Finastra, a global provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, today announced it is working with Databricks, a data and AI company, to provide more value-added solutions and services to its customers and partners globally. The collaboration enables Finastra to further unlock access to its data and deliver additional value with AI, including generative AI (Gen AI) capabilities. It also enhances the quality, performance and security of its product development at a reduced time-to-market.

Using Databricks, Finastra has rolled out a data platform for its developers, Secure Zone. The platform is designed for production-grade data ingestion and engineering, and the discovery of large batch and real-time data. Teams can experiment with and develop prototype AI solutions and production models – both traditional and Gen AI – with full monitoring capabilities, and employ language models for tasks such as content generation, summarization, semantic search and code translation. Finastra’s customers can also access Secure Zone, enabling them to build robust data products and data science models using cutting-edge tools, datasets and pre-trained models, while benefiting from Finastra’s technological expertise.

“We believe that data and AI are key drivers of innovation, and we are committed to delivering best-in-class solutions to our customers with this in mind,” said Alexander Borsuk, Lead Data Engineer at Finastra. “Our work with Databricks enables us to develop enhanced data-driven products more effectively across all our business units. Our customers can also quickly access our datasets via Databricks’ Delta Sharing capability to build their own products. The move highlights our continued commitment to innovation in product development through open platforms, cloud, machine learning (ML), advanced analytics and Gen AI.”

According to Finastra’s recent Financial Services State of the Nation survey 2023, more than four fifths (83%) of decision-makers say their institution is interested in Gen AI, with 26% having already incorporated the technology in some form. In line with this trend, Finastra is enabling its customers to benefit from real-world applications of the technology within its solutions. As part of an ongoing commitment to upskill its workforce and enhance productivity with Gen AI, in addition to Secure Zone the company has rolled out Bing Enterprise Chat for all its employees and is part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program.

“By unifying reporting, analytics and AI with the Databricks platform, Finastra is able to significantly streamline the development of its solutions, strengthen its product offerings and, ultimately, provide enhanced experiences for its customers,” said Junta Nakai, Global VP, Financial Services at Databricks. “As we continue to work with Finastra, we are looking forward to developing new use cases and delivering more value to benefit end users.”