Embracing a Digital TransformationA large U.S. bank is leveraging its financial power and stability by innovating existing positions in the FinTech space. As the fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States, the bank has prioritized the needs of partners and consumers by investing in competitive FinTech resources enthusiastically embracing a digital transformation.Akana Helps With... Modernization of Services Streamlining Integrated Processes New Partnerships Through Innovation Businesses want a seamless partnership.We were tasked with eliminating any resistance to leveraging our services. Our goal is to create a delightful, digital experience — and we’re doing it with Akana."Senior Vice President, North American Bank Create a Delightful, Digital ExperienceCurrent market preferences and trends led the bank to thoroughly update existing assets and processes.ModernizationThe bank has merchant payment services and other core services available for partners today. The process for onboarding and consuming these services required modernization in order to reduce the time it takes to get to that first transaction. The focus became developer buy-in and cooperation. Methods of packaging, preparing, and supporting APIs had to change.IntegratingThe bank's internal processes were integrated to allow for exceptional customer and employee experiences. The integrated processes also provided for incremental revenue due to the improved experience in cross-selling services. APIs enabled the bank to streamline cross-selling of related services by a single banker from a single screen. Bank employees are now empowered to cross-sell customers by filling out applications in real time, and acquiring merchant payment services as an instant add-on to opening a merchant bank account, without extra steps. The bank coined the term “One and Done” for the streamlined integrated processes.InnovationMore consumable and easier to use APIs opened doors to new, innovative partnerships with IoT and disruptive FinTech companies. The bank needed the ability to pull in all digital information instead of utilizing antiquated systems and processes, such as waiting for approvals or manually sending paper around. APIs gave the bank the ability to be more efficient and innovative.The bank began their digital transformation by overcoming organizational, cultural, and technical pushback. They needed to go beyond API basics. Corporate had the challenge of how to "handle the API product," which was a departure from traditional product line systems. Interfacing with consumers was an adjustment. Achieving buy-in from developers was integral to success. In addition, methods of packaging, preparing, and supporting their APIs had to change. The bank performed an extensive search for a vendor who could meet their technical requirements and would remain their long term digital transformation partner.The Akana SolutionAkana formed a close partnership with the bank to collaborate on solutions and achieve their business goals of modernization, integration, and innovation. The bank purchased the Akana API management platform as the foundation of their digital transformation strategy providing the bank with a standard and configurable way to:Design and document APIs. Automate onboarding with workflow. Apply security consistently across APIs. Transform SOAP into RESTful APIs.Aggregate services to form new APIs.The bank chose Akana’s hybrid solution as the foundation of their transformation strategy. The bank wanted a fully-hosted SaaS solution for their first deployment. This included an option to move to an on-premises solution as they matured. Akana’s hybrid solution allowed the bank to move seamlessly to API configurations from the cloud to on-premises and back again. The Akana cloud deployment is certified as a PCI DSS 3.0 level 1 provider, satisfying the bank's PCI requirements.Related reading on enterprise cloud >>StatusThe bank’s first successful project was for the bank’s merchant payment solution. The merchant payment developer portal went live at the end of 2014. The initial release focused on automating and improving the partner onboarding process. The current developer portal provides access to the bank’s gateway, fraud and security control, multi-currency processing, and transaction processing services.The bank has developed several internal projects to support various “One and Done” scenarios. They leverage Akana platform’s configurable orchestration, transformation, and security capabilities to quickly expose core services. This greatly improves and enhances existing application processes. The bank has leveraged these same capabilities to streamline integrations with their international partners.Since 2015, the bank and Akana have planned and hosted several "Hackathons." Hackathons are used as an educational opportunity, a cultural change agent, and an innovation incubator. This collaborative effort has been a motivating game-changer among employees of all job positions and skill sets. Several ideas to come out of the Hackathons are presently being researched for viability.What's NextThe bank is committed to their digital transformation strategy and investment in employees’ skills and innovative insights.The bank’s merchant payment solution has proceeded to the next phase of modernization, focusing on a developer portal redesign. The API modernization process is progressing well.Be Like the North American BankModernize services, streamline integration processes, and gain new partners through innovation, just like the North American Bank.Try Akana today. 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