NZHL Accelerates Financial Freedom for Kiwis with Snowflake and Deloitte

NZHL is a Kiwi-owned business, and our core purpose is helping New Zealanders become financially free, faster. Before our recent digital transformation, I likened our previous data environment to a "bird's nest." We were dealing with outdated tools and a massive amount of Excel files that were all intertwined.

Reporting under those conditions was incredibly difficult—it was manual, time-consuming, and often late. This made it nearly impossible to make informed business decisions because the information was already out of date by the time we received it. When we began looking for a new solution, we focused on capabilities like scale and future-proofing. We wanted a tool that provided features we might not even need right now, but that would be ready and waiting for us when we were.

Snowflake allows our clients to move really quickly when changes occur, particularly those of a regulatory nature. They can address these shifts immediately while maintaining a clear view of how their data is changing. Most importantly, it puts all that information into a very easy interface that people can actually understand and interrogate. For New Zealand Home Loans, the biggest impact of this work is trust. They know they can trust their data and the insights they get from it.

This trust puts them in a perfect position to leverage the new wave of AI and Agentic AI that we see coming down the pipe and becoming available on the platform. A great example of how we’ve used Snowflake to help our clients become debt-free is the "Snowflake AI Prep POC." We used Snowflake and AI to help our advisors prepare for annual reviews by pulling all necessary information together at the push of a button.

The system presents data in a structured way so that our clients receive a more consistent experience. It also highlights gaps in a client's profile for our advisors, ensuring that every customer is properly covered. For New Zealand Home Loans, it’s not just about the data and the technology; it’s the bigger picture. It is the combination of people, process, data, and technology that allows them to leverage their investments quickly.

When we originally chose Snowflake, we didn’t actually set out to advance any specific AI initiatives. We chose it because it was the right solution for us: future-focused, scalable, and flexible. Because we invested in those data foundations early, we are now able to move quickly with AI solutions that deliver real business outcomes.