Exclusive Interview with Rahul Murthi, Co-founder and Director, Acies
Acies is a multi-national firm specializing in technology platforms and products, advisory and implementation services, L&D solutions, and strategic investments.
Acies’ core vision is on democratizing technology, with the core of our business being our no-code platform – Revolutio. Acies aim to make Revolutio easily accessible, available, and affordable to a broader spectrum of innovators, creators, entrepreneurs, and businesses. This would help in rapid digitalization and the creation of new business models and monetization opportunities.
Their firm comprises four businesses:
- Acies TechWorks focuses on providing enterprise applications (with Revolutio as it’s backbone) in the domains of risk management, regulation, treasury and derivatives, and finance;
- Acies Consulting focuses on providing research and advisory services in the areas of derivatives and risk management, digital transformation, regulatory compliance, and strategy, and implementing technology-enabled risk, regulatory and business transformation initiatives using Revolutio and other platforms;
- Acies Lighthouse helps individuals and enterprises bridge the technology literacy gap amidst rapid technological advancements;
- Acies Ventures through its unique Ventures-Revolutio program partners with startups and entrepreneurs to create innovative solutions (using Revolutio) and business models.
How do no-code solutions improve existing early warning systems for banks and NBFCs to detect NPAs?
A fundamental need for banks and NBFCs for detecting NPAs is to ensure that their early warning systems are flexible and configurable to quickly adapt to new indicators and data flows. The need to build in near real-time flexibility to change and integrate data flows and metrics makes it essential for early warning systems to be improved through no-code solutions. As a result, traditional early warning systems are most likely to be replaced by those built on no-code platforms.
No-code platforms help provide seamless data integration through APIs and live data streaming. They also help build and deploy both deterministic and predictive models in hours. They help in near real-time visualization and information disbursement to key stakeholders and decision makers to make informed portfolio rebalancing decisions. In a volatile world where financial institutions need to keep looking over their shoulders for situations that quickly impact their businesses, early warning systems built on no-code platforms help them look ahead.
What advantages do no-code platforms offer in reducing the risk of NPAs compared to traditional systems?
Traditional early warning systems tend to have a high latency both in terms of data aggregation and computations. They are also heavily focused on internal data and their ability to translate both internal and external data into predictive inputs for decisions-making is relatively weak or inadequate. In general, traditional early warning systems are more oriented towards scorecards reviewed at pre-determined intervals.
No-code platforms allow for risk indicators to be parameterizable and can ingest and aggregate data from multiple (internal and external data) sources in near real-time. They enable, with the help ‘of deterministic, stochastic and machine learning models, near real-time prediction, visualization and distribution of intelligence that helps in re-balancing underwriting decisions, initiating early recovery and resolution, and portfolio down-selling.
Have you noticed a rise in the use of no-code platforms by businesses recently?
Absolutely! The adoption of no-code platforms has burst onto the enterprise space and has become a mainstream solution in their technology adoption decisions. The expected benefits of no-code platforms on generating faster implementation at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) is beginning to be realized by enterprises.
The adoption of no-code platforms today by businesses is for building workflow-oriented applications either used internally or extended for their customers and connecting to different applications and databases within their ecosystem using application programming interfaces (APIs).
Adoption of no-code platforms for building or using complex business applications or applications that are core to the functioning of an enterprise is in its infancy – however, with the rapid release of features to achieve the most complex of business activities by no-code platforms, mainstream adoption is around the corner.
What makes no-code platforms attractive to enterprises looking to streamline operations or create new solutions?
No-code platforms enable rapid application development, drastically reducing the time required to convert requirements to tangible applications from months to just a couple of weeks, depending on complexity.
End users and digital transformation teams are empowered to shape applications according to their needs right from Day 1. This user-centric approach that no-code platforms have unlocked in the digital transformation space and results in applications that better align with use cases. Additionally, digital transformation projects have accelerated especially where many previously deemed out-of-scope projects, are now feasible due to the efficiency of no-code platforms.
Lastly, no-code platforms significantly reduce costs. Both initial development and ongoing maintenance expenses decrease to about 20% of what traditional app development would incur. This cost-efficiency promotes sustainability and profitability.
In what ways do no-code platforms address the specific needs of the banking and financial sector?
The banking and financial services need to keep up with constantly changing regulatory requirements for automation. While keeping traditional flow business intact, the Financial Services sector is required to build a digital first model in parallel. No-code platforms are key in the transition to a digital first model. They are also key to managing evolving and rapidly changing regulatory requirements.
Financial institutions today have been using no-code platforms for workflow automation and data collection and collation purposes. The first set of use cases included digital approval management, digital onboarding and customer ID validation, vendor onboarding and profiling, and customer complaints management, respectively. Financial institutions are now moving towards using no-code platforms for addressing complex business requirements.
No-code platforms have also enabled enterprises in the BFSI space to rapidly cleanse, aggregate and make sense of vast pools of data residing in multiple systems and silos. This is helping enterprises to monetize data, improve the quality of their credit portfolio and improve customer experience through intelligent data and contextual applications.