Advance, the first “Data Science as a service”

The use of Data Science, Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for banks and insurance companies is no longer an option. It is a requirement to stay at a competitive edge, keeping up with customer expectations in terms of service and what big tech has already been offering for a long time.

Whoever is using data properly, wins.

No matter from which industry you belong, the new winners are those companies that, thanks to a data-driven approach, are able to innovate and create value. It’s not random that tech companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon (the GAFAs) were early adopters of this approach and currently have valuations and revenues much bigger than financial companies.

Financial firms are sitting on a value reservoir, a huge pool of data, often unused and unusable because of its low quality, and parked in unconnected silos. The business potential in exploiting data is enormous, not only in the services personalization, but for all processes’ efficiency.

Being a “data driven” bank or insurance company means managing and enhancing internal and customer information assets, through the application of algorithms, in order to gain a competitive advantage, optimizing decision-making and operational processes and developing new products and business models.

How to become a data driven company?

By relying on a large technology consulting firm or internalizing a data science team? If a financial company has taken the strategic (and wise) decision to undertake the journey to become a data-driven company, a complex path that touches not only technology, but primarily governance, organization, and processes, what can it do? There are no alternatives that differ from relying on a large strategy and technology consulting firm or embarking on long and expensive projects. And what happens to pathways and projects already started and not completed?

Not all expertise can, or should, be outsourced. Hiring data scientists is not trivial, due to their skills peculiarities, and their company teams’ inclusion is even less so. Often, data scientists remain isolated, like aliens in their own world, and their communication with business areas is hard.

We thought about it, and we realized that, perhaps, in order to complete projects and ideas that would bring great benefits, now more than ever required to give a new boost to financial companies, it is not necessary to move mountains, but often a “plug & play” solution would be sufficient, streamlined, flexible and economical, usable even just to complete a single project.

The Covid effect’s paradox.

The global pandemic has radically changed the way business is conducted. The inevitable evolution of the banking system has been greatly accelerated, leading to a greater need of implementing predictive analytics and understanding how to act with customers and their networks through the digital channel, turning connections into relationships.

Digitization, fintech, regtech, open banking, data privacy, technology giant competition, along with new customer behaviors, remote work requests, health precautions and security concerns, are confronting banks and financial institutions with a new reality, which brings with it unprecedented risks and opportunities.

At the same time, many projects related to the data use and technological transformation have been blocked by general managements afraid of the pandemic and its possible consequences.

That’s why analytics, the creation of data-friendly architectures and the models’ finalization to better understand customers and improve processes, today more necessary than ever, have become “nice to have”, postponed to a later date.

Advance is a Plug & Play solution

That’s why we created Advance, a lean and flexible consulting service for building and managing custom projects in Data Science as a Service. Advance adds to the market a vertical AI expertise on technology, finance and business with the most flexible and competitive approach possible.

For this initiative we thought to combine the Virtual B’s practical expertise in managing data analytics projects for banks and insurance companies, with the solid presence in the business and the network of Fintech District, Italian and international fintech ecosystem, and with the professors and PhD students’ scientific advice of Politecnico di Milano.

Companies that need it will be able to “have on board” in a very short time a data scientists and business experts’ team, who will work as a company extension to undertake with great flexibility and security those projects, large or small, that seemed impossible to achieve.

Would you like to get a quote or learn more? Contact us.