Bringing cloud power to financial health apps

A recent survey on financial literacy found that 42 percent of respondents are worried about being able to afford their everyday living expenses. Financial stress drives other woes: Not only can it lead to psychological distress, but it also has the potential to negatively impact interpersonal relationships with family members, friends, and coworkers. In many cases, the problem stems not from scarcity, but from financial decisions.

The Think Forward Initiative (TFI)—a collaboration led by financial services international ING, Deloitte, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and others—was created to help. TFI has a broad portfolio of activities. One of them is using advanced cloud capabilities to help incubate startup companies that have designed financial health solutions, often via mobile apps. These solutions can help educate people on money management and buying habits, improve their decision-making, and find motivation to take steps that are smart but not always easy. But like some other startups, these innovators typically have limited resources to invest and lack experience in some fields to take their solutions to the next level. 

Most of the solutions are already using cloud platforms when they begin working with TFI. But fast-tracking their ability to get full value from the cloud can enhance their ability to make a difference and free up money for other priority needs. Working as a team, Deloitte and other TFI partners use pre-configured AWS cloud services to increase the efficiency and scalability of the solutions’ cloud platforms and make their use of the cloud easier and more affordable. Through research, development, mentoring sessions, capability building (expert sessions), and connecting startups with corporations, TFI helps the startups in its program to address skill gaps and offers advice related to the potential of the cloud. That ultimately helps them to make an impact with more users, more quickly.