be open to feedback and willing to pivot their strategy based on user feedback and market trends.

What Needs to Happen

When it comes to developing an app in the financial industry, the first step is to recognize who will be using the platform and how they will be using it. For example, in the United States, around two-thirds of the population use digital banking regularly because of its simplicity and accessibility. In that case, US-based institutions should base their solutions around an easy-to-navigate platform that can be accessed on mobile and desktop devices seamlessly.

Recognizing that this example is very general, let’s get more in-depth with some of the fundamentals for financial app development:

Security:

We need to cover this first because ultimately security is non-negotiable for financial platforms.

Typically, two-factor authentication is recommended any time personal information is stored on a platform as well as encryption and additional measures that ensure the safety and privacy of user information.

User Centricity:

As we’ve mentioned, focusing on the user who is managing their finances using your application will give you the upper hand in identifying the features needed to make the app successful. Research has shown that taking a User-Centered Design (UCD) approach often leads to an increase in ROI as well as overall competitiveness in the industry.

Core Banking System Integration:

A core banking system helps banks keep track of their money and transactions. Whenever someone deposits or withdraws money from a bank account, the system notes it and keeps track of the account balance. Taking this into consideration, when an app is developed for a financial institution, they need to ensure the database can sync up with the system.

Scalability:

When a company builds an app, it’s never because they solely want their current number of customers to just have another outlet; they want to expand their reach. Growing the platform is a major focus for financial institutions and it’s why they strategize using digital app development.

For this reason, the application needs to consistently go through innovation as the expansion occurs to accommodate new users and ensure quality performance.

Choosing The Right Tech Stack:

Choosing the right tech stack is crucial for financial app development as it not only affects functionality and scalability, but also the overall security of the application. Your tech stack includes all the programming languages, frameworks, and tools used to build the app.

It's important then to choose a stack that aligns with the goals and requirements of the app, as well as the skills and expertise of the development team. Some popular tech stacks for financial app development include Java, Python, Ruby on Rails, and Node.js.

Simple UX Design:

An app that's easy to use and navigate is crucial for financial app development to ensure a positive user experience. Specifically, it's important to have a clear layout and a consistent design throughout the application.

Simplicity is key here and having too many features or too complex of a design can overwhelm users and deter them from using the app. A user-friendly design will not only help with customer retention but ultimately attract new users to the platform.

The Takeaway

Producing the best possible product when it comes to app development requires that teams take a “never done” approach. This means constantly analyzing, finding room for improvement, and making those improvements. Of course, it must also be noted that with a successful application comes the need for a more complex IT infrastructure that can accommodate all functions as well the user base. When developing systems gets overwhelming, team augmentation is an excellent solution.

Written By Ben Brown

—

ben brown

February 21, 2023

Business

The 5 Biggest Trends in Software Development for 2023

ben brown

February 21, 2023

Business

Custom software development is the infrastructure that supports businesses all over the world in a wide variety of industries. In Canada alone, a 2019 survey found that well over 80% of businesses heavily relied on information technology as well as communication technology (pre-pandemic). When the time came that everyone was forced to continue their operations remotely, the reliance built to a point of dependency.

Now, here we are 4 years later and the growing demand for IT services has resulted in Software Architects, Cloud Engineers, and Full-Stack Developers being among the highest in-demand workers for 2023.

Why Do Businesses Need to Know This?

The types of software projects and teams needed to complete them will look very different from one business to the next. For example, a company could need a dedicated team, or simply a project taken over, someone may want to develop an app, and others may even need an entire process automation system built from the ground up.

Software development is still a broad topic that’s at the beginning of the road in terms of the impact it’s meant to have. With that in mind, it’s critical to be aware of what’s at the center for discussion when it comes to software development in 2023, so here are 5 key points to be aware of:

1) Low-Code No-Code (LC/NC):

Software development is a highly complex process that encounters challenges and can take a lot of time depending on the scope of the project. LC/NC adoption has become popular in recent years as a means of adjusting to the new-age demands of software development and mitigating the complications.

What this does is enable the creation of applications using templates, pre-built modules, and drag-and-drop features. For these applications to perform without LC/NC, the process would be very long and daunting. A few examples of LC/NC applications include Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, Shopify, and Mailchimp.

As of last year, around 50% of programmers were using LC/NC to some capacity and reports have shown that everyone who has implemented it has seen ROI.

2) The Prevalence of Cloud Computing:

With the pandemic making remote work the norm for most businesses, cloud computing became the saving grace for many shifting IT demands. It offers a centralized hub for data storage as well as accessibility.

Beyond simply storing information, cloud computing enables important functions like instant messaging, hosting, as well as disaster recovery (to name a few). A good reason to pay attention to cloud computing in 2023 is the fact that the technology is becoming more mainstream, especially for top talent and remote work which is the norm for around 70% of full-time workers.

Before last year closed out, the total service spending for cloud computing topped $217 billion. This begs the question: what will this spending look like in the next 5 years? With how digitized the corporate world is becoming, this market could surge dramatically— more so than it already is.

3) The Reign of Artificial Intelligence

Likely among the biggest buzzwords of 2023 is “Artificial Intelligence” due largely to the introduction of platforms like Chat-GPT and now rivalry application Google Bard.

AI is pushing the parameters of what people thought was possible with technology and it’s really just becoming accepted by the public. This trend is going to be a significant player in everyone's lives this year.

When it comes to software development, AI offers solutions and methodologies that can enhance the performance of IT systems immeasurably. It reduces errors and boosts process efficiency in addition to its ability to completely personalize an experience for users.

There is also AI-assisted coding which is a topic for discussion that requires far more detail than we could cover here. But what’s important to note is that investing in the AI market isn’t just for tech companies, even the vast majority of hospitals have plans to use AI.

You get the picture when it comes to AI at this point. A lot is changing and everyone needs to be prepared for it. The AI market is set to break half a trillion dollars by next year which likely isn’t even a third of what it will be worth in the next decade.

4) Cyber Security

Cyberattacks are a daunting topic in the IT world, especially when it comes to small to mid-size companies, as they are the most commonly targeted. As more businesses recognize the risk, research predicts that around 65% of the global population will have their data protected by modern privacy regulations this year.

Is this necessary? Absolutely. There’s a vast amount of personal, nevermind confidential business data that could be subject to interference by black hat hackers which is incredibly dangerous. The reliance on systems, like that of cloud computing, demands that any and all vulnerabilities be covered.

5) IoT Devices

The internet of things (IoT) has been a key area of technology for people to focus on for over a decade now. In 2023, with the advanced capabilities of software development and breakthrough discoveries in technology, these devices are about to become more common and powerful than ever.

Smartphones, smartwatches, fitness trackers, computerized bikes and scooters are just some of the popular IoT technology trends. Within the next 2 years, it is estimated that we could see more than 26 billion interconnected IoT devices.

IoT devices rely on professional software engineering to provide the experience they’re meant to for users. The reason an apple watch can sync up with an iPhone is a result of the seamless performance of IoT software systems.

The Takeaway

What’s popular when it comes to software development is always important to be aware of because not everyone may realize how much of a role it plays in everyday life. Everyone wants to get into the digital marketplace, but too often, businesses let impatience get in the way of optimal performance. You can go for the plan that yields results in 6 weeks or you can go all in for the plan that’s going to allow you to boost your ROI dramatically at the end of the year.

Written By Ben Brown

—