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anb Delivers Award-winning Mobile Banking App with OutSystems in Under Four Months

4+ years as OutSystems customer
7 apps and growing
>1M customers use mobile app
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innovation-awards-2022-badge
Innovation Award Winner 2022
Best Digital Experience

anb—an OutSystems customer since 2018—has accelerated its digitalization journey with award-winning results. The bank uses OutSystems to deliver its new digital solutions. anb’s achievements include making loan origination three times faster, mortgage applications 64 percent faster, and launching a new mobile banking app in less than four months, currently used by over one million customers.

At the 2021 Global Finance Magazine Awards, anb won the prestigious “Best Digital Bank Award”, under the Best Mobile Banking App category in Saudi Arabia.

  • Business Process Management
  • Case Management
  • Customer Experience
  • Digital Core Systems
  • Digital Transformation
  • Mobile Applications
  • Operational Efficiency
  • Web Apps and Portals
anb 2022 innovation award winner
Challenge

Living up to the Demands of the Digital Age

Established by royal decree in 1979, anb is now one of the largest banks in the middle east. The bank serves over two million customers with a comprehensive range of Retail, Commercial, and Investment banking services.

naif alharbi

“Due to our digital-first approach, we have succeeded to accelerate our digital transformation strategy and became a market leader, taking advantage of the OutSystems solutions for digital development.”

Naif Alharbi Chief Information Officer, anb

Until recently, customers' banking experience involved face-to-face interaction via 136 branches, 10 sales centers, 83 remittance centers, 11 SME centers, and 4 corporate branches. However, to adapt to an ever-increasing digital world, anb chose to invest in its digital channels.

"Customers don’t need to leave the comfort of their homes, even when buying a house, as our new mortgage application system is fully integrated with government and private sector services."

naif alharbi
Naif Alharbi Chief Information Officer, anb

The bank launched its digital transformation journey to meet increasing customer demand for digital self-service and in response to the Government’s sustainability agenda—“Saudi Vision 2030.”

From a sustainability standpoint, all banks need to digitalize customer touchpoints to minimize the environmental impact caused by face-to-face banking.

Why anb chose OutSystems:
  • fast app development iconSpeed-up development and improve agility
  • web and mobile apps iconDeliver web and mobile applications
  • continuous delivery iconEnable continuous delivery
Solution

Rapid Delivery of Brilliant Digital Experiences Calls for OutSystems

anb selected OutSystems to accelerate its digital transformation. The bank was determined to provide customers with seamless, user-friendly digital experiences on web and mobile platforms.

OutSystems was a natural choice, as low-code would accelerate development, and its enterprise-grade security and scalability would ensure anb could deliver and easily maintain finance-grade solutions.

omar alageel

“Customers are increasingly opting for online and mobile banking to manage their money and personal finances. By using OutSystems, we enabled our customers to apply for credit cards, personal loans, or mortgages online. Customers don’t need to leave the comfort of their homes even while buying a house as the system is fully integrated with third parties, including government and private sector services.”

Omar Alageel Head of Business Technology & Digital Transformation, anb

With OutSystems, anb’s developers just need a single skillset to deliver all kinds of applications, including web, mobile, and back-end services. And the team has already delivered a wide variety of systems, including:

  • anb Mobile—its mobile banking app
  • Loan Originations
  • SME Loan Originations
  • Retail & Corporate Online Account Opening
  • IPO
  • Financing Credit Engine
Results

With OutSystems, anb Achieves Award-winning Results

With OutSystems, anb found a high-performance low-code application development platform that was easy to implement, quick to learn, scalable, and secure. Additionally, over the past four years, the bank has used OutSystems to build all its digital systems.

nora almonif

“We noticed that some competitors faced challenges to introduce digital-first services, due to legacy products that are hard to update and integrate. However, OutSystems accelerated our digital transformation journey with quick time to market and allowed fast turnaround for the products and services.”

Nora S. Almonif Head of Development at anb

Notable successes include:

  • A new digital loan origination process that’s three times faster. Currently, customers can apply for loans across all channels, including mobile. The improved automated process allowed anb to process loans in less than 24 hours, instead of three days or more.
  • Mortgage application process 64 percent faster. anb’s 100 percent digital mortgage approval process is now one of the fastest in the local market. The bank has managed to reduce the approval process from 14 days to 5 days. Thanks to integration with Government and third-party services, customers can complete the mortgage application from the comfort of their home.
  • Saudi Market’s first SME digital loan application. anb was first-to-market with a 100 percent digital SME loan origination system, delivered in less than three months.
  • Award-winning anb Mobile banking app. Initially launched in less than four months, and already used by over one million customers anb Mobile won Global Finance Magazine’s 2021 “Best Mobile Banking App in Saudi Arabia.”
  • Dual award wins with International Business Magazine; Best Mobile Application Saudi Arabia 2022 and Best SME Banking Saudi Arabia 2022.

Additionally, the Saudi Government selected anb to launch Aramco’s IPO, valued at 1.5 trillion dollars. anb delivered a digital platform to streamline the IPO subscription process. Having proven its success, the bank has expanded the platform to support IPOs from multiple organizations.

"Developing innovative digital banking solutions, enabled anb to consolidate its competitive edge, increase market share and enrich its customer experience. Accordingly, the Best Mobile Banking App award came as a result of extended preparations and hard work to empower the bank’s digital platform strategy."

naif alharbi
Naif Alharbi Chief Information Officer, anb

anb also used OutSystems to build its complete credit engine. “We chose to build our credit engine with OutSystems instead of buying it off-the-shelf,” explains Nora S. Almonif, Head of Development at anb. “Using OutSystems enabled us to customize it to our needs and go live in just a month, avoiding many constraints. We know that some of our competitors struggle with their legacy products, which are hard to update and integrate with new systems.”

Commenting further on the bank’s recent award win, Naif Alharbi, Chief Information Officer of anb, said, “From the outset of our digital transformation journey, we’ve always sought to invest in cutting-edge technology and creative solutions. These make the banking experience easier, faster, more efficient, and more flexible to keep pace with rapid changes in customer needs.”

Looking ahead, with OutSystems, anb has the speed and agility to excel in that vision.