Ten most innovative companies in banking, super and financial services

 9 December 2020:

Small businesses can now make better, data-driven financial decisions, after an award-winning app connects business tools in one platform.

The AFR BOSS Most Innovative Companies list recognises the most innovative organisations in Australia and New Zealand, as judged by the expert panel assembled by The Australian Financial Review and Inventium. The assessment methodology is outlined here.

In 2020, the list has been split into 10 industry-specific categories.

These are the top 10 innovations in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services category.

1. Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Innovation: Vonto by X15 Ventures

Number of employees: 500+

Vonto is an app that helps small business owners make better, data-driven decisions by connecting key business tools in one platform (including Xero, Google Analytics, Shopify, Instagram, Facebook and Vend).

Small business owners are sometimes switching between six apps to get a holistic view of their business and what Vonto does is simplify the business owner's view of their business, says Vonto managing director Elliot Cousins.

It curates the range of “different SaaS applications or business apps and data they've got available, and pulls that into a single platform and leverages pretty advanced technology, particularly analytics capability, to generate a curated and highly personalised feed of data insights".

Winner of the Best Innovation in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services category and the Most Innovative Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services organisation.

2. SocietyOne

Innovation: COVID-19 Hardship Response

Number of employees: 30-99

SocietyOne has designed a completely digitised process to dramatically speed up the processing of COVID-19 related hardship claims, without losing the quality of care and customer service. It spans three data collection channels, which are fed into a triage bot, which speeds up the process and improves the consistency of decision making.

More than 2000 customers were successfully assessed using the new process throughout a four-week period and the average time for processing requests has reduced from five days to less than 24 hours.

3. BPAY

Innovation: BPAY APIs

Number of employees: 100-499

BPAY Group’s developer portal is a one-stop shop for developers allowing customers to register and access BPAY APIs.

The BPAY APIs allow customers to access key features of BPAY in real time. For example, looking up a BPAY biller to ensure the payee details are correct and creating customer reference numbers and QR codes in the correct format to help BPAY biller reconciliation. These features avoid the need to implement more expensive and complex batch-based solutions, and reduce the overheads of mistaken payments for customers.

The API program directly led to 3 million BPAY transactions last financial year, the majority of which came from new customers. This represents a huge increase in both access to BPAY for financial institutions and access to an easy, secure payment option for end-users.

4. MoneyMe

Innovation: ListReady

Number of employees: 30-99

ListReady is a breakthrough, buy now pay later solution that provides instant access to funds, allowing vendors to delay listing costs such as advertising and styling up to $35,000 until settlement, while their real estate agency gets paid upfront.

The solution uses advanced machine-learning algorithms to provide an automated and frictionless payment solution, removing the hassle and upfront cost barrier associated with listing a property.

Since launch, over 300 real estate agencies and more than 2000 agents across Australia have signed up to use the platform.

5. Household Capital

Innovation: Household Capital Customer Experience (Cx) Software

Number of employees: 30-99

Household uses specialist software to help show older Australians how much wealth they have saved in their superannuation, pension as well as the savings they have made in their family home. The software delivers personalised information to older Australian outlining how they can better improve their retirement outcomes through a range of financial factors such as responsible use of home equity savings which can increase individuals’ confidence in the future.

The approach can double the amount of available superannuation savings for the median retiree, and since launch it has delivered tens of millions of dollars in credit to clients.

6. 86400

Innovation: Energy Switch

Number of employees: 100-499

Consumers can submit an old energy bill and 86400’s Energy Switch service intelligently recalculates the bill using hundreds of other plans to find cheaper deals. With no commissions and an industry-first one-tap switch, customers can confidently switch-and-save in minutes.

After selecting a cheaper plan, customers can avoid completing lengthy application forms by consenting to their personal information held by 86400 being seamlessly shared with the new energy retailer, ready for onboarding.

In the three months since the launch, more than 1200 electricity bills have been processed and cheaper plans found for around 70 per cent of customers who tried the service, delivering savings of between $135 and $2000 per annum.

7. Claim Central Consolidated

Innovation: Virtual Inspections as a Service (VIaaS)

Number of employees: 100-499

Virtual Inspections as a Service (VIaaS) digitally connects insurance assessors directly with policyholders to inspect and assess their claims, using a live video streaming and collaboration platform (LiveLogik), saving significant time and effort involved with on-site visits.

VIaaS meets every insurer’s need to ensure the safety of all stakeholders during and after the COVID-19 pandemic by removing the need for physical site attendance.

LiveLogik has been used on over 150,000 jobs globally in a variety of industries including insurance, construction, engineering, property management and manufacturing. It is currently used in Europe, North America, Asia, Oceania and Africa. It has led to a 62 per cent reduction in average assessment time.

8. Westpac Banking Corporation

Innovation: Wendy - Westpac's First Digital Job Coach

Number of employees: 500+

Wendy provides teenagers with helpful and accessible information about finding and starting their first job – from understanding the difference between a CV and a resume, preparing for an interview or managing their social media accounts so they can put their best foot forward.

Wendy uses a system that is sensing, learning, adapting and communicating in real time using artificial intelligence services like Natural Language Processing, Speech-To-Text, Text-To-Speech, Sentiment analysis and Computer Vision Recognition to create a more real and personalised experience that moves beyond your standard text-based help. Importantly, Wendy gives customers choice so they can chat when and where it suits them.

9. FinClear

Innovation: The FinClear Platform

Number of employees: 30-99

The FinClear Platform does everything an adviser, stockbroker or fintech would typically outsource to multiple vendors and service providers. It makes the investment and management process significantly more efficient and reduces cost and risk for any investment that is listed on a stock exchange, such as equities, listed investment companies and Exchange Traded Funds.

The platform solution can provide a saving of 1 per cent-1 ½ per cent a year, equating to thousands of dollars for an investor. It’s especially efficient for clients with low account balances. In addition, it drives significant savings at the planner level as the administration costs are far lower. The platform currently services over 500,000 clients.

10. Lendi

Innovation: Lendi Approval Confidence

Number of employees: 100-499

The Lendi Approval Confidence technology provides customers with a real-time rating as to whether their loan application is likely to be approved by multiple lenders. Typically, borrowers must submit a home loan application and then wait weeks before getting feedback from the lender as to whether they meet requirements and will have their loan approved.

Lendi customers can now see whether they meet a lender's requirements, subject to verification, in under an hour and in one single online session that doesn't impact their credit score.

Approval Confidence is enabled by world-first direct integrations between the Lendi platform and the back-end decision engines of some of Australia's biggest banks and lenders.

Top 10 innovations

Banking, superannuation and financial services

SOURCE: FINANCIAL REVIEW

Many apps rolled into one

Vonto was one of the first new businesses to grow out of the Commonwealth Bank’s X15 ventures vehicle which was set up earlier this year to explore next-generation financial services solutions for the bank’s customers.

Managing director of the new entity Toby Norton-Smith says each venture is built with the robustness, around cyber security for example, that makes the bank comfortable while also “taking advantage of CBA's reach, its brand and its balance sheet”.

Managing director of Vonto Elliot Cousins says small business owners are inundated with data at present and it can be difficult for them to make well-informed business decisions.

“Our research showed 80 per cent of businesses were using on average six apps to run their business - meaning potentially six logins to six different apps or software tools every day, just to see the status quo of where they're at right now,” Cousins says.

The challenge for them is to make better business decisions based on the wealth of data available. What Vonto offers is kind of like a Twitter feed for data.

“A business owner sets up a Vonto portfolio account, we then integrate with a range of different SaaS application including the likes of Xero and QuickBooks, Facebook, Instagram, Google Analytics and Shopify, for example.

“All of those connect to Vonto, and then behind the scenes, we pull that data and run really powerful analytics to serve up a personalised feed of the top 10 insights across all those business functions that the business owner needs to be across every day.”

Cousins says these combined analytics allow business owners “to make better business decisions right in the palm of their hand.”

Another application lying in the palm of a business’s hand is MoneyMe’s ListReady. Built off the back of the company’s Horizon platform which allows the fintech firm to create bespoke products tailored to specific sectors and customers.

With ListReady, the sector is property and MoneyMe founder Clayton Howes says it fast-forwards specific financial services products for real estate agents.

It allows consumers to instantly access a line of credit of up to $35,000 that can be used to prepare their home for sale.

“For the property agent, they can start leveraging straightaway and the homeowner can start making improvements.

“Once the property sells, all the costs are reimbursed at settlement,” Howes says.

“It’s frictionless as it’s all done on a mobile device with a few clicks. It helps to get a better sales outcome and is an example where financial services and technology have merged to create more value for customers.”

• The 10 most innovative technology companies
• The 10 most innovative property, construction and transport companies
• The 10 most innovative professional services companies
• The 10 most innovative media and marketing companies
• The 10 most innovative manufacturing and consumer companies
• The 10 most innovative health companies
• The 10 most innovative government, education and not-for-profit firms
• The 5 most innovative retail, hospitality, tourism companies
• The 5 most innovative agriculture, mining and utility companies
• All the prize-winners

Original article published on the AFR