Office 365 in the finance industry is very successful due to innovative technology with business. This has banks related features such as cloud technologies, improve employee involvement and agility and fulfill financial compliance and security requirements.
Below are the limitations faced by financial industries:
- Regulations
- Security issues
- Cost control
- Productivity/mobility
- Customer service
1. Regulations Compliance
one of the major points noted in the banking and financial industries is regulation. This includes minimum requirements for sustaining files in a non-erasable format. In addition to it, they make sure, if SEC is effectively examining broker-dealers.
Persistent Metadata
To satisfy regulatory requirements in the banking and financial industry. The employees should work on documents and save them in their original locations. In case if the document is enclosed with the retention policy, a copy is automatically saved and stored in a selected secure location until the policy is effective. Timestamps are part of content metadata and Timestamp cannot be modified or deleted from the metadata, as the records need to be saved for five years, we recommend a cloud-based storage solution like Office 365.
Data recovery
Office 365 uses Microsoft`s cloud infrastructure for retention policies, as they have various layers of redundancy and information backups at the data center level. The aim is to sustain numerous copies of data that are in transit or at rest and provide different ways of recovering the documents on time. In case the documents saved is lost or corrupted on Microsoft servers, it can be restored. You should note that as per the policy, Microsoft does not disclose the locations of data centers.
How Office 365 meets the terms of regulations?
Office 365 has already met a list of compliance standards, to know about it, you can view in Microsoft Office 365 compliance web page.
You should note that a special feature is present in Office 365 called Preservation Lock, which freezes the policy forever and will not permit anyone, even the administrator to make changes. Office 365 captures and saves the users who had made changes or any modification is done.
Apart from HIPAA and PCI, Office 365 also act following FERPA, CJIS, and other U.S. and international standards. The two Microsoft`s cloud services which maintain compliance regulations are Office 365 and Azure.
2. Security Issues
Security is the most important part of the financial world, starting from small-sized businesses to a larger ones. Everyone is moving towards the cloud for security reasons. Microsoft`s cloud infrastructure is built in a way where data protection is highly secured when compared to other apps.
If an organization decides to move to Office 365, they should know the drawbacks in their infrastructure or security that were unnoticed so far. They should uninstall all outdated software and make sure the admin access is protected.
Office 365 implementation uses tools such as eDiscovery, on-hold, Archiving, Azure Rights Management services, Information Rights Management, and Azure AD Premium services, which comprises of identity protection and Advanced Threat protection with encryption.
3. Cost Control
One of the most important usages of Office 365 is cost reduction. This is possible due to Cloud and there no need for investment in hardware and mobile devices. Besides, you can connect with your device at any time and anywhere.
4. Productivity Mobility
As mentioned earlier, Office 365 allows users to connect with their devices at any time and anywhere with improved trusted services and security.
Cloud supported apps such as OneDrive, SharePoint applications, and Skype for Business allows you to stay connected anytime and anywhere in the world. It also has a built-in feature in Mobile Device Management (MDM). The main function of MDM is to secure and manage the employees’ mobile devices like iPhones, iPods, Androids, and Windows Phones. In addition to it, you can also create and manage device security policies.
5. Customer Service
Microsoft CRM permits banks and financial service providers to track, manage and engage with the users to have the best customer experience. If Microsoft CRM and Office 365 are combined, it gives improved customer service and enhanced organizational efficiency.