Commercial Bank International embarks on bold digital transformation journey with Microsoft

UAE’s Commercial Bank International (CBI) today announced an enterprise partnership with Microsoft Gulf. The Bank will move to the trusted Microsoft Cloud, as a key step in its digital transformation journey.

Over the past three decades, CBI has established itself as a leading UAE bank helping individuals and businesses manage their finances. To achieve its strategic aspiration of providing the best customer experience, CBI now focuses on leveraging technology to gain valuable insights about its customers’ needs and expectations and optimise its operations for them.

In mapping out its digital transformation path, the Bank has put high emphasis on productivity, security, and data, as well as pursuing a parallel cultural transformation to align with the UAE’s economic vision programmes. Having evaluated several cloud platforms across the technology industry, CBI selected Microsoft Azure for its depth of integration, local UAE commitment, and market-leading security, all without sacrificing flexibility and scalability.

“CBI prides itself on being a key economic enabler, as the UAE continues on its path to greater prosperity” said James Greenwood, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of CBI. “Our leaders have mapped out a future where the UAE stands out as a global knowledge and innovation hub and we will continue to play our part in that journey. By partnering with Microsoft, we intend to evolve our digital capabilities further, adopting world class technology to transform our customer experience. Microsoft’s Azure platform was an ideal fit for our ambitions, delivering the strategic flexibility and agility we will need on our journey.”

To support business intelligence and customer relationship management, CBI has also chosen to implement Dynamics 365, Microsoft’s diverse, cloud-based commerce platform that merges ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) into a seamless Common Data Model, connecting enterprises to the power of the intelligent cloud.

With accelerated adoption of its cloud services in the region, Microsoft earlier this year announced that it will deliver the secure, flexible and intelligent cloud for its regional customers through two dedicated cloud data centres, one located in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi; catering specifically to enterprises in the Middle East.

“CBI’s transformation roadmap can propel it into a new digital era, and we are proud to be chosen as their partner in this journey”, said Sayed Hashish, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf. “The Microsoft Cloud and our solutions such as Dynamics 365 have been designed from the ground up to be scalable to any size of enterprise, with one of the broadest range of industry use cases on the market. Financial Services entities can get a 360-degree view of their customers and engage them through diverse communication channels and personalised marketing campaigns to build stronger relationships and achieve more.”

Microsoft’s vision for cyber security is to innovate for the common defence. The company spends $1 billion annually on cybersecurity R&D; to protect the digital estate of their customers with constant vigilance; through the some of the industry’s most trusted practices. That way, customers like CBI can continue their ambitious digital transformation journey – engaging consumers, empowering employees, optimising operations and reinventing products and services – without worrying about the threat landscape beyond their borders.