BBD is a delivery-driven global software engineering company celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2024. The business specialises in complex software solutions for corporate and government organisations, with financial being one of the biggest sectors it serves. While the business has offices in India as well as offices and clients across Europe, its focus is currently heavily weighted towards the South African client base due to its history within the country and the way banking and technology have evolved there.
CEO Kevin Staples and Executive Director Matthew Barnard are rightfully proud of the way BBD’s humble beginnings have continued to shape the organisation, nearly four decades later. The company was started in a small room with just one computer, while the three ambitious founders created code in eight-hour shifts. “I think it speaks to how we, as a company, solve problems,” says Barnard.
A complex landscape
A theme we explored in our Standard Bank profile is that South Africa is both technologically and culturally complex. Standard Bank itself operates in more than 19 African countries, and delivering and providing world-class service across all of them is challenging – but it comes with opportunities. For BBD, it’s all about risk assessment and planning, because it’s natural for things to go wrong.
“Partnering closely with clients allows us to plan and figure out exactly how we’re able to get traction despite any internal constraints that are occurring,” says Staples. “We’ve worked with some of our clients for 15, 20 years,” Barnard adds, “so we get to know their people, processes, and technology as well as they do. Part of us ends up really embedded within our client, allowing us to really make a difference from the inside-out.”
BBD and Standard Bank
When it comes to BBD’s relationship with Standard Bank, it’s been a long road empowering the bank with consistent improvements. Historically, customers of the bank were stuck with manual processes that they struggled with, which is why Standard Bank opted to digitally transform the customer’s experience of trade finance products.
“That’s what the program set out to do,” says Staples. “We started this particular project about five years ago. BBD was very involved in the initial ideation and design of the customers’ experience and was the primary partner responsible for building and maintaining the solution.”
