“We keep innovating to give ultimate digital banking experience”: S. Sundararajan, i-exceed

2017 has seen many changes in the fintech market with the introduction of UPI, GST, aadhar payments and micro financing in trend. S. Sundararajan, Co-Founder and Executive Director, i-exceed technology solutions in conversation with PC Quest talks about Appzillion Suite which is helping banking institutions to meet their goals via getting digital benefits.

i-exceed Journey

We started out in 2011, and teamed up to create i-exceed and started developing the mobile development platform and build solutions that are required by banks and financial institutions globally. Today we have about 55+ customers 20 out of them are in India. Our head office, R&D and support centre is in Bengaluru. We also operate through Singapore and the USA. With all these locations i-exceed is determined to give top services to the clients of all geographies.

Appzillion Suite Platform

Appzillon Development Platform is i-exceed’s flagship omni-channel application development platform. Our solutions are built on Appzillion Development suite which generate the apps faster and makes deployment even rapidly. With Appzillon, organizations can jump start their digital initiatives with an assurance that the solutions would addresses all digital requirements of their stakeholders, in no time at all. Through this platform we keep on innovating new features that are required for changing dynamics of banking sector. For example, new features for IOS 11, android 8 or conversational banking, chatbots and chatflow; these are all the things where market is evolving fast and we need to bring all the things on apps for smooth function of a bank.

The core of Appzillon now includes certain AI (Artificial Intelligence) capabilities that make the platform well placed to derive the best out of the ongoing AI revolution. There are host of other productivity enablers included the platform that help enterprises deliver truly world-class experiences to their customers.

The customer base of Appzillon (Platform and Application suite) has been expanding fast, both in India and overseas. Thereby, it is a clear sign of the growing confidence in Appzillon’s technical prowess and i-exceed’s ability in providing intuitive digital banking solutions. Appzillon Development Platform has featured amongst the best platforms as part of Gartner Mobile App Development Platforms Magic Quadrant Report 2017 and Forrester Low Code App Development Platforms Wave Report 2017.

Opportunities in India

Overall globally, banking sector is evolving and in India there is lot more digital push taking place so for us it’s good news. Services like IMPS and UPI coupled with Demonetization has given us ample of opportunities in accelerating our business growth as well as banks in digitization. Now through our digital solutions banks are providing customers 24*7 services on mobile and tablets, customers don’t have to come to the branch and they are getting 100% comprehensive self services on their devices. And with the increase in consumer banking trends, banks are looking for our platform to stay ahead in the process. More than 55 banks have deployed our solutions and now we are focusing on NBFCs and micro finance companies.

Banking and security

Security is very important aspect of the solution when you deploy to the banks; most of the banks have taken precautions against cyber threats and conditionally branch systems are safe and have protected network. As a service provider, we are also concerned over this issue. We constantly update and make sure about the security aspects. We keep reviewing and innovating, keep tethering with the layers to ensure security; whether it is in multiple forms. However, it’s a never-ending process; as we move forward as systems evolve there are chances of cyber threats.

Key Technology trends 

Banks are now embracing more digital transformation comparable to traditional practices they were following. They are more inclined towards giving the services to the customers through apps and online platforms. They are also looking at digitizing the process internally and how they can transform internal staff operations. We have already started seeing the transformation happening in India.

Newer technology like AI, machine learning, Blockchain is getting space in the banking sector as the need of the hour. Also through these technologies, consumers are getting more personalized banking services. With the help of embedded AI aiding the backend operations of banks, they will be able to quickly identify bottlenecks in their operation workflows and bring in significant improvements in process efficiencies. Several major players have already begun pilot projects to measure the feasibility of adopting blockchain into their ecosystems.

Another trend is conversational banking, which is taking a fast pace through text or voice and chatbots. In 2018, we could expect more chatbots to be deployed with improved quality of interactions, speed of responses, and accuracy in decision making.

With initiatives such as UPI and AEPS, banking will become more ‘open’ in 2018. With more APIs exposed by banks, the process of carrying out payments and other banking transactions would be greatly quickened as well as simplified.  

Expansion Plans 

As the Indian FinTech space grows to reach an expected $2.4 billion by 2020, 2018 will be a critical year in that journey. Customers are increasingly open to banking innovations driven by technology, government regulations are leading the charge, and private players are making major investments. Therefore, keeping this in mind we are focusing more on India South East Asia, specific regions in Middle East Asia markets and also the targeting clients in Europe and the US. We are now looking at expanding into both the markets going forward in 2018.