Elixirr and Currencycloud prove with partnerships, it’s what you know and who you know

No man is an island. And no corporation, no matter how big, successful or global, can achieve their goals by doing everything themselves either. Elixirr, a global challenger consultancy, understands this more than most, embracing open innovation to help large, traditional enterprises – mainly in financial services – transform, at pace, in an increasingly fragmented and competitive space.

Challenge

Advances in digital tech have lit the fuse that has allowed start-ups to challenge big corporations. It’s why big corporations need to innovate even faster than start-ups – though they are often hemmed in by legacy technology and internal processes that mean they can’t have the tech-led journey they want, and so are constantly being overtaken.

Elixirr sees this dilemma as an opportunity for big corporations and best-in-breed innovators alike.  They see that big corporations have the brand, the structure, the customers and the distribution channels – and innovators have the technology, and know-how. Elixirr works to bring these two different entities together through creating an ecosystem of partnerships: recognizing that established companies can generate value for start-ups through their distribution network, and start-ups can generate value for the big beasts through their capabilities. In short, Elixirr partners with external innovators who are doing unique things to help the bigger legacy-bound corporations who want to innovate.

Partnership

They do this by tapping into an ecosystem of established relationships with global thought leaders and tech giants that make up their network, and work closely with innovators from a broad innovation hub. Innovators like Currencycloud who help Elixirr inject creativity into large organizations and help them achieve their goals at pace. The two partner together to solve a particular problem: co-creating enterprise solutions that an organization on its own wouldn’t be able do. Should an organization need Currencycloud’s solution, or other innovators’ solutions depending on the project, they can achieve their goals in weeks not months or years.

Of course large companies like brick and mortar banks have always outsourced to help them arrive at a solution when they don’t have the internal expertise. The difference is that Elixirr can pick from best-in-breed technologies, innovators and challengers to help them achieve what they want, quicker. It’s all about relationships and partnerships. Helping the client find a solution they may not even know is out there. It’s an agile approach that cuts down on the complexity tax and gets round red tape.

For example, a large pan-African bank wanted to explore digital cross-border propositions to respond to competitive pressure and customer demand across their main markets. Despite internal efforts, the pace of progress was slow, and efforts had stalled. They asked Elixirr to find a solution for them.

Results

Elixirr partnered with Currencycloud to make the bank’s bold objectives a reality. After running a five-week proposition development sprint with Currencycloud to rapidly design, test and iterate a digital cross-border proposition with live customers, the program delivered a high-fidelity prototype of the cross-border payments proposition with a supporting business model design, business case and execution plan.

Dieter Halfar, Partner at Elixirr, explains “our core objective, working with this bank, was to deliver a proposal that would get over the hurdles that had, to date, been slowing progress. Currencycloud’s robust and award-winning solutions, and their ability to integrate with new clients quickly, provided all parties with the confidence to move forward confidently.” The result was the bank’s Executive Board approved the funding for the proposition and released the funds to accelerate time to execution by months.

Through leveraging the power of partnerships with innovators and experts in their field, Elixirr is able to come up with a solution and prevent the analysis paralysis that can descend on large organizations wanting to innovate. By partnering with best-in-breed innovators like Currencycloud, Elixirr is able to help huge organizations innovate at speed, and accelerate past the competition.

David Benton, Business Development Director – Partnerships, Currencycloud reflects, “the partnership with Elixirr was key to the success of the sprint. Through identifying the key requirements and translating this into a tangible proposition with the supporting business case, Elixirr helped to accelerate and solidify Currencycloud’s engagement with the client and further demonstrate the value and innovation that we can deliver.”