14 DAY TRIAL // One of the companies who have recently migrated to Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform to ensure increased efficiency and time and cost savings is Gradatim.
An independent software vendor, the company has specialized in creating technology solutions for businesses that offer microfinance products and services.
Following the adoption of Windows Azure, Gradatim reported an 84 percent decrease in project deployment time and also announced cost savings of around $2 million (U.S.).
The company decided to adopt Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform after evaluating a number of shared services platforms last year.
“We wanted a platform-as-a-service solution, not just cloud infrastructure,” said CV Prakash, founder and CEO of Gradatim.
“We concluded that Windows Azure offered the best long-term value and the most reliable cloud platform for transforming our business.”
In the microfinance market, service providers need to offer low-cost, custom products that can be accessed regardless of the location.
Gradatim decided to move to Windows Azure for increased simplicity and global scalability so as to take advantage of the increased demand that its insurance policy and loan management applications enjoy.
Through making the move, the company did not have to deploy its own datacenters and eliminated the need to invest in server hardware, which resulted in decreased operating expenses.
Moreover, with Windows Azure, they can now deploy solutions to customers in about two weeks, while needing around three months for that before. This represents an increase in efficiency of around 84 percent.
“Faster deployments mean that we start generating revenue from each project faster, so we have more flexibility in the investment decisions that we make to grow our business,” Prakash said.
Through all these savings, the company was also able to revise its pricing model. Now, customers can choose to pay a nominal subscription fee, along with a percentage of the value of each transaction, or they can choose a fixed fee for each loan or insurance policy they manage with the company’s solutions.
“We’ve been able to restructure our pricing to better align with the way customers across the industry consume our services,” Prakash said.