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Three large global companies share lessons learned from their transformational cloud journeys
The clock is ticking for financial services enterprises worldwide. As of 2023, most of them have not moved their financial platforms to the cloud, while industry-leading enterprises see cloud implementations as one of the keys to innovation, attracting new talent and creating a pathway to better reporting. Important drivers for this pressing transition include the need to standardize business processes, enhance data integration, improve efficiencies and comply with regulatory demands.
This shift to the cloud presents an opportunity to help take businesses forward. Pursuing changes with cloud transformation can help enhance their long-term viability, particularly when it comes to embedding new technologies into a business model, entering new markets and digitally transforming existing products, according to PwC’s August 2023 Pulse Survey. But, as the study indicates, technological transformation is also one of financial services’ biggest pain points.
Many industry-leading organizations are becoming cloud-powered and reaping digitization’s rewards in the form of better decision-making, reduced expenses and faster development of new products.
During Oracle CloudWorld in Las Vegas in September 2023, I spoke with three leaders from large financial services organizations about why and how they rolled out transformative programs to migrate their operations to Oracle Cloud. They shared their different approaches and the lessons they learned along the way:
1. The big bang approach
Over the last six years, PwC has helped a global financial technology company that works in over 150 countries to accomplish an ambitious goal: to migrate to the cloud using a big bang approach. In 2016, migrating to the cloud was considered a bold move. Imagine doing so across the suite of applications, at a full-on pace.
At the time, the company had completed its first public company acquisition and was already operating on the Oracle on-prem suite. The acquisition forced the company’s leadership to make a decision to either stay on-premise or take the plunge and go to the cloud. They decided to migrate entirely, which can be described as “the big bang approach.” With help from PwC’s industry-specific professionals, the company went live with general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable and project management across a dozen countries. Their secret for success was team spirit. Each country had a stake in the process. To help make the transition possible, they enabled teams in over 150 countries to have ownership in the transformation.
Today, six years into their transformative journey into doing business in the cloud, they can breathe easier and be assured that the company went the right direction. As a result of the team engagement, the company now has a highly competent user community invested in the future of the applications and in rolling out enhancements.
2. The phased strategy
One of the world’s largest custody asset banks (with almost $2 trillion in assets under management) was already on global platforms when the time came to replace over 150 outdated consolidation systems and general ledgers in over 30 countries. The goal was to scale and reach better functionality across territories. Phasing the systems out region by region didn’t make sense because the company would have to use two – maybe three – general ledgers at a time. To help prevent the inefficiencies of duplicate systems, they decided to implement each module in a phased approach.
The process took two and a half years, by which point the organization had achieved scalability and greater functionality, and had modernized its financial reporting processes. The phased approach required an extended timeframe, but the result was successful. Today, thanks to the Oracle Cloud platform they implemented one phase at a time, they are able to produce daily balance sheets about consolidated companies and closing the business in four business days.
3. Committing to data efficiency through a transformational program
As customers realize almost daily, data is at the heart of every cloud transformation. This was particularly important for a bank and insurance company that PwC assisted in their cloud journey starting in 2019. At the time, the firm faced big challenges, including extensive closing time for critical reports. The leadership team needed a faster, more effective way to gain access to key data to drive decisions.
By simplifying the scope and improving the reporting strategy through conformity, standardization and application rationalization with Oracle Cloud, the organization is now able to close reports in four days. And by making it possible for senior management to access critical reports within a short timeframe, the cloud transformation significantly improved their financial reporting, allowing for standardization and better data integration.
The lesson they learned revolves around the reporting strategy and in the change management plan. A clear and solid reporting strategy enabled the firm to focus on what was needed, and a continuous attention to change management allowed them to not only upskill their workforce but also to unleash engagement. For the success of the cloud implementation, it was critical to have the right system integrator collaborator and engage with Oracle early on.
One destination
From selection and implementation to providing managed services, Oracle can help deliver streamlined processes, greatly reducing manual activities and helping improve controls. Learning from previous successful Oracle Cloud transitions can help your organization feel more confident about the industry-leading practices across financial services — from banks, insurance and asset wealth management leaders — that can help deliver smooth cloud transition adoptions.
Contact us to learn how PwC can help you get the most out of your cloud investment.
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