How to Choose the Right Fintech Company in 2021

Financial Technology, also known as FinTech, is one of the fastest-growing industries. It refers to technology deployed to improve the provision of financial services like mobile payment apps, digital banking, financial scheduling, cryptocurrency, and many more. In the first half of 2019, the FinTech market share across 48 fintech companies was $187 billion.

If you offer a fintech product or plan to offer one, your success hinges on how strong a team you have put together. If your project is successful, you need to hire the right team with the proper mix of experience and talent.

In this article, we will determine how to choose the right fintech company for a successful project.

Determine the Type of FinTech Product You Want to Develop

Before you embark on developing a fintech product, the first thing you should do is to determine the type of product you want. Are you looking to create a cryptocurrency product? Or do you want to develop a regulatory technology product (RegTec)? Will your project solve lending, payment, or insurance problems?

There are different types of fintech products you can develop and deploy to solve different problems. To increase the chances of successfully developing one, ensure you have identified the financial problem you want to solve and the best product to help you do so.

Fintech Products' Must-Have Features

You have to incorporate several intriguing features into your Fintech app to make it efficient for users. Some of them are:

• Data Analytics

The existence of data often improves people's decision-making abilities. For this reason, integrating the data analytics feature into your fintech app will help users to make improved financial decisions.

Data analytics is a feature that first analyzes information related to users’ financial activities. It then sends an accurate report of its analysis to users. The best part is, this report enables users to stay up-to-date on their finances.

It is important to note that fintech apps with data analytics are some of the users' favorites. This, thereby, makes data analytics one of the most essential features of fintech products.

• Artificial Intelligence

Integrating artificial intelligence (or AI) in fintech apps increases their capabilities. This is because AI introduces innovation - a vital tool for improving operational efficiency - into these apps.

Additionally, AI offers users several benefits: increased accuracy, enhanced fraud detection, improved wealth management, and automated customer support services.

Note: By automating customer support, professionals do not have to assist customers anymore. Instead, they can focus on tasks that can help improve the business and its ROI.

• Personalization

AI-integrated fintech apps are required to have high personalization capabilities. This feature enables fintech apps to offer smart suggestions and responses to their users. Interestingly, these suggestions and responses are usually the results of the analysis of users' spending and investment habits.

By effectively implementing AI for personalization, fintech apps aid customers in proper decision-making by analyzing user data. They also assist in making effective recommendations.

• Third-party Authentication

To ensure the security of customers' digital accounts, fintech apps must offer two-factor authentication. This feature uses a security mechanism that ensures customers' accounts cannot be breached without specific third-party tools.

An example of this tool is the short message system or SMS. Other examples are Google Authenticator, LastPass Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and Authy.

• Intuitive Interface

Most users love to use fintech apps that have aesthetically pleasing interfaces and are easy to manipulate. They also love apps with fast sign-in options.

In essence, an excellent user interface is one remarkable feature your fintech app should own. This is because the interface alone can distinguish your app from your competitors. Furthermore, a simple UI/UX design provides users with incredible power and flexibility. These

• Payment Gateway

The primary purpose of a fintech app is to make financial operations. These include financial transfers, digital payments, balance monitoring, etc. As such, your fintech app should have features that enable it to conduct these operations.

Note: Regardless of how convenient you want to make your fintech app, endeavor always to put security first.

Fintech Developers' Must-Have Skills

To ensure that you hire the most proficient fintech software company in the industry, there are specific skills you must look out for. They are:

Blockchain Expertise

The cryptocurrency industry has recently experienced a rise in popularity. To illustrate, digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP have encountered exponential increases in their values across the past decade. This has, however, prompted a significant change in the traditional banking system.

One important thing to note is that Blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrency. It is a single, shared, and consensus system of transactions that have hugely impacted the cryptocurrency industry.

Despite its popularity, Blockchain is quite complex, hence difficult to understand and implement. However, its understanding is vital to creating fintech software. And this is why blockchain expertise is a must-have skill in a fintech developer.

Programming Skills

Programming skills in languages like C++, Python, Java, SQL, JavaScript, etc., are in high demand in finance industries. It is, therefore, recommended that a finance software developer be well-versed in some programming languages.

The following are two highly-rated programming languages in the fintech industry.

• C++: C++ is a programming language known for its speed and efficiency. It is ideal for creating apps that require high-speed development execution. Further, it features a rich library and versatile tools, which makes it valuable for various requirements.
• Python: Python is one of the most commonly used programming languages in the finance industry. It is also the go-to language for creating a business finance app. While it is not a sophisticated programming language, Python uses a clear syntax, making it valuable for the finance industry. Moreover, it uses very powerful frameworks like Django, which enables developers to create unique apps.

Software Development

Compared to other essential fintech developers' skills, software development appears to be general rather than specific. It is also one of the critical skills a fintech developer needs to create a fintech app. Likewise, software development is concerned with the more general commercial and financial services that are characteristic of full-stack development. This means that it is not restricted to the server or client aspect of development alone.

With this skill, developers can create different types of fintech apps. Examples are digital banks, game-changing electronic marketplaces, etc.

Note: The user experience (UX) design of a fintech app is one of its most effective features. This is because the more customer-friendly an app is, the more users enjoy using the app. With software development, you get both software architectural and developmental capabilities in one financial software developer.

Data Specialists

Fintech technology continues to change and redefine the financial industry, albeit slowly. The process it employs generates a considerable amount of useful data that must be carefully examined, analyzed, and interpreted. This makes it imperative for financial software engineers to possess the skills and knowledge of certain data specialists’ technologies. Some of these include machine learning, deep space, big data, AI, etc.

By converting these data into useful information, fintech firms successfully stay ahead of their competitors. The rationale for this is that the generated information allows businesses to make valuable customer-oriented decisions. It also enables them to improve their services, thus making them cheaper, faster, and more reliable.

DevOps Expertise

When a business expands, it usually goes through an automation process. This, in turn, leads to the demand for DevOps. DevOps is a technological skill that enables businesses to automate their processes. It also provides businesses with information that makes it easy to adopt the DevOps mentality.

In essence, adopting the DevOps mentality increases your financial software's efficiency. It also reduces the typical software development lifecycle.

Cybersecurity

Cyber threats are a huge concern for everyone in cyberspace, especially those in the financial industry. In situations where fintech companies undergo cyber-attacks, they are likely to lose their customers' personal and financial details.

As expected, these losses usually have enormous consequences for both the customers and the financial company. For instance, it may cause damaged reputation, information loss, reduced employee morale, strained business relationships, etc.

Because of these, it becomes vital that financial software development companies secure their applications from the very beginning. To do this, you need cybersecurity professionals skilled in different cybersecurity methods. Some of these methods are encryption methods, risk management and compliance (GRC), digital communication technologies, governance, incident investigations, response-ability, etc. Other required security operations are data administration and management, virtualization, communication skills, security operations management, and other technology-specific skills.

Soft Skills

While the fintech mentioned above skills will help create the desired fintech products, they can't foster collaboration among team members. They also can't manage personalities or make decisions, among others. To do this, finance software companies need soft skills. These include:

• Problem-solving skills: As we have mentioned, the financial software development process can be complex and challenging. This usually increases the likelihood of developers encountering problems along the way. Consequently, the right software development team must have problem-solving skills. As such, it should easily identify the problems and solve them accordingly without wasting time.
• People skills: This is one of the most important soft skills a software developer must have. Having people skills enables team members to understand one another and avoid all sorts of conflicts. It also improves the bond between teams, thus allowing them to collaborate effectively.
• Adaptability and flexibility skills: The fintech industry is a rapidly changing one. As such, software development teams within the industry should always be ready to change with it. Further, every software developer has to be flexible enough to provide fintech solutions to unforeseen issues as they arise.

Main Selection Criteria for a Fintech Software Company

As a business operating in the finance software sector, you must employ the right fintech software development company. This is because, like other business owners, you want the financial software solution you have devised to be developed to perfection. You also want an excellent software product that matches your fintech ideas and has a huge selling potential. Luckily, these can be achieved if you hire the right fintech software company.

To select the best fintech software company, consider the following criteria:

Fintech Product Development Experience

A primary indicator of a fintech company's capability is its experience with fintech product development. This is imperative because the more experienced software companies are, the more they usually have to offer. As such, inquire about the experience level of the fintech company you want to employ. Take it a step further and request for the company's fintech project portfolio. Take note that this portfolio can provide insights into the types and qualities of products the company has helped develop. You may even find projects on there that are similar to what you intend to create.

Moreover, a company with broad exposure most likely has vast expertise. Thus, the right financial programmers will be well-versed in implementing one feature or the other. They will also know to bring novel ideas based on their experience with past projects.

Company Capacity

Another criterion to look out for is the company capacity. This includes the size of the development team at any stage of the development process.

It is critical to note that the company capacity usually changes depending on the stage of development. Therefore, we recommend you choose a company with a wide range of experts and IT specialists. And more importantly, these experts should be capable of handling every task the project requires—these range from coding to testing, designing, cybersecurity enhancement, etc.

Furthermore, we recommend choosing a company that offers all the services required for software development. These include market research, design, coding, testing, etc.

Product Security

Security is a core feature of fintech products. Consequently, it should be prioritized in software development processes.

Before you hire a software development company, ensure that it places a high value on product security. That is, the development process of the company meets all cybersecurity requirements. In addition, confirm whether the company adheres to proper regulations and standards during product development processes.

Risk Management Strategy Plan

Before choosing an IT outsourcing company for your software development, ensure that it has a risk management strategy plan. That is, the company should be ready to compensate you when it fails to meet up to agreed-upon product quality and/or regulatory compliance.

Subsequently, ensure that the company agrees to your backsourcing terms and conditions before you sign to hire them.

Client Reviews

Client reviews are an effective way of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the company you intend to work with. This is because they represent clients’ opinions of the type and quality of software projects the reviewed company executes. Thus, we recommend that you take them seriously.

If you doubt the genuineness of the reviews on companies' corporate sites, head on to independent sites. Examples of these are Clutch, GoodForm, Moderator, etc.

Fintech Projects Portfolio

Does the company have relevant experience when it comes to developing fintech products? Do they have a verifiable track record? What do their past completed projects say about their abilities?

When you are looking to select the right fintech company for your fintech products, you want to ensure they can deliver what you require.

Software Maintenance and Support Service

Another factor you should consider before hiring a fintech development company is its software maintenance and support service. If a company has an active support service, your mind can be at rest if you ever encounter a snag with your product, as they will be able to guide you through it.

Also, if your development company has a software maintenance service, they will do a better job fixing your product if it has a glitch.

Working Model

Finally, the right development company for your fintech product should have a working model they have perfected over several successful projects. With a working model in place, your fintech product development will proceed much more smoothly than it would otherwise. Also, a working model will protect against errors and ensure your product’s development follows a strict and efficient process.

Reason to Choose Boston Unisoft Technologies for Financial Software Development

With many factors to consider, choosing the right fintech software development company can be a challenging decision. However, you can conduct independent research on a reputable company like Boston Unisoft Technologies. We tick every box to develop a highly secure, interactive, and responsive software and mobile app for your fintech company.

Are you looking for the right fintech company to develop your fintech product? Boston Unisoft Technologies is here to help. We have the right mix of experience and talent to deliver a satisfactory product for you. Furthermore, we have access to the right technologies required to execute a fintech project flawlessly. Regardless of the type of fintech product you want to develop, we have the capacity to execute it and ensure it serves the purpose you have in mind.

You can book a free one-on-one free call with our software development team to discuss your project.