SaaS provider TODO1 offers highly-configurable omnichannel banking solutions to retail and corporate banks. Its “iuviBANKING” platform is built on an agile microservices architecture, making it quick to configure and integrate with customers’ core banking systems.
But, tailoring the UI to meet the needs of many different banks was slow and expensive. By adopting OutSystems, TODO1 has gained an agility boost, leading to faster sales and faster implementation of the solutions it offers to clients, including its first US-based bank.
“With OutSystems, we have a single UI development effort for web, mobile, iOS, and Android deployment. In just four months, we replaced complex and hard to change web and mobile UIs that had taken two years to build. And, most importantly, now it’s quick to adapt for individual banks.”
SaaS company TODO1 has its origins as a joint venture between the leading banks in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Spun-off as an independent digital banking software provider in 2012, the company has a twenty-year history of developing digital banking solutions for retail and commercial banks in Central and Latin America.
TODO1 has offices in Florida, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador, and offers certified SOC1® Type 2 secure hosting from Florida and Virginia.
Around 250 software developers work for TODO1, using various technologies, including Java, .NET, and Salesforce.
Its iuviBANKING product provides both retail and corporate banks—including Bancolombia and 12 others—a modern API-centric digital banking suite that can be quickly integrated with core banking platforms, to provide omnichannel, self-service banking solutions to customers.
Although TODO1 can rapidly configure iuviBANKING to meet individual banks’ specific needs, changes to the user interface were not so easy to deliver.
“Configuration of the backend is very rapid,” explains Romel Guerra, Product Architect at TODO1 Services Inc. “But front-end development was slower. We were using Angular to try and build once for multiple deployment targets, but some aspects required native development leading to duplicative development for iOS and Android.”
TODO1 had outsourced front-end development for the past two years, which led to several shortcomings. “The slow speed of development was holding us back,” explains Romel. “The complexity made every customer-specific implementation a special effort. Lack of reuse meant we were just accumulating more technical debt with every implementation.”
For these reasons, TODO1 decided to bring front-end development back in-house. Their search for a faster development approach with a higher degree of reuse led them to OutSystems.
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Deliver omnichannel solutions with a great UXFollowing consultation with Gartner Research, TODO1 started a deep-dive evaluation of the OutSystems platform. Using the free OutSystems Personal Environment and extensive free online training resources, Romel and several colleagues were able to test all aspects of the platform, including integration with their own software and core banking platforms, UI design, and one-click deployment with dependency checking.
“Architecture was a principal concern,” Romel says. “Our vision was to build a highly reusable, decoupled front-end, that enabled us to customize individual customer deployments while minimizing technical debt. We needed assurance that we could build not just great user experiences but also achieve a far lower cost of ownership and speed up our customer implementations.”
Romel’s team found that OutSystems lived-up to this promise, and TODO1 became an OutSystems customer in November 2018.
TODO1’s first OutSystems project was the delivery of a bespoke solution for Bancolombia. In mid-2019, TODO1 started to expand its OutSystems developer team, and Romel became the leader of TODO1’s Center of Excellence for OutSystems development.
TODO1 now has 50 OutSystems developers—25 are staff, and the remainder are consultants from OutSystems partners, including Netlink.
Introducing a new visual approach to development received a mixed reaction from developers, as Romel explains. “Compared to other development technologies, OutSystems has a much easier learning curve. Most of our developers had an open mind; they understood that we needed a more efficient development approach. We had a few skeptics, but after one to two months, all of our developers have accepted this new way of working and agree that it is much faster.”
“The UI looks brilliant, helps us meet accessibility requirements, and, most importantly, is quick to tailor for individual banks.”
TODO1 has continuing support from the OutSystems customer success team, with bootcamp training sessions and workshops on areas like architecture best practices and UI development. Most developers now initially learn the platform using the personal environment and free online training. “New developers are normally productive after one week of training,” explains Romel. “We start them working on easy fixes under supervision before we give them responsibility for new development.”
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Learn more about XebiaTODO1 started redeveloping the front-end of its “iuviBANKING” digital banking suite in October 2019. Within four months, a team of ten developers had delivered the new decoupled front-end, replacing code that had taken two years to evolve.
TODO1 now has one code-base and a single development effort covering web, mobile, tablet, iOS, and Android. “The mobile apps use a hybrid architecture so that we can push instant updates and improvements to customers,” Romel says. “Our banking clients love this.”
“We have eliminated messy, hard to maintain code that was slow to tailor for individual banks,” says Romel. “The new UI is fast and highly secure, thanks to the additional security layers built into the OutSystems architecture.”
"We’re able to penetrate new markets now: we’ve just won our first US-based bank, which is a big milestone for us."
Thanks to the four-layer-architecture and reusable themes, widgets, UI patterns, and screen templates, Romel says, “We can implement bank-specific UIs in a fraction of the time it used to take.”
This newfound speed is fueling sales growth as well as faster, less costly implementations.
“We’ve won four new banks in the five months since the new UI became available,” says Romel. “Our sales team loves the difference this has made. We can deliver minutely tailored bank-specific demonstrations, with pixel-perfect UIs that are completely branded to each bank’s look and feel. That gives a great boost to buyers’ confidence, as they can appreciate not just the functionality, but that it will be fast to implement.”
Considering the new UI came to market during the COVID crisis, TODO1’s accelerated sales success is all the more remarkable. “We’re able to penetrate new markets now: we’ve just won our first US-based bank, which is a big milestone for us,” says Romel.
The new UI has come at an important and testing time. “iuviBANKING is licensed on a PaaS basis,” explains Romel. “So, with the COVID crisis driving consumers to digital channels, the number of transactions going through the platform has climbed steeply. It’s great that our banks’ customers are getting frictionless, digital access to the banking services they need. And it’s increasing our revenue.”
Reflecting on his new responsibilities overseeing TODO1’s “OutSystems Center of Excellence,” Romel says, “It seemed like a heavy responsibility at first, but it has been a lot easier and more fun than I was expecting.”
One of the reasons for this has been Romel’s use of the OutSystems Architecture Dashboard, which helps Romel visualize the entire portfolio of OutSystems development and identify problems. “The dashboard automatically highlights issues which are likely to lead to poor performance,” says Romel. “I can tell developers to focus on the right areas to improve quality. We can quickly see where best practices are not being followed. As you can imagine, since half of our developers are consultants, this gives me a great deal of control.”
The combination of visual development, which abstracts complexity, and the monitoring capabilities that help Romel enforce high standards have delivered significant productivity and quality gains for TODO1. And with several new bank wins in the pipeline, we look forward to updating this case study with news for TODO1’s continued growth soon.
