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Risk
Platform Selection
1Devices’ Specifications
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2Fixed
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10Mobile
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16Central Access Control
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18Software Selection Rationales
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Our software can be split into 2 categories that mirror our multi-stream hierarchy structure:
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Management software orchestrates what, where and whom.
Specialist software executes the tasks.
We have a very explicit policy of “learn it or leave”. All levels of staff have the training and time to learn the software provided, and failure to do so leads to the latter option. Technical literacy and proficiency are non-negotiable traits in the company.
25Management Software
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26Task Management: Why ClickUp?
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ClickUp is a formidable weapon to wield. The breadth and depth of customisation and automation is staggeringly powerful.
Of course, we only use about 50% of what it is capable of but what it really provides us with is options. Planning and reporting are key to effective efficiency, and having agile flexibility built into these functions is a key driver of our choice to use ClickUp.
Simply put, nothing else comes close in this category. The only downside is a relatively steep learning curve for the more advanced functions — which staff are expected to learn.
32Core Banking: Why Temenos?
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The digital part of our digital bank.
To be clear, core banking is a solved problem, developing a ground-up system is unnecessary and introduces far too much risk into the equation to countenance. The time, cost, complexity and ultimate futility renders the exercise entirely moot.
Temenos is the best independent core banking software in the world.
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Key to our decision to use them is that they are modular, meaning that we have the flexibility to add and change components without disruption, delivering a better service to end users. We are never locked into mechanisms, products and services — causing updating problems like the ones faced by legacy banks now.
The only other CBS that comes close in terms of innovation is Thought Machine but they won’t entertain serving SSA. Many of the other CBS platforms are attached to management consulting or ERP companies, which is fine if you already engage with them, but less so if you don’t require their additional (expensive) services.
We would have liked to consider
(an African CBS) but their tech isn’t quite there yet. We are keeping communication open with them and potentially may use some elements in our module selections should it be appropriate.All these platforms are good and work well but Temenos proves to be the best fit for us and our use case.
49Specialist Software
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50Productivity: Why Zoho?
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“No one ever got fired for choosing Microsoft.”
Both Microsoft and Google are exceptional companies. Both have achieved great things in their respective fields (Enterprise/Blue Chip Platform and Advertising/Information Aggregator).
Founded in India, Zoho was principally designed for emerging markets and expanded from there. The company’s ethos and values are far more aligned with ours and those of the people we serve. The clearest sign of this being that advanced security features are baked into even the lowest tiers.
India also happens to be the epicentre of the world when it comes to financial technology engineers.
Zoho has 50+ different applications, making it very extensible. Some are better than others, for example, we use ClickUp instead of their project management app because CU is more suited to our needs. However, the HR apps Zoho provides are perfect for our needs, and so we can integrate those into our stack seamlessly.
MS and Google don’t really care about life outside the rich countries — Zoho does.
Ultimately, Zoho provides a wider range of applications, at a lower cost and with more emphasis on privacy and security.
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67Operational Finance: Why Xero?
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Xero has tremendous scalability, from a single person to thousands and it’s this breadth of ability that makes it the logical choice for us as a growth entity.
Used by millions of companies across the world, Xero is one of the most modern and complete accountancy packages available. It is used by thousands of banks daily to maintain accurate and complaint records of their financial activity.
In addition to this, it has extensive integrations that ensure information is not just secure but easily accessible to inform decision-making at senior levels. Its integration with Temenos is an invaluable asset and as a cloud-first company, they are at the cutting edge of testing new technology before deploying it responsibly.
We need to maintain a tight grip on finances and Xero allows us to do just that.
It is available in 180 countries, with its head office and primary listing in New Zealand.
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88Knowledge Management: Why Coda?
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Coda is a fantastic place to collect a wide variety of content and arrange it neatly; in fact, this document was built in Coda.
Text, pages, interlinked databases, multimedia, wikis... the list goes on. Coda is our library of information with highly configurable access controls.
As it has a powerful publishing channel, we operate 2 separate spaces/subscriptions: internal and external, meaning there is no possibility of mixing public customer-facing information (help topics, FAQs, how-tos) with internal resources (product development, policies, documents).
99Lock-In Risk
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Unusually for a Bank or Fintech, we do not rely on the USA or China for most of our IT infrastructure. Any that we do use are largely commoditised services and have a very easy process.
Using ClickUp and Coda as an example, we take weekly backups in plain format as a matter of course, if we needed to migrate at short notice, this can be imported directly into Atlassian or Notion. After a little user adjustment, very little changes.
Core banking is the big one of course. Temenos is publically listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange and one of the few independent CBS platforms on the market. Their location was a key point in our decision-making process, ensuring reliability and neutrality, insulating us from global shocks.
Cloud platforms are a commodity and interchangeable. Localised, physical backups mean the data is safe should a global outage occur.
104Convenience is Nice, Options are Better
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We are entering a new world right now and we take the threat of geopolitics seriously in our supply chain. We have secondary and tertiary options in place for every critical piece of infrastructure and our aversion to ‘lock in’ is considered at every step.
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