After 20 Years, Praxent Pivots to Focus On Financial Services & Modernization
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. It’s our 20th anniversary and to celebrate, we’re announcing new leadership roles and a new strategic specialization.
We’ve delivered over 300 software projects over the past 20 years, and our portfolio includes work for financial services clients Texas Mutual Insurance, Benefit Harbor, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Austin Capital Bank, Keller Williams, and Amherst Holdings. Although our financial services focus is new, it’s based on 3 key factors that define us:
- A wealth of experience with financial services firms
- The team’s talent for crafting elegant user experiences that handle complex workflows and compliance rules
- The agile insight that modernizing legacy software, not creating new, can be a faster way for established brands to sprint ahead
Intuitive, Responsive, and Modern Digital Experiences
Today’s customers expect their 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.
Leaping to develop software from scratch can be risky for established financial services brands. While 90% of large software projects fail, just 24% of small projects end up that way. 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.
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A New Focus Supported by New Hires
To pursue a financial services focus, Praxent made strategic moves to hire Russ Buyse away from Mutual Mobile as Chief Operating Officer, and added 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.“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.”
An era of pandemic only highlights the existing need for digital innovation. “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.”