Traditional Romanian bank builds a more flexible, agile, and responsive business environment with the cloud

Founded in 1864, CEC Bank is a part of Romania’s history. The institution is state-owned and has the largest footprint in Romania, with more than 1,000 branches all over the country.

“Our main challenge was the paper-based old communication infrastructure. Being a state company, any changes of strategic impact also require going through bureaucratic interactions with institutions that regulate our activity,” says Eduard Bisceanu, Director of Information Security and IT&C Infrastructure Administration at CEC Bank.

Despite the red tape, the bank began updating its infrastructure to streamline internal communication. This coincided nicely with CEC Bank’s capital increase, approved by the European Commission. CEC Bank’s digitalization process was later sped up to accommodate the new standard of working remotely.

Getting much-needed support

“We decided to work with Microsoft and Microsoft Partner, New Business Dimensions, a decision which had a positive outcome, as expected. More than that, we need to underline that Microsoft has all the resources and documentation ready when dealing with regulations and approval processes, especially regarding outsourcing of financial services, so all our requests were approved fast,” details Bisceanu.

The bank rolled out Microsoft 365 in short order. “Before, we couldn’t even imagine online meetings, and now our teams work safely and securely from home. Microsoft 365 tools are handy for internal communication and collaboration,” adds Raluca Barbuneanu, Deputy Director Identity and Strategic Communications at CEC Bank.

Because things had to move fast, CEC Bank also relied on external support. “We were accompanied by a partner that helped us open the world of the cloud for us,” explains Bisceanu. “New Business Dimensions helped us build a solid Microsoft Azure-based infrastructure and security services for a new digital platform dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises. Also, the platform dedicated to private individuals was moved to Azure. We were the first bank in Romania to have a platform for 100% online onboarding of new customers, and it’s now used in our branches. With our new Azure- based infrastructure, the onboarding is completely digital, the time-to-market for new products is faster, and everything is done securely and privately,” he adds.

CEC Bank’s business processes were also upgraded with the new way of operating in the cloud. Previously, reporting meant branches had to fill all the information in Excel sheets, and data collecting and processing took about three weeks. “After moving to the Azure cloud and implementing Power BI, the information is available in one day,” says Gabriel Pralea, Branch Network Director at CEC Bank. “Our salespeople can now make better business decisions because they don’t need to wait until the end of the quarter anymore. And, of course, the data quality is next level.”

The bank just started using its new infrastructure, and there are plans to improve the network’s support further. What is most clear to the CEC team, though, is how indispensable Microsoft was on this journey. “We wouldn’t have been able to bring the bank up to speed in such a short time and become competitive in the market without having Microsoft alongside with us,“ shares Bisceanu. “Our involvement in multiple projects with the bank created a very solid, joint team that helped in the implementation of the Azure cloud infrastructure and Power BI, offering openness to new expansions”, concludes Emanuel Oana, Managing Partner at New Business Dimensions.