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Microsoft partner Insight has wrapped up a project for Perpetual Corporate Trust, tapping Microsoft Dynamics 365 to automate many of the financial services provider's processes and increase efficiency.
One of the core services that Perpetual Corporate Trust provides is fiduciary oversight, a duty that typically requires labour-intensive due diligence work, which the company had undertaken through largely manual processes.
However, in an effort to automate and simplify its manual due diligence processes, Perpetual engaged Insight to see whether it was possible to streamline the process, automate much of it, and free up due diligence data for ready availability.
Working with Insight, Perpetual scoped out a proof of concept (PoC) for the due diligence process leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and specially developed Power Platform apps. By March 2020, it was ready to test.
Once the business processes were understood, Insight was able to use Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform to build and iterate a system in two-week sprints.
“These PoCs were part of providing a proof point," Perpetual's enterprise application architecture lead Paul Hassey said. "Not just, ‘Theoretically, this is going to deliver outcomes for you,’ but, ‘Here’s, a working proof of concept that we’ve been able to turn around very quickly.'
“That’s the promise of the Microsoft stack and its partners, to be able to do this," he said.
By October last year, Perpetual was live with the full production system, with a more streamlined due diligence management, enabling instantaneous oversight of the process and excellent record keeping capabilities.
Perpetual went on to test the security that surrounds the platform with its own penetration testing to ensure peace of mind about data privacy and security.
Broadly, Dynamics 365 provided the secure platform at the backend of the system, while Power Platform provided the low-code and secure front-end set-up focused on design and flexibility of the process.
Moreover, by using a cloud-based solution, with all the flexibity that comes with, Perpetual was able to overcome many of the challenges associated with legacy platforms in use across the group.
So far, the new platform has enabled Perpetual’s service providers to more easily delegate tasks internally, establish branching logic and provide dashboard reporting internally which facilitates instant oversight of outstanding and completed items.
Most importantly, the new platform has paved the way for broader digital transformation in other areas across Perpetual.
According to Phil Blackmore, head of transaction management and governance at Perpetual, there will be ongoing enhancements to the solution, but the core functionality has been delivered and the link to the Dynamics 365 platform opens the door for ongoing innovation.
