Developed in collaboration with Microsoft and built on top of Microsoft Dynamics CRM the Accenture Customer Analytic Insights Solution for Microsoft (ACAI) helps financial service firms, including retail banks, insurers and capital markets firms, provide differentiated customer experiences and more profitable offerings. Financial services firms can use ACAI’s predictive analytics to offer customers next best actions - such as recommended products and services - personalized to the individual history and needs of each customer. The ACAI solution leverages the financial services experience Accenture, Avanade and Microsoft have acquired via engagements with hundreds of financial services organizations.

As financial services customer behavior evolves in a digital world, customers are more willing to look at alternatives to traditional providers, placing greater pressure on incumbent financial services firms to differentiate their offerings. Accenture research predicts that by 2020, more than 30% of banking revenues could be at risk thanks to new competitors and new trends. Financial services firms must therefore look for new ways to retain customers and win new business. With a greater focus on personalization, providers can use solutions like ACAI to take a proactive customer-first approach, offering customers what they need rather than what the firm believes it should offer.

Developed on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, ACAI brings together innovative analytics capabilities and technologies into a single integrated solution to help financial services firms offer proactive next best actions across any channel. Accenture’s Customer Analytics Record (CAR), created from decades of financial services experience, provides a complete omni-channel view of customer activity in a format optimized for real-time decision-making. ACAI then uses Microsoft Azure Machine Learning to analyze customer activity and execute robust analytical models that predict customer behavior and recommend next best actions. An innovative next best action execution capability, developed by Avanade, enables next best actions to be integrated with any interaction channel and system, including customer service channels using Microsoft Dynamics and digital channels. The result is a solution that enables real-time decision-making and recommendations, and actions to be presented and applied across any customer interaction channel.

“Innovative financial services firms are using analytics to gain insights that help them make better business decisions and present customers with more attractive and tailored offers,” said Piercarlo Gera, senior managing director of Accenture Distribution and Marketing Services. “The Accenture Customer Analytic Insights Solution for Microsoft combines decades of financial services experience with proven tools and advanced capabilities. The new solution can help clients drive differentiated products and customer experience, helping firms establish a competitive advantage and ultimately positioning them for growth.”

“We have a strong partnership with Accenture and Avanade, and ACAI is the latest innovation in our quest to empower financial institutions to thrive in the digital world,” added Karen Cone, general manager for Financial Services, Microsoft Corporation. “ACAI represents how Microsoft technology can be used to help financial services companies transform into more insightful, agile and customer- centric organizations.”

“Driving down customer costs, whilst enabling digital sales or service is very important for the finance and insurance industries here in the UK,” said Violetta Senda, Avanade Europe Senior Director for Digital Strategy and Digital Banking. “ACAI not only helps our clients achieve this, but it also provides UK banking and insurance companies with the data and solutions they need to transform customer relationships and, as a result, improve Net Promoter Scores.”