Overview finance is an Android personal finance management app developed by the Pauwels family (Hans, Henry-Jerome and Charles Pauwels).
The following are answers to critical questions about Overview app, as answered by Pauwels, founders of the app.
Q. What is Overview?
A. Overview is an Android personal finance management app that enriches your mobile payment services. It is a diary of your finances. Just like a diary, it is built to be friendly, engaging and highly interactive. What’s more, we fill it out for you. Through engagement we assist our users to gain complete control of their finances and start building their dreams.
We also want to make payments more of a social event. With Overview a user can send a message when he has made a mobile money payment. ‘Great lunch! Here’s my share’ or an invoice reference, for instance.
Q. What will Overview do for me, as a user?
A. First of all, you are instantly notified of every transaction, allowing you to manage your finances ‘live’. Compact and pertinent push notifications arriving promptly, even offline.
Then we talk. Guiding users through the transaction details with suggestions to rename, add notes or even add a picture. Making every transaction unique and personal.
Over time, we’ll graph all transactions and compare them to trend lines and past performance. Your digital statement of all of your accounts. Keeping you informed at all times and at a single glance.
Categorizing all your expenses. Automatically where we can, or manually where needed in 2 simple actions. For you to understand how you spent your money.
And as our machine learning starts to understand user patterns, we’ll start to make suggestions that are relevant to you at that specific moment in your life.
We’ve already built in some cool features, such as geolocation, mapping your financial diary. And we’re working hard on new ones that will be introduced shortly.
Q. When will Overview be available?
A. We are working very hard to launch our app by May 15th. We currently have an Alpha version that has been running on about 100 users. They have been of great value to our development. Overview always has the user in mind, offering as much value as possible.
Q. Who is our target market?
A.Our focus is on the smartphone generation. And by smartphone generation, we would like to include all the smartphone users, not only the digital natives. We have had many alpha users who suggested this app to their parents and relatives.
We believe that the smartphone generation is a great evangelist for the propagation of our product.
To be a target user of Overview, you need two things: a smartphone and a keen interest in your finances. This indeed is a big audience to target. But there are also very specific user groups. We can truly see the value of Overview for Chama’s, Uber drivers, the members of the 52 week savings challenge, and so many more.
Q. What are the benefits of using Overview?
A. Overview creates value for its users by offering a holistic view of their finances at a glance. We also provide real time notification with every transaction. This alone, for instance, makes M-PESA more secure as you will only get a notification that is generated by the Safaricom servers. No more fraudulent or fake SMS’s. What’s more, Overview enriches all transactions; automatic categorization where possible, pinpointed so that you know where you spent money, possibility to add notes or even send messages. Every transaction becomes rewarding, unique and personal.
Q. Why is Overview different?
A. The smartphone generation lives with the user experience of YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. They have a whole range of the most advanced mobile payment systems at their fingertips. At the same time, they are underserved where personal finance management is concerned. That’s what Overview provides: personal finance management tools containing same UX and UI standards as what today’s users expect. An app that puts their needs and wishes first. Moving quickly from reporting transactions to becoming a pro-active financial assistant. Being able to send reminders for loan repayments or KPLC tokens for instance.
Q. What are your current integration?
A. We currently integrate with M-PESA, Airtel Money, KCB transactions, M-Shwari savings and M-Shwari Lock Savings. Integration with other banks will follow shortly. Digital loan providers, such as Tala and Branch, will also be included. A real aggregator of financial data, whatever the provider.
Q. How social is Overview?
A. Overview tries to be as social as possible! We have created a Facebook community of Overviewers, where users have access to a page that provides information on how to gain control over their finances. Providing tips and tricks, curated by us and enhanced with content and links, all to the benefit of our users.
Q. How much will the app cost?
A. The app is FREE for the users! We believe that you shouldn’t have to pay to understand and manage your finances.
Q. How about Security and Privacy?
A. At Overview we put Security and Privacy as a top priority! We built the app on top of Google’s modern, secure and – most importantly – highly certified infrastructure. The app is PIN code protected and all communication with the servers is encrypted. It is our commitment to our users to always protect them because without their trust, we don’t have a product.
Q. Why Kenya and not other markets where mobile money is also present?
A. Because we believe that Kenya is one of the world leaders in mobile payment, with probably the highest share of the population transacting on mobile phones. Users are very familiar with a large variety of products; from payments to loans to savings accounts. We are yet to see a European country selling their Government Bonds over mobile phones…
Q. How is it different from Tala, Branch, and M-Shwari among others?
A. All these brands are providers of financial products, we are the aggregators. We do not provide loans or savings. We do not do payments. But we collect data from such transactions, analyze them and report them to users in a legible and visually interesting manner. Making it easy for users to understand their finances. Making it possible for them to make informed financial decisions. Effortlessly.
Q. How does Overview differentiate from MySafaricom app?
A. We love that Safaricom is also pushing the smartphone agenda. It is great news! It will really assist the further development and the user experience of mobile money.
Our value lies in the fact that we are a neutral aggregator of transactions whatever the provider. We want to users to have access to all of their financial information at one single and central access point.
Q. Will these updates run you out of business?
A. We believe that this will only help increase the usage of mobile money in general. Together with the reduction in M-PESA fees we believe it becomes an even more viable product than cash. The more mobile money is being used, the more data are generated. The more data, the more valuable our product becomes. Because with more data, we can provide better and more pro-active services to the users.
Q. Who is the team behind Overview?
A. Henri, Hans and Charles. An entrepreneurial family founding team combining product design and development—used by millions worldwide—with innovation management and 30+ years of international business. Our business is built around user experience in banking. We are based in Belgium, but we work globally, with a focus on emerging markets and developing economies.
Q. So why are you doing this now?
A. Because there is a need. A need for users to understand their finances. Users that for generations relied on cash only, but now have access to the newest digital finance systems. But without the tools to understand them. Without the tools to manage their finances across providers: easily, effortlessly, and efficiently. Without the tools to make the right financial decisions, at the right time, for the right circumstances.
Q. Do you have material we can download the app?
A. We have a press kit with imagery you can download. Get it here.
For more info: www.overview.co.ke
Mail: [email protected]
Tel: +254 797 734 278