How has Ciklum grown since you joined in 2020?
I joined Ciklum in March 2020, just as the pandemic struck, and was charged with reinvigorating the way our company goes to market. A lot has changed since then, but Ciklum is now focusing on specific industry verticals including retail, consumer products, financial services, payments, and iGaming. Our wealth of experience enables us to facilitate new experiences and innovation for our clients.
For example, we partnered with a global food delivery platform to transform their core product. During our collaboration, we supported them with post-acquisition system migrations, application improvements, the creation of self-service tools for partner restaurants, and simplified restaurant onboarding.
Geographic expansion is a key focus as part of our next growth phase, and is a top priority in 2023. Leveraging our network of local developers or delivery centers in India, Latin America, and Eastern and Central Europe to support our clients globally is hugely important.
What differentiates Ciklum from the competition?
Our team is dedicated to creating custom solutions that are incredibly specific to our clients’ needs. As a result, we’re able to more effectively hit the mark for their priorities and navigate challenges in less time.
Our focus and expertise is set on specific industries, which allows us to hone our craft for clients in these key verticals. This prioritization has strengthened our execution, leading to recognition by Gartner, where we were named a Niche Player in their 2022 Magic Quadrant for Custom Software Development.
Our team is dedicated to creating custom solutions that are incredibly specific to our clients’ needs. As a result, we’re able to more effectively hit the mark for their priorities and navigate challenges in less time.
What is a key challenge Ciklum’s clients face in the payments space?
Companies in sectors like iGaming and retail are suffering from the “Amazon effect” as their customers expect seamless one-click or biometric checkouts. Shoppers then expect this consistent payment experience for future purchases.
Ecommerce innovation continues to shape customer expectations and more companies are delivering seamless checkouts as a competitive advantage. As a result, we advise clients to leverage payments as a way to improve customer loyalty. Small steps like letting customers save their address or credit card details in a checkout field or offering multiple payment methods can go a long way in delivering a memorable online shopping experience. The same goes for local or noncard payments—giving customers more convenience through their preferred payment methods is important to building trust.
What are Ciklum’s key priorities and opportunities for growth in 2023?
Last year was all about cementing our verticalized go-to-market strategy and integrating Ciklum teams at every step of a client's journey. Companies from enterprises to high-growth platforms are turning to Ciklum for product engineering, data management, analytics, automation, and more. In 2023, we’re building on the strong foundations we’ve built over the last 12 months to help our clients create new products and platforms that will reshape their industries.
We advise clients to leverage payments as a way to improve customer loyalty.
How do you envision Ciklum and Stripe helping clients solve challenges and achieve their goals?
Stripe is moving beyond payments and checkout experiences, and Ciklum will partner with Stripe to support more businesses as they move to online commerce.
We also see Stripe serving as a competitive advantage for Ciklum clients. By adopting Stripe’s APIs and ensuring PCI compliance on their software stack, companies can more easily power their revenue operations. Additionally, working with Stripe allows Ciklum to help clients create bespoke analytics tools from Stripe revenue data.
How will the Ciklum and Stripe partnership continue to evolve to support clients with their payments innovation?
Our combined knowledge of shared customer needs will drive our partnership forward. We’re thrilled to partner with Stripe to support businesses looking to accelerate their adoption of new financial infrastructure, or companies that are taking their first steps with Stripe. In either scenario, our teams will work closely with clients and develop custom payment experiences for their business. Whether it’s in-person payments, launching marketplaces, or improving revenue management, our partnership will focus on improving customer loyalty with sound financial infrastructure.
We’re thrilled to partner with Stripe to support businesses looking to accelerate their adoption of new financial infrastructure, or companies that are taking their first steps with Stripe.
