Nedbank Mobile App Suite – behind the scenes

Nedbank entered the mobile game much later than its competitors. But, writes LIRON SEGEV, aka The Techie Guy, this was due to first laying a secure infrastructure before pushing its suite of apps to mobile users

There is a story about two people who set out to sell water to their village. The one started fetching water with buckets from the river and was able to start selling immediately. The other took the longer route and built a pipe-architecture system. When that was complete the village had infinite water and at a cheaper price as the foundation have been laid correctly.

This story comes to mind when I trace the mobile journey that Nedbank has undertaken. Nedbank entered the mobile game later than its competitors, however they took a different route. They invested into a solid architecture, focusing on creating a secure container into which services, applications and features can be deployed to their customers all with a single interface. Its competitors deployed various apps and services, but via different channels, often confusing the customer instead of making things easier.

As testament to this vision, on the 10 September 2012, Nedbank launched the Nedbank Business services without users having to re-install any apps. It was a seamless process.

So how has Nedbank Mobile App Suite fared? I was given an exclusive sneak peak behind the scenes.

The Vital Statistics

The Nedbank App Suite was launched to the public in the following sequence:

– Android Phone was launched to public on 27 August

– Android Tablet on 20 September

– iOS (iPhone and iPad) on 21 September

– BlackBerry on 12 October

– Feature Phone deployment is targeted for Q4 2012

As at 22 October, in excess of 66,000 users have installed the Nedbank App Suite across the various platforms with more than 30,000 users enrolling for secure services (such as Banking, Nedbank Business and Share Trading).

The following represents the high level download statistics for each of the platforms:

My Financial Life has attracted a user base of more than 3,200 clients to date with a steadily increasing rate.

Social Marketing

Interestingly, the current client take up on both the Nedbank App Suite and My Financial Life has been achieved with limited marketing efforts, relying largely on Social Media channels.

The official marketing of the Nedbank App Suite started on earlier this month, which will increase the user base of the Nedbank App Suite even further.

Main activities being performed

The Nedbank Mobile App is a suite of products. Clients are utilising the full set of functionality provided by the Banking service – by far the most utilised functionality.

Obtaining a balance enquiry is at the top of the list of transactions and there is a significant utilisation of the transactions made specifically available on the Nedbank App Suite such as performing once-off payments and buying pre-paid airtime.

Customer Feedback

Nedbank is very satisfied with the progress made to date and the customer take up. The majority of the feedback received is positive and the team is working to enhance the offering.

* Article courtesy of The Techie Guy