Celent Model Bank Award: Idea Bank: Idea Cloud Small Business Digital Platform

Winner of Celent Model Bank 2017 award for Small Business Digital Platform. Idea Cloud is a comprehensive financial solution for small businesses in Poland to manage the accounting, invoicing, banking transactions and secure storage of critical business data in the cloud.

As a relatively new bank that specifically targets small business and entrepreneurs, Idea Bank was uniquely positioned to design and develop a revolutionary digital platform to meet the needs of their clients.

Idea Cloud is an innovation that alters the bank’s role as a provider of services to small businesses. Traditionally banks have been devoted to asset preservation, granting of credit and executing payments. Idea Bank has found itself on the threshold of an intelligent banking era and recognized that its growth will depend on becoming a participant in all of the business processes conducted by its clients.

For other banks that are considering how to address the needs of small business in a new way, adopting a "mobile first" strategy should be considered. This was the key lesson learned for Idea Bank.

"The revolutionary design of Idea Cloud is not based on traditional banking channels but was created based on a client-centric workflow that integrates banking activity with accounting, invoicing and tax processes," commented Susan Feinberg, Senior Analyst in Celent's Banking practice.

"Combining a sophisticated analytics capability with all of the relevant business accounting data allows Idea Bank to provide leading edge cash flow forecasting capability along with a single click for the business owner to choose an option to fund projected shortfalls," she added.

Typical Profile of Idea Bank's Customers

Source: Idea Bank Investor Presentation, March 2015