Allica Bank does business banking with a personal touch on Microsoft Azure

Allica Bank, the business bank that seeks to empower small and medium-sized businesses, can now offer greater support to UK firms thanks to Microsoft technology.

It has been built using Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, to securely store customer data. Staff can then use Microsoft Dynamics 365 to see a single view of the small and medium-sized businesses they work with and offer support in a way that best suits them.

Sean Sitton, Head of Technology at Allica Bank, said: “Microsoft Azure is a well-known platform among engineers and developers and has given us the scalability and flexibility we need to meet our business objectives as the bank grows. The whole lifecycle with Azure made the choice to work with Microsoft much easier.”

Allica Bank has used Azure since it was founded. The bank received its banking licence in September 2019, launching quickly afterwards, and the Microsoft Azure platform has allowed Allica to continue to rapidly and regularly release new elements of its proposition to small and medium-sized businesses since then.

In order to achieve this, Allica Bank worked closely with Microsoft’s Fast Track team to build a system within Azure that would keep customer data safe and comply with strict regulations.

As a financial services provider, security is a top priority for Allica Bank. Using three data centres, as well as having a separate back-up data centre in Western Europe, Azure helps make their IT systems more resilient.

Also, in order to make better decisions, the bank uses PowerBI to visualise the data they have on Azure.

Simon Bateman, Chief Information Officer at Allica Bank said: “As the bank continues to grow, we will be introducing more products to the market to support the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses, so scalability will be critical. With our ambitions for rapid growth, we need to be able to react and adapt environments quickly, safely, and securely. Microsoft is at the forefront of technological innovation and being able to leverage this technology helps keep Allica Bank up to speed.

“Microsoft’s flexible technology was critical, too, in helping us to transition to a fully remote-working environment in response to the COIVD-19 crisis. With collaboration being central to how Allica Bank operates, it was vital our team could continue to communicate effectively and ensure our customers saw minimal interruption to our service.”

Michael Wignall, Azure Business Lead at Microsoft UK, said: “Allica Bank has used Microsoft technology to build its organisation in a way that is secure and delivers for their customers. We are looking forward to seeing their portfolio of services expand and helping them deliver more banking solutions.”