BNY Mellon transforms with Dynamics 365 and innovates data solutions on Azure

Shifting mindsets drives innovation to meet modern data demands with agility

To remain competitive in today’s rapidly shifting environment, BNY Mellon’s clients want and need insights that will help them make better decisions and grow their assets. Clients are increasingly calling for solutions that use data to connect a continuum of services across the investment lifecycle—all while providing a level of customization that can support their unique challenges and needs.

To meet these demands, BNY Mellon envisioned transforming into a provider of data-driven products and services. Overseeing the firm’s largest business, Roman Regelman, CEO of Asset Servicing and Head of Digital, is tasked with accelerating BNY Mellon’s transformation into an agile, client-centric, and data-driven company. He sees Microsoft as one of his primary collaborators in building solutions that align with that vision.

“Clients want end-to-end solutions that are flexible and modular,” says Regelman. “They want results. They want outcomes, not just an array of services. Our BNY Mellon OMNI^SM platform is designed to meet the needs of our clients and give them an amazing client experience. With OMNI, we are the orchestrator and integrator. We offer a comprehensive solution to our clients. Working in collaboration with Microsoft, we can enhance our operations and extend our capabilities faster than building everything ourselves.”

For BNY Mellon, this approach is part of a larger vision to build new products that help clients go to market. Working together with Microsoft blends complementary strengths, in terms of technology and innovation, and has been a significant factor in how that vision is coming to life. The experience providing cloud technology to large firms is what gave BNY Mellon confidence that joining forces with Microsoft could help its organization scale for demand.

For this kind of transformation, BNY Mellon wanted a relationship that could grow over time to not only provide scalable technical infrastructure, but to help build agile solutions that could meet the needs of financial institutions right now. With Microsoft, it found a major technical company that was familiar with the industry, while also bringing a transformative perspective to what was possible within financial technology (fintech) more broadly.

For Charles Teschner, BNY Mellon’s Head of Data and Analytics Solutions, the investment in expanding the company’s data and analytics software, and data and content products—which combined, currently have more than $40T in assets under data management—was indicative of a concurrent mindset shift within the company.

“Traditionally, banks were identified as entities that manage cash or investments on behalf of clients,” says Teschner. “Data was just a byproduct or necessary evil of this process. Data, in our definition, is an asset class in its own right.”

Collaborating with Microsoft to rethink financial software and services

The advantages of working with Microsoft were immediate. First, using Microsoft products like Dynamics 365 and Teams empowered BNY Mellon to scale its own operations while building out products for clients. Using Microsoft Azure gave BNY Mellon access to an innovative platform to create data, technology, and content solutions as part of its Data and Analytics Solutions offering, which includes a data platform—Data Vault—for controlling structured and unstructured data for large-scale analytics, as well as business applications to meet needs such as considerations of environmental, social, and governance factors.

In turn, BNY Mellon uses its innovations to help empower Microsoft. In fact, BNY Mellon was awarded the “Asset Servicing Deal of the Year“ in 2020 from Global Custodian magazine for its work as global custodian for the Microsoft Corporation’s Treasury. As custodian, BNY Mellon provides services like collateral management, performance measurement, and liquidity services to support the Microsoft portfolio. BNY Mellon also offers a seamless and comprehensive service that includes custom applications, predictive analytics, and advanced intelligence.

Transforming financial services and financial technology

The expanding collaboration between Microsoft and BNY Mellon is a two-way street for innovation in fintech. With resilient and scalable cloud technology backing hundreds of years of financial expertise, both organizations are reshaping client services in the financial sector and bringing enhanced agility to disrupt the industry.

For Regelman, being an orchestrator means working more with Microsoft and other financial technology providers to move the business into the future. Building strategic alliances pushes BNY Mellon, its products, and the industry further into innovative spaces where it can lead others down a path of exploration and discovery.

“The benchmark of client experience has changed over the years to a more global scale,” he says. “This led us to embark on this journey of data, innovation, and open collaboration, and the work with Microsoft is a significant part of it.”