AI Adoption: Solving What Matters

In a world where AI adoption is no longer optional but imperative, businesses face a complex landscape of opportunities and pitfalls. Candy Zhang, Client Solution Consultant at the AI Innovation Center, brings a unique perspective to this challenge, blending over a decade of financial industry expertise with cutting-edge AI implementation strategies.

Bridging Business Needs and Technical Solutions

Candy’s journey from chartered financial analyst to AI consultant wasn’t accidental. Her experience designing asset management systems provided the perfect foundation for her current role translating business challenges into AI-powered solutions.

“The most valuable skill in AI consulting isn’t technical knowledge, it’s the ability to translate complex concepts into tangible business value,” Candy explains. Her work involves connecting business leaders with development teams, ensuring AI implementations address real needs rather than chasing technological novelty.

The Hallucination Challenge: When AI Gets Creative with Facts

Perhaps the most significant barrier to enterprise AI adoption is the phenomenon known as “hallucination” when AI produces convincing but factually incorrect information. This presents challenges in industries where accuracy is non-negotiable.

Candy recommends a three-pronged approach to address this challenge:

External Knowledge Integration: Implementing retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems that verify AI-generated content against trusted sources in real-time.

Strategic Prompt Engineering: Designing inputs that guide AI models to express uncertainty rather than fabricating answers, particularly for domain-specific questions.

Domain-Specific Fine-Tuning: Training models on highly-focused datasets relevant to specific business contexts to reduce the likelihood of factual errors.

“Hallucination isn’t just a technical problem, it’s a trust problem,” Candy notes. “Every incorrect output erodes user confidence, which is why addressing it requires both technical solutions and expectation management.”

Beyond Chatbots: Three AI Implementation Pathways

While generative AI and chatbots dominate headlines, Candy identifies three strategic use cases delivering measurable business impact across industries:

1. Knowledge Acceleration

AI’s ability to synthesize and contextualize information is transforming knowledge management. Healthcare providers are using AI to compile clinical summaries from patient encounters, dramatically reducing documentation time. Similarly, customer service teams deploy AI to surface relevant knowledge base articles, improving both response times and accuracy.

“The most successful knowledge applications don’t just answer questions, they anticipate them,” Candy observes.

2. Operational Excellence Through Automation

In finance, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) enhanced with AI capabilities is eliminating manual workflows while maintaining regulatory compliance. These systems can now extract unstructured data from invoices, validate it against multiple systems, and initiate payment processes without human intervention.

“The ROI calculation is straightforward,” says Candy. “When you eliminate manual data entry and validation, you reduce both costs and errors while freeing employees for higher-value work.”

3. Predictive Analytics for Market Advantage

Retailers leveraging AI-driven analytics are gaining competitive advantages through more accurate demand forecasting and customer preference mapping. These systems identify patterns that would be impossible for human analysts to spot, enabling proactive rather than reactive business decisions.

“The differentiator isn’t having data, everyone has data,” Candy emphasizes. “The advantage comes from extracting actionable insights faster than your competition.”

Starting Your AI Journey: A Pragmatic Approach

For businesses just beginning their AI implementation, Candy recommends a methodical approach:

Secure Executive Buy-In Through Industry-Specific Use Cases

Rather than presenting abstract AI capabilities, research successful implementations within your industry. “Executives respond to competitive advantage, not technological novelty,” Zhang advises. “Show them how peers are using AI to solve similar problems.”

This approach requires developing a comprehensive strategy that addresses not just benefits but also risks, particularly around data privacy, ethics, and integration challenges.

Target Customer Pain Points with Pilot Projects

“The best AI implementations start with specific customer frustrations, not technology capabilities,” Candy notes. By identifying areas of customer dissatisfaction, businesses can design focused pilot projects that demonstrate value while revealing unexpected dependencies.

These pilots should be designed with scalability in mind, ensuring that successful experiments can expand into enterprise-wide solutions without requiring complete redesign.

Prioritize Data Quality

Even the most sophisticated AI models can’t compensate for poor data quality. Candy recommends establishing robust data governance standards before implementation begins.

“Quality data produces quality insights; compromised data produces compromised decisions,” she explains. This requires not just technical solutions but cultural shifts, training staff to understand data quality as a shared responsibility rather than an IT function.

The Future of AI Consulting

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into business operations, Candy sees the role of consultants evolving. “We’re moving from explaining what AI can do to helping businesses navigate what AI should do,” she reflects.

This evolution requires consultants who understand both technological capabilities and business contexts, professionals who can think critically about ethical implications, opportunity costs, and long-term strategic impact.

If you’re exploring using AI for your workflows, let’s connect.

2023 Year in Review: Beyondsoft Americas

In the world of technology, innovation and progress take center stage. Accordingly, as a tech-focused company, we want to take time to reflect on our most significant accomplishments of the past 12 months. Sharing these achievements is also consistent with Beyondsoft’s core values of accountability, collaboration, and transparency (ACT).

Our team members take the time to understand your business and IT pain points, then find ways to include emerging technologies to deliver solutions for your current known needs, while also working together to uncover any previously unknown needs. We take pride in personalizing interactions and delivering exceptional experiences, and we do so for two simple reasons – we value you, and our customers, and we truly believe we can innovate and excel together.

Below are some of the 2023 key highlights in Beyondsoft Americas.

Expanded footprint in Brazil and the UK

In March 2023, Beyondsoft expanded its footprint in Brazil by acquiring 4MSTECH, an IT consultancy that specializes in Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure and Solutions. In May 2023, Beyondsoft also expanded its presence to the United Kingdom.

Achieved specializations and certificates

Our team dedicated significant effort to mastering Microsoft Azure technologies and obtained three Azure specializations and four security specializations through rigorous audits. Furthermore, we successfully obtained five out of the six Microsoft Solutions Partner designations, including (1) Azure Infrastructure, (2) Azure Digital & App Innovation, (3) Modern Work, (4) Data and AI, and (5) Security. We also received the Azure Expert Managed Services Provider (MSP) badge, awarded only to the most high-fidelity cloud-managed services providers.

Another notable achievement is our designation as one of the few companies in the world with Microsoft Azure VMware Solution specialization. This milestone reflects our team’s dedication to continuous improvement and driving customer success. We also recently completed our annual ISO 27001 IT Security Management audit, reaching yet another landmark in our ongoing quest to meet all our customers’ security and governance needs.

“It is rewarding to be able to rely on a technical team like Beyondsoft, which offers the highest quality, knowledge, agility, and a focus on customer satisfaction.”

Eduardo Ângelo, WeVets, Director of IT and Customer Experience

Established Cloud Center of Excellence

We unveiled our Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) to quickly address business problems with the adoption and maintenance of cloud technologies. CCoE is a viable alternative for those who need just-in-time expertise for a short or long-term cloud project. Our suite of Microsoft specializations serves as validation of our expertise in delivering scalable cloud projects with positive measurable outcomes.

Reshaping AI for your business

Our journey in AI (Artificial Intelligence) is guided by our promise to promote innovation and inclusivity. Building on our success with chatbots, we expanded our AI toolkit to a multifaceted AI platform. This new platform houses a suite of solutions tailored to various industry needs.

Within this expansive portfolio, the knowledge solution – rooted in generative AI – stands out. It’s designed to revolutionize how you manage both structured and unstructured knowledge. More than just storage and retrieval, this solution harnesses the power of generative AI to understand, manage, and even generate knowledge, ensuring customers consistently receive accurate and contextually relevant information.

We also integrated BIOPs™, an AI foundational engine familiar to many of our customers. BIOPs™ houses the auto ML (machine learning) framework and facilitates the creation of a diverse range of AI services on the AI platform.

Paying it forward

With the rising attention on sustainability, our DEI team partnered with Packed with Purpose, a B Corp Certified company, to craft an eco-friendly gift strategy that champions women-owned and diverse-owned companies. We turned our annual picnic event into a sustainable and purposeful summer gift basket opportunity. Every employee at our office in Bellevue, Washington received a heartfelt gift basket featuring wholesome snacks from businesses dedicated to sustainable practices.

During our recent holiday event, we teamed up with the United States Marine Corps Toys for Tots program, inviting our employees to donate toys supporting children and families in need. Over the years, the Marine Corps has established close working relationships with social welfare agencies, churches, and other local community agencies to distribute toys to children from economically challenged backgrounds. This marks our second year participating in this program, and our employees embraced the spirit of giving and donated wholeheartedly.

Our Costa Rica team members gave a presentation to young females at Colegio Suri, a private educational institution, about opportunities for Women in STEM Careers. Colegio Suri extends scholarships to 100% of its students. Key takeaways from the presentation included:

Take charge of your career in tech or any field.
Your tech skills will unlock many career opportunities.
Explore certifications offered in established companies to broaden your knowledge and boost your employability.

Fostering a strong team culture

We are thrilled that our Brazil office team members have been honored with the 2023 Great Place to Work award. Additionally, our office in Rio de Janeiro won the 6^th position in the Great Place to Work technology category. Both awards highlight our team’s dedication to fostering a positive and inclusive workplace culture where our employees bring their best selves to work.

Thought leadership media coverage

GCR Viewpoint invited our team to share our knowledge on threat management. In this LinkedIn post published in October 2023, we provided actionable guidance to help customers fortify their security posture.

Also this year, we were approached by CIO Review – which named us as one 20 most promising IT Managed Services in the U.S. and LATAM regions – to provide insights on how to build a managed services model for our customers. You can read the details in this LinkedIn post.

What’s next in 2024?

“As we look into the future, we remain confident in supporting our customers to propel their digital optimization and fostering sustainable growth. We will embrace challenges and seize the opportunities within the ever-evolving digital landscape.”

Jasmine Jin, AVP, Operations at Beyondsoft Americas

If you are looking for an ally in cloud adoption and transformation, data and AI modernization, agile operations and security, and business process management, then tap into our expertise to shape your business outcomes. We’ll help you translate concepts into tangible frameworks and develop a strategy to secure leadership support. Reach out to us today.

Realize business potential with Gen AI this holiday season

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and retailers are gearing up for one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year as customers sort through a deluge of promotions across retailers. Email inboxes overflow with offers, and customers face overwhelming choices as they try to identify the best deals, which come in generic promotions for items they’ve already purchased – all of which just adds to their frustration.

This is where Artificial intelligence (AI) can deliver exciting opportunities for retailers to elevate their game this holiday season. Most experts would agree that retailers should approach AI thoughtfully, balancing customer needs, retailers’ immediate campaign needs, and overall corporate goals of growing the business.

Using generative AI to humanize interactions

Customers expect personalized shopping experiences. Until recently, sophisticated commerce, marketing automation, and advertising platforms used what you already knew about your customers to target them for new purchases. While using AI, you can create highly detailed customer profiles based on online behaviors, purchase history, and product reviews to predict future needs better, we are seeing an increasing need for humanized interactions.

Generative AI presents an enormous opportunity to uplift the customer experience by having human-like conversations with customers. This can take the form of online assistants that engage in human-like conversations with customers to solve issues and answer various questions. Generative AI can also simultaneously analyze thousands of product reviews and user images to generate a personalized summary tailored to the reader’s interests, level of understanding, and background. There are many applications for generative AI in this context.

Key example: a non-technical grandfather is presented with information and reviews about a product that generative AI tailors to his understanding while buying a technology gift for his grandson.

Establishing generative AI readiness

While AI can unlock big opportunities for the holiday season, retailers should identify high-value use cases to test the technology and take the key learnings from technical, functional, and business standpoints. As generative AI evolves, it may learn to use such data to dive further into other elements of the business, such as production and resource planning, and even direct collaboration with suppliers. Consider using these key steps to lay the proper AI groundwork and drive generative AI adoption for your company.

Resources: Put the right team in place, as AI requires a different type of technical resource. This team should be comprised of professionals who understand data science, AI models, and their outputs, data ethics, and the details behind algorithms.
Data: Carefully evaluate data sources since AI depends on high-quality data. Before embarking on your AI journey, analyze available data on inventory, customers, pricing, promotions, etc.
Data Governance: You’ll need to document the data used for AI and implement access controls and policies to ensure quality, privacy, and compliance.
Testing: Testing AI models is essential to fix issues before going live.
Data/AI Ethics: Adopt AI responsibly, be ethical, and set realistic expectations about what AI will deliver.
Security: AI comes with its own unique security risks your team needs to be ready to handle, things like AI-enhanced cyber attacks, data poisoning, model theft or inversion, evasion attacks, and more – all of these risks mean your team needs to be ready.
Infrastructure: Plan for future growth by implementing the technical infrastructure needed for the continued development and expansion of AI capabilities.

Let us work together to achieve your AI vision

We are focused on helping you overcome business IT challenges that relied on our:

Expertise and Experience: With a focused practice on AI and machine learning frameworks, we are a forward-thinking company with expertise to understand complex systems and recommend data-driven solutions tailored to your unique needs.
Industry Insight: We understand the pressures businesses face today and how emerging technologies like AI can drive real impact.
Commitment to Transformation: We view AI as a journey of continuous learning and improvement and are constantly expanding our capabilities to transform operations with AI.
Trusted Governance Approach: With rigorous processes like an annual ISO 27001 audit, we can provide the governance required to ensure customer data ethics and privacy.

Tap into our expertise to turn your organization’s AI vision into reality. We have helped many customers across all verticals realize theirs. Contact us today to see how we can do the same for you.

Strengthening your business strategy with data, analytics, and AI

During the recent meeting at American Chamber of Commerce in Costa Rica (AmCham), I shared the evolving landscape of data, analytics, and AI (Artificial Intelligence), emphasizing their role as pivotal tools in modern business strategy and decision-making to 40 participants. In this blog, I added analyst observation and two use cases on the paradigm shift in using AI.

Today, every click, every transaction, and every interaction is a treasure trove of insights. The digital age is amassing data at an unprecedented rate. We harness the capabilities of data, analytics, and AI, to help our customers extract invaluable insights to drive innovation and operational efficiency.

As Chris Howard, Distinguished VP Analyst and Chief of Research at Gartner, highlights, “For example, generative and other types of AI offer new opportunities and drive several trends. But deriving business value from the durable use of AI requires a disciplined approach to widespread adoption along with attention to the risks.” This disciplined approach towards AI adoption underpins the transition from a reactive stance to a proactive one, fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

The synergy of data, analytics, and AI allows businesses to transition from a reactive stance to a proactive one. It’s not just about understanding what has happened but predicting what will happen next. Predictive analytics, a shining star in this new era, is empowering businesses to anticipate market fluctuations, customer behaviors, and operational dynamics, enabling pre-emptive strategies and agile business models. Moreover, real-time data processing is transforming the way businesses respond to evolving situations, allowing for immediate actions, adjustments, and uncovering unmet needs.

Highlighting the real-world impact of AI with Beyondsoft

Our journey in harnessing AI began over five years ago, to drive sales growth through machine learning. One exemplary case is our collaboration with a Seattle-based premium cruise line. Through behavior-backed analytics, we were able to garner insights into the profitability of various amenities, enabling the cruise line to make informed pricing adjustments. This not only increased revenue but also enhanced their ability to upsell new services to passengers with similar profiles and consumption behaviors.

Moreover, our endeavor with a leading low-cost airline showcases the potential of AI to generate more revenue. Utilizing purchasing behavior patterns, we helped the airline identify passengers most likely to opt for additional purchases. This enabled highly targeted campaigns and dynamic pricing strategies, thereby increasing sales. Further analysis revealed new revenue streams, exemplifying how data, when utilized effectively, can significantly impact a business’s bottom line.

Fast forward to today, we’ve enriched our AI toolkit with a chatbot, machine learning, and generative AI, striving to provide accurate and contextually relevant information. The integration of BIOPs™, a familiar AI foundational engine to many of our customers, that houses the auto machine learning framework and facilitates the creation of a diverse range of AI services to the multifaceted AI platform.

AI: The unfurling horizon of possibilities

AI is not just about automation; it’s a canvas of creativity, personalization, and a wellspring of continuous learning and innovation. It enables businesses to craft bespoke customer experiences, and tailor products, services, and communications to individual needs, enhancing customer satisfaction while fostering loyalty and long-term engagement.

In the realm of strategic planning and decision-making, AI acts as a visionary, enabling businesses to foresee opportunities and challenges, and facilitating strategies that are both resilient and forward-thinking.

Next steps

At Beyondsoft, we don’t view data, analytics, and AI as mere tools but as catalysts for innovation. Our approach is holistic. By intricately weaving data strategy, AI, machine learning, and business intelligence, we aim to create solutions that are tailored, efficient, and future-ready. It’s not just about data; it’s about crafting narratives, telling stories, and driving meaningful change.

If you are looking for a leader in data and analytics and would like to consider exploring AI to strengthen your business strategy, tap into our expertise to shape your business outcomes. We’ll help you translate concepts into tangible applications and develop an AI strategy to secure leadership support. Reach out to us today.

References

Beyondsoft unveils Cloud Center of Excellence as a Service

Digital transformation has evolved in recent years and cloud technology is more than an enabler in business transformation. It is a key component to drive business forward. Cloud technology powers applications, data infrastructure and AI. The next wave of digital transformation is to embrace the concept of the Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) to expedite the adoption and governance of cloud solutions.

A Cloud Center of Excellence is typically a multidisciplinary team that provides leadership, best practices, standardized operational processes, as well as support and training to help you quickly address business problems with the adoption of cloud technologies.

According to Gartner research, more than 85% of organizations will adopt a cloud-first approach by 2025 and will not be able to fully execute their digital strategies without using native cloud architectures and technologies. This underscores the importance of robust adoption and governance strategies for these technologies for businesses.

“As a Service” Approach

Beyondsoft’s Cloud Center of Excellence serves as an extension of your team regardless of the stage of your cloud adoption. With CCoE you adopt cloud technologies quickly and securely to meet your business objectives. We are your ally to optimize cloud costs. CCoE is a viable alternative to those who need just-in-time expertise for a short or long-term cloud project. Our suite of Microsoft specializations validates our expertise in delivering scalable cloud projects with measurable outcomes.

“Choosing a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) as a Service provides you with immediate access to expert guidance, speeding up the adoption and optimization of the cloud without the prolonged setup and costs associated with establishing an in-house team. By using external experts, you reduce the risks associated with costly cloud implementation errors, allowing your team to focus on their core business functions while running cloud operations efficiently,” says Alexandre Perazza, global leader of solutions and services at Beyondsoft.

The CCoE plays a crucial role in security, establishing practices and controls that ensure data and applications are protected in the cloud and complies with your internal governance, regulatory requirements, minimizing risks and promoting secure usage.

Integration with AI

The unification of generative AI into a CCoE creates a dynamic and personalized approach to cloud management. With AI-driven insights, infrastructure implementations are rigorously tailored to specific needs, ensuring efficiency and cost savings. AI’s ability to proactively generate security policies in response to evolving threats ensures robust and compliant cloud environments. Moreover, the rapid generation of ideal solution architectures and proactive problem-solving skills reduce the time between design and implementation, reducing potential disruptions and ensuring customers have a simplified and resilient cloud journey.

Here are some specific examples of how AI enhances the CCoE’s capabilities and provides real value to customers:

Dynamic Resource Optimization: AI can continuously monitor cloud resource usage and apply predictive analytics to optimize resource allocation based on demand. This means that you pay for what you use. This leads to significant cost savings and more efficient cloud operations.

Predictive Maintenance and Security: AI can detect anomalies in cloud infrastructure and data, predicting potential system failures or security breaches before they occur. By proactively identifying and addressing these issues, AI helps prevent downtime, data loss, and security incidents. This not only cuts down on downtime cost but also enhances the overall security stance.

Proactive Problem Solving: AI-driven insights can help CCoE teams rapidly generate ideal solution architectures and proactively address potential issues. This reduces the time between design and implementation, minimizing disruptions, and ensuring you have a smoother and more resilient cloud journey. You can benefit from solutions that are continuously refined by AI, leading to greater efficiency and innovation.

Compliance and Governance: AI can assist in establishing and enforcing governance standards, ensuring cloud adoption aligns with regulatory requirements. By continuously monitoring compliance and automating policy enforcement, AI minimizes risks associated with non-compliance and ensures secure usage of cloud resources.

“By integrating AI in our CCoE approach, we offer responsive, tailored services. AI-driven insights lead to efficiency, cost savings, and innovation, benefiting you and your team,” emphasizes Perazza.

With CCoE, WeVets, our customer, improved IT environments and saved up to 40% on total operation costs. WeVet adopted governance practices on financial efficiency which led to cost predictability, risk mitigation, and accurate decision-making process.

Next steps

Tap into our expertise to strengthen your organization’s cloud operations and security posture. We have helped many customers across all verticals to improve their cloud operations. Contact us today to see how we can do the same for you.

Four benefits to hiring a Managed Services Provider. One of them is cost optimization

This whitepaper is co-authored by Alex Perazza, Chris Knott, Eduardo Mecking, Larissa Ferreira, Sharon Loh and many team members across Beyondsoft.

A reliable MSP is an investment in your success. The evolving business climate we face and the new technologies we’re using have disrupted how we do business. The status quo no longer works. There is a generational shift happening in the workplace with people and with digital transformation. This disruption is forcing many companies to redefine their model for success

This whitepaper walks you through in detail how we apply our years of experience enabling our customers achieve cost optimization, operations excellence, security and governance, and leverage AI-powered capabilities to unlock new levels of productivity.

Beyondsoft-Managed-Services-Provider-whitepaper Download

Four advantages of IT managed services you might not know about

Keeping pace with the fast-evolving technology landscape while maintaining your applications and ensuring your systems are secure, scalable, and efficient can be daunting, particularly for organizations with limited resources. And few businesses have the budget to hire experts with every emerging skill set they require. That’s where an IT managed services provider can help.

As a strategic partner, an IT managed services provider supplies a dedicated team of professionals with specialized skills and knowledge to oversee one or more day-to-day parts of your business, such as IT operations support, application management, or a global contact center. As a result, you gain access to a pool of experts, the latest technologies, and industry-leading processes and best practices without breaking the budget. You also free up your in-house experts to focus on accelerating your business.

But did you know that there are lots of other benefits of an IT managed services provider? Below, I’ve shared some of the lesser-known advantages.

1. Work smarter with generative AI

Managed services providers that integrate generative AI into their service models can help you unlock new levels of efficiency and productivity. Generative AI can help optimize resource allocation, automate routine tasks, and improve decision-making processes. In addition, it can analyze data to identify patterns, trends, and security threats and predict potential issues and anomalies. Such insights can inform preventative measures, ultimately reducing disruptions and improving system reliability.

Furthermore, generative AI such as ChatGPT can power chatbots, using natural language processing capabilities to respond to user queries, saving time and improving customer satisfaction.

2. Improve financial predictability and accountability

With managed services, you get a clear and predictable cost structure, allowing you to budget and plan more effectively. This can be particularly valuable if your business has variable workloads or seasonal demand. Managed services providers can help your organization identify areas for cost optimization and greater efficiency to maximize your IT investment and increase ROI. Furthermore, engaging with an IT managed services provider enables you to allocate internal resources more effectively and make more targeted investments in staffing and training.

3. Strengthen security and compliance

Partnering with a reliable IT managed services provider can enhance your organization’s security measures. You gain access to a team of professionals with expertise in the latest security threats, industry standards, and best practices, which may not be available in-house. They can recommend strong security measures by deploying advanced firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and automated updates and patches. Moreover, they can use advanced monitoring tools and technologies to respond to security threats immediately and take swift action to minimize the impact and address vulnerabilities.

Additionally, a managed service provider can help you meet industry-specific compliance and regulatory requirements, such as GDPR, SOX, and HIPAA. They can help you identify gaps and areas of non-compliance and recommend and implement the necessary controls and measures your business needs to ensure compliance.

4. Enhance business availability

Increased business availability is another advantage of partnering with a great IT managed service provider, ensuring your applications and data are available when needed. Proactive monitoring helps prevent system downtime, performance bottlenecks, and other potential issues. When issues do occur, your managed services provider can quickly diagnose and resolve issues to minimize the impact on operations. They can also perform regular maintenance and backups to enhance system availability and reliability.

Furthermore, your managed services provider can help you develop robust disaster recovery and business continuity plans and processes. They can identify gaps and issues and create backup and recovery strategies, incident response procedures, and system redundances to ensure maximum system uptime.

Trust Beyondsoft IT managed services for your business

As a global, full-service IT provider, Beyondsoft has helped countless organizations accelerate business, including Brazil-based veterinary care center, WeVets. Beyondsoft takes a data-driven approach to IT managed services, leveraging advanced automation technologies and AI to drive greater efficiency, productivity, and impact. To learn more, contact us today.

WeVets cuts tech costs by nearly 40% with managed services from Beyondsoft

THE CHALLENGE

WeVets prioritizes excellence, tradition, and innovation and expects to expand to 15 locations in the coming year. To achieve this growth, they wanted to modernize their IT environment, leveraging Microsoft solutions such as Azure and Microsoft 365.

As part of the effort, WeVets was also looking to increase management quality, optimize its infrastructure from a performance and cost perspective, improve governance and risk mitigation, and ultimately, better serve its growing customer base.

THE SOLUTION

After identifying multiple opportunities, such as increased visibility and cost predictability, Beyondsoft applied a comprehensive, three-phase approach to the project:

Strategic planning: Beyondsoft experts conducted a deep assessment of the business to analyze areas such as reliability, security, operations, performance, and costs to develop an end-to-end modernization roadmap.
Innovation and adoption: Beyondsoft accelerated innovation and adoption through digital and consulting services, architecture reviews, and conceptualizing new environments to address WeVets’ needs. In this phase, Beyondsoft improved governance with continuous management and optimization, with the assurance of high standards and industry-leading security and risk mitigation practices.
Continuous operation and governance: In phase, the Beyondsoft Managed Services team continues to maintain the baseline established in previous phases, ensuring a high standard of governance, cost optimization, technology adoption, and security and risk mitigation. This managed services model ensures excellence while liberating WeVets to focus on delivering exemplary veterinary care to its clients and growing its business.

“With the optimization and greater efficiency in management, we can see new opportunities for investment and expansion.”

— Eduardo Ângelo, WeVets Director

THE RESULTS

Although the modernization effort is still underway, WeVets has already reaped benefits. “One of our pillars is innovation, so we constantly invest in technology,” says Eduardo Ângelo, WeVets Director. “With support from Beyondsoft, we were able to identify improvements and upgrade to a better architecture and other services that ensure new opportunities.”

Additional benefits include:

30-40% reduction in technology costs
Adoption of financial control and governance practices
Increased security and risk mitigation across their systems and applications

To learn more about how Beyondsoft can help your business, contact us today. To learn more about how Beyondsoft is empowering modernization and growth for WeVets, watch this short video.

Transforming Retail Mortgage with AI – A New Era in Banking

To thrive in this digital age, banks need a technology capability stack that delivers intelligent, personalized solutions and distinctive experiences at scale in real time. AI and ML are transforming the US retail mortgage industry, improving efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing the customer experience. They are changing the game for lenders right from identifying qualified borrowers and underwriting to improving lead conversion and cross-selling.

Read this whitepaper to learn how Beyondsoft, with its broad expertise in the financial industry, can help your business stay ahead of the curve and leverage these innovations to fuel your business outcomes.

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6 ways ChatGPT is disrupting consumer banking

ChatGPT is a powerful tool helping businesses improve customer interactions and automate routine tasks. ChatGPT’s secret weapon is its use of “Generative Pre-trained Transformer,” a neural network architecture that allows it to generate language that sounds more human and less robotic. Its Large Language Models consume massive volumes of text and data from the internet and can predict the most likely sequence of words to respond to queries with relative accuracy.

With 175 billion parameters, ChatGPT is already incredibly advanced, but the newly released GPT-4 takes it to a whole new level. With 100 trillion parameters, GPT-4 is able to understand sarcasm and idiomatic expressions and even create music and art.

Since ChatGPT is trained using unsupervised learning techniques, it can learn from vast amounts of unstructured data without explicit labels. However, ChatGPT becomes even more useful and accurate when fine-tuned. Its ability to understand context and generate natural language responses makes it an ideal platform for conversational applications such as chatbots and virtual assistants.

And that brings us to how ChatGPT is disrupting consumer banking. Banks can use ChatGPT to enhance the customer experience and streamline operational processes. Below I’ll share six potential use cases for ChatGPT in banking.

1. Customer service chatbot

Chatbots have become increasingly popular in the banking industry, as they help to provide customers with real-time assistance. However, most chatbots have limited capabilities when it comes to handling complex issues and problem-solving and can come across sounding robotic.

ChatGPT can be fine-tuned to help banks and financial institutions streamline customer service interactions, handle more complex queries, and provide sophisticated, more human-like responses, while reducing the need for human intervention. By training chatbots on data such as historical customer interactions and banking-related information and applying data labels, ChatGPT can endow chatbots with a broader understanding of your bank’s products and brand voice, which can lead to better decision-making and personalized customer service interactions.

2. Personalized financial advice

ChatGPT can be used to provide personalized financial advice. By training ChatGPT on historical data, including customer interactions, transactions, and spending patterns, ChatGPT can recognize patterns and data correlations to advise customers on how to save and invest money or manage debt. It can also help customers navigate the banking system more efficiently.

3. Chat-based money management

Similarly, ChatGPT can help customers manage their finances through a chat-based interface, allowing them to track expenses, create budgets, and receive alerts on their spending habits. For example, customers can ask questions like “How much did I spend on eating out last month?” or “What is my account balance?” and get quick responses to help them understand their purchasing habits and improve their financial health.

4. Fraud detection and prevention

Fraud is a major problem that cost consumers $8.8 billion in 2022, representing a 40% increase over the year prior. ChatGPT has the potential to help detect and prevent fraud for banking customers. By analyzing customer transactions, ChatGPT can flag and alert customers to suspicious activities, such as large purchases or unusual login attempts, in real-time, helping to minimize and prevent fraudulent activities.

5. Loan application processing

ChatGPT can also be used to streamline the loan application process. For example, ChatGPT can be used to help customers understand and navigate required documentation, eligibility criteria, and interest rates, meeting their needs in real-time. ChatGPT can also analyze customer data to determine creditworthiness and provide an instant decision on their loan application. This makes the loan application process faster and more efficient, freeing up loan officers to focus on more complex tasks.

6. Automated investment management

Finally, ChatGPT can provide personalized investment advice based on a customer’s risk tolerance, investment goals, and financial situation. ChatGPT can analyze a customer’s investment portfolio and transaction history to surface recommendations. It can also be used to manage investments and rebalance portfolios based on market conditions.

Get started with ChatGPT

Overall, ChatGPT is disrupting consumer banking by enhancing customer experience, improving operational efficiency, and providing personalized financial services. Beyondsoft has years of implementing advanced AI solutions in the banking industry. We have helped clients transform the data and analytics value chain, enhance the customer experience, and improve Net Promoter Score using chatbots. Leverage our experience with ChatGPT for your next level of transformation. To learn more about how we can help you put ChatGPT to use, contact us today.