A recently published case study by Five Degrees evaluates their relationship with Dutch start-up bank Knab. The pair share a long history – Knab was the very first user of the Five Degrees Matrix mid-office system. This newly published Knab Case Study by Five Degrees takes a look at the challenges and successes cooperation.
Five Degrees, a Breukelen-based digital banking platform provider to banks and other financial institutions, recently published a case study report reviewing its successes with the first-ever user of its Matrix mid-office system by the Dutch start-up bank – Knab. Knab has made a significant impact on the Dutch banking scene, having broadened its product since it launched. Knab now serves more than 125,000 customers, and has more new products planned for the future. Five Degrees and Knab have worked to maintain a close relationship that has evolved accordingly throughout the bank’s growth.
Strong foundations
Since its start, one of Knab’s key objectives is the achievement of a three-layer architecture. Five Degrees’ Matrix solution has supported customer relationship management (CRM), business process management (BPM), and document management processes for Knab since its early days. It is therefore hardly surprising that it has now become an important part of the IT jigsaw, especially considering the fact that Knab is planning to implement a ‘financial platform strategy’ as it enters its next phase of evolution, in which it will start offering third-party products.
According to the case study report, Knab took a so-called leap of faith when it signed with Five Degrees; its founder ‘wryly noted’ that, “The story was better than the software at the time. Knab became rather more of a development partner than it had envisaged but this allowed it to help shape the situation.”
Evolution innovation
Fortunately, Matrix lived up to that early promise, although a total of two years were needed to get the bank up and running – longer than the 12 to 18 months that was initially expected. At first, integration presented a bit of a challenge, as some of the participating parties had differing end-goals. Five Degrees and Virtual Affairs were both clearly focused on successfully serving their first customers, whereas Callatay & Wouters preferred to make inroads on the Dutch market. Knab stores all transaction data in the back-end, and Matrix holds all customer data, ensuring that nothing is duplicated. The customer view from the mid-office includes all relationships and projects. The system handles all workflows so that, when a customer-driven action occurs, a case is then opened in Matrix. This includes customer identity checks every time the customer logs on, as well as complaint handling. On-boarding processes are fully automated.
Relationship between Knab & Five Degrees
Knab Founder, René Frijters: “ We really like each other because we experienced very tough periods but we fought to get the same solutions and we always aimed for the same goals.” Since its launch, Knab has been driven to create new and innovative solutions, and Five Degrees has been an effective partner in that effort. This innovation is clear in the effort the start-up bank puts into the planning and testing of new products – it started with a basic current account and savings proposition, but has since expanded.
‘Five Degrees’ Matrix will continue to be pivotal.’
Within the Dutch banking sector, Knab has served as a high-profile and successful addition, having acquired satisfactory market share in a relatively short period of time by offering a clear alternative to what already existed in the competitive space. As Knab continues its rapid growth, the supporting IT landscape will undoubtedly become more complicated. As it does the three-layer ethos that was defined at the get go will remain in place and, within this IT system, the Five Degrees Matrix solution will continue to play a pivotal role.
To download the complete Knab Case Study by Five Degrees, click here.
