Here at Advantage, we’ve worked and continue to work with many clients that operate in the financial services sector with many of them telling us that resilience, risk management and agility are their top three priorities as they look to adapt their operations to service customers effectively now and in times of uncertainty.
In order to help them achieve the above, we’re looking to use our experience to enable financial services organisations to maximise their use of technology in order to increase both their overall efficiency and improve their overall customer experience.
By using a digital transformation approach, the above challenges can be met. However, how quickly can this be done? Or is it too slow or too pricey to accelerate the necessary changes required to navigate the stormy waters of uncertainty? From our 20 years of industry experience, we believe that this largely depends on two things: the type of digital transformation programme and which technology you are discussing.
Through the use of a cloud-based CRM solution to make the transition to a more digital approach, you have the capabilities to customise and deploy quickly to enable you to have all the tools you require and to gain the agility you require to be able to adapt quickly to any future changes. The Dynamics 365 solution, the Power Platform as well as Advantage’s sector solution: Microsoft Dynamics for Financial Services have been created to allow for quick installation and impact in financial services without impacting on the day-to-day activities of the business. To put this into context, we’ve listed just a few of the most useful capabilities that can be delivered:
Developing and improving products & services
Being able to meet customer and market requirements whilst at the same time managing risk in uncertain times can be difficult in terms of both product management and development. It is safe to say that financial services organisations are upping their games to meet the new market challenges as their customers’ finances change.
At this point, customers might be looking at their investments and require additional advice. This is where financial services organisations can come in to demonstrate how they are focused on the customer & can help to find a useful solution on a larger scale and at the same time be able to manage their own risk.
To put this into content in the form of an example, we know that financial services organisations need to focus on making sure they have both the tools and capabilities to improve their liquidity and capital resilience in order to level out any potential risks that occur in uncertain times.
By using digital platforms and tools you can meet requirements such as risk triage for loans in the context of uncertain times. The use of a low code option like the Microsoft Power Platform can help you to create and tailor service and processing applications faster. Better still, our Microsoft Dynamics for Financial Services solution can provide your business with sector specific capabilities in custom-built, apps to help you maximise your agility.
Improve your liquidity and capital resilience with our Microsoft Dynamics for Financial Services solution
Working from home and system access
In times of uncertainty like with the ongoing Covid pandemic, remote working has become the normal for services businesses. However, this has caused major headaches for financial services organisations who have found it difficult to adapt to this change because of security and compliance concerns which have stalled them in widely accepting flexible working. From this, it becomes very clear that all future business systems, apps as well as platforms will need to be setup to support agile, secure as well as efficient remote working.
Granted, this is not just a simple fix for now and against the future risk of uncertainity. It has become evident that more permanent changes to workforce expectations and habits are already being highlighted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, in order to be able to keep a lid on overheads and compete for staff against agile fintech workplaces, more traditional financial services organisations need to adapt to provide effective remote working facilities.
Therefore, data and system security are vital to enable remote working to be effective in the financial services sector, so it’s important to pick the technology that provides the very best in security. This is where Microsoft can help as it invests heavily in the protection of digital assets and uses Microsoft Azure Cloud to host Dynamics 365. Furthermore, its dedicated Cyber Defense Operations Centre operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to detect and deal with any threats.
Improving business resilience and scalability
The ongoing uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic means that you have to be proactive and quick to adapt to any changes. Using a cloud-based CRM platform such as Dynamics 365 provides you with the capability to adapt at pace and scale.
Increase or reduce your system user base, seamlessly integrate and connect existing and new applications and customise your capabilities as and when required to meet your latest priorities. Furthermore, adding new functions and capabilities won’t require any long-winded software development projects. This problem is solved by the Power Platform which has been created to provide a quick, easy and low code application build and launch.
You no longer need to have money tied up in technology with the cloud-based Dynamics 365 platform. Better still, you immediately reduce the need to spend money on both maintenance and upgrades.
Improving the overall customer experience and customer communications
In addition to adapting to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, more challenges will need to be faced in the future. Financial services organisations have predicted that 2021 will be a tricky period with the furlough schemes likely to be stopped.
By having all your crucial customer data contained in a digital CRM platform, you have the power to immediately respond to client requirements. You will find that in Dynamics 365, dashboard analytics provide you with the ability to analyse and predict likely product and service requirements and to review any upcoming risks. Furthermore, you will be able to personalise contacts, campaigns as well as communications to address these particular issues and changing circumstances as and when they happen.
It is this agility that’s crucial in order to keep your customers happy & maintain your high standards in service in uncertain times.
Both resilience and agility on a rapid scale can be achieved through digital transformation
Unpredictable changes in the sector may require an immediate response. Furthermore, financial services firms require the digital infrastructure and capability to be able to deal with any market changes in uncertain times as well as any potential changes in the future.
Being flexible and able to move quickly will be crucial to the future success of your business and even survival in the coming months and years. By using the combined power of our Microsoft Dynamics for Financial Services solution coupled with Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform can provide your financial services firm with the capabilities to ramp up your digital transformation so you are able to transform your business by improving your resilience, increasing agility and managing risks.
Next Steps?
If you are a financial services organisation that is looking to build your resilience and agility through our Microsoft Dynamics for Financial Services solution then please give our team of Microsoft Dynamics experts a call to discuss how we can transform your business.
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