Financial Services

Bringing Innovation and Superior CX for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

November 21, 2024January 22, 2025 by Agnes

Client at a glance

Accelerating Digital Transformation with Mobile-First Innovation

As part of its five-year strategic roadmap, ADCB is committed to delivering world-class customer experiences through comprehensive digitization initiatives. By leveraging our expertise in user experience design and emerging technologies, ADCB is now positioned to drive innovation and strengthen its leadership in the region’s financial sector.

Challenge

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), one of the UAE’s leading financial institutions, embarked on an ambitious digital transformation journey to reshape its customer experience. The goal was to create a unified, paperless process for all individual private customer interactions, covering every phase of the journey—from onboarding and KYC to ongoing customer engagement. ADCB aimed to make every interaction digital, seamless, and compliant, while evaluating alternatives to their existing development tools to enable faster, cost-effective innovation.

Our Approach

To support ADCB’s vision, we developed a Proof of Concept (POC) using Flutter and Open Bank APIs. The POC demonstrated Flutter’s potential as a platform for rapid prototyping and cross-platform development, providing a rich, customer-focused experience. Key features of our solution included:

Mobile Applications: Fully functional iOS and Android apps with a focus on superior UI and CX.
Enhanced Customer Journeys: Designed flows for personal finance applications and upgrades to Excellency membership.
Technology Validation: Showcased Flutter’s advantages, including:
- Near-native app performance.
- Ease of creating complex UI animations.
- A shared UI and business logic across platforms.
- Reduced development time with ready-to-use widgets.

Our solution not only redefined customer interactions but also helped ADCB evaluate Flutter as a strategic platform for future mobile banking projects.

Impact Delivered

Superior User Experience: Delivered mobile apps with a fresh, intuitive design that enhanced customer satisfaction.
Accelerated Prototyping: Enabled faster time-to-market with streamlined development workflows.
Cost Efficiency: Demonstrated significant cost savings through reusable code and a unified development approach.
Future-Ready Technology: Provided ADCB with a scalable solution and insights to inform their mobile banking strategy.

Expertise and Scope

Tech Stack: Flutter, Open Bank APIs
Focus Areas: Cross-platform mobile app development, rapid prototyping, digital customer journey optimization

Complete Digital Transformation for Mashreq

September 27, 2024January 22, 2025 by Sasho

Client at a glance

Digitizing the Future of Banking

Through advanced architecture, seamless collaboration, and rapid digitization, Mashreqbank is transforming customer experiences across all channels. By reducing reliance on legacy systems and introducing scalable solutions, we enabled Mashreq to maintain its leadership in the competitive financial sector while setting a new benchmark for digital innovation.

Challenge

Mashreqbank PSC, the UAE’s oldest privately-owned bank, launched an ambitious initiative to completely transform all its customer-facing channel applications. The scope included digitizing their Mobile Banking, Desktop Banking, Credit Cards Marketing, KYC, and Branch Service Tablet applications.

The initiative faced several challenges:

Time Constraints: The MVP phases for all applications were planned to roll out simultaneously within one year—a tight timeline for such a large-scale transformation.
Complex Collaboration: With over 40 team members spanning multiple vendors, in-house squads, and McKinsey Digital, seamless communication and alignment were essential to deliver the project on time.
Legacy Infrastructure: The existing middleware (ESB) exposed functionalities to all applications, creating bottlenecks and latency issues that could impact performance.
Performance and Scalability: The architecture needed to handle high traffic, ensure security, and support future growth while detaching from legacy dependencies.

Our Approach

To address these challenges, we focused on creating a unified backend infrastructure and delivering an MVP for the Branch Service Tablet application.

Key actions included:

Backend Transformation:
- Developed a scalable, modern backend using Java Microservices with the Spring Framework and Spring Cloud, following Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles.
- Addressed performance issues with the legacy middleware by implementing the CQRS pattern and efficient caching at the backend layer.
- Introduced two intermediary layers to streamline communication with the ESB, reducing bottlenecks and improving system performance.
Automated CI/CD Pipelines:
- Implemented deployment pipelines for Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD), enabling autonomous deployment of microservices in staging and production environments.
Digitization of Branch Services:
- Developed the MVP for the Branch Tablet Application, digitizing and automating over 50 service journeys in just three months, including:
  - Funds Transfers
  - Print Statements
  - Transaction Dispute Requests
  - Cheque Book Requests
  - Card Replacement
  - Account Closure (reduced from one week to minutes)

Impact Delivered

Scalable Backend Architecture: Delivered a unified backend for all frontend channels, reducing dependency on legacy infrastructure and enabling future expansion.
Enhanced Development Efficiency: CI/CD pipelines improved the development process, enabling faster, independent deployments.
Accelerated Service Delivery: Automated over 50 customer-facing service journeys, improving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Successful MVP Launch: Deployed the MVP Branch Tablet Application at Dubai Mall, marking the first step in Mashreq’s digital transformation journey.

Expertise and Scope

Deliverables: Fully-featured MVP Branch Tablet Application
Technology Stack: Java 8, Spring Framework (Boot, Batch, Cloud, Redis), RabbitMQ, MSSQL, React Native, Azure DevOps
Team: 5 Backend Developers, 4 Frontend Developers

Mobile Corporate E-Banking App for First Abu Dhabi Bank

September 18, 2024January 22, 2025 by Sasho

Client at a glance

Reimagining Corporate Banking for the UAE’s Largest Institution

With the launch of a next-generation mobile banking app, FAB has reinforced its position as a leader in corporate banking innovation. The partnership with Wiser enabled FAB to expand its digital capabilities, delivering a world-class user experience and setting a new standard for omnichannel banking in the region.

Challenge

First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), renowned for its innovation and security, sought to enhance its mobile presence for corporate customers. While FAB already had a robust web banking platform, its existing mobile app lacked the comprehensive functionality and modern design required to meet the needs of SMEs and decision-makers.

The challenges included:

Limited Mobile Functionality: The app offered only a few core banking features, leaving a gap in functionality compared to the web version.
Outdated Design: The mobile interface needed a significant overhaul to deliver a modern, user-centric experience.
Fragmented Customer Journey: Interruptions in the user journey made the banking process feel lengthy and frustrating, diminishing the customer experience.

FAB’s goal was to provide a seamless, omnichannel experience that empowered corporate users to manage global transactions anytime, anywhere.

Our Approach

To address FAB’s needs, we partnered with the FAB Innovation Lab to design and deliver a fully-featured, next-generation mobile banking app for corporate customers.

Key actions included:

Modernized Design: Revamped the app’s user interface (UI) to create a visually appealing, intuitive, and engaging experience tailored to corporate users.
Enhanced Architecture: Leveraged Clean Architecture and SOLID Principles to ensure the app’s robustness, scalability, and maintainability.
Expanded Functionality: Integrated core banking features, including global cash position overviews, beneficiary approvals, and payment management, ensuring feature parity with the web platform.
Streamlined Development: Applied meticulous planning and documentation to align product development and release cycles with FAB’s strategic goals.

Impact Delivered

Enhanced User Experience: Delivered a modernized and immersive UI, meeting and exceeding user expectations.
Omnichannel Banking: Enabled a seamless experience across web and mobile, empowering users to manage global transactions effortlessly.
Scalable Application: Developed a robust and maintainable mobile app architecture, ensuring long-term scalability and reliability.
Accelerated Development Cycles: Streamlined product development and release processes, supporting FAB’s ongoing digital transformation goals.

Expertise and Scope

Deliverables: Fully-featured mobile banking app for Android and iOS
Tech Stack: Flutter
Team: 7 Flutter Developers, 1 Project Manager