Credit risk management is a big deal for every business—and an even bigger deal for a company as large and complex as Microsoft.

"As Microsoft grew globally, each line of business had a different credit-and-collections team, with each of those teams doing risk assessments in its own way," says Andrey Naumiuk, senior finance manager for the company's Azure Data group. "Credit risk management processes were also fragmented by geography: Many business groups had separate credit teams in the major regions around the world. Their processes were not consistent, so large customers that buy products from multiple Microsoft business groups wouldn't have the same experience across the different product lines."