On this week’s episode of OmniTalkFI, the Partner development team, Shelba Murphy, Kerry Phillips and Rachel Bitner, talk about the many benefits of partnering with NXTsoft to fast-track your Fintech’s API integration. 

Fintechs are choosing the NXTsoft partnership for their connectivity solution because:

  • They get their product to market faster, and at a lower cost.
  • They are closing more deals, faster.
  • They can offload the cost and compliance burden of managing and maintaining that connectivity onto the experts, freeing up their resources to focus on their expertise, their products, and their clients.

Check out our marketing slick to learn more – here.

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Shelba Murphy, SVP SalesShelba Murphy joined NXTsoft in 2019 as the SVP of Sales. Over the last two decades, Shelba has successfully led sales teams in the Fintech space to drive product penetration and adoption in Branch Automation, Call Center Solutions, including full outsourcing of all back office operations, Anti Money Laundering, Core Banking Solutions, Digital Banking, Retail Banking products, and document imaging solutions. Shelba draws on her extensive experience from working in the Fintech industry both domestically and internationally in the Asian markets. Shelba believes in giving back and volunteers at UCF in the Professional Selling Program to mentor/coach upcoming sales professionals.

Kerry Phillips, SVP Partner Development – Kerry Phillips’s main responsibilities as SVP of Partner Development for NXTsoft consists of building trusting, ongoing relationships with executive decision makers, developing and managing partners, organized, professional, consultative serving manner, strong understanding of today’s technology and how to translate value to their customers. In his free time, Kerry enjoys sailing his 40″ catamaran around the virgin islands, he most recently sailed it to the Dry Tortugas at the end of the Florida Keys.

Rachel Bitner, Partner Development ManagerRachel joined NXTsoft in November 2020 to help build success and improved relationships within our Partnerships division. Her previous experience is outside the banking and Fintech industry. The majority of Rachels career history has centered around building and executing sales & marketing strategies as an entrepreneur. Rachel is originally from Redditch, England and has lived in the US for the last 16 years. 

 

NXTsoft is focused on building lasting and mutually beneficial partnerships. NXTsoft’s industry experience, advancing solution technology, and collaborative marketing and sales initiatives, make NXTsoft the ideal partner to traverse the ever changing Fintech landscape with.  

For more information about how to become a NXTsoft strategic partner, visit https://www.nxtsoft.com/contact or call 1-800-915-3381

Podcast Transcript:

Amy Rice: Today, I have joining me, Kerry Phillips. He is the SVP of Partner Development. I also have Rachel Bitner, she is the Partner Development Manager, and I also have Shelba Murphy who is our SVP of Sales.

Amy Rice: So you guys all have a partner relationship role within NXTsoft. So I wanted to do a deep dive into our partnership program, what it takes to be a partner, the benefits, and all that good stuff. So my first question is, how are NXTsoft solutions driving Fintech into the future?

Kerry Phillips: When I sit back and look at Fintech, one of the things that they do is they spend a lot of time developing this solution that has been dreamed up and put together and planned, and it really fits into the ecosystem far as supporting the banks and the credit unions. So they go through this process and it takes them some time to do that, but when they come to the end, they go, “Okay, and are we done? No, we now have to connect over 30 some core solutions in the marketplace. And so at that point, that is where NXTsoft comes in, becomes their why. Because what we can do is really… We can fast track that Fintech into the future because we can put those pairings or those connections in place because we already have them in play. So all we have to do is consume their API, but that’s how we can put Fintech into a fast track. Shelba, do you have any thoughts around that too?

Shelba Murphy: Kerry, I think you’re absolutely right. When Fintechs build a product, trying to get it to market is the hardest thing for them to do once they’ve developed a nice, cool toy. And even though it might be the best in the breed and the best in class, it’s still a challenge to get it connected to other applications. And that’s where we come into play. We make that process a lot more streamlined and a lot more simplistic and do a lot of the heavy lifting on their behalf. So win-win.

Amy Rice: So I know there’s a lot of different Fintech companies out there. Can you kind of explain what sets NXTsoft apart?

Kerry Phillips: I think what really sets NXTsoft apart from the other Fintechs out there is our history. You know, we’ve been doing this for a long time and because of that history, it’s really driven us into a really good place. I was with several other large companies before coming here and working in that middleware arena and looking at our solution is so amazing. We really truly have an enterprise bus and we have the ability to not only connect the Fintechs, but we also have the ability to build an enterprise for a bank or a credit union. Shelba, do you have any thoughts… additional thoughts around that?

Shelba Murphy: And because we’ve been around for quite some time, we’ve been able to build a level of trust with a lot of the core providers that some of the newer Fintechs haven’t had the opportunity to do. We’ve been white-listed with a lot of the players in those spaces. We’ve had years and years of experience working with them, not just with the older technology but with some of the newer integration points that they’ve come out with. But because we have a history there and we have relationships within those organizations, we know who to call. We know how to get things resolved if things were to go amuck, and that’s something that a lot of the newer Fintech companies don’t have when they’re trying to get to market. We have the relationships, and the relationships in this space as we all know, is the name of the game.

Amy Rice: Rachel, can you talk about some of the benefits of being a NXTsoft partner?

Rachel Bitner: First of all, the benefits are all around helping you, the Fintech to get your product to market faster, reducing your costs and responsibilities around connectivity, and then close more deals and close the deals faster. So essentially we make your sale easier and more profitable. Let’s say you’re a Fintech selling a digital loan package. You’d have to hire a developer to write that connection, let’s say $100,000, then for each new connection, you’ve got to bill maybe another six months. So just to get a handful of connections done, we’re talking maybe years. With NXTsoft’s connectivity library, we can have you up and running within 90 days, no matter which core you’re connecting to. Then on top of the development costs, you’d also need to have somebody for installation of the connection, someone for support, maintenance, management of that connection, as the cause of putting out their updates and upgrades.

Rachel Bitner: So you can see how the costs can just skyrocket. The NXTsoft solution removes all of those costs and obstacles for a small monthly cost and the standard API cost for the financial institution. So there’s really no way for any Fintech to do what we do more cost-effectively or more efficiently. And then when you look at the sales process, we also know that the conversations around connectivity take about… they’re about 30% of the sales conversation. So if you can remove integration from the sales conversation, we’re shortening that conversation, so we’re going to close deals faster. And then when you go to a sales conversation with the connectivity issue already solved, you’ve got a 50% better chance at closing that deal.

Rachel Bitner: So in a nutshell, companies are choosing the NXTsoft partnership for their integration solution because they get their product to market faster at a lower cost. They’re closing more deals and closing them faster. And they can offload the cost and compliance burden of managing and maintaining that connectivity onto the experts, freeing up their resources to focus on their expertise, their products, and their customers.

Amy Rice: Shelba, could you tell us who NXTsoft is looking for in a partner?

Shelba Murphy: Well, that one’s really simple, Amy, because anybody who needs connectivity to another application needs NXTsoft. I mean, that’s the ideal partner that we’re looking for, anybody who needs connectivity from one system to another. We create that middleware layer that allows them to plug and play. We’re that conduit that allows them to act as a… or allows those Fintechs to connect with other Fintech providers, or it allows them to connect to a core provider and allows the financial institutions and to create an ecosystem where it’s cohesive and all the solutions talk to one another. So we’re looking for anybody trying to enter into that ecosystem where we can act as that technology platform. Kerry, I know you have a lot of thoughts on that. What are your thoughts on that?

Kerry Phillips: One of the things I think is always important in the process for NXTsoft, is to look at that partner and how they fit in our ecosystem and the other solutions that we have. And one of the things that we have done is we’ve really expanded our base track, which was originally around loan solutions. And so we’re even looking for Fintechs today, as we just recently signed… or in the process of signing, a new Fintech that actually does warranties for autos. And so where’s the connection? The connections are the FIs or the credit unions. So we are looking for a partner that really fits into the bank’s ecosystem as well as into our ecosystem.

Amy Rice: Rachel, could you tell everyone how they would contact NXTsoft if they’re interested in becoming a partner?

Rachel Bitner: Our website nxtsoft.com is the best way to get more information and to contact us or look us up on LinkedIn and send us a message there.