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Five ways enterprise cloud infrastructure can benefit banks

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The digital economy has led consumers to expect a certain kind of customer experience from their banking and financial institutions—expectations that have intensified since COVID-19.

  • They want to complete transactions quickly, on their own time, and on whichever device(s) they choose.
  • They want to be confident in the security of their data.
  • They want you to use their data to improve and personalize the service they get from their financial institution.
  • They want to feel their finances are protected by an organization that is forward-thinking.

In order to deliver on customer expectations in the digital age, banks and other financial institutions need the right strategy and tools—beginning with capabilities found in modern cloud platforms. If your IT infrastructure isn't already cloud-enabled, you're almost certainly at least in the early stages of getting there. As you proceed with your cloud strategy, keep these five concepts in mind.

Respond more quickly to customer demands, market forces, and competitive threats. Modern cloud capabilities offer the freedom to think of new products and services, and bring them to the market quickly—not to mention, the flexibility to test and track those new offerings.

As you move towards cloud enablement, think about what the bank could do with all that extra power, and plan accordingly. Our team can help you develop a strategy and meet those goals based on what your needs are today and how they will evolve in the future. To learn more about how a cloud infrastructure can help your bank become more agile, don't miss our webinar, Cloud Agility Within Financial Services:

The opportunity to modernize new technology solutions is beneficial to your employees as well. Like many tools that speed up information transfer and collaboration, the cloud can help eliminate so much wasted time and energy. At the same time, a strong cloud modernization strategy can connect business units more seamlessly, and help to eliminate the silos that impede collaboration, progress, and project success.

With the right cloud deployment strategy, we help banks prepare for the future of work. Our team can build a suite of tools your people will want to adopt, as well as train and support your staff to use and embrace these new capabilities.

As you move towards a cloud-enabled future, we'll help your bank identify gaps in your operations or processes, and how technology could close them.

Any IT modernization strategy can be a significant investment if you want to deploy optimally. But once your organization is fully cloud-enabled, you'll be in a position to:
  • implement change faster, with less complexity;
  • reduce infrastructure costs;
  • be more adaptable to market changes;
  • elaborate more productively and with fewer barriers;
  • spend less time, effort, and resources meeting your goals; and
  • achieve optimal IT resiliency
Perhaps most importantly, you will be able to convert more of your expenses from CAPEX to OPEX. This can keep significantly more money in the company (and potentially free up capital for other initiatives) by eliminating the need for expensive hardware and other costly on-premises infrastructure.

As you move towards cloud enablement, consider the time and money you could be saving by eliminating inefficiencies in your processes. A well-executed cloud strategy from BDO will address your specific areas for improvement.

Banking institutions have one of the highest levels of reported cybersecurity incidents in Canada.1 The amount of personally identifiable information and other sensitive data that banks hold, combined with increased rates of cyber attacks, has likely fueled past fears over the security of cloud systems.

When implemented correctly, however, a modern cloud infrastructure can be more secure than an on-premises system. The security gap between cloud and on-premises data centres is only going to grow because the lion's share of cybersecurity R&D is being put towards cloud betterment, while less will be on-site focused.

Cloud enablement is more than an IT migration project; it's a blueprint for business transformation, innovation, and modern digital capabilities. And because it's not subject to the constraints of a physical environment, the cloud can scale as much as you need it to on your terms.
  • For a bank that offers online tools to help customers make better decisions (like a mortgage calculator or an insurance needs assessment tool), the cloud has the bandwidth to provide a seamless and consistent user experience, regardless of how many people are using it simultaneously.
  • For a bank that wants to be a market leader in a particular area, modern cloud-based capabilities provide the IT flexibility to iterate before the competition has the chance.
  • And for a bank adapting to a world of COVID-19, cloud-based IT solution deployment gives employees more flexibility to work from anywhere and helps transactions move faster, which is critical for business continuity.

How BDO can help

At BDO, we know what goes into a large cloud deployment in a regulated environment like the banking sector. Our team has extensive experience helping banks, credit unions, and other financial services firms with enterprise-grade cloud enablement, infrastructure as service, and cloud deployment and migration strategies. We know how to implement it, scale it, and manage risks as they come up, while mitigating the disruption to your business. Leverage our knowledge, capabilities, resources, and experience to get your bank where your customers want it to be.

Contact us to talk about what a cloud deployment strategy looks like for you.

Sam Khoury, National Financial Services Leader

Mike Gelesz, Client Engagement Director, Financial Services – Central & Eastern Canada


Source

  1. Statistics Canada, Impact of cybercrime on Canadian businesses, 2017 (October 2018)

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