Partners of the recently released Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services are making use of the platform’s computing muscle and scalability, as well as MS software, to beef up their offerings and apps.

“Every journey that requires artificial intelligence, machine learning or the data lake — all those journeys are directly powered by the AI technologies for Microsoft,” Jouk Pleiter, co-founder and chief executive officer of digital banking platform provider Backbase, said last week at the company’s Engage conference. “Microsoft is investing billions in these technologies to make sure they can operate at scale.”

Other digital banking partners have teamed up with Microsoft; according to the company, offerings integrated through Azure, Dynamics 365 and other MS products that are part of the financial services cloud platform include Fiserv, Finastra, Cubic Information Systems, Crowe, Meniga, Cognizant and Q2, among others.

Backbase at the event highlighted its new data lake capabilities that tap the range of data sources available at a bank or financial institution (FI), including transactional information and data from other MS cloud partners, to deliver a more robust customer view. The product, when combined with MS cloud’s machine learning (ML) processing, can help predict account balances in 30 or 90 days, offer insight into overdraft likelihood and suggest investments when there are balance excesses, Backbase said.

The potential appeal of the MS cloud platform includes its software, like Teams or Dynamics CRM, and its ability to enhance partner applications, Pleiter noted, adding that Backbase is going “all in on this to make a fully industrialized banking cloud.”

Cloud adoption is in early stages

While some partners are building out offerings and honing deeper integrations, the Microsoft Azure cloud provides access to more than 15,000 marketplace apps that can be integrated and used by banks and FIs, noted Rajashekara Maiya, vice president and global head for business consulting at Infosys Finacle, whose digital banking solutions suite is among those apps.

“We are witnessing increased traction for cloud-based offerings across the globe,” Maiya told Bank Automation News. However, “when it comes to cloud adoption, we can say that it is in the early stages,” he added.

Even so, he said his company is seeing cloud acceptance lately because the platform:

• Reduces the cost of operations by shifting from capital expenses to operating expenses;
• Increases agility to respond to market demands;
• Supports banks in adhering to open banking expectations;
• Supports banks’ partnerships with fintechs, startups and developer communities; and
• Increases financial inclusion with digital onboarding.

Breaking out of silos

While striving to modernize their technology stacks, many banks and FIs have invested in and built disparate systems, said Bill Borden, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for worldwide financial services. Both Backbase and Microsoft pointed to the MS cloud platform and its partner app “ecosystem” as a way to avoid siloed functions and reach a unified, streamlined financial services offering.

“If you built your business off of separate product processors and separate functions in silos, how do you break out of that?” Borden said. Both consumer and business clients want “to feel like their products fit together when they’re delivered to them, as opposed to feeling like different individual products and services,” he noted.

How much is Microsoft putting behind the financial services cloud offering? “A lot,” Borden said.

The tech giant is to pivoting to offer industry cloud solutions that drive interoperability and “seamless” data and AI use to support specific needs of industries, including financial services, Borden noted.