Alty

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of the project team at Halyk Bank, the largest bank in Kazakhstan.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Alty?

We’re trying to build our ecosystem. One of the key components is the travel segment. We wanted to create a mobile app that was different from typical banking products. We needed to find the best partner who could help us go through this project, which would challenge us.

We needed them to create the best user experience.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alty did market research in our area for popular services, main goals, type of software, and what kind of user cases are in our market. They made several prototypes and a lot of customer experience and test cases. They showed all the options to the bank, and we chose what we thought the best way to do the project was.

Then, they started to develop the mobile app for iOS and Android. The app shows banking products like different loan types.

What is the team composition?

There were 10 people.

How did you come to work with Alty?

Our partner showed us several developers. We also knew about the main Alty project that was for a huge online bank in our region.

Their team had a very good portfolio. They also showed us very good skills in customer experience and how they’re understanding the market along with people’s needs. That’s why we chose them.

Their price was reasonable, and their quality of work was very high level.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019, and the project wrapped towards the end of October or early November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Everything was ready in March 2020, but we decided to launch it in the summer due to pandemic restrictions. After a few conversations with Apple, we launched the iOS version in September.

The team at Alty made everything clear from the start to the end. When they finished the project, they made very good documentation, materials, source code, and artifacts from the project. It’s very easy for my colleagues to work on it and to develop it themselves. That was one of the key ingredients in our agreement.

We have around 80,000 clients. Our market share is around 3%, but we will do some other business decisions to invest in this project more. Our goal is to become the main player with the market share in three years and have 50% of the market.

How did Alty perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was perfect for me. I work with a lot of other companies, and they all have a lag in their time zone and language. Despite this, Alty worked perfectly.

They use Jira for their own purposes. We had daily calls with them about statuses and issues that arise. We didn’t face any big problems because we spoke every day. We had a very clear delivery from them.

If there are any issues, we see it right away. We don’t see their whole kitchen; we only see the results, and I like that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team has a very good experience, and they’re very skilled in terms of the UX/UI. Even some companies from London don’t show me this level of professionalism.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their team could work harder on developing their own people to make them experts in their area. I believe that they make very good products and create very good value, but they can improve it by creating some community and start connecting companies.

For example, I’d be happy to work with their clients in Ukraine to become their partners in our market. We’re a very conservative bank. They could improve how they perform on the market because they’re very closed to the public.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a very good backend team on your side. You will need more power and the ability to approve Alty’s proposals. When you work with these kinds of creative companies, you’ll need someone who can approve their ideas.