Being a technology leader in a highly regulated sector like the financial services industry has never been more challenging and ASC Technologies has been taking on that challenge for the last 60 years. Partnering with Microsoft to build its cloud solutions on Azure and integrating products like Microsoft Teams and OpenAI enables ASC’s customers to maintain strict industry standards more securely, efficiently, and comprehensively.
“There are many regulations, depending on the regions or the country. But all these regulations, they have a clear rule on which part of the communication needs to be recorded and documented and archived. And who has access to this documentation, how long should it be stored, and where it is stored. Data governance is a high priority for our FSI customers.”
Katrin Henkel, President, ASC Americas
Industry regulations are designed to protect customers’ digital life. Compliance is critical to both customer privacy and business success. Organizations face heavy fines and – in repeat cases – potential loss of banking license. And it’s a challenge that continues to make headlines; in fact, 2022 saw several large US banks pay millions in fines due to customer communication non-compliance issues.
But organizations everywhere also face the challenge of collecting and analyzing customer communication data to verify compliance and better define best practices.
Creating trust takes experience
ASC Technologies is made up of experts in compliance recording and AI with a focus on innovation that ASC Americas President Katrin Henkel says has been the foundation since the organizations’ beginning. “ASC has a long history in innovations in the communications industry. We have a history of 60 years, and we had many firsts, like the first digital recorders. Today we provide cloud services to record, archive, and analyze customer communication. And we do this in a compliant and secure way, across all media, including voice, screen, chat, or video.”
And compliance requirements are especially critical for financial services customers, says Henkel. There are many regulations, depending on the regions or the country. But all these regulations, they have a clear rule on which part of the communication needs to be recorded and documented and archived. And who has access to this documentation, how long should it be stored, and where it is stored. Data governance is a high priority for our FSI customers.”
And it’s ASC’s AI-driven cloud solutions that not only enable customers to verify industry and country-specific regulations but also analyze customer communications to better serve them. “Based on our experience, a compliance team or compliance officer in a bank can listen to 2-3% of their entire calls, max. That leaves the organization with a risk of more than 97%. And they don't know what's going on in this part of the communication. So, using AI, with Azure OpenAI Service, this risk can be mitigated,” says Henkel.
Trust in the cloud
Integrating AI solutions in the financial services industry required a technology partner committed to innovating in a highly regulated area of business. “Our FSI customers look for highly secured solutions. This is where the Microsoft Financial Services Industry cloud has opened up banking customers for the cloud, bringing leading edge functionality in a highly secured environment,” says Henkel.
ASC built its solutions in the cloud because of the benefits it provides:
ASC’s compliance recording service works seamlessly and is highly secure and easily accessible.
Customers have qualitative data integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 customer timeline.
Customers have access to integrated insights from ASC’s AI Policy Engine into the unified customer profile with a full analysis of the recorded conversations, including policy hits.
All recorded conversations are displayed and linked directly from the unified customer profile.
Policy events are organized and displayed as region-specific regulations and are protected in the same way credit card details are hidden during online checkouts.
Finally, customers can trigger events with custom workflows based on policy and keyword hits from the content of the analyzed recordings.
The partnership between ASC and Microsoft started as software co-development partners on the compliance API in 2018 and has since grown to incorporate additional Microsoft solutions including Microsoft Teams. Henkel adds, “Not having a compliance recording solution for Microsoft Teams would have blocked business with regulated companies. We took the strategic decision to go all in with Microsoft, leverage the technology stack, and host in Azure.”
And Henkel says it’s Microsoft’s “Better Together” strategy that has helped ASC accelerate its go-to-market timeline. “By endorsing key Microsoft initiatives such as the FSI cloud, transactable applications, or Azure OpenAI integration, ASC follows Microsoft’s respective market drives. This also includes fast onboarding. So, to go live for a customer, it previously took weeks or months of discussions. Now it only takes a couple of hours to get your solution live and to have your users configured in your application.”
AI and the future of a trusted partnership
The future of the ASC and Microsoft partnership is rooted in AI and generative technology, but Henkel says it’s also about initiating a critical digital transformation. “We will also invest in the Microsoft Digital Contact Center. We see a huge opportunity in the contact center markets and this will be part of our future growth plan. We are very happy to be part of the journey with Microsoft, entering and revolutionizing the [unified compliance] market. I see a profitable growth path and increased market share for us as a company in future.”
And it’s this future of innovation that Henkel says excites her most. “I experienced the change from hardware to software, from software to cloud, and now AI - it’s like a new century, opening up so many possibilities we can deliver. This keeps me getting up in the morning.”
ASC delivers better FSI compliance solutions by integrating Microsoft Teams and AI
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“Based on our experience, a compliance team or compliance officer in a bank can listen to 2-3% of their entire calls, max. That leaves the organization with a risk of more than 97%. And they don't know what's going on in this part of the communication. So, using AI, with Azure OpenAI Service, this risk can be mitigated.”
Katrin Henkel, President, ASC Americas
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