"Finding the right balance between flexibility and speed of implementation is a major challenge for companies looking to develop their financing platform. Should you opt for a fully customized in-house solution, buy a standard off-the-shelf software, or adopt an innovative approach like low-code? Each strategy has its advantages and limitations that should be analyzed in light of your own needs and constraints.

In this article, we will compare the different options available for developing a high-performance and agile core financing platform. We will see in particular how low-code platforms such as Basikon make it possible to combine the best of both ""build"" and ""buy"" approaches by providing both flexibility and speed of implementation. Through concrete case studies, discover which strategy to adopt for your financing platform according to your specific challenges.

Custom Development: Tailored Features but High Delays and Costs

In-house development of a custom financing platform allows to precisely meet the specific needs of the company. Each feature can be designed and adapted according to the financing processes and products offered. This is the approach initially chosen by many players.

Benefits in Terms of Customization and Control

The main advantage of custom development is total control over the platform and its evolutions. The company can:

• Precisely define the features and workflows according to its own business rules
• Fully control the roadmap and development priorities
• Maintain the confidentiality of its know-how and proprietary algorithms

Limitations of a Time-Consuming and Inflexible Approach

However, in-house development has several major drawbacks:

• Very long delays to obtain an operational and stable platform
• High costs in technical resources over the long term (developers, project managers, maintenance...)
• Limited scalability in the face of growth in business and volume of data to be managed
• Difficulties in keeping the platform up to date and compatible with new technologies

A Brake on Growth that Pushes to Seek Alternatives

For high-growth companies, in-house tools often no longer allow them to keep up the pace, with an operational risk that becomes too great. It then becomes necessary to find a more sustainable solution to continue to develop with peace of mind.

In-house development, although offering customized features, therefore proves to be complex, costly and inflexible in the long term for a critical financing platform. Longer delays and mobilized resources can quickly become a brake on companies' growth.

Buying a Turnkey Solution: Quick Implementation but Lack of Flexibility

Faced with the limitations of in-house development, many companies are turning to purchasing a standard financing solution on the market. This "buy" approach allows them to quickly benefit from a proven tool that is regularly updated by the vendor.

The Benefits of a Ready-to-Use Solution

Opting for a standard software has several advantages:

• Rapid deployment to have an operational platform in a few weeks
• Controlled costs through a subscription or licenses, without dedicated technical resources
• Maintenance and regular updates provided by the vendor
• Proven and compliant features with market standards and regulations

The Downside: Fixed Processes and Limited Differentiation

However, generic solutions often show their limits in meeting the specific challenges of companies:

• Standard workflows and features not always adapted to business rules
• Limited differentiation compared to competitors using the same tools
• Restricted customization possibilities or with significant costs
• Dependence on the vendor's roadmap and evolution choices

A Lack of Agility that Penalizes in a Competitive Market

In the very dynamic financing market, players must be able to quickly launch new innovative offers to stand out. With a standard tool, it is difficult for them to think outside the box and adapt to the expectations of their partners and customers.

The lack of flexibility of off-the-shelf solutions can therefore quickly become a brake in the race for innovation and market share. Companies often have to settle for digitizing their existing processes, without any real transformation of their business.

The Low-Code Approach: The Best of Both Worlds with Platforms like Basikon

Faced with the limitations of "build" and "buy" approaches, more and more companies are turning to low-code platforms to develop their financing solution. This third way makes it possible to combine the flexibility of custom development and the speed of deployment of a standard software.

Low-Code, or How to Keep Control of Your Platform without Developing from Scratch

Low-code platforms like Basikon offer a visual development environment that allows you to create custom applications without having to code line by line:

• Pre-built and configurable components to model workflows and interfaces
• The ability to define your own business rules and financing products by simple configuration
• Great flexibility to evolve the platform according to your needs, autonomously
• Simplified deployment and maintenance, the platform being hosted and maintained by the vendor

Basikon, the Low-Code Platform Dedicated to Financing

Specializing in leasing, credit and payments, the Basikon platform stands out for:

• Complete functional coverage, from front to back office and accounting
• Integrated and customizable customer and partner portals to digitize the relationship
• Powerful integration capabilities to connect to IS and third-party software (CRM, business tools...)
• A rules engine to automate credit decisions and scoring
• Advanced features for managing contracts, assets and delinquencies

Flexibility and Time-to-Market: The Benefits of Low-Code for Agile Platforms

With a low-code platform like Basikon, companies benefit from both the flexibility of customization and the speed of implementation of a proven solution:

• Accelerated deployment: 4 months on average for a Basikon project versus more than a year for development from scratch
• Adaptation to the business specificities and products of each company, without customization limits
• Scalability and agility to continuously evolve the platform according to market needs
• Reduced time-to-market to launch new products, conquer new markets

Low-code therefore appears to be the best option for companies wishing to quickly equip themselves with an agile financing platform, able to support their growth and innovation strategy.

Case Study: How Basikon is Revolutionizing the Development of Financing Platforms

To concretely illustrate the benefits of a low-code platform like Basikon, there's nothing like customer feedback from those who have adopted it. Zoom in on some emblematic cases in various financing sectors.

Leascorp: Gaining Agility to Accelerate Its Development in Leasing

Leascorp, a company specializing in financial leasing, has experienced strong growth in recent years. But its homemade tools were reaching their limits in the face of increasing volumes and the multiplication of partners.

By adopting Basikon, Leascorp was able to easily connect its third-party systems and finely customize its workflows by simple configuration, without losing agility. Result: a 300% increase in its partner network and a quadrupling of its number of customers in 2023.

Orion Leasing: Successful International Expansion Thanks to Multi-Country

The Lithuanian start-up Orion Leasing was looking for a solution to support its rapid international development ambitions. With Basikon, Orion Leasing was able to easily interface with multiple local data sources in each country and automate its decision-making processes.

Basikon's multi-country capability allowed Orion Leasing to simply replicate its model in new markets. In less than a year, the start-up increased its partner network by 80% and tripled its customer base.

Arrawaj: A Complete Core Banking Deployed in Record Time

The Moroccan foundation Arrawaj needed to merge the legacy systems of its two entities into a single, agile platform. With Hyperfront, Basikon's Core Banking solution, Arrawaj now has a unified end-to-end system deployed in just 18 months, integrating more than 1 million customers.

Arrawaj was able to launch new products as soon as it went into production and now has a robust platform to support its development, with already 1 million accounting entries processed per day.

These examples demonstrate the unique ability of low-code platforms like Basikon to adapt to the business challenges of each financing player, while providing great speed of implementation and high scalability to support growth.

How to Choose the Right Approach According to Your Needs and Constraints

The choice between in-house development, purchasing a standard solution or adopting a low-code platform for your financing solution depends on several key criteria to be analyzed in light of your situation and ambitions:

Your Business Challenges and Differentiation Strategy

• Do you need customized features to stand out and best serve your customers/partners?
• What is your product strategy and innovation roadmap? Do you plan to regularly launch new offers?
• Are you aiming for geographic expansion in the short/medium term?

Your Internal Technical Resources and Skills

• Do you have an in-house development team sized for a large-scale project? Can you mobilize these resources over the long term?
• Do you have the necessary technical skills and business expertise in-house?
• What is your budget and investment horizon?

Your Regulatory Constraints and Ecosystem

• Are you subject to specific regulatory requirements requiring a high degree of adaptability of your system?
• What is your level of requirement in terms of data security and confidentiality?
• Do you need to integrate many third-party systems and partners into your platform?

Depending on your answers to these questions, the choice of the right approach becomes clear:

• If business agility and product innovation are key to your development, opt for a flexible and scalable solution like low-code
• If you have limited technical resources and are looking for a quick time-to-market, a turnkey solution will be more suitable
• If your differentiation challenges are very specific and you have the means for custom development, "build" may be relevant

In any case, it is essential to properly assess the TCO (total cost of ownership) of each option over the long term, including the hidden costs of maintenance and evolution. Low-code platforms like Basikon often offer the best compromise by combining flexibility and cost control.

Low-Code, the Way Forward for Agile and High-Performance Financing Platforms

Faced with the limitations of traditional approaches to developing financing platforms, low-code is emerging as the solution of the future for players seeking to combine business agility and operational excellence.

With platforms like Basikon, companies can finally have the best of both worlds: the flexibility of customization to adapt to their specific business challenges, and the speed of implementation and evolution of a turnkey solution. Gone are the days of the dilemma between time-consuming and costly in-house developments or standard software that limits differentiation.

As evidenced by the feedback from customers such as Leascorp, Orion or Arrawaj, Basikon has enabled them to gain a decisive competitive advantage by accelerating their product innovations and business development:

• Reduced time-to-market to launch new offers and conquer new markets
• Streamlined partner and customer relationships through personalized self-service portals
• Automated and optimized end-to-end processes for large-scale contract processing
• Regained agility to continuously evolve their platform according to business needs

In a rapidly changing financing market, with increasingly high customer expectations in terms of digitalization and personalization of the relationship, the players who will be able to take advantage of the potential of low-code to transform their business will be the big winners. With its complete functional coverage and industrialized customized approach, Basikon positions itself as the partner of choice to succeed in this transformation towards new generation financing platforms, combining agility and performance."