Julian Colombo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at our company, N5, sympathizes with comedian Bob Hope\u2019s view that a bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove you don\u2019t need it. Unlike most industries that offer products and services to whoever wants them, the banking industry is by necessity cautious in crafting offers, and it\u2019s even more so in selecting customers. Anyone who has shopped for a loan is well aware of how different this process is compared to, say, shopping for a television. This is just one of the many differences that are unique to banks and the financial industry which led to the creation of N5.<\/p>\n
Banking software liabilities<\/p>\n
Julian, a young veteran of the financial services industry, gained firsthand experience in global banking, during which time he became increasingly frustrated with the lack of available ground-up, domain-specific software and services to support his business. He saw an essentially conservative industry that was leery of change protected and comforted as much as served by bland technology from large, established providers with long histories of widespread and diverse deployments.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s the problem: That very technology isn\u2019t designed specifically for banking\u2014it also serves a host of other industries. A software nip here, an integration tuck there, and it might also be adapted to online shopping, car sales, call centers, or restaurant chains. So, when it comes to the most obvious requirements of financial services and features that can serve its unique character, the same old software is rolled out\u2014not so much designed as it is adapted, fixed, patched, enhanced, and compromised.<\/p>\n
And yet, people still buy it. Or rather, they\u2019re stuck with it. This is a variation on the old principle of nobody getting fired for buying IBM applied to the financial industry. \u201cThe world fell into the B2B trap of undifferentiated software products from established players for everyone,\u201d says Julian. \u201cWrong. Big banks, insurance companies, and investment houses can\u2019t thrive with off-the-shelf or cookie-cutter solutions, even when they\u2019re reactively adapted to create a more or less successful solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
New N5 options<\/p>\n
Our N5 team members spent the last few years designing software solutions from the ground up, using their own experiences with the essential requirements of an industry that they\u2019re all steeped in. They know the pain points, and they know the hidden opportunities and unmet challenges.<\/p>\n
We offer a digital, multichannel financial services ecosystem that embraces and enhances a bank\u2019s current environment. It\u2019s a series of integrated modules fed by existing data that offer tailored functionality with core business impact. We help organizations evolve and adopt new transformational technologies without necessarily replacing or eliminating their previous systems. Our platform provides a 360-degree view of a business and its customers, enabling sales process optimization, enhanced customer focus, and advanced performance analysis that can help spot new business opportunities for improvement or innovation.<\/p>\n
And perhaps most important, our customers recognize that we empathize with their situations. We can offer a safe path to environments that will far better serve their businesses, operations, and compliance requirements. \u201cBanks are so risk-averse that they won\u2019t jump straight into a new idea, but our presentations generate excitement,\u201d says Julian. \u201cCustomers recognize that we\u2019re all on the same page, seeing the same problems and seeking the same goals. All of our engagements result in deployment of one of our solutions, and we also have zero churn\u2014we have never lost a customer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Choosing N5 is a good call. We aren\u2019t sprinkling financial services dust onto a generic portfolio of repurposed solutions. We\u2019re a relatively small, targeted solutions provider that\u2019s unencumbered by convention and able to work quickly and with agility. And we don\u2019t spread ourselves too thin\u2014we only take a few new clients each year to help guarantee quality and attention. Our customers, however large and sophisticated, recognize the value of partnering with a small provider that genuinely has their interests at heart. \u201cThey recognize that we aren\u2019t ambitious in that sense; we don\u2019t have our sights set on investors,\u201d says Julian. \u201cIn fact, growth is coming through referrals by industry insiders who say, \u2018These guys feel your pain\u2014you should check out their solution.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Microsoft for Startups asset<\/p>\n
Microsoft offers us many advantages. Working with the Microsoft for Startups program helped us access not only the technology, but also the world-class IT development and deployment experience our customers appreciate. \u201cAccess to Azure was very valuable to us because we began with great ideas but just a few hundred dollars,\u201d says Julian. \u201cEqually valuable was the guidance we received in selecting the best technologies to accelerate development of the right solutions. For example, we needed to implement solutions for bank environments featuring global multitenancy, and we were grateful for Microsoft input that helped us understand and optimize for those environments.\u201d<\/p>\n
We use Azure alongside hybrid on-premises options for deployment, and we use Azure tools and services in the process of building our solutions, including our proprietary, AI-driven algorithms and financial rules processing engines. We find that most customers are already at least considering cloud migrations, and once again, we can bring in Microsoft expertise to help us demonstrate the advantages of broader cloud-based digital transformations.<\/p>\n
N5 futures<\/p>\n
We have another simple idea at N5 that differentiates us from our competitors. We partner with our customers to bring their solutions to fruition, including funding the overall projects. We offer talent as a service, providing our C-level financial industry professionals to help identify opportunities and design solutions. We provide consulting and systems integration for our solutions based on analytics, big data, and AI. And we can customize our platform with hands-on engineering and integration support to solve specific business needs. This has helped us grow from a few hundred dollars to a $95 million startup in just a couple of years.<\/p>\n
In combination with the efficiencies, technical input, and authority brought by our relationship with Microsoft, we\u2019re well positioned for the future. \u201cOur relationship with Microsoft adds reassurance that we\u2019re bringing in world-class resources who are experienced in leading-edge technology from a company that also happens to provide the software and services that drive our customers\u2019 businesses,\u201d says Julian.<\/p>\n
You can learn more about how our plans can help transform your financial services business at N5.<\/p>\n