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Perspective

The modernization squeeze in banking & financial services

Vikas Renukaradhya,

Director & Global Head of Microsoft COE – Cloud Transformation

Published: February 15, 2023

Facing strong headwinds, including evolving customer expectations, a looming financial crisis, increased workloads, and competitive exchange rates, banking and financial services institutions are struggling to modernize IT infrastructure while scaling for the future. In the coming years, we can expect a closer relationship between banks, FinTechs, CSPs, and systems integrators in parallel with the evolution of stricter regulatory compliance. 

As this scrutiny intensifies, institutions must keep pace with innovation while managing rising costs. With 38% of organizations realizing that the digital banking transformation solutions they deployed at scale are not delivering the expected results, many are dragging their feet on the journey to modernization. Unfortunately, for already overworked infrastructure teams, we are seeing more and more corporate modernization mandates starting to kick in, so time is of the essence. Organizations must start to reimagine infrastructure modernization and integrate changes quickly or risk falling behind, ending up on the front-page news for a cyber breach, or worse. 

Virtusa understands this rapidly evolving landscape, and we have developed a long-standing relationship with Microsoft to help clients address these challenges and find new growth opportunities. With a deep industry IQ and an ever-expanding footprint of customers in growth markets, including Europe and the Middle East, Virtusa helps alleviate the modernization squeeze. By working with the top global banks, we have come to understand the nuances of each geographic market and the evolving demands of digital customers. 

A leading bank in the Middle East was eager to accelerate its cloud transformation to offer better services while running more efficiently. They turned to Virtusa to accelerate their cloud transformation. Due to ever-changing security and compliance protocols, approximately 35% of their existing hardware needed to be refreshed and upgraded. Adopting a cloud platform was one of the critical components, and the bank chose Azure as the preferred platform to cut down the cost of data centers and modernize. As a strategic partner, Virtusa crafted and implemented an enterprise-grade cloud foundation framework and, in less than four months, successfully migrated over 180 applications running in a non-production environment from an on-premises data center to Azure.

Leveraging the Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, we are creating joint solutions that help companies like this innovate at scale. With a unified 365º view of data and financial summaries, we empower customers with information at their fingertips to drive engagement. At the same time, we’re adapting our current workflow automation solution – the Open Innovation Platform (OIP) – to become an industry solution offering on the Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services. OIP incorporates design thinking and agile development principles to assist organizations in lowering costs associated with innovation. OIP users leverage our browser-based workbench to validate Proof of Concepts (POC), build Minimum Viable Products (MVP), and develop intelligent solutions right from the Azure Marketplace. 

Reimagine your approach to modernization with Virtusa and Microsoft Cloud. Speak with an expert to get started today. 

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