The Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services — Driving Innovation and Growth for Companies

On Monday, Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services. This exciting industry-specific cloud will help financial services companies transform faster, to better meet customer needs and to thrive in today’s market.

In today’s Microsoft Ignite session, Edwin Van der Ouderaa (Accenture’s Global Lead for Customer, Sales & Service practice) and Michelle Baxter (Avanade’s Global Financial Services lead) joined Satish Thomas (Microsoft’s VP Industry Clouds + Solutions Engineering) to address what the Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services is and the opportunities it creates for our clients.

This financial services-specific cloud comes at a pivotal time for the industry. Against the backdrop of unabating economic pressures, changing customer needs and increased competitive challenges, the established financial services sector needs to innovate at the pace needed to stay relevant while maintaining the human connection with customers.

Built on a foundation of privacy, security and regulatory compliance, Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services helps financial services organizations reduce costs, improve their customer service and it enables continuous innovation to keep up with the changing needs of this sector. At its core, it is designed to modernize the core banking functionality whilst enabling financial services organizations to:

• Create differentiated customer experiences — to build “truly human” experiences that satisfy customer needs through personalized interactions and insights
• Empower employees — to improve productivity and to enable employees to better connect with customers and strengthen customer connections
• Combate financial crime — to identify and respond to evolving criminal activity whilst helping to protect against losses
• Boost security and compliance — to help organizations stay ahead of sophisticated attacks and on top of ever-evolving regulatory requirements

Together, Accenture and Microsoft, are committed to supporting companies to succeed in the ever-changing world we are navigating. An example of this is the recent announcement with Piraeus Bank. Piraeus is harnessing cloud technology to digitally transform into one of the most innovative and sustainable financial institutions in Greece. Piraeus will migrate its infrastructure to the cloud, enhance its customer service and reduce its carbon footprint. And now the Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services is ready to be used by clients to help deliver world-class, digital customer experiences. For example, Microsoft is working with Virgin Money UK as one of the first businesses to sign up for the Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services. Fraser Ingram, chief digital and innovation officer at the finance company, said: “At Virgin Money UK, we are always looking at ways to innovate and deliver a world-class, digital customer experience. We see Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services accelerating that journey of digitising our customer experience, while enabling us to scale and grow.”

If you missed the Microsoft Ignite session, register and watch it here and also get access to all of the on-demand event content. To learn more about Accenture’s current work in helping companies in the financial services industry, visit Financial Services | Accenture.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.