It’s not everyday that a well established bank announces its ambitions to become run large scale operations in the cloud. However, that is exactly what has happened, with Microsoft and Nedbank announcing that the financial services provider has partnered with the tech giant to migrate components of its IT infrastructure to the cloud. This, according to the press release from Nedbank, will make it the first bank in the country to run operations of this scale in the cloud.

Nedbank explained that the partnership forms part of its robust 2020 digital transformation vision and three-lane digital strategy, which focuses on running the business, transforming the business and disrupting the business as well as better serving the bank’s diverse client base.

Nedbank Group Chief Information Officer, Fred Swanepoel elaborated that the bank selected Microsoft as its digital transformation partner because of “the culture fit and alignment between the two companies as well as Microsoft’s proven ability to effectively manage large organisations’ needs in the cloud.”

“Transformation is a complex journey, so it is critical to choose partners with a cultural fit, which Nedbank and Microsoft enjoy. It’s also important to partner with someone you can trust to not only protect your data and its privacy but to deliver the world class service you require. Nedbank believes that financial services providers that get digital right will be more successful at traversing an uncertain future,” he continued.

Nedbank is a lighthouse financial services customer for Microsoft, utilising all three clouds: Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365, and enjoying the benefits of all three as a seamless and integrated experience. This includes layers of security, and data residency to ensure compliance with local regulations.

The symmetry between the partners has apparently enabled rapid progress in the bank’s transformation journey and is driving its African growth strategy.

“Microsoft is extremely proud of our ongoing partnership with Nedbank in their digital transformation journey. Moving these components of the bank’s IT infrastructure to Microsoft’s cloud represents a critical next step in that journey, and we are excited to see how this will add value in driving Nedbank’s ambitious growth strategy,”commented Lillian Barnard, the MD of Microsoft South Africa.

She also explained what the partnership means to general users and the bank’s customers:  “Banks have an to play in advising their clients how to optimise their finances, and digital transformation can help achieve this by creating operational efficiencies and enabling agility and flexibility to deliver cutting-edge solutions and client-centric banking.”

 “Microsoft values being able to partner with a forward-looking financial services provider like Nedbank to drive this change,” she concluded.