Making Trading App-ening

Pratima H

MUMBAI, INDIA: This man is contagiously excited about all the new app versions his organization is busy whipping for the last few months. Palpably positive about all the features the latest version has tossed in for its users, and stoically discreet about reality-checks, Aniruddha Dange, Chief Strategy Officer, IndiaInfoLine group (IIFL) offers a good chance to talk about a new colour being painted on the otherwise grey trading business along with many other subtle shades around - like CRM possibilities, revenue connects, stock market glitches despite bandwidth woes or UI and speed trade-offs etc. Let’s trade in some time and watch how app-scrips have been rolling on tech-screens.

IIFL has seen its strategic contours changing across all these years, and from a brokerage entity to full-suite wealth management model, we have seen it turn many new avatars. How does that translate for technology elements at play?

Yes, and IIFL has been a technology innovator in the Indian financial markets space. From the very early days of online stock trading, to provide cutting edge trading platform and now the most advanced android application for trading through mobile, we have always tried to stay many steps ahead of industry peers. Today, we are trying to focus technology’s use on the core of customer experience and augmenting it like never before. This spans everything, whether it is loans, insurance or quick approvals or video calls for insurance buyers (a first in the industry - by the way) and so much more. I feel that as the speed of telecom picks up in India, so many innovations are lying in wait to be put to action. The year 2015 would be a year of digital transformation and there is so much in process. We clearly want to be at the top of this game.

Tell us the latest highlights from your marquee app? What makes it stand out in an app-cluttered space?

IIFL Markets, is what I prefer to call the fastest and most endowed application in India. I feel it is better than most apps in the financial markets place across the world. First thing - it is a native application, which makes it inherently faster and more stable than any other Indian markets app. Next, it is also the only app, through which you can execute orders for Initial Public Offers and Follow-on Public Offers.

Why did you choose the native route and not the hybrid one?

We have been working on various nuances that we had picked in earlier versions. Being native allows us to address them and make this app highly customisable without giving up speed and agility. It works very well for live environments like trading. We have tested it on various devices and resolutions. What we wanted was a rich app but did not want to compromise the end-experience despite all the complexity that comes in. Our team had worked on both web and .exe areas earlier and now with the mobile emerging so fiercely we had to develop it for this format.

Is it a DIY work? How has it fared so far?

The app is developed by IIFL Groups internal team of over 50 people. We have developed this application primarily to enhance our customer experience. We have been a technology disruptor and have helped customers to have the best technology offering through our previous innovations in web and trader terminal. This application has been a hit from the beginning and we believe, it will benefit the customers and prospective customers immensely. It is just two months old through a soft launch and has already seen about 100,000 downloads. We have designed the app for every android phone and assume the old as well as new customers will love the experience and trade through their mobile. We expect over 500,000 downloads in the next six months and over a million in the next one-year period

What makes it unique when we think of features?

It is the only markets' app in the world which provides access to free research to 500 companies. Our widget, ease of navigation with user defined menu items, stable interface are best in India and even better than comparable global apps. It also packs the most exclusive and intensive news supply through our news portal along with a wealth of video repository in the app about various market, economic and corporate developments. This enables instant trading to our broking customers and provides comprehensive features to Guest users. Now a user can simply turn a smartphone into powerful mobile trading and market monitoring platform. There are a couple of features for the Guest Users as well as one can track Live Market prices, Research Reports, Stock picks and so on. One can also manage accounts by monitoring details of the broking account and also by keeping a track on one’s holding. In fact, IIFL Markets is the highest rated app in Indian financial markets space with a 4.1 rating.

Why don’t these features impede other imperatives around nimbleness, speed or control or security?

I have seen so many apps around and when UI (User Interface) does not work well or crashes, it’s a disappointment. Our goal was to make the app as comprehensive as possible and replace the desktop entirely with this app. As 3G and 4G winds pick up, we would be ready for new rich scenarios. Our app is as responsive as it is feature-rich. The fact that it is customisable to a large extent also renders it as a fast one when it comes to trading. Times will change soon when it comes to bandwidth power and network efficiency and it will be only a matter of few months when a typical smartphone user moves up to 3G or 4G, and that, will help push the speed factor. But functionality is something that cannot be ignored. As to security, all the standards and two-factor authentication etc work as usual. In a native app, security is anyways handled better compared to the case of an HTML app. Penetrating a native app is relatively difficult.

The app has had siblings earlier with older versions and beta phases. What improvements did those phases bring for the current app?

Yes we had a hybrid app earlier which we revved up for the market and experimented with a new version almost every month. With more than 5000 users helping with a feedback we addressed many areas like notification center for intra-day movements or buy-scroll-downs or visibility of one-year-stock-changes. The app houses many nuances and actual pain points were taken care of.

Is it helping on the CRM front in any way?

There is an enormous back-end that goes into making the app work smoothly and entails servers, mobile-infrastructure or risk management system. So, naturally a lot of intelligence and customization can be built around and we are looking at algorithms for a more personalized experience ahead. Notifications to groups or price alerts to individuals are good examples.

Application-economy has popped as a big buzz word this year? How does, or does it at all, align with revenue generation? Have you experienced anything like that with your apps?

Yes, today IT is a big enabler and just not another cost centre. The distinctions between IT and business are getting blurred and I guess there is going to be a massive transformation for business models (look out for the ones that did not even exist five to six years back). When we think of how models like Uber have displaced traditional business models we know things are changing but at the same time we are watching the speed at which customer expectations gallop. Broking segment has seen a significant mobile penetration and now the scenario is so different.

How would you diagnose all those fiascos or mini-blunders that technology snags have caused for iconic markets like NASDAQ, NYSE etc?

I have seen how back home, NSE o BSE have coped up very well and no serious hiccups have surfaced despite a really high level of trading by global terms also happening here. Indian exchanges have coped up really well with volumes. The only thing that need to be woken up to now is the level of under-penetration, which is an irony given the depths and breadths that mobile has covered for India. Both transparency and penetration can be improved massively with technology and through new products tailored for this new demographics, which is not limited to a segment sitting in Delhi or Mumbai. It could be a housewife or a professional trading from some remote city in India, and yet, as easily and smoothly as a Mumbai-based broker.  Technology can do wonders.