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Asseco Poland has established a new company, Asseco Cloud, to support its clients in the design, implementation and operation of cloud solutions. The company was established by combining several organizational units operating within the Asseco Group. It carries out implementations based on its proprietary solutions and those of leading cloud providers, and offers full support from design to implementation as well as expertise. The strategic objective of the new entity is also to enhance the security of provided IT solutions.

Asseco Cloud is focused on the Asseco Group's strategic resources and competencies in the area of cloud computing. It uses its own resources, data centers and IT infrastructure in order to provide customers with optimum cloud services.

We are at a moment of unprecedented digital acceleration. Asseco Cloud is our response to the huge demand of the economy for cloud services. Up until now, we have provided cloud computing services primarily through Asseco Data Systems. Now, we are focusing our experience and competence in a new, specialized entity. We want to be a professional advisor to our clients in designing the optimum cloud architecture, and then deliver, implement and operate the best solution. In the first step, we focus on the Polish market, but we are already thinking about the European Asseco Cloud - says Andrzej Dopierała, President of Asseco Data Systems, Vice-President of Asseco Poland

The value of the global cloud market will grow to USD 937 billion by 2027. The share of global IT spending on cloud computing will also increase. Already today, companies are allocating ⅓ of their IT investments to the cloud. Public cloud spending will grow to about USD 304.9 billion, or at a rate of 18%.

We see great customer demand for cloud services in a hybrid model. Thanks to the potential of our own data centers, IT infrastructure and high level of expertise, we want to provide our customers with the best cloud solutions. Our offer includes services based on private cloud, preferred by clients from the public or regulated sectors, as well as multi-cloud solutions based on the public cloud of global providers, says Lech Szczuka, President of Asseco Cloud.

Asseco Cloud commenced operations on September 1, this year.

For more information visit https://www.asseco.cloud/

Asseco has received a special award for its contribution to the development of the digital lending ecosystem, outstanding achievements, and positive impact on the lendtech sector in Poland. The company has been awarded by the Lendtech Foundation for the creation of Asseco Customer Intelligence (ACI), an analytical system based on machine learning and artificial intelligence. In addition, Asseco has been featured on the Polish Lendtech 2021 Map in the IT Solutions category.

According to the Lendtech Foundation, the system developed by Asseco is proof that AI & Machine Learning technologies are a key innovation for the lendtech industry, and its application can bring optimization benefits for both lenders and customers themselves.

A personalized offer, consistent with the customer's needs, increases the tendency to make a quick purchase decision. Its creation requires a precise analysis of customer behavior, and this is where artificial intelligence comes in; not only does it support the consultant, but also enables the presentation of an accurate offer in real time - said Patrycja Sobczyk, Product Owner, Asseco Poland. Implementation of such a solution in the case of Asseco Customer Intelligence may take as little as 3 months, because its open architecture allows for quick integration with the IT systems of lending and financial institutions or other industries - she added.

Asseco has also been featured on the Polish Lendtech 2021 Map, which is a compilation of entities that identify themselves as lendtechs or as those that operate in this market by, for instance, providing legal or technological services. Poland's largest IT company has been classified in the IT Solutions category. The Polish Lendtech 2021 Map was published during the Lendtech2021Congress - the largest conference for the lendtech & fintech sector in Poland.

For more information about Asseco Customer Intelligence, please see: https://aci.asseco.com/

Having paid out a record-high dividend of over PLN 258 million, Asseco Poland was ranked 6th in the ranking of "Poland's Largest Private Dividend Payers 2021" prepared by Forbes magazine. The Company has been consistently building shareholder value and regularly distributing its profits for over a dozen years. So far it has paid out over PLN 2.7 billion.

According to Asseco Poland's current dividend policy, dividend payouts are to exceed 50% of the Company's net profit. From its 2020 profit, Poland's largest IT company paid out PLN 3.11 per share to shareholders, representing 97% of its standalone net profit and 64% of the Asseco Group's net profit.

In addition, the list includes Asseco Business Solutions and Asseco South Eastern Europe, which in 2021 paid out to their shareholders in the form of dividends nearly PLN 67 million (PLN 2.00 per share) and nearly PLN 52 million (PLN 1.00 per share), respectively.

Plus customers may sign contracts on tablets at points of sale using a handwritten digital signature. This modern, convenient and environmentally friendly solution has been provided by Asseco. This is yet another stage of the digital transformation of the Polsat Plus Group that offers its customers access to state-of-the-art electronic services. The electronic signature launched in all points of sale of Plus will save customers' time and simplify the process of concluding contracts.  Moreover, it will reduce, and in the long term eliminate, the use of paper in Plus.

The handwritten digital signature implemented at Plus is based on the SignaturiX solution supplied by Asseco, created by Monolit IT and currently under development by Xtension. It is connected to Asseco's qualified trust services, which guarantee the security of the service. The tablets needed for the signature service were provided by Samsung, on which the solutions of the KNOX cybersecurity platform are installed. This project is an example of implementation of the "paperless" strategy that has been successfully developed together for several years. The solution integrates with the existing processes of the Polsat Plus Group, which required designing and implementing changes in many sales and customer service systems. It is based on a combination of secure technologies delivered by individual project partners.

The implementation of an electronic signature is another stage of the digital transformation of the Polsat Plus Group, in which we are supported by Asseco, our technology partner. As a result, Plus customers can benefit from solutions using state-of-the-art technologies that support environmental protection by eliminating paper consumption. For customers, the electronic signature means primarily time savings, speed and convenience. From now on contracts will be signed on tablets using a stylus and will be sent to customers' e-mail boxes - says Katarzyna Wróbel-Frątczak, Deputy Director of Sales and Base Management for Sales Development and Maintenance of the Polsat Plus Group.

From the perspective of data security and document circulation, the solution meets all legal requirements and is compliant with the EU eIDAS regulation. Customers gain access to documents in electronic form, while maintaining the highest security standards.

An important feature and characteristic of this solution is that, as far as securing authenticity and integrity of a digital signature is concerned, it will be based on a qualified electronic seal and qualified electronic time stamp, both supplied by Asseco. Therefore, an electronic document generated and sent to the client's e-mail address will constitute strong and independent legal proof - says Artur Miękina from Asseco Data Systems.

The service is available in all Polsat Plus Group Stores and Points of Sale.

Asseco was ranked among the top companies of the Podkarpacie region of the first 20 years of 21st century in the category of enterprises employing 500 or more people. The list was prepared by the "Nowiny" daily which published the ranking of "The Golden Hundred Companies of Podkarpacie" for the 15th time. In addition, Asseco Poland took the first place among the listed companies of Podkarpacie by capitalization. It also became the leader of the list of the 10 largest companies in the region.

Asseco Poland, which started its operations 30 years ago in Rzeszów, today leads the Asseco Group, a leader in digitization in Poland* and the largest IT company in the CEE region. In 2020 the Asseco Group reached PLN 12.2 billion in revenues. It creates technologically advanced software for companies of key sectors of the economy. The company is present in 60 countries worldwide and employs approx. 29 thousand persons. It has been growing both organically and through acquisitions, of which it has made over 100 since 2004. Asseco companies are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The Asseco Group focuses on continuous search for innovative solutions; it has allocated PLN 920 million for this purpose by 2020 alone. In order to keep growing, it carries out numerous, often interdisciplinary R&D projects and investments preparing the infrastructure for research and development. In 2021 Asseco completed the construction of Asseco Innovation Hub, which is a state-of-the-art R&D center in Rzeszów providing the necessary conditions for harnessing the knowledge and potential of our most highly qualified personnel with diverse competencies. This entity is engaged in research and development projects involving, among others, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). Research is conducted in such areas as: telemedicine, electromobility, cyber security or for the purpose of creating systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The total value of this investment project is almost 65 million PLN net.

*according to Computerworld TOP200 report for 2020

The pandemic has brought technology even more firmly into our life and revolutionized many of its aspects. Progressive digitization has changed the way we do everyday things. This also translates into what customers expect from financial institutions and how they use their services. Therefore, organizations, in order to maintain their position, should implement artificial intelligence (AI), which will allow to increase the quality of service and personalize product offers. As indicated by the respondents of a survey conducted by Asseco and SME Banking Club, these are the most important goals of customer data analysis.

The report "Artificial Intelligence in Financial Institutions. Innovative Platforms for Analyzing SME Customer Data" summarizes the current state of readiness of the European market to implement technologies based on artificial intelligence in the financial sector. It looks at the challenges faced by institutions, i.e. banks or factoring companies - better adjustment of the product offer for small and mid-sized enterprises, greater support for customers and optimization of the costs of their service. The diversity of issues depending on the institution shows how different the viewpoints and approaches of financial organizations to the directions of development can be.

"As the results of our study have shown, financial institutions are focusing on client-centricity. The key aspect is learning about the needs of their customers and striving to personalize actions taken. Support in this area is data analysis, the results of which allow for significant acceleration of customer service, better selection of offers or improvement of the financing process. The answer to these needs is artificial intelligence (AI), which is able to process huge amounts of data and make analysis on their basis. However, at this moment only 32% of respondents declare implementation of solutions based on AI. A significant portion use it in selected processes rather than across the organization. The good news is that 65% of respondents plan to implement AI-based solutions within the next two years," said Olena Gryniuk, CEE Regional Director, SME Banking Club.

Personalizing products and improving service are priorities for data analytics

90% of financial institutions are aware of the importance of customer lifecycle analysis. In addition, survey respondents indicate a trend related to knowing their customer, their preferences, their needs and offering them personalized products and services. On the other hand, the main objective resulting from the data analysis is to improve the quality of service, ensuring a better customer experience for SMEs.

"When analyzing customer data, we would like to learn as much as possible about their need for support by a financial institution - here and now. However, everyone is different and has different needs as well: having business cards, increasing their bank account limit, etc. How, then, are financial institutions supposed to know what to offer consumers at the moment? It is thanks to Customer Data Platform and thorough analysis that we can determine their needs at a specific time. The results of the survey show that depending on the industry, the emphasis of the SME customer analysis is placed on a slightly different aspect. For banks, better service and personalized offers are the most important, for factoring companies - customer retention, for other institutions - meeting the growing demands of customers. All these objectives have one common denominator - in order to achieve them, we need to know what our clients need at a given moment," emphasizes Jarosław Bryl, Director of the Business Intelligence Division at Asseco Poland.

Artificial intelligence becomes a "must have"

Currently, artificial intelligence algorithms are used in only 1/3 of the surveyed organizations. The most developed in this regard is the area of sales, marketing and customer service. Nevertheless, machine learning is gaining popularity, over 60% of the surveyed institutions plan to develop in this area.

"Nowadays, the implementation of artificial intelligence has become a certain "must have", without which it is hard to remain competitive on the market. Increasingly more companies in the financial sector are planning and deciding to use machine learning models. However, vague regulations are still a huge obstacle for many areas where full transparency is required. An additional barrier may be the fact that financial institutions often do not have teams in their organization that are specialized in artificial intelligence and could take on such a challenge," adds Jarosław Bryl, Director of Business Intelligence Division, Asseco Poland.

The survey respondents representing the banking industry pointed to customer needs as an issue having the greatest potential for the implementation of artificial intelligence. Factoring companies, on the other hand, point to the process of "productizing" the customer by offering new forms of cooperation or services, but starting from the customer's needs rather than the direct sale of a product.

"Hyper-automation is a concept that has been on the list of major technology trends for the past two years. It means using, among other things, artificial intelligence to automate tasks and processes performed by employees. However, not all of them are suitable for this procedure. Therefore, when deciding to do it in our organization, we should take into account several elements. The most important issue is access to good quality data - let's choose the area for which we are able to obtain such data. Next, we need to define the problem well and define KPIs that will help us evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented solution. Companies that have centralized platforms for gathering information on customers and products, usually have already completed this first and most important aspect - access to good quality data," points out Patrycja Sobczyk, Product Owner, Asseco Poland.

The key challenges in organizations related to the implementation of artificial intelligence relate to integration, both with the solutions used and the processes applied. Almost half of the respondents indicated this aspect as the biggest or very big challenge they face. This is where proven providers offering analytical systems come to the rescue. Based on data and observation of customers' online activities they determine their profile and recommend the best offer in real time.

Full results of the Asseco report "Artificial Intelligence in Financial Institutions. Innovative platforms for analyzing SME customer data" available via: https://aci.asseco.com/raport/

About the report

The report by Asseco and SME Banking Club entitled Artificial Intelligence in Financial Institutions. Innovative platforms for analyzing SME customer data, summarizes the current state of readiness of the European market to implement artificial intelligence technologies in financial institutions. It is based on a survey in which we asked representatives of banks, factoring and leasing companies serving small and mid-sized enterprises across Europe. We asked them, among other things, about the biggest challenge of 2021, what the purpose of customer lifecycle analytics is and whether they are already using solutions based on artificial intelligence and what plans they have for their development. The collected data published in this report indicates the direction and pace of development in this area for the coming years.

About Asseco Poland

Asseco Poland is the largest Polish IT company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and the sixth largest European software vendor. It leads the international Asseco Group that operates in 60 countries and employs over 27 thousand people. Creating IT solutions for banks is one of the key business areas of Asseco that offers, among others, central banking systems as well as omnichannel and mobile solutions addressing the latest trends in global banking. Owing to the acquired experience and competence, Asseco has implemented its IT solutions (core banking engine) in over 800 banks.

About SME Banking Club

SME Banking Club was founded by a team of former SME bankers in 2010 as a professional network to exchange information and experience in the micro, small and mid-sized enterprise segments. SME Banking Club organizes regional SME banking conferences every year, which bring together financial institutions and technology companies to share knowledge, stimulate innovation and promote SME growth in the region. In addition, it provides its members with access to detailed market analysis reports and annual studies. The main SME Banking Club activities are focused in Central and Eastern Europe.