Fin-tech as a technology enterprise has more responsibility than making banking businesses operate seamlessly. It essentially should equip the banks with tools and techniques to be able to respond to global markets in a quick and effective way, simultaneously keeping the business secure. Maveric, a global banking tech company has crossed all these stages, now exploring ways to provide end-to-end digital banking solutions leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing, machine learning, and big data and delivering custom-made solutions at a quicker pace in the ever-emerging fin-tech world. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Muraleedhar Pai, Executive Director of Maveric Systems.

1. Kindly brief us about Maveric Systems, and its specialization.

In our 22 years of operations, Maveric Systems has earned its recognition and name as a trusted IT partner with global and regional banking leaders. Currently, in our transformation journey (Maveric 4.0), we are tandemly evolving with the banking industry as they adopt, transform and leverage technology for their strategic needs in their current re-emergence as digital businesses. Focusing on functional and UAT validations, Maveric 1.0 was all about reducing the risk of technology adoption, where we used to ensure that custom-built IT systems were fit for purpose. When banks started accelerating the strategic use of IT, we transformed our offerings in Maveric 2.0 to provide extreme automation ensuring the functional readiness of critical systems and their robustness for continued availability at scale. In Maveric 3.0, we heeded our customer demands and started offering digital and data engineering, and end-to-end implementations of core banking platforms. Maveric 4.0 is all about digital banking. We provide end-to-end solutions for most of the demands of digital banks ranging from "open banking" to a "segment of one" to addressing emerging digital regulations. We are deft in using cloud-first, distributed computing, and machine learning to deliver strategic value to our customers. With operations worldwide and offices in the US, UK, Singapore, Northern Europe, Middle East, and India, we can partner with any bank to make the digital next happen for them at zero risk.

2. Elaborate on your role at Maveric Systems and how has been your journey in this highly promising sector.

The journey so far has been exciting. Maveric Systems has offered me plenty of challenging opportunities and the freedom to cast my own course. In the last four years, I have worn multiple hats. But the most noteworthy has been building a business practice that currently accounts for more than 20% of the revenues. The practice around big data and advanced analytics, which I seeded, has grown at more than 30% YoY and partnered with global banks in a few of their strategic programs and projects. We were able to onboard a set of leaders with deep knowledge of data engineering and advanced analytics and create a set of unique offerings that are gaining good support from many banks. We were also able to build the strategy to take our services to Northern Europe, which is currently being implemented.  

As far as the sector goes, banking may be highly regulated and not able to work on some emerging technologies as quickly as some other sectors. But that is where you will be tested. It's not only about speed, nor is it only about innovation. It's about agility in innovating at scale without increasing the risk. It is not as easy as it sounds. While any innovation is exciting and fun, tempering it with appropriate controls to reduce risk tests you to the full. While the opportunities to use emerging advanced data technologies and algorithms are exciting, doing it within the regulatory framework makes it a challenge unlike any other. That certainly pushes your capabilities to the limit, and such challenges bring the best out of our professionals.

3. What edge Maveric Systems has over other players in the industry?

Commitment, ownership, and focus. We have decided to stick to banking for 22 years. It is not accidental but is a conscious choice. Banking is critical for global economic success. By committing to banking, we are ensuring that we are latching onto this global economy. Some of the most complex technology challenges are in the banking industry. Hence it is fraught with challenges. But we love those challenges and excel in them. At Maveric Systems, our thought process has always been "Banking first, technology next".

We have a very lean structure. An associate working on a program is at three skip levels from a director who sponsors the service. The lean structure ensures that we can and must respond to customer demands swiftly and efficiently. We thrive in "do-or-die" situations. The customer gets the best results from the partnership and we get long-haul and lasting relationships as a takeaway. It has helped us grow to the current level without a sales team. Maveric Systems is not an Omni-solution shop for banks. We have picked up only three areas. We ensure that our customers' transformations are risk-free, that all their decisions are data-driven, and that their customers have a seamless omnichannel experience. Each of them is critical for banks and challenging to excel in. But our focus ensures that we succeed in these, and our business has grown tremendously. All these factors ensure that our customers are our long-term partners and the organization's best salespeople. 

4. How is Maveric Systems helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through the adoption of the company's technology innovations?

I can continue to talk about this for a long time. Primarily we know what is banking. We are good with our technology. It requires more than innovations for banks to win the day. All the abilities, starting from security, scalability, maintainability, durability, etc., the boxes are many to cross before our innovations reach the hands of customers of our banking partners. We make innovations a reality for banks. We work with digital-only banks and fintech to test out newer technology innovations so that we are fully ready when we apply ourselves to change the bank initiatives. We have helped global banks to adopt innovations in boundaryless banking through open banking, democratize data through the adoption of distributed computing and cloud, use advanced algorithms and machine learning to enable instant banking, etc. But the focus had been more on innovation for the bank's customers and continuously enriching their experience within the tight regulatory regimes they operate in.

5. Which industry verticals are you currently focusing on? And what is your go-to-market strategy for the same?

We are a banking technology company. Our world is retail banking with all its asset and liability products for retail customers. At times we may get into related fintech that competes / partners with retail banks. With our focus on banking, we go to markets in 3 different ways. Direct investment in sales, investment in product partnerships, and referrals from existing customers. With our expertise in banking technology, we have a fair understanding of the budgets of banks and their large programs. We invested in sales teams in Northern Europe and North America in 2021, and connections through these investments from the named target banks are our primary source of leads. We have partnerships with core banking providers like Temenos, IT platforms, or product providers like ServiceNow, Azure, etc. We also work closely with CIO advisory firms, which source some leads. Banking being a close-knit segment, our success stories make way to some of our named targets through our existing customers.

We invest in these leads through our senior consulting leaders, who initially help customers craft their use, business, and investment cases. With our singular focus on banking, we differentiate our involvement at this stage and have a healthy conversion ratio. Once we get an account, typically, they stay with us for a long haul. That engine ensures that we are growing, no matter what.

6. What does your technology and business roadmap look like for the rest of the year?

For digital, the themes are:  

• Integrated omnichannel and enabled partnerships for banks
• Democratized and self-serve analytics to help SMEs and individual customers do better financial management
• Ensuring the pervasive customer experience through extreme resilience of systems 

For Data and Advanced Analytics, the themes are:

• Ensuring regulatory compliance while digital leapfrogging
• Self-service of current data along with analytics tools for business
• Segment of one digital experience for customers through advanced algorithms

Our research and deep partnerships with our banking customers ensure that we proactively discover and engage in these programs and partner with them to deliver superior experiences to the end-users of global banks.