Motilal Oswal Financial Services is adapting new-age technologies for building its tech tools and platforms like ‘no code low code’ and Flutter:
Further upscaling its digital capabilities, Motilal Oswal Financial Services has initiated several digital-led initiatives, most of which will result in significant digital upscaling of its business over the next year. Ajay Menon, MD & CEO Broking & Distribution, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, lists out the key initiatives.
MO Data Science Academy
Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFS) strongly believes in harnessing the power of data to find improvement areas and insights to help enhance the experience for our customers. To achieve this, MOFS has set up a strong team of 20 employees in this vertical. Ajay Menon, MD & CEO Broking & Distribution, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, informs: “We plan to expand the team to 30 members by the end of 2022. We have also launched MO Data Science Academy, which works on cost optimization and prioritization through data analytics. We have seen success in client activation metrics through data analysis across our business channels.”
A/C Opening Digitally
Motilal Oswal were among the first brokers to offer a complete digital account opening process for broking. It continues to lead the industry with the latest technology to simplify the account opening process. Some initiatives like Truecaller-based mobile number verification have helped eliminate the need for OTP in 30% of the cases. The company also use Google-based email verification in 90% of the accounts opened today. It fetches bank details based on the mobile number to eliminate the need to manually add tedious bank account details for a customer. In addition, advanced tools and algo now help the company automatically verify the face and signature of the online customer. The team will continue to add many more innovations to the onboarding journey.
Considering country’s diverse population and the growth of digitalisation across the remotest of locations in India, MOFS believes vernacular engagement is critical in gaining an edge in the digital space. Ajay adds: “Our multilingual support starts with onboarding with an option to digitally open an account in 3 languages – English, Hindi and Gujarati. In addition, we have established a process to execute targeted campaigns to customers in their local languages. These campaigns are executed through email, SMS, notifications and WhatsApp in customers’ local/regional language. The effectiveness of these campaigns is much better than regular English language campaigns.”
Fintech Vendors
MOFS has been applying technology to simplify and ease the customer experience. MOFS has partnered with multiple new-age fintech vendors to enhance its digital offerings and provide the best experience to our customers across all aspects. Ajay elaborates: “We are working on several innovations like automated humanoid calling, a personalized gamification engine for customers, community and engagement platforms, A/B testing platforms for our products, automated research videos and much more. In addition, we have started a dedicated program to identify and evaluate the new startups in the fintech space for collaboration.”
Focused Digital Unit
MOFS has created a new digital unit to focus on its key customers’ problems and experiences. These include pre-KYC, client activation, referral program, F&O activations, retention and reactivation. Further, it is designing comprehensive data backward product strategies across all these areas to improve customer experience and to improve metrics multi-fold. Some examples of the early work include improving customer acquisition cost (CAC) by reorienting and digitizing referral programs and increasing emphasis on first 30 days of activation.
Tech Infra, Collaboration
Apart from business and product-driven digital initiatives, MOFS also has a strong focus on improving its tech-based infrastructure to support the fast-moving business and build scale faster. Ajay indicates: “We have revamped our entire server setup and we are setting up a backup server space in another metro. We are adapting new-age technologies for building our tech tools and platforms like ‘no code low code’ and Flutter. We are soon moving to a cloud-based modular architecture and deploying a rapid application development platform through Flutter. We have developed a centralized platform to service our clients and partners. We have collaborated with fintech & financial institutions and are now integrating opensource platforms.”
Options Store, Research 360
MOFS has launched many industry-first products on its broking platforms. Its IAPs (Intelligent Advisory Portfolios), which are robo-driven advisory products, were the first ever in the industry when it was launched. MOFS has recently launched a unique product called Options Store for new to the market as well as seasoned options traders. It offers trades in readymade multi-leg option strategies with a limited downside in one click.
Beyond broking, the company developed a new platform, ‘Research 360’, a comprehensive market research platform which will be helpful for customers who trade with discount brokers but lack the research and advisory skills required to trade in the market. Research 360 will provide comprehensive market information, analysis and advanced tools for detailed market research. The app for Research 360 is ready and currently in a beta phase with a planned launch in September.
Super App, Support Tools
MOFS continues to adopt a phygital approach. While it has been traditionally strong and grown through physical network, the company has been investing heavily in digital to complement its physical presence. Ajay reveals: “We want to create robust support tools that will improve our advisors’ efficiency and augment customer experience. We already have a rich digital platform for online-only customers, and we will continue to enhance the same. We are revamping our trading platform with a new-age UI/UX to make the overall trading experience seamless. We are also working on a one-stop financial services shop (super app) for all financial products with a focus on distribution products (mutual funds, insurance, bonds, PMS, AIF, FDs, etc). We are also working on shifting the mindset of our employees from physical to digital first. We endeavour to make digital as one of the DNAs for every employee, backed by training, campaigns & workshops.”
