Explore human centered digital banking with Accenture / Avanade expertise and Microsoft Business Applications capabilities
The pace of evolution in banking has increased exponentially. The systems built just a few years ago were not designed to solve the problems of today and tomorrow. We are encountering, among our financial services clients and at Accenture, accelerated changes in how they operate, how employees work best, and how people and communities thrive. This new age of banking is one where ease of collaboration matters, and success hinges on the ingenuity of an organization’s technology choices.
The right technology can create flexible, nimble, and long-lasting value. Microsoft is the only platform provider who can support this changing landscape end-to-end and address the new demands of banking through its industry specific capabilities in Business Applications.
By leveraging Microsoft Business Applications, combined with Accenture’s industry expertise, our clients are uniquely positioned and ready for the new banking future. With Microsoft Business Applications, we can put customers and employees, not systems, at the center of a process. By making data accessible and streamlined, we enable everyone to work together seamlessly to surmount the biggest operational challenges of today, whilst simultaneously driving customer satisfaction and creating new opportunities for future success.
Ensure Future Ready Banking with Microsoft Business Applications
The evolution of the banking sector has reached a pivotal moment. The pandemic has made consumers more digitally astute. They have much greater expectations of how their online experiences should play out. Banks must make a choice. They can either ignore consumer calls for a more digital but people-centric service, or they can choose to expedite their transformation journey, driven by Data and AI (Artificial Intelligence), to adopt a human centered digital banking approach to guarantee their relevance and to future-proof their business.
Microsoft Business Applications really is the standout platform for supporting these essential banking transformations. As part of the broader Microsoft cloud offering, it is the only truly open platform on the market which enables other solutions and technologies, perhaps already being used by the bank, to be plugged in. Old systems do not need to be ripped out to implement Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services. Instead, it becomes the foundational layer for the bank, on top of which new and existing technologies and data can be combined. Layered on top the platform provides critical functionalities including video conferencing, artificial intelligence, and automation. Used together, the bank can create meaningful interactions with its customers.
Video has been available to banks before, but with Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services deployed, video calls become more purposeful. The banking employee is now furnished with all the necessary information required for an in-depth consultation with a customer and can bring in additional experts as required. As information is consolidated in a central customer profile, the bank has a holistic view and deeper understanding of each individual’s circumstances. In parallel to this real-time support for customers, automation empowers banks to make recommendations and proactively up-sell other products which may be relevant to the customer.
By leveraging these insights, guided by deep AI driven data analysis, the customer-bank relationship becomes much more agile, connected, efficient, personal, and proactive. Simultaneously, every employee is empowered to drive more customer value and the bank can reinvent itself and tackle the challenges of the post pandemic world head on.
A Customer’s Decision-Making Journey Made Easy
If we take the example of someone who wants to review their investment options, we can understand how Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services provides a human centered digital banking experience.
For example, the customer journey begins with an updated job role posted to LinkedIn. A follow up message to this customer from the bank via their preferred channel is sent almost immediately offering a virtual financial goals review. Impressed with the relevant timing of the bank’s outreach and the fact the bank advisor remembered the last conversation the client had with the bank with regards wanting to look at investment options once the new job role had begun, the customer completes the survey they received. In it, the customer highlights the desire to buy a home and the need for the most competitive mortgage offer. The bank can start a mortgage application immediately. In preparation for the customer meeting to discuss the mortgage — via Microsoft Teams, the bank advisor reviews the customers fully unified customer profile. He sees what is required to support long term financial planning, key life events and milestones. As well as access a complete financial picture across multiple accounts and view any relevant relations and connections.
The ability to access this complete customer profile from one central dashboard enables the bank advisor to have a truly relevant and personalized financial planning engagement with the customer. At the same time, the advisor is able to determine how the mortgage application is progressing and feedback directly to the customer. He can share specific information on aspects including signatory details, assets and liabilities, and any specific documentation that may be required to progress. The bank advisor is able to bring together so many different tasks into one central location. By getting to really understand the customers’ motivations, the bank advisor is able to offer sound investment advice and help determine achievable savings goals. For the customer, the ability to get things done fast and easily via a collaborative digital experience is refreshing and extremely satisfying.
It is through the enabling of scenarios such as this, with personalized customer interactions and more empowered employees that Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services is enabling continuous innovation in banking to drive success and meet the challenges of an ever-changing world. Its capabilities are constantly evolved and made available to further countries and languages.
Only with the unique combination of Accenture’s broad digital banking experience and insights, along with Avanade’s implementation expertise, and Microsoft’s industry specific cloud technology, can banks succeed in their Data and AI led transformations. Working together with the banks, we can design seamless employee, customer and business experiences that put the needs of the customer front and center, empower employees to create more value and solve some of the bank’s biggest challenges.
Find out more about how Accenture’s industry expertise paired with Microsoft technology helps organizations overcome challenges and uncover value.
For more details of Accenture’s current work in helping companies in the financial services industry, reach out to me directly via LinkedIn or visit Business Applications | Accenture
