Focus On Financial Services: Praxent Pivots To Leverage 20 Years' Experience

AUSTIN, Texas, July 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Praxent celebrates 20 years in custom software development with new leadership roles and new strategic specialization. Calling all financial services brands — from wealth management to lending, insurance, and real estate — Praxent is the software modernization partner you need to build competitive advantage.

The Austin-based digital strategy, design, and development agency has delivered more than 300 software projects in its 20-year history. Praxent's portfolio includes work for financial services clients Texas Mutual Insurance, Benefit Harbor, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Austin Capital Bank, Keller Williams, and Amherst Holdings.

Praxent's financial services focus may be new, but it's based on 3 key factors: 1) a wealth of experience with financial services firms, 2) the team's talent for crafting elegant user experiences that handle complex workflows and compliance rules, and 3) the agile insight that modernizing legacy software, not creating new, can be a faster way for established brands to sprint ahead.

Today, users expect digital experiences to be effortlessly intuitive, instantly responsive, and aesthetically modern. From complex financial products to dependency-filled processes, established financial services firms struggle to meet evolving user expectations — and many have digital products in need of redesign.

"In the past, just making a financial service available online was enough. But if your digital product was born more than a decade ago, you face increasing pressure from competitors whose products are brand new, addressing all the latest user expectations," said Praxent Managing Partner, Kevin Hurwitz. "We can change that, and we're uniquely positioned to do so."

Praxent specializes in software modernization — a redesign approach that transforms what would be a huge software development project into a series of smaller projects that deliver continuous improvement. "Plenty of agencies are happy to build you shiny new things from scratch, but they aren't willing to get in there and turn your legacy software into the customized value generator you need today," continued Hurwitz.

Leaping to develop software from scratch can be risky for established financial services brands. "Think of it like building a new dream house without truly evaluating the house you have. After an agonizing 24+ months of construction, the risks you've run may only become clear on move-in day. Suddenly, you see there aren't enough bedrooms, your furniture doesn't fit, and come to look closer, there's no kitchen at all," Hurwitz explains.

While 90% of large software projects fail, just 24% of small projects end up that way.¹ Praxent has a proven track record of helping financial services clients strategize and prioritize smaller, more doable software development sprints that leverage software investments made in the past.

To pursue a financial services focus, Praxent has made strategic moves to hire Russ Buyse, previously at Mutual Mobile*, as Chief Operating Officer, and adding award-winning agency veteran Lance Vaughn as Senior Director of Innovation. "We're an agile firm in every sense of the word," says agency founder, Tim Hamilton. "We teach our clients to 'mine the vein of gold' — that sweet spot between customer needs and business opportunities — and we apply the same discipline to ourselves."

"I was immediately attracted to Praxent as an end-to-end software modernization partner in the financial services space," remarked Buyse. "This agency not only has the right experience, it's purpose-built to make clients successful — from strategy to design to development, plus the seasoned project management it takes to deliver success and empower clients."

"I can't wait to share our new, focused approach with financial services company decision-makers," said Vaughn. The agency's message is simple: Technology is transforming everything we buy, sell, and do — including financial services. "These firms have one chance to get it right online, a place where trust is easily broken. Praxent gives established Finserv companies the chance to compete with born-digital brands that are setting today's user expectations," Vaughn concluded.

Praxent's leadership contends that an era of pandemic only highlights the need for digital innovation — but that the need is nothing new. After all, the 20 years of Praxent's history is the same period that's driven more than half of the Fortune 500 out of business.² "Necessity is the mother of invention," said Hamilton. "We're focused on the opportunities we can create for financial services brands, and look forward to the next 20 years of innovation and growth."

PRAXENT - Many companies have built software applications that no longer meet customer expectations. We help financial services companies modernize those applications so they can remain relevant against born-digital competitors.

If you would like to speak to Praxent about a project or for more information, please either email [email protected] or call 512-553-6830.

¹ The CHAOS Manifesto, 2013.
² Nanterme, Digital disruption has only just begun

Media Contact: Kristiane Mandraki
Tel. 512-553-6830
Email: [email protected]

*Correction Appended - an earlier version of this release incorrectly suggested that Russ Buyse was still employed by Mutual Mobile at the time Praxent made the hire.

SOURCE Praxent

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