If there is someone who hasn’t heard the name Microsoft, then they must have not lived on planet Earth in the last 30-so years. The company has become ubiquitous and provides know-how in many different areas of technology solutions, therefore has now become a sine qua non ingredient in the success of many exciting startups and corporations. None more exciting, of course, than our own.

And we’re very excited to say that now Microsoft has heard of the Key Way Group. This is my latest enterprise, which I’m developing as CEO. Key Way Group is an innovative FinTech company in the investments field. Active at a global level, and managing multi-departmental projects, the company needed the perspective that a mix of Microsoft solutions can provide. As such, we built its internal processes around Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory. We also benefit from the use of Azure Data Factory, while our different teams can make quick and efficient data-driven decisions through the help of Power BI.

Our setup and integration of Microsoft solutions has been the object of a best practice story published recently on the Microsoft global website.

We use a number of Microsoft solutions:

• Microsoft 365 – the cloud-based Office suite
• Azure Active Directory – the cloud-based identity and access management resource
• Azure Data Factory – the cloud-based enterprise data integration service
• Power BI – the business analytics service
• Microsoft Planner – the planning app
• Microsoft Teams – the communication platform
• Microsoft Flow – the automated workflow creator
• Power Apps – the app creator

Here’s how it works for us:

The integration of Microsoft solutions has allowed us to immediately streamline several of our processes and save an enormous amount of time at both the planning and the execution stages of several projects. For example, we now use Microsoft Teams for all internal communications, and Microsoft Planner to set up projects and assign responsibilities around our global teams. This is further helped by the use of single-sign-on, which allows every new employee onboarded to essentially hit the ground running. 

The tangible results? Here’s an example: a project that would take over one week and several meetings to set up we have now taken down to four hours and one meeting. Imagine all the business- and personal-orientated things you can achieve by finding a better use for that time.

We’re now at 1,500 successful Microsoft Flow run per month, which we use, together with Power Apps, to streamline and simplify all processes. We collect data that we can then structure with Azure Data Factory, use Power BI to visualise the results and can then make data-driven decisions on the go. 

Next steps? Client management (with Dynamics 365 CRM) and machine learning. We envision a future where automation allows us to use our time for the big things: strategy, networking, building new businesses, all while ensuring wellbeing for ourselves and our teams.