Austin Capital Financial institution Modernizes its Knowledge Stack in simply 16 Months to Help First-in-market Merchandise and Providers
- Austin Capital Financial institution, a fast-growing group financial institution, sought to modernize their knowledge stack to help their evolution right into a product centric and digital first financial institution
- In simply 16 months, the financial institution has adopted Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran, and Thoughtspot, and Atlan as its Energetic Metadata Administration answer of selection
- The financial institution is now capable of launch new merchandise at unprecedented velocity and effectiveness, with Atlan supporting buyer knowledge querying for a brand new product with mere hours of implementation effort
A member of the Inc. 5000 record of fastest-growing non-public corporations for seven consecutive years, Austin Capital Financial institution is a pacesetter in group banking, utilizing expertise and knowledge to gasoline its nationwide progress.
“We began off a number of years in the past with objectives identical to another group financial institution, serving the Austin group,” shared Ian Bass, Head of Knowledge & Analytics for Austin Capital Financial institution. “After a number of years of being the sponsor financial institution for a FinTech providing, our founders determined we may construct this type of factor ourselves. So we began constructing our personal digital banking merchandise division, which is the place Credit score Robust was born.”
Credit score Robust represented a brand new frontier for Austin Capital Financial institution, a completely digital providing of loans and features of credit score, supplied to customers with no credit score historical past or poor credit score to assist them enhance their scores with out the frequent threat of predatory lending or bank cards with astronomical rates of interest.
Reworking from a group financial institution, providing conventional merchandise like checking and financial savings accounts with a brick-and-mortar location and on-line portals, right into a digital-first financial institution with a nationwide buyer footprint, was no trivial process. Not solely would it not demand groundbreaking merchandise and fashionable consumer experiences, but in addition one of the best and brightest minds in Knowledge & Analytics, with the expertise to assist them launch and iterate at unprecedented velocity.
“My position was to construct a contemporary knowledge stack for the financial institution and for Credit score Robust. And once I got here on board, the information and analytics stack was non-existent,” Ian defined.
Austin Capital Financial institution’s transactional knowledge resided in AWS and PostgresSQL databases, and weren’t well-connected, making one thing so simple as querying throughout databases tough to not possible. To fulfill the numerous calls for of a brand new digital merchandise mannequin, Ian and his staff had been tasked with a real ground-up construct of a contemporary knowledge stack.
“What I actually needed to construct was a NextGen platform that I may use to democratize entry to knowledge and analytics,” Ian shared. “So step one was to virtualize this into an surroundings the place none of these boundaries would exist. That was Snowflake.”
Transferring from implementing Snowflake, Ian’s staff sought an answer to ingest knowledge with out the necessity for vital knowledge engineering assets, selecting Fivetran and launching in only one month as they started to combine into their core expertise and construct fashions. Already present on the financial institution had been Tableau and PowerBI, serving as a brief visualization and evaluation layer.
Simply 16 months later, Austin Capital Financial institution and Credit score Robust would sit atop a totally fashionable knowledge stack, constructed to help digital monetary merchandise that required way more flexibility than conventional banking programs, and architected to run lean.
After I got here in, none of this existed. And right this moment we’ve about six totally different SaaS merchandise that comprise our knowledge stack. Now we have ThoughtSpot, we use Snowflake, we use Reverse ETL instruments. Now we have a variety of issues in place that we are able to virtualize and deal with with a two or three particular person staff, versus needing an enormous engineering staff. We’re paying for these instruments, nevertheless it’s offsetting prices in that we don’t want to rent groups to do that. We will run actually lean, and we are able to pivot in a short time.“
Ian Bass, Head of Knowledge & Analytics
However whereas device after device was efficiently applied, Ian and his staff had been spending vital effort responding to requests for knowledge, and had but to discover a method to provide this knowledge in a self-service method whereas remaining compliant. Energetic Metadata Administration would show to be the lacking piece.
Inherent to Monetary Providers choices is a considerable amount of delicate buyer knowledge, together with addresses, names, delivery dates, social safety numbers, and account numbers, all beneficial to unhealthy actors, and requiring cautious stewardship and strict entry controls.
“We needed to be sure that we’re being good stewards of our buyer’s knowledge. A part of that entails ensuring that solely the precise individuals inside our group have entry to it and that we’ve the right controls round it, multi-factor authentication, issues like that,” Ian shared.
Their first step was creating masking insurance policies, making certain that solely approved staff of Austin Capital Financial institution can be permitted to entry delicate knowledge. Ian’s unique plan was to implement masking insurance policies in knowledge entry by means of Snowflake, however discovered that whereas his staff may implement these insurance policies utilizing the device, they’d be tough to keep up, and to be learn at-a-glance by colleagues with decrease technical aptitude.
As we considered knowledge governance increasingly more, it turned clear I needed a device to deal with that. You actually need an interface constructed on high of Snowflake so as to simply see who has entry to what. And that’s the place Atlan got here into the image. I used to be actually taken with the entire idea of DataOps and what that meant, and what we’re driving towards is each staff being an information staff.“
Ian Bass, Head of Knowledge & Analytics
With the precise Energetic Metadata Administration platform, Austin Capital Financial institution may lastly provide self-service to its knowledge customers with out sacrificing robust entry and masking insurance policies.
“Atlan turned a necessity. That’s how we management entry in an simply repeatable trend,” Ian defined. “After which the truth that we’ve knowledge lineage on high of it, and the flexibility to arrange all of our info and classifications, and add glossary phrases linked to that knowledge? That’s all icing on the cake for us.”
The place knowledge customers as soon as needed to method Ian and his staff for knowledge requests, his staff now makes use of Atlan to construct queries that allow their colleagues in groups like Operations to run reviews on demand. Furthermore, with masking insurance policies in place, this knowledge is just not solely out there through self-service, however is ruled in a fashion the place solely approved customers can entry it.
“That was a extremely highly effective piece of what Atlan supplied for us, and I’ve been very proud of how that’s progressed,” Ian shared.
Among the many earliest alternatives to place their new knowledge stack into follow was a promising new product named FreeKick. “We consider it’s a first-to-market product, in that it’s designed to assist construct credit score for minors and younger adults,” Ian shared.
FreeKick permits mother and father to soundly and reliably set up, construct, and shield their kids’s credit score. Constructed on high of a digital financial savings account, FreeKick routinely builds credit score for youngsters aged 14 to 25 as soon as activated. Dad and mom merely make a deposit into their FreeKick account and activate credit score constructing. A mum or dad can select to resume the service yearly, or shut the account and obtain 100% of their deposit again. Establishing a robust credit score profile for his or her kids can save their kids greater than $200,000 over their lifetime.
“We expect that is going to be a differentiator within the market,” Ian defined. “There could also be different merchandise or choices on the market, like co-signing on a automotive word, however there’s probably not another means to do that that avoids threat. In case you are available right this moment and deposit $2,500 with our financial institution, it’s an FDIC-insured deposit and also you’re getting a credit score constructing product on your youngsters, free of charge. It doesn’t really value you any cash.”
In FreeKick, a promising enterprise mannequin was rising for Austin Capital Financial institution. However essential to success can be a well timed launch earlier than commencement season. And on condition that FreeKick was a departure from their traditional merchandise, the expertise Austin Capital Financial institution would use to service new accounts couldn’t be tailored in time for launch.
“Our inner CRM was not going to be prepared as a result of there was new infrastructure and transactional databases to know. They hadn’t pieced it collectively but,” Ian shared.
Whereas it was potential to launch FreeKick with out full technical help from their CRM, every time the consumer service staff would wish knowledge about account holders, Ian’s staff must help it.
“My staff, and myself, personally, would have needed to be on name for the consumer service staff, and able to run the question on the drop of a hat as quickly as they had been on the cellphone with any person who was asking questions on their account,” Ian defined.
Ian and his staff additionally thought of a self-service mannequin whereas the CRM was enhanced to help requests for consumer knowledge, however discovered it infeasible. This method would demand that the consumer service staff be given entry to Snowflake, with the right roles and insurance policies, then educated to write down SQL queries in opposition to their knowledge warehouse.
In Atlan, Ian’s staff discovered an answer. Insights, a metadata-based question builder, would allow their consumer service staff to run queries about buyer knowledge in a self-service method, with out the necessity to study SQL.
We used Insights to help our consumer service staff, and Atlan made it a lot simpler and saved a bunch of time for me and my staff. It was a straightforward and efficient workaround, till our CRM was able to deal with the brand new product. So it actually gave us peace of thoughts. It was one thing that took my staff solely a few hours to place collectively. We couldn’t have achieved that with out Atlan.“
Ian Bass, Head of Knowledge & Analytics
Whereas solely a workaround whereas their CRM caught as much as help the brand new service mannequin that FreeKick demanded, Atlan Insights ensured that Ian’s staff spent simply two hours delivering an answer. The choice would have been painful: Turning their knowledge staff into an on-demand service middle for fundamental consumer knowledge requests, and taking their eye off constructing a shiny, data-driven future for the financial institution.
With the precise knowledge expertise, activated and accessible utilizing Atlan, Austin Capital Financial institution is in a stronger place to launch new services and products, and evolve its enterprise mannequin.
“We’re within the section of determining if we wish to incorporate these new product launches into our present mannequin structure, or if we wish to break it out individually,” Ian shared. “In some circumstances, that might make issues loads less complicated for us. Having this virtualized and utilizing dbt and Snowflake makes it easy for us to say ‘Right here’s the connections we have to make, right here’s all the information and fashions we’ve, and the way does that match into the ecosystem?’ After which we all know what modifications we have to make, and what fashions we have to create.”
Downstream, Austin Capital Financial institution’s latest adoption of ThoughtSpot is one other level of optimism for Ian and his staff, affording the pliability they should question and visualize on the velocity their enterprise is altering.
“We’re working reside queries on high of ThoughtSpot day in and time out, and life is a complete lot less complicated and simpler,” Ian defined. “It’s simply straightforward to write down up new queries, spin up new reside boards, and pivot shortly. If somebody needs to drill down on a solution, it’s quite simple.”
Moreover, Ian and his staff are wanting ahead to cataloging Thoughtspot property in Atlan to raised perceive the impression of modifications to their fashions of their visualization and evaluation layer, and finishing a complete, single view of their knowledge property.
To help their advertising campaigns for brand new merchandise, and to gather the mandatory knowledge to evolve these merchandise and campaigns shortly, Ian’s staff has shortly added Reverse ETL to their rising set of capabilities. “We may have employed an engineering staff to arrange all these API connections, however we determined to simply pay a small amount of cash per yr and do it by means of a device that I may arrange myself in a matter of 30 to 60 minutes,” Ian shared.
The street forward for Austin Capital Financial institution stays formidable, with a challenge to construct a 360-degree view of their clients, inclusive of net exercise. Additionally essential to help a rising variety of deposit-based merchandise will likely be new metrics and KPIs, supported by Ian’s staff and accessible by means of Atlan.
Maybe probably the most thrilling to Austin Capital Financial institution is the introduction of knowledge science and machine studying, enhancing the best way they market and function. “We wish to get into optimization for advertising spend. We wish to put fraud detection fashions in place. We wish to be sure that we’re good stewards of our clients’ knowledge,” Ian defined.
Finally, Austin Capital Financial institution sees Atlan as its window to the world, higher understanding their fast-evolving expertise and processes, and the impacts that modifications to them will make.
“I would like all of it to be built-in, in order that we’re capable of assess impression,” Ian shared. If we’ve a change to a area in a desk that’s upstream of some mannequin, I’d wish to perceive the place else that will get used. And I’d know if it’s in a downstream mannequin that mixes 10 tables which might be mixed in a view that aggregates knowledge, or if it’s additionally utilized by an algorithm to optimize advertising spend.”
If all of our infrastructure is tied into the identical place, we are able to make modifications, and earlier than we make these modifications, perceive the place the impression can be in order that nothing breaks. All of that may have to be built-in into Atlan.”
Ian Bass, Head of Knowledge & Analytics
The best way Austin Capital Financial institution’s knowledge staff operates, thanks partly to its funding in expertise and executing the precise technique, is unrecognizable from the beginning of their modernization journey simply 16 months in the past.
“With the instruments we’ve in place now, we’re capable of measure the impression of product modifications instantly,” Ian shared. “We will additionally perceive how modifications in our advertising technique impression our enterprise. For instance, we did a deep dive on key phrase searches that we had been spending on and made a considerable change. And we’re not simply measuring the effectiveness of that, however we had been additionally capable of predict what would occur. We’re following fairly carefully in-line with what that prediction was.”
However past the plain advantages their expertise, knowledge staff, and course of provide, the tradition of Austin Capital Financial institution, from client-facing staff to executives, is quickly altering towards being data-driven.
I’ve these instruments, however the President of Credit score Robust and the CEO of Austin Capital Financial institution even have entry to those instruments. They will see the effectiveness of modifications inside hours or days of implementing. It’s one thing we didn’t have in place earlier than. We don’t must make these new constructs and connections, they’re in place already and we are able to pivot in a short time.”
Ian Bass, Head of Knowledge & Analytics
Photograph by Etienne Martin on Unsplash
