During the just concluded 2nd Annual Africa Banking & Finance Innovation Summit that was held in Nairobi. Microsoft which was one of the sponsors of the event, noted that financial institutions like banks need to think about how to use technology to create new opportunities and drive customer growth.
According to Kunle Awosika, Director, Small, Medium and Corporates, Middle East and Africa, forward-thinking banks should be adopting cloud technologies such as ‘hybrid’ to reduce costs. This would enable them to analyse data to create more personalised services while at the same time using customer-focused channels to effectively reach their customers.
The Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index Report reveals that there is a rapid increase in hybrid cloud adoption in the financial services industry. According to the report, hybrid cloud deployment has reached 21% percent, which is above the global average of 18.5%.
In Kenya, HF Group was able to establish a scalable, cloud-based IT environment in two months instead of two years compared to an on-premises setup. Azure also enables DevOps capabilities that enhance software development and regular app releases and updates. This has helped apparently them achieve the best availability, speed, agility, and user experience among the banking and finance apps launched in our market.
The First Bank of Nigeria has through adopting and integrating Teams, has been able to realise its goal of empowering its staff, partners and customers by providing unprecedented customer service and improved collaboration across the organisations internal and broader network.
In Ghana, Ecobank, has chosen business intelligence solutions from Microsoft to improve its overall business analytics needs. According to the bank, they were looking for a solution that provides a way to bring the data together and that offers a dashboard accessible anywhere and anytime, with an automatic refresh which Microsoft provided.