How Archway Brings Innovation as a Service to the Banking Ecosystem

Archway is a spin-off of Washington Federal Bank (WaFd). It’s led by the same team that transformed WaFd into a “digital-first” bank. According to Archway president Dustin Hubbard, the developers started with off-the-shelf software.

“We soon learned that all the integrations with legacy systems had to be created from scratch,” said Hubbard.

“That makes the implementation timeline and process quite costly. Banks will think they’re buying a turnkey system. But they’re only buying the user experience — without plumbing behind it. After six months, we knew an off-the-shelf solution wasn’t going to work.”

Cost effective, rapid deployment of enterprise-grade solutions at scale

Archway’s developers did not want to build a solution that created technical debt and required ongoing maintenance. Hubbard spent four months searching for a provider that would allow his team to build the application themselves.

Hubbard gives high markets to Mendix for its:

• Cloud-based platform
• Compatibility with AWS
• Speed to market
• IP protection
• Low-code-enabled abstraction and collaboration features.

“Mendix helps developers get out of the code’s fine details and focus on the big-picture problems,” said Hubbard. “The ability to deploy quickly in multiple Mendix environments, using as many containers as you want with whatever code base you need, makes this process so easy to manage,” Hubbard added.

Archway became an official Mendix ISV partner in December 2022.

Flagship platform integrates users, data, and next-generation technologies

Archway Software offers retail banking products on a flagship platform called “Keystone.” The software suite provides online, mobile, call services and back-office bank management solutions.

“The platform works with a common architecture,” said Hubbard. “That’s important because many banks use different technologies they’ve acquired through merger and acquisition.”

With Archway’s Mendix-built platform, banks can access data stored in legacy systems. Executives can receive tailored data-driven business insights directly.

Hubbard added, “Archway’s secure, innovative banking platforms and customized applications enable successful digital transformation in a matter of weeks and not years.”

“We believe these smaller banks play a huge role in their local communities by providing credit and loans that help grow other small businesses,” Hubbard said.

Beyond software provider to solution provider

Archway plans to transform the “build vs buy” paradigm by introducing the idea of “co-innovation,” said Hubbard. “By using Mendix’s adaptive capabilities, we create an option for banks to let their own development teams add safe and secure features on their own timeline. We call this “co-innovation.” This gives clients the best of both worlds.”

The Mendix ISV Program is where commercial software ideas become lucrative outcomes. Partners across industries can enhance existing software solutions or create new commercial solutions. Monetize domain expertise and sell differentiated solutions built on the leading low-code platform. The program provides unique benefits to enable businesses from ideation through development, deployment, and maintenance of commercial software solutions built on the Mendix low-code platform.