Oranj, an end-to-end wealth management solution that helps independent financial advisors streamline business and create a collaborative digital experience for their clients, today announced the launch of its real-time notifications feature. This new feature enables advisors and their clients to receive critical notifications via text and email without having to log in to the Oranj platform. The real-time notifications feature is available immediately on the Oranj platform, which is free and easy to use. Plus, based on requests from advisors using the platform, a number of other features were also rolled out including an enhanced insurance dashboard, bulk tagging and new notes capabilities in client contact records.
The new notifications feature was developed by Oranj’s team of four summer interns, who worked to take the project from prototype to launch. The 2019 interns were recruited from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Illinois Institute of Technology and were led by a 2018 returning intern, who served as product manager and development lead.
“Oranj conducts a rigorous recruitment to select high-performing interns with the skills and personality to harmonize with the company’s dynamic, fast-paced, team-oriented culture,” said David Lyon, founder and CEO of Oranj. “The goal of the intern program is to identify, train and potentially hire top engineering talent. During their internship, interns are embraced with company-wide support to ensure they are successful. Since the program’s launch in 2017 by our CTO Perry Moutzouros, four interns have been hired as either full-time employees after graduation or part-time employees while attending their final year at college.”
NEW ELEMENT OF FREEDOM
“The notifications feature adds a new element of freedom, convenience and security, ensuring that advisors and investors are kept informed about urgent messages on their mobile devices when they are off-platform,” Lyon said. “Receiving real-time notifications is the way people communicate in their everyday lives. Extending this capability to our wealth management platform assures advisors and clients immediately receive time-critical notifications in a familiar and easy way wherever they are, whether that’s a kid’s soccer game or daily subway commute.
“The Oranj wealth management platform is designed to unlock the potential of financial advisors and help them achieve better results for their clients and their businesses,” Lyon continued. “Adding a real-time notifications feature to Oranj’s solution set further enriches advisors’ experience with Oranj and frees them to spend less time managing and more time advising.”
GROOMING NEXTGEN TALENT
“The achievements of the 2019 Oranj summer intern team are the result of a highly successful internship program that began in 2017,” said Lauri Hofherr, Head of Product Development at Oranj. “Interns work as a team to develop and create a product that exists on the Oranj roadmap before the interns even get here. Projects are complex but achievable, ensuring the interns learn and progress.
“Each intern is assigned a mentor who meets with them weekly to make sure they are engaged and learning. Interns interact with all departments – from engineering to marketing and senior management – to give them a well-rounded experience,” Hofherr concludes.
“We believe this interaction coupled with leading highly technical projects provides them with a well-rounded experience not typically offered in an internship program,” stated Mike Johnson, Head of Engineering at Oranj. “We have found that this approach has given our interns a significant advantage as they enter the workforce.”
At the end of the internship, Oranj holds a three-day hackathon where the interns join the product development team to conceive, design and develop a prototype of a product feature that the company could consider developing. This year’s product was a variation of a prototype developed by one of the 2018 interns.
“The internship program is not only productive, it’s absolutely delightful,” continued Hofherr. “Our interns become part of the Oranj family and participate with us fully, from work to charitable events and fun outings like Lollapalooza. Plus, our employees benefit by having an opportunity to be a mentor to our interns. It’s always tough to say goodbye at the end of the summer.”
