The payment industry is without any doubt going through a massive transformation. Banks and large financial institutions are going through serious soul searching, consumers are increasingly using digital tools to make P2P transactions bypassing traditional instruments, large organisations with heavy balance sheets are seeing their business models diminishing, FinTechs and start-ups with innovative ideas are going to market and gaining traction at a speed never seen before. All these are today’s realities driven by digital technologies and a generation that uses the smartphone not only as a communication tool but a "window to the world".

We at Novus Technologies have recognised these trends from day 1 of our inception and embraced digital and mobile 1st as the way forward despite many temptations to divert from our original target, offering us opportunities to generate revenue from traditional business models. We also never gave up when responses to our initial mobile wallet prototypes accepting QR-code payments back in 2013 and 2014 (before the AliPay and WeeChat Pay glory days) were not taken seriously by many customers. We knew we were on the right track. Today everyone is rushing to catch the wave and reserve a prime seat on the digital payments train.

We also resisted entering into a direct competition with the clients we serve. Of course there was nothing stopping us, and still is, from using our own digital platform to go to market with a B2C model offering direct services to consumers. But our statement has always been - When was the last time you took a Boeing or Airbus flight to your destination? We provide the tools and also the operations (if required) to help our clients operate a business but never to compete with them. We made it our mission to simplify the implementation and operation of digital technologies and offer it to our partners as a utility model based on OPEX and SaaS pricing. Not everyone can afford to setup a world-class digital platform due to heavy CAPEX, skill sets and resourcing requirements, but many startups have brilliant ideas and access to markets and need help.

Like me, many of the professionals working for Novus Technologies have over 2 decades of experience working with banks, retailers and regulators. We all agreed that banking and paying for purchases are not always pleasant experiences, so we also made it our mission to change that. Simplifying and transforming processes that are made complex by multiple iterations of what many industry professionals refer to as “enhancements” is also fun. To do that we had to train ourselves in the art of UX design and recruit young professionals who understand that art much better than us. Today I can easily make the statement that no digital business can be successful unless it embraces UX & CX best practices and truly believe in simplicity of both forms and processes.

Coming back to the payment space, between the settlement bank and the end user that are multiple layers of payment ecosystem partners that are struggling to find the right platform to run their business and accept payments irrespective of form factor - Cash, card, NFC, QR-code, digital ID, RFID and wearables. Often they have to operate multiple systems, connect to multiple organisations and may be even forced to use multiple devices and cable-jungles on their front desks. The experience is equally painful to end users who have to make sure they have cash, the right cards and apps to be able to go about their daily life. It is for sure a learning phase that we all have to go through until the market finds its own ways as there will always be more than one way.

Some industry experts and consultants have also quickly condemned Cash and declared its death. We would be naive if we think Cash will disappear so easily without convenient alternatives as Cash is still a convenient mode of payment in many areas of our life and for various reasons; right or wrong. Digital payments are growing at unprecedented rates, regulators are pushing for less usage of cash, and yes we will see cash volumes declining over time, but not so quickly and not sodrastically. We at Novus Technologies despite being strong believers in digital, are also convinced that we have a duty to play in the transition to a digital economy by automating cash processes and coming up with strategies to facilitate the provisioning, dispensing and management of cash volumes helping our clients in optimising their costs and improving their service levels.

If you are a banker who is looking for better ways to go to market, considering to adopt a digital branchless strategy or even automating and optimising services in your existing branches talk to us. If you are a merchant who is struggling to implement seamless payment solutions including accepting digital transactions and QR-code payments, let us have a discussion.

If you are operating a Petroleum company with service stations that are not fully automated and wish to control fraud and quality of service while accepting various forms of payments, contact us. If you are running a FinTech and struggling with the costs of setting up your own payment infrastructure, we can help you.

We believe in partnerships and are 100% sure we can’t make it on our own without teaming up with the best minds. You can either talk to us or to any of the partners working with us, they will tell you why partnering with Novus Technologies is such a great idea!

We look forward to hearing from you.