How to Leverage Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services

In order to harness the power of their data and remain competitive in a shifting industry, financial organizations must move to the cloud. Learn how Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services integrates with other cloud based tools and build a strategic plan for your business.
April 6, 2023
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microsoft cloud for financial services

Moving data to the cloud has become table stakes, and for banking, that means modernizing operations in order to deliver differentiated experiences, strengthen security, and manage risk. Though risk and regulatory protection remain a major focus, banks must also address increasing their financial performance to meet investor expectations. Fortunately, a variety of tools have been developed to meet these demands, including technology like the Snowflake Data Cloud and Microsoft’s Cloud for Financial Services. 

Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services offers financial institutions the ability to leverage their data to personalize customer experiences, empower employees, and combat financial crime while facilitating security, compliance, and interoperability. In short, Microsoft’s latest solution for financial services providers offers a tool kit for approaching operational tasks that have become increasingly integral for businesses hoping to remain competitive in a rapidly modernizing marketplace. With a platform to accelerate innovation, banks can address the most urgent challenges while driving sustainable growth and boosting financial performance.

What is Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services and How Can You Drive Innovation?

The recent rise in interest rates has been a catalyst for banks to come up with new, innovative product lines to boost their bottom line. In order to drive that innovation, data needs to be treated like a product, serving as a baseline for those business decisions. When a financial organization’s existing data is paired with technology like Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, time to market can be greatly reduced, eliminating the challenge of lost opportunities and customer churn

Key Features in Microsoft’s Integrated Solutions 

Microsoft’s industry-specific cloud includes existing and new tools that use data to help improve customer experiences by empowering employees. These solutions improve productivity, enhance workflows, and improve employee experiences as well, allowing them to focus on strengthening customer connections.

  • The Unified Customer Profile gives you a 360-degree view of your customer. With the ability to view your customer 360 data in a clear and intuitive way, Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services makes it possible to use these insights to provide personalized experiences, reveal important opportunities, and exceed customer expectations. 
  • With Unified Customer Loan Onboarding, you can enable customers to efficiently apply for and keep track of a loan. Provide easy access through a mobile app or portal as well as an automated pipeline to review and validate application information. It also helps relationship managers monitor the loan process and ensure a consistent, reliable customer experience.
  • Advanced analytics related to Customer Intelligence unlock value creation and help to enhance customer experience. Designed to build customer loyalty through more relevant interactions—and deeper insights.

The Most Exciting Accelerators in Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services

Microsoft Cloud accelerators help create innovative product lines in less time. Through reusable features and models, time to market is greatly reduced, as is the cost of platform builds. 

  • With the retail banking data model, Microsoft is making it easier for partners and customers to create new use cases and workflows without redefining the financial services data architecture. The retail banking data model makes Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementations for financial services customers easier, quicker, and more secure.
  • By capturing financial goals and investment instruments linked to customer profiles, the Wealth management data model helps wealth managers quickly take advantage of the benefits of Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, and time to value for financial institution solutions is accelerated.
  • The Common Data Model A unified data model allows you to share data and its meaning more easily across applications and business processes. Enable your organization to make smart business decisions by turning raw information into data that can be used by applications, machine learning, and AI algorithms to deliver accessible, understandable, and actionable insights.
  • Extend the data model foundation of Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services with Small business extension data models. With this model, you can represent individuals and allow linking small businesses to individual financial holdings. 

For combating financial crime, solutions like Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection pertaining to fraud prevention helps to manage reputational risk by defending a consumer’s online account against bot attacks, fake account creation, account takeover, and fraudulent account access.

How Financial  Organizations Can Implement Key Features in Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services

With a variety of priorities competing for attention as banks look to modernize their operations, Microsoft’s key features and accelerators offer several advantages for financial institutions. For businesses hoping to quickly implement processes that will positively impact their revenue and offer tangible benefits for customers, Microsoft has the added benefit of integrating effectively with other key cloud technologies.

Snowflake’s Financial Cloud, for example, can be easily integrated with Microsoft technologies, allowing companies to enjoy the data warehouse tools and processing capabilities of Snowflake’s customized financial services products in combination with the offerings from Microsoft. So what’s possible using the features found in Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services? 

  • Hyper personalization: Banks can provide improved customer experience by bootstrapping Customer 365 for their Customer 360 implementations.
  • Fraud Detection: Banks can enhance their fraud detection by bootstrapping Dynamic 365 Fraud detection and protection.
  • Investor 360:  Banks can develop Investor 360 using a built in wealth management data model.
  • New Financial Product Offerings: Banks can tap into the Common Data Model to gain additional views into their customer behavior patterns and trends. By having an understanding of how their customers interact with their financial products, a business can create new offerings.  
  • SMB Customer Offerings: Create valuable insights for your organization’s SMB Customers using their credit card data. This helps businesses manage their inventory and workforce  efficiently. The Small Business Model can be used as an accelerator to reduce T2M.

The Future of Banking in the Cloud

So, what is Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services? As you can see, it’s a platform that offers a plethora of tools and accelerators to modernize banks and bring them into the future—now. With the recent advancements in Microsoft’s offerings, financial services organizations can accelerate their data journey and, by treating data as a product, realize exponential growth, innovation, and customer loyalty. 

Let Hakkoda take you into the future state of banking by keeping your data house in order. That way, you can focus on the next big thing. Our deep financial services expertise, paired with Microsoft’s technology, will accelerate your data innovation journey. Contact us today to learn how we can implement Microsoft Cloud for your financial service solutions. 

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