Capital Alliance implements cloud-based digital strategy

 Capital Alliance Limited (CAL) is a full-service investment bank offering a broad spectrum of integrated investment and capital market solutions to all investor categories, including family businesses and institutional clients. Commencing operations in the year 2000, the bank specializes in originating, trading, and investing in debt and equity securities.

CAL is also a Primary Dealer registered with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and has been named “Best Investment Banking Company Sri Lanka,” “Best Investment Banking Solutions Provider Sri Lanka,” “Best New Asset Management Company Sri Lanka,” and the “Fastest Growing Unit Trust Manager Sri Lanka” at the Global Banking and Finance Review Awards 2015.

Transformational power of cloud computing

In recent years, CAL has focused on using technology to help build more efficient capital markets, while maintaining a high degree of operational stability. To manage this transformation, and realize its strategic goals, CAL has become one of Sri Lanka’s first and most innovative cloud-centric investment banks supported by Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Dynamics 365, and Power BI.

“Microsoft is one of our main partners in our digital transformation journey,” says Tharindra Kulasinghe, Chief Information Officer at CAL. “Cross-platform tools like Power BI, Dynamics 365, and Office 365 offer around-the-clock availability and seamless productivity gains.”

Effective collaboration

A key transformation pillar at CAL is a reliable digital working environment for employees. Starting with staff at CAL’s head office in 2017, the bank purchased Office 365 licenses from globally recognized Microsoft partner, H One.

“Office 365 ensures that we always have the most up-to-date modern productivity tools from Microsoft,” explains Kulasinghe. “On it, we share daily operational notices, milestones, and other events. With Outlook, Skype for Business, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams, our employees can now collaborate no matter where they are or what device they’re on 24/7.”

Analytics and data-driven insights

Security is another key strategic pillar for CAL. By the end of 2018, the bank had rolled out Office 365 across the entire organization. The bank then collaborated with Jinasena Infotech to integrate Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security and Azure Backup, including solutions for customer information classification, protection, real-time analytics, and identity management through Dynamics 365 and Power BI.

“Power BI allows us to create our own analytical reports and derive insights from existing ones. The integration between Dynamics 365 for managing client data and Power BI give us the capability to personalize workspaces while allowing us to access the Power BI reports directly from Dynamics 365,” notes Kulasinghe.

With Power BI as an option for analytical reporting in Dynamics 365, employees at CAL experience an exceptional visual presentation of data in different designs like graphs and pie charts. Users also have the ability to tweak reports as needed, and easily analyze financial trends.

Thanks to cloud-based technologies, communication and collaboration are simpler and more powerful—not only for CAL, but for other financial services all over the world. According to Kulasinghe,“Microsoft’s tools have greatly increased our collaboration capability and capacity for data-driven intelligence. We have greatly reduced our capital expenditures on physical technology, allowing us to improve our return on investments and explore other avenues for growth and success.”

Find out more about CAL on LinkedIn.