Business Transformation Asia Issue 09

SPECIAL REPORT The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022

J U LY 2 0 2 2

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Fintech’s impact and disruption

in india Digital payment platforms are transforming businesses in India and also triggering socio-economic changes.

KARTHIK SRINIVASAN ICRA

ANUP AGARWAL Mintifi JINDAL HARIA India Ratings and Research

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EDITORIAL

THE FUTURE IT SUMMIT ASIA ROAD SHOW MANAGING DIRECTOR Tushar Sahoo tushar@gecmediagroup.com CHIEF EDITOR Arun Shankar arun@gecmediagroup.com CEO Ronak Samantaray ronak@gecmediagroup.com GLOBAL HEAD, CONTENT AND STRATEGIC ALLIANCES Anushree Dixit anushree@gecmediagroup.com EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEC MEDIA GROUP CO-FOUNDER, BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION ASIA Sundip Sibal Sundip@gecmediagroup.com GROUP SALES HEAD Richa S richa@gecmediagroup.com PROJECT MANAGER Anshuman Jyothiprakash anshuman@gecmediagroup.com EVENTS EXECUTIVE Gurleen Rooprai gurleen@gecmdiagroup.com Jennefer Lorraine Mendoza jennefer@gecmdiagroup.com SALES AND ADVERTISING Ronak Samantaray ronak@gecmediagroup.com DIGITAL TEAM Deepika Chauhan - Digital Content Lead Vijay Bakshi - IT Manager Hemant Bisht - SEO & Digital Marketing Analyst BUSINESS LEAD Ankit Vats ankit@gecmediagroup.com Ph: +91-9999756403 DESIGNED BY

Creative Lead Ajay Arya Designer Rahul Arya Assistant Designer Vikas Chandra PRODUCTION, CIRCULATION, SUBSCRIPTIONS info@gecmediagroup.com

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The month of June witnessed the roll out of GEC Media Group’s - Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022 across the Indian sub-continent.

The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022 was joined by over 60 speakers and panellists in six different cities. Key supporting partner was Global CIO Manufacturing Forum and the roll out took place across six different metropolitan cities including Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, and Pune from 17th to 27th June 2022.

BT Asia’s Deepika Chauhan writes that the leading CIOs, IT Head and other dignitaries exchanged their thoughts and expertise on Supercharging Manufacturing to Scale Beyond 4.0; Cloud mandates and success roadmap in modern enterprises; The rising trend of Hyperautomation - Opportunities, approaches, roadmap; Fast forward your Digital Transformation with HPE Greenlake Cloud; CIO in Manufacturing case study; Organisational Resilience buzzword or Rebirth of Business Continuity; and Distributed Cloud- a new era in cloud computing; Cloudification Roadmap in 2022 enterprises and Heading for Convergence in Digital Transformation and Sustainability Objectives in Asian Enterprises.

The event was focused on the theme #evolvetechnology – AI and Cloud, brought together some of the leading names in the Technology industry and also organised a series of events like Presentations, Fireside Chat with an Incisive Panel Discussion on transforming lives through technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Big Data, IoT, and futureproofing of businesses and organisations. The event was concluded with the felicitation of the Catalyst Excellency, Catalyst CIO, and Catalyst CMO Award winners.

In this month’s lead feature, BT Asia’s contributor Shubhendu Parth writes that acceptance for digital payments has grown significantly in the last few years, driven primarily by the demonetisation in 2016 and the long spell of nationwide lockdown, from 25 March 2020 till the final phase of unlocking in March 2022, which limited the ability of businesses to conduct in-person transactions. The impact is visible in the RBI’s digital payment index which jumped from 173.49 in September 2019 to 304.06 in September 2021.

Analysts pointed out that financial inclusion has also brought about major changes in user behaviour, thanks to growing financial literacy and awareness. The trend has been catching up even in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities and villages where businesses and individuals have begun to use app-based payment platforms as an alternative to cash payment options, learning either from a loss of a customer to the shop next door or from word of mouth in the community. On their part, the private-sector players and the government has also been creating awareness about digital payment applications with much success.

Affordable internet and mobile devices have helped digital transactions gain ground in various economic strata of Indian towns and cities.

According to a JP Morgan report, digital wallets are a fast-growing payment method after cards and are replacing cash for e-commerce payments.

For more about these topics turn the pages ahead.

Good luck for the monsoon season of business ahead.

Arun Shankar arun@gecmediagroup.com

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3

CONTENTS JULY 2022

06-17

19-21

22-23

32-57

OPINION

NEWS

EVENT

SPECIAL REPORT The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022

16 OPINION

2022 is year of collaborative digital transformation

64 INDUSTRY COMMENT

Modernisation of banking applications on mainframes

74 PEOPLE TRANSFORMATION

Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up

24-30

COVER STORY

FINTECH’S IMPACT AND DISRUPTION IN INDIA

Digital payment platforms are transforming businesses in India and also triggering socio-economic changes.

64-73

74-75

76-83

INDUSTRY COMMENT

PEOPLE TRANSFORMATION

SOCIALLY SPEAKING

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OPINION

LOOKING FOR LASTING CHANGES IMPACTING RETAIL Amid so many operational challenges, ranging from staffing, supply continuity, government action, business impact, it is hard to stay focused on strategy.

A

t retailers around the world, Omicron is writing a fresh chapter in managing in adversity, playbook.

Amid so many operational challenges—ranging from ensuring staffing and supply continuity to anticipating government action and its business impact— it’s hard to stay focused on strategy, just as it was early in the pandemic.

But executive teams must again look beyond the immediate task of keeping society equipped and fed. In recent conversations with sector CEOs globally, six imperatives in particular kept emerging as strategic priorities for the year.

LASTING CHANGES TO CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Sure, some consumers have gone back on decisions made in lockdown, such as the purchase of overly ambitious gym equipment or a move to off-grid isolation in the deepest countryside. Yet there is no doubt that how we live, and work has changed profoundly since Covid emerged in 2020.

The exact nature of those changes is not yet fully understood, although many CEOs will have felt the impact in traffic that stubbornly refuses to return to 100% of pre-lockdown levels. In the year, retailers will need to anatomize the new behaviour patterns of their shoppers with precise segmentation and alter their marketing accordingly.

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OPINION

FULLY ADAPT TO THE NEW REALITIES

BY CYRILLE FABRE Head of Consumer Products and Retail Practices, Bain & Company.

BY MARC-ANDRÉ KAMEL Partner and Global Head of Retail Practice, Bain & Company.

KEY TAKEAWAYS The exact nature of those changes is not yet fully understood, although many CEOs will have felt the impact.

Retailers will need to anatomize new behaviour patterns of their shoppers with precise segmentation.

We have all learned ways of doing more with less during the pandemic.

Potential can come wrapped in disorienting hype—as with some non-fungible tokens.

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We have all learned ways of doing more with less during the pandemic: achieving a 20% uplift in sales without adding headcount, say, or handling the same volume of sales with 20% fewer employees.

With many businesses and consumers likely to face rising cost pressures in the year, efficiencies from new ways of working need to be realized to their fullest extent, think cost savings in the double digits, percentage-wise.

But adaptation is not just about streamlining. It covers an array of questions executive teams need to ponder, such as How do we reset our asset base over the long term?and how can we continuously improve our omnichannel capabilities?

INNOVATE ON THREE FRONTS

In the year, innovation in all its forms will be crucial, but a few stand out. One is exploration of adjacent business models. For an apparel retailer, that might mean entering the second-hand clothing market. For a grocer, it could be dark kitchens and hot food delivery. The second form is technological innovation that improves efficiency. The third relates to innovations that promise the boldest advances in the digital shopping experience.

That potential can come wrapped in disorienting hype—as with some non-fungible tokens. But just consider all the possible uses of NFTs when today’s omnichannel shopping further virtualizes into the metaverse. Digital inventory will likely have its day.

RETAIN AND RECRUIT TALENT

The flux in the retail market at the start of the year is hard to overstate. At even the most elite global retailers, vacant positions can run as high as 20% of the workforce. Meanwhile, executive teams are trying to predict and nurture the skills needed to keep up with the evolution of e-commerce.

It all adds up to a great opportunity

Delivery of timely business results and delivery of political benefits if wellarticulated, can help to trigger investment

for retailers with a strong peoplecentric strategy.

FOSTER BUY BETTER

Consumers may well need to buy less in some cases but focusing on buying better can give retailers continued commercial momentum.

Another challenge: improving sustainability without creating insupportable cost increases.

SCALE-DRIVEN MANOEUVRING

The pandemic has only heightened the strategic importance of scale.

That need will continue to power activist investments and other mergers and acquisitions activity.

Virtual scalealliances between noncompeting retailers could be a potent way of pooling resources for tech investment, for instance.

The frenetic start to the year is unlikely to be followed by a sudden lull: Turbulence could well be one of the few constants this year. That only increases the importance of companies codifying what they have learned about managing in adversity throughout the year—so they can adapt the playbook quickly for the next unexpected twist.

But for all its operational challenges, the year will also present opportunities for those executive teams that can remain focused on the bigger picture.

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OPINION

MAKING 1% POSITIVE IMPROVEMENT IN TRANSFORMATION It is tiny improvements that make incredible change and 1% compounded every day for over 365 days will finally amount to 38 times performance jump.

I

n his #1 New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, Author James Clear talks about incremental shifts for massive outcomes.It is the tiny improvements, he says, that are not even noticeable at first, that create incredible change. He goes on to prove that 1% better every day for over 365 days will compound to nearly 38 times better. The opposite of which, that is remaining stagnant or becoming 1% worse every day, will get you closer to zero.

This seemingly simple but profound concept

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can have a far-reaching impact when applied to the realms of workplace transformation, particularly now as massive technological advancements sweep through the region.

However, while digital transformation signals new beginnings and better growth opportunities, the rapid change could be daunting to some, leaving them unsure of when or where to begin.

Thankfully, even though change is constant in today’s business, it need not happen overnight or instantaneously.

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OPINION

BY MARK PROSSER Senior Manager, Product and Solutions Sales, Client Solutions Group, Dell Technologies.

For decision makers and IT manager, this is the ideal time to look at new technologies for result-driven changes.

If there is one step that organisations can take for business continuity, it is to make an incremental shift in their approach to adapting to the digital era. Encouragingly, this is a change we already see in action across the region.

This means by making small changes, without major overhauls, organisations can rely on a single provider to take care of all their IT needs at one monthly price with no upfront investment while maintaining performance, security and

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reliability over the lifetime of that system.

Workforce transformation and improving the employee experience is another area we expect organisations to continue to monitor, embrace and invest in the coming year.

In an era of hybrid work, seamless transitions between devices and locations will set the foundation for great remote work experiences.

Augmenting PCs with technologies like Cloud, 5G and AI to offer smart, personalised and collaborative experiences is the future. It will provide organisations with the opportunity to pause, rethink, alter and amplify employee experience, as and when needed. In other words, in a world of stunning product designs and powerful technology innovations, simple and intentional will be the new definition of premium.

Looking ahead, more emphasis is expected to be placed on supporting a company’s biggest assets - its people, and how they work best.

IT departments will be looking for ways to ensure that their technology and services are tailored to diverse teams.

More emphasis is expected to be placed on supporting a company’s biggest assets its people, and how they work best

The promise of hybrid work will go beyond productivity, as we believe the pinnacle of an excellent hybrid work experience will achieve balance and will require both a culture shift and advancements in technology. As the region moves towards a knowledgebased economy, decision makers need to create a future-ready infrastructure that empower new talent, amplify employee experience and supports a culture of innovation, collaboration and productivity.

As we look at the future of work, incremental improvements will drive the big changes. It represents a new chapter in business operations, and enabled by extraordinary technology advances, it has the potential to change the way we live, work and collaborate with one another.

In the last two years, we have transformed the way we work, virtually overnight. Now is the time to think long-term and make the shift to welcome an experiencefocused nimble, connected and flexible workforce – even if it is by one percent, because by the power of compounding, a gradual but consistent effort guarantees a minimum of 37.78 times impactful outcomes. And that is a small step for a big change.

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OPINION

PREDICTING PERFORMANCE DEGRADATIONS BEFORE THEY HAPPEN The answer lies in Asset Performance Management, a set of technologies that can monitor assets to identify, diagnose, and prioritise equipment problems.

T

he industrial sector is in the midst of its biggest disruption in decades. It is critical for organisations to reduce production loss while extending equipment life – efficiencies that can help businesses achieve operational excellence.

But how can this be achieved? The answer lies

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in Asset Performance Management, APM – a set of technologies and practices that can monitor assets to identify, diagnose, and prioritise impending equipment problems – continuously and in real time.

Well-executed APM empowers organisations to reduce unscheduled downtime, prevent equipment

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OPINION

BY MATT NEWTON Director, Artificial Intelligence and Optimisation, AVEVA.

By leveraging APM 4.0, assets can be transformed from cost centres into drivers of revenue and profitability

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failures, reduce maintenance costs, improve asset utilisation, and identify underperforming assets to support overall business objectives.

At the heart of APM is the concept of maximising profitability by balancing risk, cost, and performance of the plant, of the assets, and of the people that are operating all those things.

In the last two years, many companies have undergone digital transformation to foster corporate agility and resilience amid an increasingly dynamic business landscape. As such, the concept of APM is also evolving.

The intersection of Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things IIoT, and technologies such as AI, predictive maintenance, cloud, big data, and mobility, are bringing assets to the forefront of the business. By leveraging APM 4.0, assets can be transformed from cost centres into powerful drivers of revenue and profitability.

APM 4.0 is predicated on proactive asset performance management, enabled by predictive alerts and prescriptive analytics.These types of technologies can lower costs, while optimising labour usage and equipment performance. Through the use of predictive and prescriptive analytics, companies can implement strategies that avoid unplanned downtime for their most critical assets – while also deciding which preventative or corrective asset strategy is the best course of action to take for their less vital equipment.

APM 4.0 creates a single integrated digital thread across the complete asset lifecycle.

Two key factors play a pivotal role in the implementation of an effective APM strategy: l First, there must be

connectivity among assets and workers. l S econd, decisions that are informed by sensors and intelligent data must be able to be executed in real-time.

In stark contrast to the widely used – and typically lagging – indicators that report failures only after they occur, today’s APM 4.0 systems can use sensor data to predict performance degradations and component failures before they happen.

Predictive and prescriptive analytics have the power to utilise sensor data to make better decisions – creating significant opportunities to improve asset performance.

However, it’s also important to understand that it is not always feasible to invoke predictive strategies to mitigate asset risks or optimise performance.

For some assets, it might not be financially feasible to apply predictive strategies because the cost of the cure might be more expensive than the value of the benefit – such as planned downtime.

In order to implement an effective APM 4.0 solution, the owner operator should utilise predictive and prescriptive analytics within a wider asset risk management strategy.

While companies are close to achieving APM 4.0, others may not be quite sure where they should begin their adoption journey. It’s important to remember that embarking on the transition from reactive maintenance to a more proactive or predictive strategy is a process.

In many cases, the organisation’s culture is the biggest obstacle to overcome.

In a reactive environment, firefightingmaintenance is valued, but in a proactive environment, the strategy should focus on preventing fires from erupting in the first place.

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OPINION

PACE OF CHANGE IS NOT SUSTAINABLE FOR GOVERNMENTS Many governments have an embedded culture of being risk-averse, leading them to revert to legacy processes and mindsets, rolling back positive momentum.

D

igitally advanced governments are willing to transform and optimise, calculate and report on digital success metrics and adopt a range of contemporary practices and delivery models.

Pandemic-inflicted global disruption caused government organisations to renew their focus on, and accelerate the transition

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to, digital government. For CIOs, achieving true digital transformation within government requires a full commitment to emerging technologies and capabilities that can scale across an organisation.

The transition to digital government means organisational change, which can be difficult to achieve at times. This is reflected in the diverse levels of advancements

BY DEAN LACHECA Senior Director Analyst, Gartner.

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OPINION

in digital transformation from one government organisation to the next.

The recent Gartner survey explored the differences in objectives, practices and makeup of digital initiatives that have led to successful transformation implementations. If you focus your priorities in the same way, you can expect to deliver on your digital government strategies more effectively.

Although digital governments leverage practices such as journey mapping, humancentred design and design thinking, co-creation and voice of the customer, user research, there are three common practices.

65% of digitally advanced governments and 42% of remaining governments report widespread use of agile project delivery, making it the most widely used practice. Even so, it is challenging to perform effectively in a government environment and very often a struggle to scale beyond the IT function. In fact, just 28% of digitally advanced governments have also successfully scaled adoption of enterprise agile.

Half of digitally advanced governments have incorporated product management into their operating models, whereas only 20% of non-digitally advanced governments have done the same. Doing so has a direct impact on the planning and development of government services, including other contemporary service design practices like journey mapping,

co-creation and event mapping.

35% of digitally advanced governments report widespread use of DevOps practices; 21% of less advanced respondents cite use. Employing a DevOps model enables developers to increase productivity and improve coordination with infrastructure.

For most governments, the pace of change during a crisis is not sustainable. Many governments have a strongly embedded culture, and that culture is often risk-averse.

This may lead them to quickly revert to legacy processes and mindsets, rolling back positive momentum.

As a government CIO delivering digital transformation strategies and programs build executive sponsorship for investment in digital by working with department heads and business line leaders to clearly define their vision for digital’s role in achieving the organisation’s mission.

Scale the impact of digital across the organisation by

Achieving true digital transformation within government requires commitment to emerging technologies and capabilities

expanding its scope to include transformational activities that align with the organisation’s digital vision.

Build a line of sight between measurable digital outcomes and measurable business value by working with department heads and business line leaders to identify tangible metrics of success.

3 COMMON PRACTICES AMONGST DIGITALLY ADVANCED GOVERNMENTS

#1

Focus on transformation and optimisation

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#2

Calculate and report on digital success metrics

#3

Adopt contemporary practices and delivery models

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OPINION

POST PANDEMIC, ARE REGIONAL CISOS ON THE RIGHT TRACK? While most CISOs are ready to road-test new technologies, just 17% believe their organisation grasps the threat landscape and are willing to invest accordingly.

I

n aiming to understand how and why investments in cybersecurity had grown, a global survey was conducted of more than 900 senior IT decision makers. This Technology Decision Making report shows how pandemic has affected the cybersecurity industry and the priorities of CISOs across nine countries in

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the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Here in the Middle East, as IT stakeholders prepare to make their cases for 2022 budgets, the same challenges are likely to arise.

About 60% of those surveyed expect to see a boost to their security budgets in the next financial year because of the changes in IT environments made necessary by lockdowns.

BY JOSEPH CARSON Chief Security Scientist and Advisory CISO, ThycoticCentrify.

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OPINION

We should make note of two things regarding remote working. The first is that it did not, by itself, create security problems. It merely threw new light on existing issues.

And second, while lockdowns may become a thing of the past at some point, hybrid work is here to stay. So, we cannot merely keep our heads down until the storm has passed, only to sail on as before. We must address our security holes and plug them to prepare for the hybrid reality ahead of us.

A major pain point that has arisen from the complexities of new technology stacks is the difficulty in managing identity security. The discipline known as privileged access management PAM was poorly understood before the pandemic. Back then, the risks of incursion were much lower because endpoints were actively monitored within a welldefined perimeter, and many mistakes in configuration and policy went unpunished.

In the absence of corporate firewalls and other safeguards, it is significantly easier for a malicious party to access privileged accounts. It is therefore vital that privilege models based on zero-trust make their way to the top of the priority list for implementation in 2022.

91% of those surveyed believe their security budget is adequate, a strong indication that line of business is beginning to grasp the scale, intensity, and flexibility of the threat landscape. But the research also shows that most investments are targeted at known problem areas, such as those found after an attack has already happened. Fear of auditors and regulators – a concern widely reflected in the Middle East – appears to be a further motivator, with one in

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A major pain point that has arisen from the complexities of new technology stacks is the difficulty in managing identity security

four citing the threat of fines as a key inspiration for action.

Being confronted with the expense of one’s own cyber incident is an understandable motivator. But Middle East firms looking to compete in 2022 have an opportunity to learn from headlines. The missteps – and horror stories – of others should be enough to illustrate the need for a holistic strategy that closes gaps before they can be exploited. PAM is one of the strongest examples in the industry of proactive strategy being employed to prevent the need for reactive firefighting.

More than a third of our respondents reported having presented investment proposals that were rejected because the threat did not instil the right level of fear, or because the solution had insufficiently clear ROI. So CISOs are condemned to retreat from long-term strategy in favour of short-term, piecemeal tactics. The study shows that most CISOs are ready to road-test new technologies and approaches, but just 17% believe their organisation’s decision makers grasp the true nature of the threat landscape and are willing to invest accordingly.

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OPINION

YEAR OF COLLABORATIVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION We will need to team up with partners to execute a comprehensive action plan to bring down global warming levels which no company can achieve on its own.

W

orking to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis is fast emerging as the biggest KPI ahead of the industrial community for 2022.

Approximately 97% of business leaders polled in a recent Deloitte survey say that their companies have already experienced the negative impacts of climate change.

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Now we will need to team up with partners and peers to build and execute a comprehensive action plan to tackle these challenges. Bringing global warming levels down to 1.5°C is something no company can achieve on its own.

About 80% of major international companies now report on sustainability, and thousands of enterprises have committed to net-zero

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OPINION

BY KERRY GRIMES Head of Global Partners, AVEVA.

emissions by 2050 through initiatives such as the Race to Zero and Business Ambition for 1.5°C. We see 2022 as year of collaborative digital transformation aimed at achieving our common sustainability goals. Connecting to the connected industrial economy could be the first step. This data-led network links enterprises along a single digital data thread that connects engineering, operations, supply chain, and employees.

It uses the power of the cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) to optimise performance and unlock value and sustainability gains for every stakeholder.

Sectoral leaders have already embraced industrial automation as a route to increasing productivity. Industryspecific AI empowers these organisations by providing sector-specific decision support and unified intelligence.

When leveraged over the cloud, these systems are now operable remotely, anytime and anywhere. Because they collect greater amounts of data about operational systems, leveraging

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this information supports workers in making faster and more effective decisions making.

Gartner has shown that for companies that operate across different geographies, cloudbased data-sharing improves integration of working teams and drives the decisionmaking that helps minimise carbon use, increase profit, and ensure agility.

Industrial frontrunners are now looking to go one step further, by sharing data securely but agnostically, across the entire industrial ecosystem. Expanding connected networks to suppliers, partners, and even industrial peers can drive exponential, sustainable growth for all players across the value chain – while also realising sustainability gains.

In the wake of the disruption of the past two years, digital technologies underpin the way we operate. As we look to achieve our goals for 2022 and beyond, collaborations will be essential to driving innovative ways of doing business. Digital partnerships are needed to protect the planet for ourselves and for our children.

Working together can achieve net-zero more quickly.

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NEWS

10th Global Blockchain Congress officially take place in Vietnam

and value to all parties, therefore the investors and especially startup projects will be carefully selected.

CENTRALISE IN TOP CRYPTOTRENDS IN 2022

Recently, the Play2earn model and Metaverse are still being predicted to be the “next big thing” in the future. At this 10th edition, the participating projects will be diverse from DeFi, Gaming, NFTs, to Metaverse.

VIETNAM, THE NEXT DESTINATION AS AN EMERGING POTENTIAL MARKET

On July 11th & 12th, 2022, the 10th Global Blockchain Congress is being held in Hanoi, Vietnam. This version for Southeast Asia will be organised by Agora in collaboration with V2B Labs, D.Lion and the Vietnam Blockchain Union under the auspices of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association.

The Blockchain Congress is a closed-door congress between investors and hand-picked blockchain projects looking to raise funds. This exclusive event comprises more than 100+ investors with a combined budget of over 5 Billion dollars and only 20 blockchain startups will be introduced to the investors, leveraging the prime and top-quality of this congress. The Global Blockchain Conference is a world-class event, bringing high quality

Vietnam is considered by the world as a potential market for Blockchain technology development.

Of the top 200 blockchain companies in the world, Vietnam is proudly in the group of five leading countries in blockchain technology with the index of acceptance of this new technology, five times higher than in the U.S. Hence, opportunities are opening up for Vietnamese businesses.

A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED AND MEANINGFUL EVENT FOR BLOCKCHAIN VIETNAM AND ASIA

This first-rate event will have companionship with V2B Labs, D.Lion and Vietnam Blockchain Union as co-hosts, under the auspices of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association, a social-professional organisation of people working in the field of digital media, representing and enhancing Vietnamese values in this global event.

TCS launches Servitization Engine to help customers embrace subscription-first business models Tata Consultancy Services has launched the TCS Servitization Engine on Oracle Cloud to help customers create subscriptionfirst business models and provide outcome-based solutions with intelligent service capabilities. The engine offers an industry package with bundled combinations of products, services, support, self-service, and knowledge base that companies can leverage to add value to their core product offerings, along with robust frontend customer-facing solutions.

Changes in consumer behavior are driving organisations to switch from one-time product sales to

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subscription-based, as-a-service business models, a trend known as servitization. As product-centric business models often involve high procurement, operational costs, and high capex, organisations are adopting new technologies to enable servitisation models, which can offer better margins, increased customer lifetime value for providers, and lower total cost of ownership to customers, with flexible consumption of products and services.

The TCS Servitisation Engine offers a combination of a service-centric approach, data monetisation, and product

personalisation to enable payas-you-go services. Built on TCS Crystallus™ for Oracle Cloud, the preconfigured model office framework leverages emerging technologies powered by TCS Research & Innovation, including predictive and prescriptive analytic insights and digitally interpretable knowledge for performance enhancement. The services can be coupled with TCS’ Conversational Services products, which are enriched by contextual AI components.

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NEWS

Infosys wins Microsoft’s 2022 Modern Endpoint Management Partner of The Year Award As the winner of Microsoft’s Modern Endpoint Management Partner of the Year, Infosys displayed excellence in modern workplace and security transformation. In collaboration with Microsoft, Infosys created an agile, intelligent, and intuitive modern workplace that supports 80,000+ users at scale for a German client that had recently undergone a corporate merger. Infosys developed a truly hybrid modern workplace for the organisation, highlighting its unique ability to leverage the Modern Endpoint Management and Security capabilities of Microsoft 365.

“Infosys and Microsoft have been longstanding strategic partners, and we have continued to expand our joint capabilities, especially through Infosys Cobalt, to help customers across

industries accelerate their digital journeys,” said Ravi Kumar S, President, Infosys. “Being recognised as a Microsoft 2022 Partner of the Year Award winner is a defining moment in our valued relationship, signaling years of continued innovation together yet to come. This award not only reflects Infosys’ mastery of

Jio and DigiBoxx to bring enhanced digital life experience for JioPhotos

Jio Platforms, the digital services arm of Reliance Industries, and DigiBoxx, Indian file storage and sharing platform, have announced a collaboration with an aim to develop innovative storage

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solutions and further meet the cloud consolidation needs of Jio’s existing and future consumer base.

With this collaboration, in addition to the currently offered storage space of 20GB, users

Microsoft implementation, but also showcases our diverse set of capabilities across the cloud.”

Infosys’ Microsoft Cloud Business accelerates customers’ digital journey with the power of cloud through innovation, agility and scale, while delivering specialised capabilities, industry solutions and services.

can avail an extra 10GB space on DigiBoxx by signing up via the JioPhotos app. Registered users can create secure folders, upload, and instantly share photos and videos from a smartphone, and save files of various formats in one place. Jio customers can store their personal data by enabling auto-sync and view everything on the Jio Set-top Box seamlessly.

Jio Set-top Box users can add their DigiBoxx account to the JioPhotos app — which comes pre-loaded on every Jio Set-top Box — to upload and access personal photos and videos. With JioPhotos, Jio users access all their content stored in different cloud storages like Google Photos, JioCloud and shared across social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram on the Jio Set-top Box. All content is organised chronologically or by location, and there’s facial recognition as well to group some photos and videos.

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NEWS

Tech Mahindra, IBM, Red Hat to accelerate digital transformation for enterprises

Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering services and solutions, today announced the launch of Synergy Lounges, developed in collaboration with IBM and Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions. The first Synergy Lounge opened today in Bengaluru, with a focus on edge, 5G and software defined networking solutions and an aim to accelerate the hybrid cloud journey of enterprises globally. The launch of Synergy Lounge at Tech Mahindra Electronic City office in Bengaluru will be followed by the launch of three more centers in London (UK region), Seattle (USA region), and Melbourne (ANZ region).

Jagdish Mitra, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Growth, Tech Mahindra, said, “As digital transformation becomes the norm for enterprises across the globe, Tech Mahindra aims to empower its customers with innovative technologies and services to help them re-imagine their digital transformation journey.

Synergy Lounge solidifies the strategic collaboration between Tech Mahindra, IBM, and Red Hat and will act as a technology powerhouse to enable enterprises to address complex business challenges while also improving agility and enhancing customer experiences by leveraging hybrid cloud solutions.”

Built on Hex-I concept, Synergy Lounges will combine Tech Mahindra’s design thinking approach and solution concept with hybrid cloud and AI technology from IBM and Red Hat to develop new offerings for businesses worldwide. These centers will help enterprises address complex business problems and enable them to elevate customer experiences while lowering

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operational costs, and scaling workforce efficiency across key industry sectors such as Telco, Manufacturing, BFSI, Healthcare, Energy& Utilities, among others.

Tech Mahindra & IBM Synergy Lounge is designed to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions based on technologies such as IBM Cloud, 5G and software defined networking, Edge Computing, AI-powered automation, Cybersecurity, among others to foster innovation for enterprises, developers, and start-ups across geographies. The Synergy Lounge will work in tandem with Tech Mahindra’s Centers of Excellence for multiple business verticals including CME, Automotive, Manufacturing, among others.

“This additional collaboration with Tech Mahindra helps illustrate the value that Red Hat OpenShift and IBM’s edge, 5G and networking software can bring to clients to help accelerate their digital transformation,” said Andrew Coward, General Manager of Software Defined Networking, IBM. “Through the Synergy Lounges, industry experts from Tech Mahindra will bring together Red Hat and IBM’s hybrid cloud and AI technology to develop new use cases and applications from cloud to the wirelessly connected network edge to solve real world problems supported by the valuable abstraction layer Red Hat provides.

Further, these Innovation centers will be interconnected across geographies thereby enabling a common technology infrastructure and software environment across the globe for new solution development and demonstration. These will be joint solutions incorporating IBM and Red Hat technologies aligned with Tech Mahindra’s industry priorities across sectors such as Telco, Manufacturing, BFSI, among others.

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BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION ASIA

21

EVENT

IGOAI ORGANISES SUMMIT ON AI IN HEALTHCARE UNDER PATRONAGE OF HE DR JALILA AL-SAYED JAWAD, MINISTER OF HEALTH, BAHRAIN

I

nternational Group of Artificial Intelligence successfully hosted a virtual summit on ‘The Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare’ on 29th June 2022. Artificial Intelligence has revolutionised the way industries work these days.

Healthcare has not remained untouched by the applications of artificial intelligence Artificial Intelligence simplifies the lives of patients, doctors and hospital administrators by performing tasks that are typically done by humans, but in less time and at a fraction of the cost.

A significant benefit can be achieved with the use of Machine Learning and other cognitive disciplines for medical diagnosis purposes. Using patient data and other information, AI can help doctors and medical providers deliver more accurate diagnoses and treatment plans. Furthermore, AI can help make healthcare more predictive and proactive by analyzing big data to develop improved preventive care recommendations for patients.

THE EVENT WAS JOINED BY TOP INDUSTRY LEADERS AND PARTICIPANTS INCLUDING: l

Under the Patronage, Her Excellency Dr Jalila Al-Sayed Jawad, Minister of Health Kingdom

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of Bahrain.

D r Jassim Haji, President, International Group of Artificial Intelligence l D r Mustafa H. Qurban, Consultant & CIO-King Fahd Military Medical Complex (KFMMC) l D r Mohamed Al Rayyes, MD, MBA Medical Director, MEA, Cerner Corporation l D r Aamna AlShehhi, Assistant Professor, Khalifa University l D r Mohamed Almedfa, Demonstrator – College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University l D r Mohammed Alhamid, Director, CHI l L ayal Ashi, Research Associate l D alal Buhumeida, Event Host Artificial Intelligence eases reading medical patterns of the patients to provide them with better healthcare services. In the health care industry, artificial intelligence-enabled solutions can provide immediate returns through cost savings, new product development, and better consumer engagement. We shall explore how healthcare groups can scale up their artificial intelligence investments by pairing up with robust security and data governance strategy. l

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EVENT

Artificial Intelligence eases reading medical patterns of the patients to provide them with better healthcare services. In the health care industry, artificial intelligence-enabled solutions can provide immediate returns through cost savings, new product development, and better consumer engagement. We shall explore how healthcare groups can scale up their artificial intelligence investments by pairing up with robust security and data governance strategy.

The virtual summit was concluded with an interesting fire chat session with all the speakers. Dalal Buhumeida ended the virtual summit with her closing speech and vote of thanks.

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COVER FEATURE

SURESH R, Kaleidofin

KARTHIK SRINIVASAN, ICRA

ASHUTOSH KHAJURIA, Federal Bank

JINDAL HARIA, India Ratings and Research

ANUP AGARWAL, Mintifi

FINTECH’S IMPACT AND DISRUPTION IN

INDIA

Digital payment platforms are transforming businesses in India and also triggering socio-economic changes.

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COVER FEATURE

S

hakti Pada Mandal, a vegetable vendor in Jamshedpur with a flourishing business had a bank account since 2015. However, he never really felt the need to deposit or withdraw any money from it as his business ran primarily on cash. Every month he sent a sizeable amount from his earnings back to the village to his family and the remaining cash was barely enough to warrant a visit to the bank; the paltry amount also made him feel out of place at the branch.

Little did he know that the year 2020 will change it all and he would need to reactivate his relationship with institutional finance just to be able to conduct day-to-day business. Gradually, as COVID-19 set in, even his most loyal customers started complaining about the inconvenience of having to pay in cash, which would entail an inconvenient visit to an ATM that could also be a potential point of coronavirus infection.

Some would explicitly express their preference for payments through no-contact mobile applications for fear of contracting the virus through currency notes that may have passed multiple unknown hands.

While Mandal’s relationship with the bank was renewed through digital payment applications under stressful situations, post the pandemic

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he continues to provide the Unified Payments Interface or UPI-based payment options to buyers due to the sheer convenience of doing business.

What’s more, in the two years that have gone by, he has built significant transaction history to create a background that will help the bank offer him a loan to expand his business. Today, Mandal plans to move out of his make-shift roadside stall and rent out a proper shop. His transaction history has also helped him become a local delivery partner of one of the leading farmto-fork platforms.

TRANSFORMING SMALL BUSINESSES IN INDIA

Financial inclusion is not limited to just having an account with the bank. Rather, it entails other opportunities such as using the account for easy transactions, affordable credit and even wealth management. The Rangarajan Committee set up by India’s apex bank the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), defined financial inclusion as the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate credit for vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low-income groups at an affordable cost. During the last two years, mobile application-based digital payments platforms have not only provided the common Indians and micro-businesses ease of transaction

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The trail of digital transactions has enabled many fintech firms to underwrite businesses in the informal segment and offer suitable financial products SURESH R

Vice President – Sales, Kaleidofin

INDIA’S DIGITAL PAYMENT STORY Period

RBI-DPI Index

March 2018 (base)

100.00

March 2019

153.47

September 2019

173.49

March 2020

207.84

September 2020

217.74

March 2021

270.59

September 2021

304.06

Source: Digital Payment Index, RBI; published in Jan 2022 The RBI-DPI index continues to demonstrate significant growth in the adoption and deepening of digital payments across the country.

they have also acquainted countless, faceless citizens with institutional finance.

The UPI interfaces of banks are difficult to understand for the masses where financial and technical awareness and literacy are not very strong. However, simpler interfaces provided by fintech platforms such as Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, and Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) picked up a customer base that grew at a rapid pace and ingrained a habit that cannot be completely reversed even as businesses return to normal.

Acceptance for digital payments has grown

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significantly in the last few years, driven primarily by the demonetisation in 2016 and the long spell of nationwide lockdown, from 25 March 2020 till the final phase of unlocking in March 2022, which limited the ability of businesses to conduct in-person transactions.

The impact is visible in the RBI’s digital payment index which jumped from 173.49 in September 2019 to 304.06 in September 2021.

A look across sectors and walks of life and one can find multiple such examples of individuals like Mandal and micro-businesses that

Each transaction leaves a digital trail which can be used by fintech firms to better understand the needs as well as the risk profile of customers ANUP AGARWAL Co-founder and CEO, Mintifi

either initiated or cemented their relationship with the formal financial sector to access the ease of mobile digital payments platform linked to the bank accounts. It not just brought in ease of transaction and safety due to no-contact payment, but also ensured such vendors and small-time service providers did not have to worry about foregoing earnings due to the non-availability of smaller denominations or change.

Parvati Mahajan offers her services as a cook to five households daily and belongs to the large unorganised sector of workers striving to make their ends meet in Mumbai. It was only after the first Covid-induced lockdown that Mahajan opened an account with the Bank of India. She realised that if only she had a bank account, she needn’t have stepped out of her home to collect her salaries from households when she wasn’t allowed to enter those buildings to work. Her employers could have easily transferred the money to her through a mobile application.

“The biggest benefit of digital

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Note: Units in lakh crore (INR)

KEY TAKEAWAYS Digital wallets are a fast-growing payment method after cards and are replacing cash for e-commerce payments in India.

The trend has been catching up even in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities and villages where businesses have begun to use app-based payment platforms as an alternative to cash payment options.

The UPI-based payment is helping microbusinesses create transaction history for banks to evaluate and offer business loans.

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payment platforms has been the financial inclusion. A lot of underbanked who did not have access to formal financial services or faced difficulty in accessing banking and financial services are now part of the system, thanks to the explosion in fintech,” says Karthik Srinivasan, Group Head of Financial Sector Ratings at ICRA. He also highlighted that technology has transformed the structure of payments.

“On the payments side, the use of QR codes has made receiving payments from buyers very easy. On the credit side though, it will take some more time. A lot of fintech players have set up their modules and algorithm but that will possibly take more time to scale up,” he stated adding that in the last couple of years, the Jan Dhan Yojana – the Government of India’s massive scheme of financial inclusion initiated in 2014 – coupled with the challenges during the Covid and Demonetisation, has led to a higher inclination towards using fintech since financial services concern one’s day-to-day lives.

GROWING IMPACT OF FINANCIAL LITERACY

Analysts pointed out that financial inclusion has also brought about major changes in user behaviour, thanks to growing financial literacy and awareness. The trend has been catching up even in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities and villages where businesses and individuals have begun to use app-based payment platforms as an alternative to cash payment options, learning either from a loss of a customer to the shop next door or from word of mouth in the community. On their part, the private-sector players and the government has also been creating awareness about digital payment applications with much success.

“Thinking about borrowers in the micro-finance sector from the aspect of literacy or phone ownership one might assume that they may not be aware of UPI. However, last month when I met a set of micro-finance

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COVER FEATURE

We do not see neo-banks as an animal that will cannibalize the banking system. We look at them as partners… more like banking correspondents ASHUTOSH KHAJURIA

Executive Director, Federal Bank

Technology has transformed the structure of payments. On the payments side, the use of QR codes has made receiving payments from buyers very easy KARTHIK SRINIVASAN

Group Head, Financial Sector Ratings, ICRA

borrowers in Southern India, I found out that most of them knew about UPI. Those who had not used it also knew about it and the convenience it offers; they knew of Google Pay,” quips Jindal Haria, Director, Financial Institutions at India Ratings and Research.

“Most of them had at least one touch phone in the immediate family. In a particular group of 15 women, three women knew how to transact while the others indicated that either their husband or their children knew how to manage it,” he said. Haria further stressed that in close-knit communities in the villages, people take note of how each other’s lifestyles and aspire to attain those standards.

Today, there is greater awareness of the importance of creating and maintaining a credit history through these digital payment transactions. Non-bank financial institutions also had a role in instilling this behaviour while they made efforts to bring in more and more customers who were earlier left out of banking services into the formal financial ecosystem.

Besides, mobile applications offering financial savings and investments like Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) and mutual funds have also helped popularize the concept of digital financial tools, platforms, and apps simpler and more accessible to the youth. Fintech ventures in insurance and investment, despite their limited reach to cities, have been able to inculcate prudence and wealth management to a certain age segment and employment strata.

DIGITAL PAYMENT AND OPPORTUNITIES

To understand the potential of transaction data one

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could draw from the Santa Monica-based fintech company Tala’s model. The company is giving out personal loans or small unsecured business loans to borrowers with no formal credit history based on their bill payments and online activity history.

In India, as well, fintech companies are already mining digital transaction data to underwrite credit to sectors that lack formal documents or trails of business numbers and are developing services and products that are more customised and targeted to meet the needs of small groups of people.

“Businesses in the informal sector and those run by women, that have traditionally faced difficulties with access to institutional finance for the reasons above have benefitted most from the increased usage of UPI-linked payments,” highlights Suresh R, Vice President of Sales at Kaleidofin, a neo-bank providing credit, savings, investment, and a gamut of other financial solutions to the informal economy.

“With the trail of digital transactions as proof of business, many fintech firms can use the data to underwrite this segment and offer financial products suitable for their need,” he says adding that their ability to customise and offer products that suit specific characteristics of customers such as volatile incomes and sudden need for cash is equally important.

“For instance, Kaleidofin Goals, a saving-led product allows a customer to miss a payment without any penalty. It also allows customers to withdraw or take a loan against their savings to tide over any urgent needs for cash,” elucidates Suresh.

Having understood the customers’ requirements

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Note: Units in crore (INR) Source: NASSCOM

and abilities with a certain degree of accuracy, one of the greatest wins for fintech companies is their ability to incorporate data into products promptly and provide customised solutions.

“Each transaction leaves a digital trail which is used by multiple fintech firms to better understand the needs as well as the risk profile of customers. This helps us modify our terms and conditions based on their billing cycle, adjust for market risks, and even offer different repayment terms,” explains Anup Agarwal, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mintifi, a digital lending platform that provides unsecured loans to small and medium enterprises in the distribution chain to buy inventory.

TECH PENETRATION TO DRIVE REACH

Affordable internet and mobile devices have helped digital transactions gain ground in various economic strata of Indian towns and cities. According to a JP Morgan report, digital wallets are a fast-growing payment method after cards and are replacing cash for e-commerce payments.

Experts, however, point out that a lot more can be done to expand financial access and inclusion in the hinterland. A report by global consultants PwC suggests a collaboration between fintech companies and Self-help Groups (SHGs) in rural India to inculcate the awareness of savings and management of financial resources among members of the group.

SHGs work because they are small communities of people that come from a homogeneous economic and cultural environment.

According to the report, with over 1,300 fintech

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start-ups and investments worth $5.72 Billion flowing in from 2014 to 2018, India has managed to secure the second position in the global fintech adoption index. “However, the country continues to face challenges in achieving financial inclusion as 76% of India’s adult population is financially illiterate, resulting in 48% of the bank accounts being inactive (as in 2018) … fintechs can tie up with SHGs to reach out to women and bring about more gender equality in terms of financial inclusion,” the report says.

PwC further highlights that collaboration by fintech players could help take India to move closer to achieving its UN Sustainable Development Goal objectives for 2030, including financial inclusion through poverty eradication, decent work and economic growth, elimination of hunger, and gender equality and innovation in industry and building infrastructure.

NEO-BANKS TO BOOST FINANCIAL INCLUSION

Neo-banks are a step forward in the deepening of partnership between banks and fintech. A few Indian private banks have already stitched partnerships with multiple fintech companies that help them expand their client base. The concept has already piqued great interest among fintech companies with a number of them already setting up shops.

“They have made brick and mortar banking irrelevant. They are not permitted banking licenses so they are partnering with banks,” says Ashutosh Khajuria, Executive Director, Federal Bank.

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COVER FEATURE

Thinking about borrowers in the micro-finance sector one might assume that they may not be aware of digital payments. However, most of them know about the UPI JINDAL HARIA

Director – Financial Institutions, India Ratings and Research

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BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION ASIA

According to him, private lenders are already teaming up with companies such as Fi and Jupiter and are exploring more such partnerships.

“There are banks that are quite comfortable with the neo-bank model. We don’t see neo-banks as an animal that will cannibalize the banking system. We look at them as partners… more like banking correspondents,” he says. “Whether it becomes profitable or not will be evident in the days to come. There is absolutely no doubt that they have helped increase financial inclusion and drive financial literacy.”

Simply put, a neo-bank has no physical presence on the ground in the form of branches and operates entirely through digital formats. They provide a variety of customized data-driven financial services, other than lending.

WAY FORWARD

A report published by NASSCOM indicates that in the past two decades digital payments in India have grown 16 times, and the volume of usage has fastened every five years. The apex body of the IT industry in India also

projects a further 16x growth with digital payments touching the highest-ever levels of INR 54,800 crore by 2025.

“Technology convergence, with Application Programming Interfaces and cloud-native development, will further boost innovation and integrated offerings. Innovation in the cyber security realm will accelerate adoption with greater trust in digital payment solutions.

Expanding mobile and Internet subscriptions, and 5G rollout will prove catalytic in driving mobile banking and m-payments,” the report says. It further notes that the support from regulations and policies by the RBI and the government would be key for this leap, the report said.

For any innovation to work sustainably three factors will need to work out in the favour of an enterprise: it needs to have an easy, engaging user experience; cater to a specific need and then be able to branch out into a few other requirements; the experience needs to be modifiable as per user.

Shubhendu Parth is a contributor to Business Transformation Asia

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THE FUTURE IT SUMMIT ASIA AND ESG SUMMIT 2022 - A GRAND SUCCESS

T

he Future IT Summit Asia & ESG Summit 2022 brough to you by Global CIO Manufacturing Forum (GCFM) and organised

by GEC Media Group was successful held in six different metropolitan cities including Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, and Pune from 17th to 27th June 2022.

The proud partners of The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022 were Yotta Infrastructure; HP; Orbit; HPE; Unique Solutions; Freshworks; Infinite Blue; Peocit; Blueprint Technologies; Global CIO Forum; Global CISO Forum; International Group of Artificial Intelligence; Finesse; Indian Chamber of Commerce; Governance for Growth; Theistic; Redefine; CIO Connect; CISO Connect; Satisfied Media; Software Technology Parks of India, Bhubaneswar; NASSCOM; International Society of Automation; MAIT; Association for Information Technology; SME Chamber of India; Cyber Society of India; ITAMMA; ADCTA; FITDAK; FKCCI Bangalore; TAIT; TEMA; CMDA; SPIN Chennai; Maharashtra Section; UCCIL and media partner Business Transformation Asia.

The event was honoured with the presence of the hon’ble chief guests including Vinod Jadhav, General Manager IT, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation; Dr Sanjay Gupta, Director, Software Technology Park of India; Champakraj Gurjar, Founder President and Chief Mentor, Federation of All India IT Associations; Viren Bavishi, President, Trade Association of Information Technology; Santosh Patil, President, (ISA - Maharashtra); Chandrakant Salunkhe, President, SME Chamber of India; Dr SY Quraishi, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Government of India; Mahinder Aggarwal, President, All Delhi Computer Traders Association; Professor N K Goyal, President, CMAI Association of India; Shri P.S. Sandhu, Director General of Police, Central Investigation Department, Special Unit and Economic Offence; Sunil Kukreja, President, AIT,

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Bangalore; Dr CA I S Prasad, President, Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce & Industry; Dr Rajaram Venkatraman, President, SPIN Chennai; Karthikeyan N President Cyber Society of India; Shri Debi Prasad Mishra, Hon’ble MLA, Badamba Narsinghpur, Odisha and Vice President, Biju Janata Dal; Shri Pratap Keshari Deb, Hon’ble Minister for Industry, Government of Odisha; Sudhansu Sarangi, Additional Director General of Police, Government of Odisha; JB Pany, Chairman ICC, Odisha State Council; and Hirabai Nani Ghule, Deputy Mayor, Pimpri Chinhwad Municipal Corporation, Pune (PCMC) in six different cities.

The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022 was joined by over 60 speakers and panellists in six different cities. The leading CIOs, IT Head and other dignitaries exchanged their thoughts and expertise on Supercharging Manufacturing to Scale Beyond 4.0; Cloud mandates and success roadmap in modern enterprises; The rising trend of Hyperautomation Opportunities, approaches, roadmap; Fast forward your Digital Transformation with HPE Greenlake Cloud; CIO in Manufacturing case study; Organisational Resilience buzzword or Rebirth of Business Continuity; and Distributed Cloud- a new era in cloud computing; Cloudification Roadmap in 2022 enterprises and Heading for Convergence in Digital Transformation and Sustainability Objectives in Asian Enterprises.

The event was focused on the theme #evolvetechnology – AI and Cloud, brought together some of the leading names in the Technology industry and also organised a series of events like Presentations, Fireside Chat with an Incisive Panel Discussion on transforming lives through technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Big Data, IoT, and futureproofing of businesses and organisations.

The event was concluded with the felicitation of the Catalyst Excellency, Catalyst CIO, and Catalyst CMO Award winners.

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SPECIAL REPORT

THE FUTURE IT SUMMIT ASIA AND ESG SUMMIT 2022 KICKED OFF IN MUMBAI ON 17 JUNE

G

EC Media Group and Global CIO Manufacturing Forum kicked off the six-city mega-event ‘The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022’ with Mumbai edition at ITC Maratha on 17th June 2022. The event was opened

by Deepika Chauhan, Digital Content Lead, GEC Media Group with an inauguration speech and highlights of the event.

The event was honoured with the presence of Vinod Jadhav, General Manager IT, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation; Dr Sanjay Gupta, Director, Software Technology Park of India; Champakraj Gurjar, Founder President and Chief Mentor, Federation of All India IT Associations; Viren Bavishi, President, Trade Association of Information Technology; Santosh Patil, President, (ISA – Maharashtra); and Chandrakant Salunkhe, President, SME Chamber of India.

The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022 Mumbai edition was inaugurated with the Lamp Lighting Ceremony by the Hon’ble Chief Guests and took off with a welcome speech by Ronak Samantaray, CEO and Co-Founder, GEC Media Group along with Sundip Sibal, Executive Director GEC Media Group, Co-

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founder, Business Transformation Asia.

The distinguished speakers of the FITS Asia and ESG Summit 2022 Mumbai edition include Sunil Gupta, CoFounder & CEO, Yotta Infrastructure; Venkata Satish Guttula, Director Security, Rediff.com India; Kaushik Shaw, Market Development Manager, HPI with Orbit; Pratap Pat Joshi, EVP IT & Chief Evangelist, Yotta Infrastructure Solutions/ Board Member, GCMF; Binita Prasad, Head of IT, Saint Gobain/ Board Member, GCMF; Saurabh Godbole, Head Enterprise Business, HPE with Unique Solutions; Sanjay Shirsat, IT Head, The Motwane Manufacturing Company; Rajeev Dutt, General Manager, Infinite Blue; Rahul Pandey, Head of Manufacturing & Technology Analytics at SG Analytics and Key Member of IGOAI. The event also witnessed two panel discussions on Cloudification Roadmap in 2022 enterprises and Heading for Convergence in Digital Transformation and Sustainability Objectives in Asian enterprises joined by the experts Yogesh Dadke, APAC IT Leader, Adient; Satyanarayana Kasturi, Group IT Head, Ashok Piramal Group; Viren Bavishi, President- Trade Association of Information Technology; Chandrakant Salunkhe, President,

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SME Chamber of India; Santosh Patil, President, ISA Maharashtra; Champakraj Gurjar, Federation of All India IT Associations; Dr Chitranjan Kesari, CIO & IT Head, Hive Carbon Zero (Fosun GroupMNC); Navin Nathani, Head IT Projects and Transformation Management Office, Aditya Birla Group (Hindalco Industries Limited); Tejas Shah, Sr. IT Professional (Infra Management); and Rajesh Garg, EVP Chief Digital Officer & Head of Cybersecurity, Yotta Infrastructure.

The event also witnessed the successful launch of the Global CIO Manufacturing Forum in the presence of Pratap Pat Joshi, Board Member, GCMF; Binita Prasad, Board Member, GCMF and Subodh Dubey, Board Member, GCMF. The event was concluded with the felicitation of the Catalyst Excellency, Catalyst CIO and Catalyst CMO Award winners.

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SPECIAL REPORT

The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit successfully held at the India Habitat Centre on 20th June

FITS ASIA EVOLVED SUCCESSFULLY WITH THE THEME #EVOLVETECHNOLOGY IN NEW DELHI ON 20 JUNE

A

ter a successful event in Mumbai on 17th June 2022, The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit reached the National Capital at the India Habitat Centre for the second leg of the six cities roadshow on 20th June 2022. The FITS Asia and ESG Summit 2022 New Delhi edition was opened by Anushree Dixit, Global Head, Content and Strategic Alliances, GEC Media Group with a warm welcome and highlights of the event.

The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022 New Delhi edition was inaugurated with the Lamp Lighting Ceremony by the Hon’ble Chief Guests and took off with a welcome speech by Ronak Samantaray, CEO and Co-Founder, GEC Media Group along with Sundip Sibal, Executive Director GEC Media Group, Co-founder, Business Transformation Asia.

During the event, all the keynote speakers, chief guests, speakers, and panellists shared their insights and their course ahead on ways to promote the digital transformation to bring a change in The distinguished speakers of the FITS Asia and ESG Summit 2022 New Delhi edition were Sunil Gupta, CoFounder & CEO, Yotta Infrastructure; Sourav Sinha, CIO Indigo Airlines; Alok Sharma, Product Specialist

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HPI with Orbit; Rajeev Dutt, General Manager, Infinite Blue; Dr Sushil Meher, Head IT, AIIMS; and Mayank Sharma, Sr. Manager Cyber Security Ernst & Young.

The event has also witnessed two panel discussions on Cloudification Roadmap in 2022 enterprises and Heading for Convergence in Digital Transformation and Sustainability Objectives in Asian Enterprises joined by the experts including Upkar Singh, VP Cyber Security and cloud, RMSI; Professor N K Goyal, President CMAI Association of India; and Mahinder Aggarwal, President All Delhi Computer Traders Association; Dr Sunil Kr. Pandey, Professor and Director (IT) Institute of Technology & Science Ghaziabad; Amit Kapoor, Group Head IT/IS/ Application, Pristine Group of Companies; Rajesh Garg, EVP Chief Digital Officer & Head of Cybersecurity, Yotta Infrastructure; and Anand Agarwal, Head IT & Security, Asset Care & Reconstruction Enterprise.

The event also witnessed the successful launch of the Global CIO Manufacturing Forum in the presence of honourable chief guests and delegates.

The event was concluded with the Catalyst Excellence, Catalyst CIO and Catalyst CMO Award ceremony.

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SPECIAL REPORT

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The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit successfully held Bengaluru’s ITC Windsor on 22nd June 2022

FITS ASIA AND ESG SUMMIT 2022 SUCCESSFULLY HELD IN BENGALURU ON 22ND JUNE

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fter a successful event in New Delhi on 20th June 2022, The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit reached Bengaluru’s ITC Windsor for the third leg of the six cities road show on 22nd June 2022. The event was opened

by Anshuman Jyothiprakash, Project Manager, GEC Media Group with an inauguration keynote and highlights of the event.

The event was honoured with the presence of Shri P.S. Sandhu, Director General of Police, Central Investigation Department, Special Unit and Economic Offence; Sunil Kukreja, President, AIT, Bangalore; and Dr CA I S Prasad, President, Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022 Bengaluru edition was inaugurated with the Lamp Lighting Ceremony by the Hon’ble Chief Guests and took off with a welcome speech by Ronak Samantaray, CEO and Co-Founder, GEC Media Group along with Sundip Sibal, Executive Director GEC Media Group, Cofounder, Business Transformation Asia.

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The distinguished speakers of the FITS Asia and ESG Summit 2022 Bengaluru edition were Rajesh Garg, EVP Chief Digital Officer and Head of Cybersecurity, Yotta Infrastructure; Shri Mahadesha V, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Government of Karnataka; Alok Sharma, CIO HPI with Orbit; Chiranjiv Roy, Vice President and Country Head, Course5 Intelligence and IGOAI; Rajeev Dutt, General Manager, Infinite Blue; Ramkumar Mohan, CIO, Airworks Engineering India.

The event has also witnessed panel discussions on Cloudification Roadmap in 2022 enterprises joined

by Nanda Kumar K R, IT Manager, Bharat Electronics Limited; Binita Prasad, Heat IT, Saint Gobain Industries; and Rajesh Garg, EVP Chief Digital Officer and Head of Cybersecurity, Yotta Infrastructure.

The event also witnessed the successful launch of the Global CIO Manufacturing Forum in the presence of honourable chief guests and delegates.

The event was concluded with the Catalyst Excellence, Catalyst CIO and Catalyst CMO Award ceremony.

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FITS ASIA AND ESG SUMMIT 2022 SUCCESSFULLY HELD IN CHENNAI ON 23 JUNE

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fter a successful event in Bengaluru on 22nd June 2022, The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit reached Chennai’s Westin Chennai Velachery for the fourth leg of the six cities road show on 23rd June 2022. The event was opened by Anshuman Jyothiprakash, Project Manager, GEC Media Group with an inauguration keynote and highlights of the event.

The event was honoured with the presence of Dr Rajaram Venkatraman, President, SPIN Chennai and Karthikeyan N President Cyber Society of India. The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022 Chennai edition was inaugurated with the Lamp Lighting Ceremony by the Hon’ble Chief Guests and took off with a welcome speech by Ronak Samantaray, CEO and Co-Founder, GEC Media Group along with Sundip Sibal, Executive Director GEC Media Group, Co-

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founder, Business Transformation Asia.

The distinguished speakers of the FITS Asia and ESG Summit 2022 Bengaluru edition were Rajesh Garg, EVP Chief Digital Officer and Head of Cybersecurity, Yotta Infrastructure; Manjunath Prasad, AVP – IT TVS and Sons; Dr Rajaram Venkatraman, President, SPIN Chennai; Karthikeyan Viswanathan, Co-founder, Data Switch; and VR Hari Balaji, Head of IEC, Urbaser Sumeet Humanitarian and Environmentalist.

The event also witnessed the successful launch of the Global CIO Manufacturing Forum in the presence of Pratap Patjoshi, Executive Board Member, GCMF and Binita Prasad, Head IT, Saint Gobain Industries.

The event was concluded with the Catalyst Excellence, Catalyst CIO and Catalyst CMO Award ceremony.

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TAKING ONE LEAP FORWARD IN DX IN BHUBANESWAR WITH DEBI PRASAD MISHRA AND PRATAP KESHARI DEB

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ith an aim to promote Digital Transformation in the country, GEC Media Group and Global CIO Manufacturing Forum organised a six-city mega event. One of its leg is The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit 2022 Bhubaneswar edition being hosted at Welcome hotel By ITC Hotels in Bhubaneswar on 25th June 2022.

The event was honoured with the presence of Shri Debi Prasad Mishra, Hon’ble MLA, Badamba Narsinghpur, Odisha and Vice President, Biju Janata Dal; Shri Pratap Keshari Deb, Hon’ble Minister for Industry, Government of Odisha; Sudhansu Sarangi, Additional Director General of Police, Government of Odisha; JB Pany, Chairman ICC, Odisha State Council along with other delegates.

The Future IT Summit and ESG Summit 2022 Bhubaneswar edition was inaugurated with the Lamp Lighting Ceremony by the Hon’ble Chief Guests and

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took off with a welcome speech by Ronak Samantaray, CEO and Co-Founder, GEC Media Group along with Sundip Sibal, Executive Director GEC Media Group, Cofounder, Business Transformation Asia.

The event also witnessed the successful launch of the Business Transformation Asia and Global CIO Manufacturing Forum in the presence of honourable chief guests and delegates.

Amit Agarwal, Head of Sales and Business Development, Yotta Infrastructure; Sukant Mohakul, Senior Technical Director NIC; Pratap Pat Joshi, Executive Board Member, Global CIO Manufacturing Forum; Sanjeev Mohapatra, Country Head, DashTechs; Niladri Mohanty, Senior Data Scientist, Head IT, NIC; and Binita Prasad, Head IT, Saint Gobain Industries also shared their expertise and experiences during the event.

The event was concluded with the Catalyst CIO and Catalyst CMO Award ceremony.

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GEC MEDIA GROUP SUCCESSFULLY CONCLUDED FITS ASIA AND ESG SUMMIT IN PUNE ON 27JUNE

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fter a successful event in Bhubaneswar on 25th June 2022, The Future IT Summit Asia and ESG Summit reached to its final leg of the six-city mega event in Pune’s Hyatt Regency on 27th June 2022. The event was opened by Anshuman Jyothiprakash, Project Manager, GEC Media Group with an inauguration keynote and highlights of the event.

The event was honoured with the presence of Hirabai Nani Ghule, Deputy Mayor, Pimpri Chinhwad Municipal Corporation, Pune and Ektaa Sibal, India’s number one Inner-self Transformation Specialist, International Meditation Expert, Global Executive Leadership Coach and Gifted Energy Healer.

The Future IT Summit and ESG Summit 2022 Pune edition was inaugurated with the Lamp Lighting Ceremony by the Hon’ble Chief Guests and took off with a welcome speech by Ronak Samantaray, CEO and Co-Founder, GEC Media Group along with Sundip Sibal, Executive Director GEC Media Group, Cofounder, Business Transformation Asia.

During the event all the keynote speakers, chief guests, speakers, and panellists shared their insights

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and their course ahead on ways to promote digital transformation to bring a change in the Indian MSME sector.

The FITS Asia and ESG Summit 2022 is brought to you by Global CIO Manufacturing Forum; Title partner Yotta Infrastructure and other partner were HP; Orbit; HPE; Unique Solutions; Freshworks; Infinite Blue; Peocit; Blueprint Technologies; Global CIO Forum; Global CISO Forum; International Group of Artificial Intelligence; Finesse; Indian Chamber of Commerce; Governance for Growth; Theistic; Redefine; CIO Connect; CISO Connect; Satisfied Media; Software Technology Parks of India, Bhubaneswar; NASSCOM; International Society of Automation; MAIT; Association for Information Technology; SME Chamber of India; Cyber Society of India; ITAMMA; ADCTA; FITDAK; FKCCI Bangalore; TAIT; TEMA; CMDA; SPIN Chennai; Maharashtra Section; UCCIL and media partner Business Transformation Asia.

The distinguished speakers of the FITS Asia and ESG Summit 2022 Pune edition were Sunil Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, Yotta Infrastructure; Pratap Pat Joshi, Board Member Of Global CIO Manufacturing

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Forum; Binita Prasad, Board Member Of Global CIO Manufacturing Forum; Rajeev Dutt, General Manager, Infinite Blue; Shrikant Karlekar, Head of Enterprise Sales – Pune Orbit Techsol; Ektaa Sibal, India’s number one Inner-self Transformation Specialist, International Meditation Expert, Global Executive Leadership Coach and Gifted Energy Healer; and Prasad Jadhav, Business Manager, Blueprint Technologies.

The event was focused on the theme #evolvetechnology – AI and Cloud, brought together some of the leading names in the Technology industry and also organised a series of events like Presentations, Fireside Chat with an Incisive Panel Discussion on transforming lives through technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Big Data, IoT, and future-proofing of businesses and organisations.

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WHY BUSINESS PERFORMANCE AND IT STACK VISIBILITY ARE INTERLINKED

With recent expansion of the IT stack across on-premises, cloud, into homes, end-to-end visibility and delivering business performance are now top priorities.

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cross all industries, technologists know that they need to build on their current application monitoring tools and techniques in order to manage the increasing levels of complexity they are encountering in every corner of their IT estate. They are seeking out solutions which will give them full visibility into legacy on-premises architecture alongside cloud native environments, including the increasing deployment of microservices and container solutions.

96% of global technologists believe that having the ability to monitor technical areas across their IT stack and directly link IT performance to business outcomes, would be important over the coming 12 months.

But the reality is that nearly all IT departments are still relying on multiple, disconnected solutions to monitor availability and performance. Technologists do not have unified visibility across their IT estates, and most are struggling to make headway.

This desire for unified visibility of the entire IT estate is being driven by a need to tackle greater complexity within the IT environment and to meet growing customer expectations for exceptional digital experiences. Technologists know that they cannot afford any slip-ups when it comes to IT availability and performance, and that any disruption to digital services is likely to result in lost revenue.

WHAT IS FULL-STACK OBSERVABILITY

Full-stack observability provides technologists with unified, real-time visibility into IT availability and performance up and down the stack for compute, storage, network and public internet, from the customer facing application all the way into the back end. It enables IT operations, development and networking teams to identify anomalies, understand root causes through dependency analysis, and fix issues

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before they impact end users and the business quickly and easily.

And when this IT performance data is connected to business outcomes, technologists can rank issues based on their potential impact to the organisation and prioritise actions accordingly.

Technologists recognise that full-stack observability is an enabler for seamless digital experiences that customers and employees now expect.

88% of technologists report that appetite for fullstack observability within their organisation has increased over the last 12 months. 91% technologists state that their organisation now has a defined full-stack observability strategy in place – with 37% already in execution mode, 39% taking their first steps and 15% ready to get started.

A remarkable 90% of organisations will be somewhere along the journey to full-stack observability during 2022. 98% state it is important to connect visibility across all areas of the IT stack.

To date, organisations have tended to weight their efforts marginally more towards increased observability into IT infrastructure. But network infrastructure and applications internal operational and customer-facing follow close behind. Technologists struggle to prioritise one area of the IT estate over another. All areas are of critical importance.

More than a third 37% of technologists state that their organisation has prioritised efforts to generate greater visibility of IT performance within microservices, container and serverless environments over the last 12 months. This trend is likely to accelerate further during 2022.

There is a widespread understanding that the transition from traditional monitoring to full-stack observability can be complex and takes time.

BENEFITS OF FULL-STACK OBSERVABILITY

Many organisations are already seeing positive results from their efforts, with 86% of technologists reporting greater visibility across their IT stack over

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the last 12 months.

Those that have made progress in the last 12 months report a wide range of benefits, including improved productivity within the IT department, reduced operational costs and ability to deploy IT teams on more strategic work.

With greater visibility into IT availability and performance, technologists are now starting to be able to identify anomalies and understand the root causes of performance issues more

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easily. This means they are removing themselves from the constant cycle of firefighting which has characterised most IT departments over the last two years.

Operational costs are falling because availability and performance issues are being addressed earlier and more quickly. Technologists are getting more time to focus on innovation and driving competitive advantage for their organisations.

93% of technologists report that the wider business

has been supportive of their efforts to implement fullstack observability, in terms of providing the necessary budget and resources.

Momentum is building in the transition to full-stack observability, and 83% of technologists report some level of confidence that their organisation will reach its observability goals in the next 12 months.

87% of technologists feel excited about the benefits that this technology can bring to their organisation from both an IT and business performance perspective.

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TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION

And 85% believe that the shift to full-stack observability will be transformational for their business.

There is an understanding that the shift to observability requires a holistic strategy which encompasses new ways of working, with greater collaboration between teams and a willingness to trust in a single source of truth for all availability and performance data.

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ROAD AHEAD AND CHALLENGES

Looking ahead, 93% of technologists recognise that there is more work to be done to deploy full-stack observability within their organisation.

70% are concerned that their organisation is now behind industry peers in implementing observability solutions.

Technologists believe that by linking technology performance with business outcomes and demonstrating return on

investment from their fullstack observability programs, they can make strides towards achieving their goals in 2022.

The implications for businesses that fail to build on their current monitoring solutions over the next 12 months are likely to be severe.

95% of technologists point to at least one negative organisational consequence of missing their full-stack observability goals in 2022.

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These include reduced productivity within the IT department, an inability to innovate and deliver digital transformation, and spiralling complexity as new applications and IT infrastructure are bolted on to the existing technology stack.

80% of technologists accept that organisations that fail to make significant strides in their journey towards full-stack observability in 2022 will face competitive disadvantage versus their peers.

75% of technologists regard skills as a critical factor in achieving their fullstack observability goals in

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2022. 57% point to a need to define new practices and 55% believe that it’s vital to identify the right technology vendor.

Technologists are evidently aware that monitoring performance in the cloud requires specific skill sets, particularly due to the shift to OpenTelemetry.

Many technologists are relying on multiple, disconnected tools to monitor IT availability and performance across the IT stack. In most cases, these existing solutions are performing an invaluable job, enabling technologists to identify issues and take appropriate action within a specific domain. But the issue is often a lack of connection and interoperability between these tools which makes it very difficult

BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION ASIA

to understand dependencies across, as well as up and down, the IT stack.

Elsewhere, some organisations have advanced to a more unified monitoring strategy, but they still have little visibility into the impact of availability and performance issues, and they are unable to link these issues to business KPIs in real-time.

Technologists understand that deployment of full-stack observability is a multi-stage journey that will evolve as IT complexity continues to increase within their organisation.

Excerpted from the report, The Journey to Observability by AppDynamics

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INDUSTRY COMMENT

MODERNISATION OF BANKING APPLICATIONS ON MAINFRAMES This is about legacy applications running on them, which are characterised by monolithic architectures, proprietary standards and protocols.

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pplications running on mainframes are finding it harder and harder to compete in the digital economy. Cloud-native fintechs and neo banks are taking market share, powered by the faster innovation cycles and lower costs that cloud provides.

Mainframe makers have seen what is comingand are refocusing on cloud platforms. But this is a misleading narrative.

Application modernisation is not necessarily an issue of mainframes versus cloud. Many banks still value mainframes for their reliabilityand

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intend to keep using them. Rather, this is about the legacy applications running on them, which are characterised by monolithic architectures, proprietary standards and protocols. As well as older programming languages that are not helping to attract the next generation of talent.

In other words, modernising applications does not need to mean migrating from mainframes. So how does a bank decide the best approach for them?

AMBIGUITY IS OKAY

It can be tempting to analyse this question in

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INDUSTRY COMMENT

BY DR SCOTT RICK Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

of the risks of moving too far, too fast. They also wantto run down the full value of their investments in current systems and skills rather than writing them off.

That presents far more ambiguity; and the bigger the business, the more ambiguity there is.

What makes sense for one organisation will not be right for another. Big banks and financial businesses will want to define their own modernisation plans and schedules; and for those to flex to changing situations and unpredictability. In other words, they want technology that caters for ambiguity, rather than punishes it.

When you start dividing individual applications into constituent parts and running them in different places, chaos can ensue

MODERNISING AN APPLICATION

Broadly, there are five ways for an organisation to modernise an application running on a mainframe. These can include maintaining the mainframeor migrating from it fully or partially to either a hybrid or full cloud deployment.

binary terms. At one end, the radicalists, who only see the cost and dwindling talent pool associated with their mainframes and want to rip them out as soon as possible. On the other end, the conservatives, who are not ready to potentially compromise the track record for high security, availability and transaction throughput of their mainframes, especially for core applications.

A more credible characterisation of big banks and financial institutions is of organisations looking for technological efficiencies and wanting to compete for the best talentbut are wary

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#1 Replacement Retire the application, and start from scratch with a new one, requiring implementation, customisation and adoption.

Though transformational at an organisational level, this is not strictly modernisation as you are killing the application. That said, there will usually need to be a period of co-existence while data is migrated to the new application and until integrations, customisations and adoption are completed. #2 Emulation, rehost Move the application to a less expensive deployment platform, with little or no impact on the application’s performance, typically as a temporary measure before retiring it. Again, this is not truly modernisation. #3 Translation Rewrite the application code, either automatically fast but with the risk

of inaccuracies or manually more accurate, but slower. This option helps remove legacy programming languages that come with expensive compilers and runtime environments and for which it is difficult to find skilled staff.

Instead, applications can be translated to modern languages that use common opensource compilers and runtime environments, and for which skills are in more abundance. For greater future flexibility, rewrite the code for a cloud-native environment so that the app can run anywhere: in a public cloud, in a private cloud, on servers or on the mainframe. #4 Refactor Redesign selected elements of the application to use containers and microservices, while leaving other elements untouched. #5 Rearchitect, rebuild Redesign the whole application.

In reality, with banks running hundreds of different applications, a mix of these options is likely to be needed. What is more, with all these options but especially 3 and 4, elements of the same

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

application will run concurrently on different mainframes or different environments. And with application modernisation taking time, each will need to be maintained and managed on an ongoing basis.

OVERCOMING COMPLEXITY Many banks still value mainframes for their reliability and intend to keep using them.

Older programming languages are not helping to attract next generation of talent.

What makes sense for one organisation will not be right for another.

Big banks and financial businesses will want to define their own modernisation plans.

When applications are running entirely on a mainframe, there is just one underlying infrastructure to worry about.

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All this can bring complexity.

When applications are running entirely on a mainframe, there is just one underlying infrastructure to worry about. But as soon as you introduce other deployment models for applicationsand start dividing individual applications into constituent parts and running them in different places, chaos can ensue. Any economic or productivity benefits you hope to achieve in the long run will be nullified if you cannot orchestrate this complexity in the short-term.

For a long time, it has been this challenge, as much as any other, that has held back big banks and institutions from modernising their applications. But that is all changing with enterprise Kubernetes platforms such as Red Hat OpenShift and the partners that wield its capabilities for their banking and FSI clients.

This partnership of technology

and expertise is giving banks and institutions the control to modernise on their terms, at their pace.

OpenShift provides the DevOps toolkit to efficiently modernise an applicationor build a new one from scratch. It is environment agnostic, meaning applications and their component parts can be distributed across multiple deployment models, and easily moved between them. This not only enables choice today, but future flexibility.

Should an application modernisation project be stumbling, it can be paused or pulled back to the mainframe, without that work having been in vain. In the same way, an application can be shifted between clouds — private and public — mitigating the risk of vendor lock in.

The urgency for banks and financial institutions to modernise their applications has never been higher. The choice of how to do it has never been greater. The risks have never been lower. OpenShift makes it possible that radicalists, conservatives, and everyone in between can win.

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INDUSTRY COMMENT

REMOTE COLLABORATION IS THE NEW NORM: TRENDS FOR 2022 AND BEYOND According to an Economist Impact global survey, over 75% of respondents believe that hybrid, flexible work will be a standard practice in coming three years.

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uring the first months of 2020, the pandemic lead to lengthy lockdowns from restaurant shutdowns to school closures and many businesses were forced to switch to remote working. To cope with the new working reality, businesses embraced new work models and technology solutions that could allow them to continue to operate efficiently.

As we near the halfway point of 2022, and even after employees began returning back to their offices, there are still many businesses supporting remote working. This trend shows that businesses are redefining the work and collaboration opportunities they offer their employees without this work or collaboration having to take place in a physical office space.

In essence, they are reshaping how they operate, organise and communicate with their customers and partners, and even with their teams work together.

But what does this actually mean for collaboration?

Is it really possible to reach a pre-pandemic level of collaboration effectiveness?

The challenge for businesses is to build collaboration strategies that foster engagement, enhance teamwork and improve cross-company communication. Technology already gives us the tools to reach that goal.

Collaboration systems deliver a multichannel communications platform for remote employees and partners, including video, voice, file sharing, instant messaging, screen sharing, presentation showing, and shared workspaces.

According to a recent Economist Impact global survey on the state of hybrid work, commissioned by Google Workspace, over 75% of respondents believe that hybrid, flexible work will be a standard practice within their organisations in the coming three years. Given that 70% of

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respondents said they never worked remotely before the pandemic, it’s clear that hybrid has become the dominant model for work and that it’s here to stay.

The old way of working is changing, and we all need to adapt in order to stay on top.

As the adoption of hybrid work will likely grow in the years ahead, we should keep in mind the following remote collaboration trends:

ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION

2022 seems to be the year of asynchronous collaboration, where teams are now required to work together in real time. However, this type of collaboration asynchronous isn’t tied to a specific time, and employees and teams can contribute to a project or an idea on their own schedule.

This change marks the beginning of a new era of work in which time flows differently for each

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employee. People from all over the world can work together on projects in different time zones and in different cultures.

Some will start their day late in Asia and work until nightfall, while some in the US will wake up at dawn so they can call it a day early.

Asynchronous collaboration and communication can prove to be one of the most effective solutions for maximising productivity. It respects the limits and preferences of employees, as it gives them the opportunity to handle their work whenever fits best during

the day.

Given the global issues of stress, different communication styles and the time required for proper preparation, defining a specific time in which everyone should be involved in a teleconference, does not sound so productive anymore.

Employees can share their

SNAPSHOT •

2022 seems to be the year of asynchronous collaboration, where teams are now required to work together in real time.

• This type of collaboration is not tied to a specific time, and teams can contribute on their own schedule.

• This change marks the beginning of a new era of work in which time flows differently for each employee.

• People from all over the world can work together on projects in different time zones and in different cultures.

• Asynchronous collaboration can prove to be one of the most effective solutions for maximising productivity.

• It respects the limits and preferences of employees, as it gives them the opportunity to handle their work whenever fits best during the day.

• Defining a specific time in which everyone should be involved in a teleconference, does not sound so productive anymore.

• Collaboration equity is the ability for meeting participants to fully participate regardless of location, device, language, experience level.

• When employees do not participate equally in meetings, productivity suffers.

• To fully participate, members should be seen and heard clearly and must feel personally empowered to contribute to the conversation.

• Participation, when encouraged by leaders and embraced by attendees, has strongest long-term impact on post-meeting behaviour.

• The video conferencing industry is responding and innovating to solve this important problem in a number of ways.

• Smart conference room systems can now use AI and computer vision to auto-frame participants to get the ideal zoomed-in view of attendees.

LOUBNA IMENCHAL Head of Video Collaboration at Logitech for Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Central Asia.

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INDUSTRY COMMENT

LOGITECH PRODUCTS ENABLING MEETING EQUITY Logitech video collaboration solutions are built for the hybrid workforce and encourage meeting equity and equal participation by allowing everyone to be seen and heard clearly. The sophistication of Logitech’s video and AI technology is a key reason organisation equip their meeting rooms with Logitech devices. Built into Logitech cameras and audio solutions, RightSense proactive technologies automate and enhance the meeting experience.

RightSight moves the camera automatically, adjusting the zoom so no one is left out of the picture. RightLight helps all attendees look their best on camera, regardless of lighting conditions.

RightSound enhances vocal clarity by suppressing background noise and vibration, auto-levelling voices, and focusing on active speakers.

Logitech CollabOS, the unifying operating system running on Logitech video conferencing devices, enables meeting room solutions to operate seamlessly together and with third-party video services and devices, providing a consistent and cohesive experience for meeting organisers and attendees.

Recently, Logitech also announced a major update to the Sync device management platform, built to support the modern, hybrid workforce. Sync now supports personal collaboration devices, such as webcams, headsets, and docking stations, making it easy for IT to manage conference rooms and workstations from a single cloud-based interface.

thoughts in the form of posts, files, recorded video or short messages virtually in the same way social media platforms allow users to share. Users are then notified when new content has been posted, to which anyone can respond, thus creating a rich brainstorming environment.

EQUITY IN MEETINGS AND AI

Collaboration equity is the ability for all meeting participants to fully participate -regardless of their location, device, language, or experience level. The hybrid model, though, made things more complicated. Now, meetings

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include employees working from office, and those working from home. In this case, people naturally communicate in person and the remote employee is not a priority. But when employees don’t participate equally in meetings, productivity suffers.

To fully participate, members should be seen and heard clearly.

And they must feel personally empowered to contribute to the conversation. Participation, when encouraged by leaders and embraced by attendees, has the strongest long-term impact on meeting outcomes and postmeeting behaviour.

The video conferencing

industry is responding and innovating to solve this important problem in a number of ways. Smart conference room systems can now use AI and computer vision to auto-frame the participants to get the ideal zoomed-in view of attendees.

Furthermore, intelligent screen layouts leverage the power of AI to give every participant a closer look at the active speaker, while also seeing the bigger picture.

Immersive collaboration In theory, Metaverse has the power to truly evolve the concept of remote collaboration.

A conference can become an immersive experience with virtual reality (VR) technology, allowing the participants to communicate better, almost as if they meet each other in person. When sharing a virtual space, a team can visualise ideas more clearly and experience a kind of interactivity as close as sharing the same office. When the essential technology becomes more affordable and easier to use, immersive collaboration could easily skyrocket.

CLOUD BASED COMMUNICATION

If you want to achieve seamless remote collaboration, then finding the best cloud-based unified communication (UC) system is a must. Cloud-based solutions provide more convenience for the hybrid work model, incorporate server-like functionality for uploading and accessing files and allow real-time task updates.

At the same time, they usually offer a centralised hub for communication between office and remote employees.

Bringing together voice, text messaging, video meetings, and more, cloud-based UC, or unified communications as a service (UCaaS), improves worker productivity and effectiveness.

This content has been sponsored by the vendor.

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LACK OF VISIBILITY, CONTROL INHIBITING SECURITY AUTOMATION Heads of IT security architecture rated automation important, however CISOs placed less importance on automation, with a low 28% rating it as very important.

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BY CÉLINE GAJNIK Global Marketing Director, ThreatQuotient.

While these are undoubtedly key factors for CISOs, there is perhaps less awareness of how security automation can deliver improvements fast

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s the technology skills crisis continues, and the post-pandemic ‘great resignation’ prompts burnt out IT professionals to consider career alternatives, it is clear that if people are not available to plug the gaps, automation must be at least part of the solution.

Cybersecurity automation will be critical to lift the burden of high volume mundane, repetitive tasks from skilled employees creating more secure companies and attractive employment for cybersecurity professionals. In the current environment, automation is fundamental to strengthening an organisation’s security posture, but there are challenges to effective implementation.

We recently polled senior cybersecurity leaders to learn more about how they view automation, the challenges faced and their plans to implement it in the coming year. We found a need for better understanding of the potential of automation at C-suite level.

The study found widespread recognition of the value of IT security automation and highlighted differences in opinion depending on what role the respondent had. 94% of Heads of IT Security Solutions Architecture rated security automation, important to their organisation, with 33% rating, very important. Heads of Incident Response were more likely to say automation was very important 37.5%

with a further 50% saying it is somewhat important.

CISOs, however, placed less importance on automation, with a comparatively low 28% rating it very important.

These discrepancies indicate differing awareness around both the current situation within security teams and the role automation plays in driving efficiency. Incident responders are on the ground at the forefront of defence and naturally prioritise tools that ease workload, while security solutions architects are looking for tools that reduce pressure on teams while also increasing coverage.

While these are undoubtedly key factors for CISOs, there is perhaps less awareness of how security automation can deliver improvements fast.

DRIVERS

In terms of the top three drivers for adopting security automation, the three roles agreed that increasing productivity was the most important benefit. This reflects the heavy workloads inherent in security departments and the ever-present need to do more with less by making team members more productive.

Solutions architect respondents pointed to skills shortage as a key automation driver, but respondents in all three roles also acknowledged that lack of skills has proved a barrier when implementing security automation creating a familiar chicken-and-egg scenario where organisations want to automate

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INDUSTRY COMMENT

to solve the skills shortage but cannot because they lack required skills.

For automation solution providers, this underlines the need to ensure solutions are easy-to-deploy, draw together tools and data that the organisation is already using, and deliver fast ROI. Regarding specific automation features leaders are seeking in a security product, a split was evident.

More heads of incident response IR rated having atomic actions that take place inside one system, such as automatically creating a ticket, as critically important than did their CISO counterparts. This underlines the reactive, time-critical and high-profile nature of IR – tools must not only discover threats, but also set out the path to remediation as quickly as possible.

IR leads are not quite ready to take their hands off the tiller entirely. On the value of partially automated workflow automation that updates multiple systems and products but involves human intervention to either initiate or approve the actions taken, more than one quarter of IR heads thought this was critically important, compared to just 13% of CISOs and 20% of security solutions architects.

Clearly IR teams want to have visibility into automated processes and control over actions, while CISOs and solutions architects are less concerned about being hands-on.

INHIBITORS

For CISOs the most important requirement for success when rolling out security automation is having well-defined

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manual processes. This is not too surprising – CISOs are looking at the current situation and projecting forward, therefore having a good understanding of the process they are aiming to automate is important.

However, CISOs should not limit their automation ambition to basic direct replication of a step-by-step manual process. A security automation project offers a great opportunity to integrate other intelligence sources that can give greater context to the data and alerts received, transforming the original manual process into something far more effective. IR leads understand this; for them integration between vendor technologies was the most important requirement for success.

Looking at the blockers to implementing security automation, CISOs found management understanding, buy-in to be the biggest problem, suggesting that they need to better communicate the strategic benefits to the C-Suite in order to gain sign-off on projects.

IR leads acknowledge the skills shortage, with more than half saying a lack of relevant skills is stopping them from applying IT security automation. However, skills shortages are also driving the need for automation - 43% of solutions architects say it is the

reason more automation is needed.

TRUST

Interestingly, the study also found that, despite the general agreement that IT security automation is important, there is a lack of trust in the outcomes delivered by automated processes.

All three roles polled raised this as a problem they’ve encountered when implementing automation.

This is akin to the black box problem suffered in AI, where a lack of visibility into the process makes humans less likely to trust recommendations.

Security automation vendors need to consider this and ensure their solutions provide the right degree of transparency and control over alerts and policy application to engender trust. Beyond this, it is undoubtedly the case that as solutions prove themselves over time, greater trust will be built.

At C-level there is a need for greater recognition of the accelerative impact security automation can have on corporate security posture. Additionally, there must be a shift in mindset away from thinking of automation projects as simply replicating existing processes, toward recognising the transformative possibilities that adding contextual information and remediation pathways can deliver.

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HOW OPEN SOURCE CAN HELP ENTERPRISES WITHSTAND SHOCKS Open source enables agility because it is community led and contributors react faster to a crisis than large companies with hierarchies and decisionstructures.

I

BY HANS ROTH SVP and General Manager, Red Hat.

ROLE OF OPEN SOURCE A new survey by Red Hat of almost 1,300 IT leaders worldwide illustrates how these arguments are playing out in real life: 95% said enterprise open source is important to their organisation’s overall infrastructure, with greater flexibility 79%, access to innovation 77% and support for a hybrid cloud strategy 77% among the top reasons.

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f the last 15 years have taught us anything, it is to expect the unpredictable.

Few people saw the 2009 financial crisis coming, nobody saw COVID coming. Each episode tells us that what makes sense today, may not tomorrow.

To paraphrase an often uttered saying of leaders, no plan survives contact with time.

These events have far reaching consequences - on the lives of individuals, on societies, and on business. I want to talk about how businesses can help protect themselves when shocks occur. Or, more specifically, how their choice of technology enhances their resilience.

Shocks are, by definition, unknown. So, if you cannot see what is coming, how can you mitigate its consequences?

Speed is often the answer; being able to switch away from the risk before it engulfs you. And choice is how you create that speed.

Any well-run business will

already take this approach with its finances. Reserves are often held in a mix of assets and currencies to lessen the impact of any one suddenly losing value, and enough liquidity held to be able to diversify to safer investments. The same with countries and their energy supplies.

Compare this with technology.

When an enterprise business is all-inwith one vendor, it is subject to their fortunes. Should something go wrong with the vendor, or the relationship sour, the enterprise has nowhere else to go. Not immediately, anyway.

And history tells us it can happen.

A sharp price hike, a security breach, or the arrival of an innovative new player in the market all create the urgency to move. But the more reliant you are on the incumbent vendor, the harder that becomes.

When applications and workloads can move freely between each environment, it allows you to scale up or dial

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back use as needed. This is why a hybrid approach to infrastructure—mixing onpremises with cloud, mixing private cloud with public, and mixing different public clouds—has become the sensible strategy.

Why is hybrid infrastructure complemented by opensource software. It is not simply that by owning the underlying data you are able to move the application to a different infrastructureor move the data into a new application entirely.

Open source also enables agility because it is community led; and individual contributors often react faster to a crisis than large companies with strict hierarchies and complex decision-making structures.

Thankfully, shocks are relatively rare. Businesses spend more time thinking about offence, and

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plan accordingly. The same combination of open-source software and hybrid infrastructure is the perfect play for front foot innovation.

Again, itISthe community of open source that brings value. The logic is simple: in a room of 100 people, would you back one person to always have the best idea, or the collective might of the other 99? Innovation never happens in one place. Open source gives you access to everywhere and everyone—more minds to create, more eyes to check, more people offering support.

Innovation is not about buying the latest stuff. As our CEO recently explained, that is not practical or sustainable. Innovation is about modernisation; taking what you have and improving it. If you are beholden to the vendor’s appetite and capability to innovate, you will always be on the back foot.

Open source provides the control and interoperability that enables a continuousbuild it bettermindset, and with that a more proactive approach to chasing new commercial opportunities.

Private technology knows this. Google has Kubernetes and Flutter; Microsoft has Azure Docs and VS Code; AWS and Apple both use Linux. There is no better example of the power of open source for innovation than Bitcoin, which has rocketed to a $800bn market cap, based on the ingenuity and commitment of the community that built it and maintains it.

The more of something you have, the more complex it can become. An on-premises environment, running just a handful of software programs, is neat and easy to manage. A hybrid infrastructure with open-source software adoption at scale sets out to be elaborate.

Without the right orchestration, things can become confusing and costly.

We know this intuitively.

Libraries orchestrate information;

cars orchestrate mechanical, navigation and entertainment systems; your phone orchestrates your life. Orchestration removes limits, enabling choice and scale.

So, it is with enterprise technology. An orchestration platform, irons out complexity by ensuring software and individual components of software can interact regardless of where they are running. This is crucial to effective application modernisation, enabling a business to refactor or completely rebuild software with containers and microservices. An automation layer on top ensures the whole thing drives smoothly.

Orchestration is not simply a matter of organising and automating products and policies.

Technology is ultimately worthless without the backing of the people.

People adopt technology, and people make it productive.

So how do you orchestrate people? And what do we mean by that anyway? The answer to both questions is culture. Or, more specifically, an open culture.

There is no point enabling choice of technology if you do not also enable people’s ability to choose.

This is what we mean by having an open culture, where trust in colleagues is the default and ideas are judged on their merits, not by the seniority of whoever suggested them. Where silent talent and their ideas are amplified. Where diversity of knowledge and experience is the logical outcome.

If you want the control and agility of hybrid infrastructure and opensource software, you must also embrace an open culture.

A business that is well equipped to ride out the shocks and seize the opportunities will be more successful than one that is rigid.

Not adopting open source and hybrid infrastructure is to believe that we are at the end of history; that we have seen all the twists and turns that the world and markets will ever deliver. Look around—the picture tells avery different story.

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PEOPLE TRANSFORMATION

EVERY CHAMPION WAS ONCE A CONTENDER THAT REFUSED TO GIVE UP Natalja is keen on playing a role to promote flexibility at work principles that empower women and men to manage their unique life and work.

N

atalja Kissina serves as Vice President, Human Resources for Gulf countries. In her own words, she is fortunate to have built a career that brings with it a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment. It is lucky to be surrounded by colleagues who have encouraged, coached and mentored her throughout her career. She is also proud to have worked in organisations that place gender equality at the centre of their vision and strategic agendas.

Natalja’s ideal work environment is where gender balance is integral to how the organisation conducts business. At Schneider Electric this is a key priority globally and locally.

Embracing and welcoming people from all walks of life, ages and cultures is something Natalja enjoys. She is keen on playing a role to promote flexibility at work principles that empower and meet the needs of women and men to manage their unique life and work.

Upon reflecting on some of the challenges she faced in the past, Natalja realised that she was sometimes setting herself back because of selfimposed internal obstacles, rather than external ones. In these moments, she sought words of encouragement and words of wisdom from family, friends and mentors who have always been there to fuel her confidence, beliefs and faith. She is a strong advocate of the idea that every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.

Schneider Electric prides itself on nurturing an inclusive culture where women are empowered, enabled and visible in the organisation. It recently signed the SDG 5 Pledge to accelerate gender balance in UAE’s private sector, which aims to increase the representation of women in leadership roles to 30% by 2025. This initiative will serve as a beacon for gender equality and women’s empowerment across the country and beyond.

Globally, the company has progressed on female representation on the board and its Executive Committee. The goal is to have women representing 50% of all new hires, 40% of frontline managers, and 30% of senior leadership by 2025.

It is exciting to see UAE placing gender equality and women’s empowerment amongst the centre of its vision. Some great examples of advancements include labour law changes, which extends maternity leave provisions, offers equal pay, and includes policies that support greater gender equity in the workplace.

The company’s leadership development and people vision are vital to power Schneider Electric’s continuing transformation into a more innovative, inclusive and diverse organisation.

NATALJA KISSINA Human Resources, VP Schneider Electric.

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WE RECOGNISE THERE IS NO PERFECT CANDIDATE, IT IS THE PERSON THAT MATTERS MOST Tenable’s Bridgett explains what makes the vendor different leading to recognitions of Best Company Culture, Best Company for Diversity, amongst others.

T

here is nothing culturally different between cybersecurity, IT or any sector for that matter. It is more about progressive organisations versus those that hold a more rigid or traditional view of the workplace and employees within that.

The pandemic has forced many organisations to reconsider this stance, particularly as many had to shift to accommodate work-from-home mandates globally. The standard approach of desks within a physical building has been replaced by a hybrid workforce, able to work from anywhere. The biggest challenge for most has been how to secure this fluid and, in most cases, eroded perimeter.

Diversity empowers us to achieve greater creativity and innovation, allowing us to think outside the box, and drive innovation that allows us to grow closer to our customers, partners, and communities.

We recognise there is no perfect candidate, in terms of experience or expertise, it is the person that matters most. The approach is to look for people that have the same values and who will thrive as a member of the team.

The challenges for cybersecurity companies

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mirror that of IT, and other sectors. Tenable has an expansion plan for the year ahead, in terms of headcount, so attracting and retaining the best talent is important to us. But it is more than that.

The culture at Tenable is one where every employee feels seen, valued, welcome and has a sense of belonging. Like many, we have adopted a hybrid working policy giving each and every employee the freedom to do their best work, unhindered by the confines of a physical office or desk.

We invest in our people, with each employee given access to professional development activity funding and tuition bursaries that can be used to further their careers. We want our people to feel confident in their ability and performing at the top of their game, which we know will make them attractive to our competition, and we strive to make everyone feel recognised, empowered to be their best, and competitively remunerated so they don’t want to leave Tenable.

We seek to cultivate our diverse and inclusive workforce, building an environment that we believe helps us all achieve exceptional business results. To do this, we offer a number of internal employee resource groups.

These groups offer a space for employees with a shared connection to come together and learn from each other. They also provide opportunities for our employees to learn about the

BRIDGETT PARADISE Chief People Officer, Tenable.

uniqueness of other cultures and things we might share in common.

We strive to be a career destination where employees from all backgrounds are welcome and empowered, treated with fairness and respect, presented with opportunities to make a difference, and provide opportunities to grow.

We do not have tools to monitor and track employee life, but we do offer tools and resources that our employees can access anytime they feel they need a boost or helping hand.

We believe that mental health is a critical part of overall health and wellness, and it is important employees feel their best so they can continue to do their best, so we offer resources to help our team plan how they can make mental health a top priority.

Our Employee Assistance Program offers specialised assistance to help manage many of life’s complexities by supporting mental, physical, social, and financial well-being.

Around the tenable community, we have a number of peer-inspired initiatives, including a Peloton Slack channel, running and walking groups, and other opportunities for like-minded individuals to get together and network.

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