Wesley Buck, Solutions Architect at Retro Rabbit/SmarTek21. (Image: Retro Rabbit)
Modern financial services organisations need to innovate and move quickly, especially amid the rapid adoption and experimentation around AI. This means their software design and engineering must deliver value fast, addressing their challenges and even improving on their original vision. One-size-fits-all technology solutions can struggle to achieve this.
This is according to Wesley Buck, solutions architect at Retro Rabbit/SmarTek21, a software design and engineering consultancy with deep experience in the banking and insurance sectors.
Enhancing AI’s value
Buck says AI is a key priority for many local financial organisations. “AI is a rapidly evolving technology landscape, and many implementations are designed to improve efficiency, reduce costs and unlock new value,” he says.
However, he notes: “AI only creates value when it meaningfully improves something. That could be reducing operational effort, shortening a delivery timeline, improving a customer experience, reducing risk or helping an organisation build a capability it can re-use.”
Retro Rabbit/SmarTek21 helps clients optimise the value of AI through bespoke solutions and flexible deployment models, including commercial AI services, client-hosted environments and privately hosted models where appropriate. This allows deployment decisions to be made around security, data residency, scalability, performance and cost rather than forcing every client into the same model.
Buck adds that sometimes AI is not the solution at all. Implementing AI when a simpler technology would have solved the problem just as well adds unnecessary cost and complexity, he says. “Our approach is to help clients determine whether AI or a simpler solution is appropriate.”
Value-adding approaches, not box-dropping
Retro Rabbit/SmarTek21 doesn’t drop boxes or sell generic technology solutions – it sells value and measurable outcomes, Buck says.
“Delivering actual measurable value to our clients is in our DNA, so they in turn offer true value to customers with a cascading effect,” he says. “To offer real value, particularly in enterprise AI, we do not start with the technology. We start with the business problem and the outcome the client is trying to achieve.”
He confirms this may mean building a proof of concept to demonstrate enhanced features on top of what a client has in mind, or it may mean harnessing Retro Rabbit/SmarTek21 Smartboxx framework where it is appropriate. Smartboxx is Retro Rabbit/SmarTek21’s enterprise AI delivery framework, which draws on proven production AI experience, re-usable implementation patterns, engineering assets and delivery approaches to help de-risk delivery, improve consistency and accelerate implementation where re-usable Smartboxx assets are applicable. He emphasises that Smartboxx is not the only way Retro Rabbit/SmarTek21 delivers AI solutions. The right approach may be Smartboxx, a bespoke AI implementation, a client-specific proof of concept, or even a simpler non-AI solution where that creates the greatest value.
Delivering value may also mean working closely with client security, architecture and governance teams to ensure they don’t miss the benefits of an appropriate technology because of potential risk. Buck says: “We continuously evaluate relevant and emerging technologies and make recommendations based on the client’s requirements, risks and operating environment.”
“The principle is simple: we use the approach that creates the greatest client impact, rather than forcing every problem through the same solution,” he says.
To support custom development that delivers measurable value, Retro Rabbit/SmarTek21 does comprehensive discovery exercises with clients to determine which approaches will address their needs.
Buck says: “This is particularly useful where clients are uncertain about their technology choices or roadmap. They don't always understand how to get to the end product, so when we unpack the roadmap, project plan and technology options and show past successes in similar projects, this demonstrates real value to the client. We host workshop sessions with them to assess all the features they need, so they avoid being tied into technologies that don’t deliver the necessary outcomes.”
One of the values Retro Rabbit/SmarTek21 brings to the table is the fact that it is technology agnostic, Buck emphasises. “We assess all the technology choices very objectively and tell clients what the limitations and benefits of each choice would be. Because we have a team of inquisitive minds, we stay on top of emerging technologies. And we work with numerous clients across scores of projects; that experience gives us practical insight into what works, where the trade-offs are and where particular technologies may introduce limitations.
“We bring a very different value proposition to clients. We think beyond the scope of their vision and bring new and innovative approaches to implementing the solutions they need. This is why we have had some loyal clients for as long as 15 years, who depend on us to help them keep evolving and modernising their environments,” Buck concludes.
