How Cloud Service Providers Help Reduce Costs in Finance

As the world continues to move online, banks need to make sure they keep up–considering the online banking market is expected to increase between 2020 and 2024. It’s also imperative banks meet their customers where they are–which is online. In fact, over 75 percent of Americans rely on mobile and online banking apps in 2021. And, while cloud service providers can offer the finance industry new tools and applications, it’s essential to weigh how each tool helps organizations cut costs and increase productivity, too.

It can be a challenge to adapt to the digital, cloud-based market, particularly when it comes to affordability and protecting financial data. Fortunately, cloud-based SaaS can help finance companies both evolve digitally and reduce costs.

Read on to learn how cloud service providers can support finance companies in reducing costs while improving their services, data management, and security.

8 Ways to Cut Costs with Cloud Service Providers

Adopting cloud-based SaaS platforms have the capacity to reduce costs in a number of ways–all of which are beneficial to finance companies.

1. Increase scalability: Cloud-based SaaS apps give banks the ability to increase their capacity for service without the extra costs of hiring more employees. Without SaaS apps, some finance companies may not have the ability to expand or elevate their services. But with the help of automating tasks and actions, banks can ramp up their scalability without increasing costs.
2. Protect against ransomware: As the finance world continues to digitize, the risk of cyberthreats only increases. The finance sector is the most targeted industry by malicious actors, and only second to the healthcare industry. Given the sensitive nature of finance data, a cyberthreat is both dangerous and costly. Ransomware attacks happen on average every 14 seconds, and since 2020, ransoms average around $200,000. Unsuspecting bank employees may unknowingly click on a phishing email or corrupted file, triggering a ransomware attack. Ransomware and other cyber threats can be mitigated with cloud-based platforms, like Backupify, that offer reliable backup and data security measures–which in the long run can save you from paying high ransoms.
3. Data loss: For finance companies, data loss can be a huge cost financially and reputation-wise. The cost of data loss from breaches continues to grow each year, and in 2021 cost an average of $4.23 million per incident. Data like credit cards, invoices, bank account numbers, and even social security numbers need to be protected. Not only is data loss expensive, but it can seriously damage a bank’s reputation and consumer trust. But, using a cloud-based platform to backup and secure your data can ensure you avoid a damaged reputation and costly data loss incidents.
4. Save time and money on admin tasks: If you want to cut costs with cloud-based apps, automation is the name of the game. Finance companies can save time and optimize employee work hours by automating actions, such as sending out credit card payment reminders or setting up recurring monthly company meeting invites. This can be especially useful for smaller banks and finance companies who don’t have a budget for an entire IT team and are looking to keep costs to a minimum.
5. Increase retention: Investing in cloud-based apps can also help finance companies increase member retention. Implementing high-demand and popular features, like mobile online banking, biometrics, and hyper-personalization can keep customers loyal and draw in prospective ones. A major component of online banking is user experience, and providing customers with seamless apps and technology can increase retention–and revenue.
6. In-house hardware/reduced maintenance costs: Relying on the cloud to host your systems and data is another way finance companies can reduce costs. In-house hardware, like servers and computers, can be costly and take up valuable physical space. Not to mention, in-house hardware also requires maintenance by qualified IT professionals, which not every small bank has the capacity to employ. By housing your systems and data on the cloud, your clients and employees can access your services without having to head into the office, too.
7. Minimize costs associated with employee turnover: Employee turnover can create additional work and management for your bank, especially when it comes to archiving emails and user licenses. Cloud-based backup platforms like Backupify allow you to archive user inboxes and manage Microsoft 365 licenses. This saves your employees valuable time and can focus their efforts on higher priority taste. Additionally, implementing Backupify’s software eliminates the risk of losing important company data or backups due to deprovisioned licenses.
8. Save on energy costs: Integrating cloud-based SaaS platforms can help finance companies save on energy costs as well. By eliminating the need for in-house hardware, on-site offices can cut back on their energy use–which internal servers and computers can really eat up. Moving operations to the cloud allows you to minimize monthly electric bills, and even reallocate saved costs to other needs.