Airwallex
is
aiming
for
its
internal
IT
and
security
tools
to
set
a
high
bar
for
quality
and
efficacy
that
is
then
replicated
and
reflected
in
the
way
its
customer-facing
services
are
built.
Vice
president
of
information
security
and
IT
Elliot
Colquhoun
told
the
iTnews
Podcast
that
the
company
wanted
to
“inspire
our
employees
to
build
really
great
products
for
our
customers,
referencing
what
we
do
internally.”
Melbourne-born
Airwallex
is
a
fintech
that’s
achieved
‘unicorn’
status
–
defined
as
a
valuation
in
excess
of
$1
billion
–
by
providing
a
way
for
businesses
to
manage
payments
in
multiple
currencies.
Colquhoun
cites
a
friend’s
saying,
that
“the
quality
of
your
internal
tools
determines
the
quality
of
your
external
tools”,
as
an
idea
that
Airwallex
has
taken
onboard.
“It’s
very
true,
and
it’s
often
not
intuitive
when
you
join
a
company,”
he
said.
Colquhoun
uses
authentication
as
an
example
of
the
kind
of
experience
that
service
providers
want
to
get
right
in
their
own
products.
If
a
product
team
works
at
an
organisation
where
authentication
and
sign-on
to
internal
systems
is
sub-optimal,
he
argues
–
for
example,
where
employees
are
subjected
to
numerous
or
inconsistently
applied
authentication
challenges
–
it’s
clear
that
a
low
bar
for
quality
of
experience
is
being
set.
“[If]
this
is
something
that
is
impacting
every
employee
in
the
organisation
every
day,
[then]
over
time
they
subconsciously
start
to
use
your
internal
tools
as
the
bar
for
quality,
because
that’s
just
what
they’re
using,
and
then
they
start
to
hold
themselves
to
their
bar
when
they
build
products,”
Colquhoun
said.
“They
say,
‘We
should
at
least
make
it
as
good
as
what
we
have
internally’.”
Colquhoun
said
Airwallex’s
approach
is
one
of
openness,
where
internal
information
security
and
IT
not
only
set
a
good
systematised
example,
but
make
themselves
available
to
employees
to
discuss
design
and
configuration
choices.
“We
do
deep-dives,
we
talk
about
the
different
factors
that
we
incorporate
–
how
we
do
device
checking
and
risk-based
analysis
when
logins
occur,”
Colquhoun
said.
“We
also
talk
about
the
different
strengths
and
weaknesses
of
the
approach
that
we’ve
taken,
and
we
explain
how
we’ve
put
all
this
time
and
effort
into
fine-tuning
our
authentication
policies
to
build
a
really
great
user
experience
that
means
that
login
windows
popup
relatively
infrequently,
error
messages
are
really
clear
about
what
is
actually
going
wrong,
and
that
show
we’re
aiming
to
build
a
really
high
quality
product
internally.
“[If
you
do
that],
what
you’ll
find
is
that
your
product
managers,
your
engineers,
the
people
that
are
using
your
tools
but
also
building
the
tools
for
customers,
start
to
hold
themselves
to
a
higher
bar,
because
they
have
this
internal
reference.
“And
so
you
see
an
improvement
in
the
quality
of
the
product
that
you
build
externally
as
a
result.”
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