Back-Office Software for Leading Asia-Pacific Financial Services Provider
Case study

Back-Office Software for Leading Asia-Pacific Financial Services Provider

About the Client

The client is a Southeast Asia bank and one of the leading integrated financial services providers in Asia. The bank has a global presence in 20+ countries, including the EU, the US, and Australia, with 2.5+ million users.

The client focuses on retail broking, institutional equities, derivatives, prime services, equity research, asset management, and online broking.

Business Challenge

To scale operations and meet the needs of a growing user base, brokers employ back-office software to keep up with the fast-paced financial industry and market changes. Without such software, banks and financial services providers must rely on manual processes that cause delays and inaccuracies.

The absence of this technology put the client at a disadvantage when compared to their competitors who have invested in back-office software. This posed a challenge for the client to achieve their goals and keep up with user demand.

The client was seeking a reputable vendor to develop their back-office software solution using a Python/Django stack. The scope of the system was to manage commissions and margin settings, produce various reports, and send them to a specific group of customers or employees.

The vendor that had initially developed and supported the client’s system disengaged, leaving the client without the support they needed to manage their operations effectively. Accordingly, the client needed to partner with a reliable and experienced vendor that can give them stable, efficient, and integrated software to help them regain their competitive edge. Their search led to Devexperts, a well-known software development company that specializes in creating advanced solutions for brokerage firms.

Solution

Once familiarized with the scope of work, Devexperts set out to address three key issues: 

  1. Rectify the instability of the back-office software
  2. Correct any bugs
  3. Add additional features, making the system design flexible to suit the client’s needs

One of the largest challenges faced by the Devexperts’ team was the accreditation required by the regional regulator. Without this, third parties cannot directly access financial systems’ source code. 

This accreditation could take years to obtain, so Devexperts and the client came up with a workaround and used Amazon Workspaces (an AWS remote desktop service) to proceed with the project work as scheduled. 

“Working using a remote desktop is certainly less than ideal, but we had to sacrifice some of our comfort for the sake of the project’s success and time to market. Even though our engineers’ hands were tied by the client’s weighty information security policies, we managed to meet the deadlines. Kudos to our team’s experience and high qualifications!” Mikhail, Devexperts Technical Lead.

Results

Devexperts was able to quickly get the client back on track by stabilizing their back-office solution, ensuring the system’s sustainability.

The knowledgeable Devexperts team also resolved several issues and added new features needed to meet the client’s needs and preferences. 

“The Devexperts team’s attention to detail and testing were unparalleled during the entire development process. I commend their technical expertise and knowledge of the specifics of the broker’s business, and fully recommend Devexperts for such engagements.” 

VP, the client.