When financial services and insurance (FSI) companies consider moving to the cloud, a great deal of attention is given to security and compliance issues. However, if they want to benefit from cloud-enabled solutions' full effect, they need to consider several other important areas.
Cloud technology offers unlimited resources and requires no initial investments with a pay-per-use method of payment. The cloud technology leads the way for financial companies to scale the capacity after need and provides the opportunity to adjust services to meet the demand, which means better conditions for the overall competitiveness.
By addressing these issues with a well-managed cloud strategy, FSI companies can set themselves on a path that not only allows them to be secure and compliant but improves their business processes. Therefore, allowing them to make better data-driven decisions and deliver useful innovation to their customers.
Here are the four key areas they should consider.
1. Security and compliance
FSI companies need to have the right systems to protect their sensitive data from internal and external threats. Well-managed cloud solutions deliver:
Governance
Full control over IT infrastructures, with an ability to manage all applications and workloads, provides a deep understanding of what's going on across core systems.
Security
Enhanced security provides complete awareness of where data resides and close oversight, so suspicious activity can be addressed with an ability to analyze data flows to detect and resolve issues quickly continuously.
Continuity
Ongoing reporting and monitoring activities are provided with a well-managed system that backs up continuously by replicating data and storage across high-speed recovery locations.
2. Operational efficiency
Cost pressures driven by agile fintech and insurtech players, along with demanding regulatory timelines, means FSI companies need to find ways to be more cost-efficient. Well-managed cloud solutions deliver::
Efficiency
Enhanced IT utilization using a pay-per-use model and on-demand resources removes the need to spend huge sums on purchasing, updating, and maintaining onsite IT infrastructure and reduces the costs of managing and running the overall IT organization. It also significantly reduces regulatory reporting timelines.
Visibility
Greater visibility of costs can be achieved by tracking spending and historical trends using a unified platform. Resource costs can be attributed to specific departments, projects, or applications, which aids with budgeting.
Productivity
Greater efficiency means employees can focus more time on value-adding tasks instead of administrative ones, and the quality of their work improves. Automation tools available with the cloud can further enhance worker productivity.
3. Data-driven decision making
Knowing how best to gather, retain, and use new sources of data in a way that can inform more accurate and timely decision making is a key challenge for FSI companies. Well-managed cloud solutions deliver:
Accessibility
An ability to connect to data from any location or any device and use it from more than one location allows employees to gain deeper insights and make quicker decisions.
Usability
Extensive interactive reports provide insights into performance, and make them user-friendly, transforms data into understandable results across the entire organization.
Connectivity
Through a secure and reliable dedicated private internet connection, there is an ability to run performance-heavy applications with large volumes of data and take advantage of high-performance connections between cloud environments.
4. Innovation and disruption
Cloud-enabled technologies allow companies to optimize new and existing applications and respond to new, agile players in the market and be more customer-centric. Well-managed cloud solutions deliver:
Brand equity
The cloud can boost existing applications' performance and counter perceptions in the market that legacy applications are outdated while protecting the brand-equity of established solutions.
Development
Applications can be brought to market faster by speeding up the development process. This enhances customer satisfaction as clients get faster and more frequent applications and allow developers to spend more time on innovation projects.
Disruption
Cloud-native apps benefit from the cloud's scalability, making them faster, more reliable, and more cost-efficient. It ensures the organization is placed well to compete in the long term and disrupt the market.
