Case Study
Transformed a leading Middle Eastern retail bank’s mobile ecosystem by migrating from Kony to Flutter
Discover how we transformed a leading Middle Eastern retail bank’s mobile ecosystem by migrating from Kony to Flutter, reducing costs, accelerating delivery, and enhancing performance through an agile, scalable, and customer-first digital banking platform.
Output Achieved
About the project
Our client, a leading retail bank in the Middle East, embarked on a large-scale digital transformation journey to enhance customer engagement through next-gen mobile experiences. With digital banking becoming the primary customer touchpoint, the bank aimed to evolve from its existing Kony-based mobile platform to a more agile, cost-efficient, and future-ready framework.
The Challenge
The bank’s earlier Kony mobile banking app served its purpose but faced multiple performance, cost, and scalability limitations:
- High licensing costs due to Kony’s proprietary model.
- Limited scalability when integrating new SDKs or adding features.
- Slow release cycles are caused by lengthy build and deployment dependencies.
- Performance bottlenecks from hybrid abstraction layers.
- UI inconsistencies across Android and iOS devices.
- Dependence on niche Kony developers with limited availability.
The client wanted to overcome these constraints by developing a lightweight, flexible, and visually modern mobile banking platform, one that offered faster performance, enhanced customer experience, and full control over its digital ecosystem.
Our Approach
Digichorus adopted a two-phased modernisation strategy, focusing on both front-end migration and backend re-engineering to ensure agility, performance, and long-term scalability.
Framework Migration: From Kony to Flutter
We rebuilt the entire mobile app using Flutter, Google’s open-source UI toolkit, leveraging a single codebase to deliver seamless performance across iOS and Android.
Why Flutter?
Open Source & Cost-Effective: Eliminated recurring licensing expenses.
High Developer Availability: Broader global community for easy scaling.
Hot Reload & Rapid Prototyping: Reduced development cycles by nearly 40%.
Native-Like Performance: Compiled to ARM code, removing hybrid lag.
Unified Design System: Consistent UI powered by Flutter’s Skia engine.
Backend Modernisation (Java + Spring Boot)
We re-engineered backend microservices using Java and Spring Boot, decoupled from Kony middleware, for improved speed, modularity, and integration flexibility.
Designed REST APIs for real-time transactions and authentication.
Optimised API response
Strengthened encryption, session management, and data integrity.
UI/UX Transformation
Flutter’s widget-driven architecture allowed us to deliver a refined, intuitive, and consistent interface.
Dynamic Dashboards: Real-time account overviews and analytics
Intuitive Navigation: Contextual pop-ups, smart menus, and gestures.
Custom Animations: Smooth transitions that improved user engagement.
Feature Enhancement and SDK Development
We built multiple native SDK integrations to expand app functionality without licensing restrictions:
Biometric Authentication (Face & Fingerprint)
OCR-based Cheque Book Scanning
QR Code Payments & Scanning
eKYC Integration (REST APIs)
Apple Pay Integration
Advanced Security SDKs
Wallet & Insurance Integrations
Security and Compliance Reinforcement
To meet global banking standards, we strengthened the app’s security architecture:
Multi-factor authentication and biometric login.
Disable copy-paste in sensitive input fields.
Electronic signature for secure document handling.
Native data encryption both at rest and in transit.
Solution
The modernised mobile app was built to deliver a high-performance, secure, and engaging banking experience with the following key modules:
Accounts: Balance overview, transaction history, and summaries.
Transfers: Internal and external fund transfers with real-time validation.
Payments: Bill payments, recharges, and scheduled transactions.
Beneficiaries: Add, edit, or manage securely.
Cards: Tokenisation, blocking/unblocking, and management.
Loans: Overview, repayment, and tracking.
Authentication: Multi-factor and session-based login.
Modern Add-ons: Onboarding, Locate Us, Alerts, Wallet, Insurance.
The Impact
The migration to Flutter delivered measurable results across performance, cost, and customer satisfaction:
40% Faster Performance: Flutter’s native compilation improved app speed dramatically.
35% Reduction in Development Time: Hot reload and reusable widgets accelerated releases.
Zero Licensing Cost: Complete elimination of Kony’s annual license fee.
Consistent UI/UX: Unified design improved brand experience across devices.
Higher Developer Scalability: Expanded global Flutter talent pool.
This transformation empowered the client with full code ownership, lower costs, and faster innovation cycles, positioning them as a digitally progressive financial institution ready to meet evolving customer demands.
