China Development Financial (CDF) and Microsoft today (June 29) jointly announced that CDF leads financial peers in implementing Microsoft Cloud Solutions, which will deploy innovative cloud technology to strengthen employees’ digital competitiveness as well as to provide customers with streamlined financial services, marking a brand new milestone for Taiwan’s financial sector. CDF is not only the first TWSE-listed non-state financial institution that will achieve digital transformation by utilizing Microsoft’s cloud solutions, it will also, via this win-win alliance, effectively be assisting in the integration of all subsidiaries’ information systems, strengthening cloud infrastructure, and accelerating digital transformation.
Mr. Steve Bertamini, President and CEO of CDF, stated the strategic partnership with Microsoft will enable CDF to accelerate our digital efforts consistent with our ABCDE strategy which includes accelerating our digital transformation and focusing on customers to create a more seamless customer experience.
Mr. Ken Sun, General Manager at Microsoft Taiwan, said, “We are witnessing many financial institutions accelerate their cloud infrastructure efforts during this pandemic to achieve digital transformation, fortify organizational agility and adaptability, and address new uncertainties. CDF will be our first partner in the financial services industry to adopt the Azure Cloud Foundation accelerator to deploy its digital transformation framework. The clear advantage in adherence to stringent security standards and a comprehensive coverage of compliance certifications makes Azure’s cloud a great asset to help CDF expedite its well-diversified digital transformation strategies. As our cloud technology enables an environment of robust business resilience, we look forward to working with CDF in forging a new path of transformation for the financial industry.”
CDF committed to the development of digitalization in partnership with Microsoft
Regarding digital transformation, Mr. Terence Yeung, Chief Information Officer of CDF, explained that digitizing financial services and providing fully digitalized online services to customers and external ecosystems hinges on the support of cloud infrastructure and software. CDF has diversified, to a high degree of complexity, systems and financial products in banking, securities, life insurance, private equity investment and asset management. In addition, CDF subsidiaries have different needs for customer data protection and information security, requiring higher standards than other industries. CDF thus requires a secure cloud platform and technologies, such as Microsoft Azure, to assist all subsidiaries in constructing private cloud infrastructures in order to safely execute system integration and data application management, thereby accelerating digital transformation for the maximization of group synergies.
Mr. Sean Pien, General Manager of Microsoft's Large Business Group, said, "As people's habits of using financial services change, financial institutions need to be more proactive in thinking and planning new business strategies and services, and going to the cloud is a critical first step on the road to financial innovation. Microsoft has announced the establishment of an Azure data center in Taiwan, demonstrating our determination to support Taiwanese industries to deploy in the local cloud and to comply with government and industry regulations. CDF uses Azure to plan short-, medium- and long-term cloud infrastructure development, capitalizing on Azure’s advantage in integration and security and hybrid cloud’s expandability that has no location or time constraints, allowing it to rapidly, steadily and safely store, analyze and compute data. Internally this will boost employees’ digital skills and streamline workflow, and externally it will strengthen customer services and business development, creating a new benchmark for digital transformation in the financial sector through forward thinking and deployment.
Azure cloud solutions package will enable CDF to fully embrace digital transformation wave
To provide consumers with a more complete, consistent and convenient experience, CDF is continuously planning to innovative customer services and corporate environments, while achieving increased customer loyalty and employee engagement. To this end, CDF is introducing a number of Azure Cloud solutions, overlaying and developing more services step by step, including Azure Hybrid and Multi-Cloud solutions to maximize the investment benefits of internal deployments.
Taking into account the security of customer data, financial regulations prohibit sensitive data of related financial institutions from being fully cloud-based. CDF performs cross-unit data connection through Azure Hybrid and Multi-Cloud solutions, extending Microsoft's cloud technologies and capabilities to the group's internal on-premises data center to boost digital innovation in a secure and legally-compliant manner. Azure DevOps solutions and API management enables CDF to adjust its internal services and products and even combine the resources of its partners in the same eco-system according to market needs and customer feedback.
On the other hand, CDF’s IT team can develop applications in a more relaxed way, with both development efficiency and quality taken care of. Azure Windows virtual desktop enables CDF staff to work remotely and stay highly productive during the pandemic.
The pandemic has overturned the traditional operation model, highlighting the value of digital technology. Only organizations that incorporate "transformative thinking" into their corporate DNA can respond to changes immediately and flexibly in the event of external systemic risks. Going forward, CDF will partner with Microsoft towards digital transformation and seize market opportunities with the power of technology.
