A Message from Microsoft Financial Services

Finding opportunities to grow and succeed can be a complex task even in the best of times. In an economic slump, it can be a Herculean one.

But despite the doom and gloom hanging over today’s economic environment, there is room for optimism. Understanding that the global economy is cyclical, savvy financial services companies are thinking strategically and looking to increase business capabilities, drive IT requirements and empower employees to drive success.

To accomplish this, Canadian financial services organizations in banking, insurance, capital markets and securities must be able to collaborate on demand – anywhere and at any time. Organizations must also come to terms with a young workforce who use collaborative tools at home and want to transfer that knowledge to their work lives.

Moving to a more collaborative workforce environment helps workers build stronger connections partners and customers. But how can financial services organizations begin this process? Microsoft Canada believes that businesses should focus on empowering financial professionals with the flexibility to communicate and access information in the way they want.

At the Microsoft Canada Work Place 2.0 event held in downtown Toronto earlier this month, David Vander, worldwide managing director of banking for Microsoft’s Financial Services Group shared our unique perspective on the future of financial services and how VOIP and Microsoft’s unified communication (UC) tools can help increase collaboration, drive efficiency and reduce operating costs.

Communication solutions provider MTS Allstream was also on hand to demonstrate how an internal proof-of-concept based on VOIP and Microsoft’s UC tools has delivered approximately $1 million in immediate savings while setting the stage to trim significant hard costs within five years.

Today’s customers are not prepared to wait in a call centre queue as in days past. Not only do we see a remarkable amount of value that can be unlocked through investments in collaboration technology, there can be a tremendous amount of positive experience changes when customers feel more empowered to interact with your business. From our perspective, UC technology helps today’s businesses ensure their employees provide consistent and effective customer service while maintaining advisory relationships with clients.

The end goal, of course, is to be strong enough to withstand the uncertainty of the marketplace, achieve greater profitability and provide better service to customers – making the prospect of growth much less daunting.

Sincerely,

Sujan Menezes
Industry Manager, Financial Services
Microsoft Canada