Background

A J.D. Power study found that only 32% of small business banking customers believe that their bank understands their business. To serve those customers well, banks need to appreciate the challenges and complexities of their businesses, and provide a better way to navigate those challenges. Our client decided to do this by creating an innovative business intelligence mobile app for Android and iOS. The app would be designed to give customers one-tap access to the data they need to make key decisions. They hired us to help them design and develop the app, bring it to market, and provide ongoing support after launch.

Describe the creative idea

Small businesses are the backbone of any economy, and supporting them is a key priority for our client. Business owners are often switching between multiple apps to access the right information. There was a real, practical need for a single platform that unified all of this data. Vonto was created to fill this need, giving owners and operators easy, efficient access to all of their key business data. Vonto integrates with multiple popular apps, including Xero, Quickbooks and Instagram, to provide information like cash flow outlook, social media engagement and more. It also helps simplify and streamline the information that business owners receive from the apps that they use. Vonto relays number-heavy data into actionable insights, explained in everyday language. It makes it easy for users to take action based on these insights, within the Vonto platform itself (for example, paying an invoice). The app provides an intuitive, seamless user

Describe the strategy

The technical strategy behind Vonto involves using high-quality data gathering and sorting techniques to cater to users. Vonto curates the full range of different SaaS applications, business apps and data that business owners are using, and pulls that into a single platform. It then leverages an advanced scoring algorithm, including analytics capability, to generate a curated and highly personalised feed of data insights. These insights are presented in a way that gives them real-world relevance and makes them easily actionable. The app was designed specifically to cater to the needs of small business owners, who are often time-poor and struggle to stay on top of multiple sources of business data. Rather than needing to switch between five or six different apps, and having to find and read the relevant data in each app, these users now have a single personalised Vonto feed to provide them with key data and insights.

Describe the execution

Vonto was launched as a microservice-architecture app with mobile applications and a web frontend. The app runs through a user’s business data every morning and delivers 10 key insights, as well as recommended actions. It connects to multiple data sources for each user, and is able to identify and highlight connections across a variety of data. For example, if a user connects Vonto to their Shopify and Google Analytics accounts, the system will be able to provide an accurate conversation rate, representing the percentage of website visitors who made a purchase on the site. Following a year-long development process, the app launched in February 2020 in the App store and Play store in two regions, Australia and New Zealand.

List the results

Vonto now serves small business owners and operators across Australia and New Zealand. It has resonated strongly with target users. 90% of users said that it saved them time during their workday, and 85% of users said it helped them understand their business better. The app has continued to evolve as we find new ways to add value to our users. Vonto now supports more than 9 third-party services, including Xero, Facebook, Google Analytics and Quickbooks. Vonto topped the Australian Financial Review’s Most Innovative Companies list in 2020. It was named the winner of the Best Innovation in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services category and the Most Innovative Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services organisation.