ExperienceLab, Serco’s user experience design agency, and Vipera, the specialist digital financial services provider, has today announced a worldwide non-exclusive partnership to collaborate on next generation, mobile centric, user experience design, leveraging each other’s highly complementary offerings in their respective markets.

Coming on the back of a year that has seen the continued acceleration of both the FinTech market and the use of mobile technologies in general, both companies now see an opportunity to further accelerate their mutual growth objectives by forming a broad ranging and reciprocal partnership.

For over 40 years, ExperienceLab has been helping to drive innovation, shape new products and services, and direct strategic thinking for innovative brands including the BBC, Google and American Express, as well as supporting Serco, a leading provider of public services, to develop more personalised services for citizens.  ExperienceLab’s focus on user centric design supports the development of engaging and holistic customer experiences that go beyond simple screen based interactions.  This innovation and expertise makes it well positioned to help research and design the value-added, digital financial services experiences that Vipera can deliver.

Vipera’s mobile centric model of enhanced digital financial services delivers services across a range of mobile and wearable devices. In particular, its bank grade, middleware platform, MOTIF, is perfectly positioned to deliver and manage engaging and experience-rich mobile banking services to consumers in the many market countries in which it already has an established presence.

Gavin Sambles, Serco’s Director of ExperienceLab, commented: “Our belief that ‘customers’ build the best experiences’ is now being recognised across the private and public sectors. The increasing competition in the banking sector has made functions and services expected commodities. The real area of differentiation now comes from the overall customer experience. For any online or mobile banking service to be successful, it requires functionality to make completing a task simple, an interface that is instantly engaging, and an experience that delights the customer - ensuring not only loyalty but also advocacy. Our new partnership with Vipera delivers this complete package; their market leading software together with our customer centred approach creates an outstanding solution.”

Marco Casartelli, CEO of Vipera, added: “The rapid growth of the FinTech sector has shown us the importance of providing simple, efficient and user friendly services. Competition for the attention of customers is intense. Users are not interested in the technology per se, they care about how simple, efficient and engaging the experience is. The combination of Vipera’s technology and visual design expertise with the deep user centric approach of ExperienceLab provides a powerful combination to give the consumers what they want.”