Titans GCC February 2022

2022 YEAR OF 'DATA' TIGERS

A Happy New Year 2022 to all!

I wish and hope all our readers have had a fantastic start to the year and the fervor continues.

At Global CIO Forum, we had a rather action-packed year against all the odds in 2021. Through various programs, leadership events, and summits we have been enabling business continuation, supporting, and driving digital transformation across organisations and Countries. Global CIO Forum’s collaborative growth started with a small step. We spread our arms far and wide to more than 36 countries globally (physically and remotely). Our community has grown from a small 900 members in 2016 to a whopping 30,000 +members in 2021 and the journey just continues. This would not have been possible without the long standing support of our partners, industry associates, well wishers and last but the most important of all – our beloved CIO community.

Various intricate events and customized gatherings helped us work more closely with the CIOs in 2021. Our newly launched Reboot program helped us get the CIOs together in a more relaxed environments, open for discussions on matters beyond the business. Reboot programmes will be ideal tools to drive and reinforce healthy habits and produce bigger benefits to the community on monthly basis at local, as well as, at the global level. We engaged over 100 CIOs in 10 sessions of the reboot wherein they interacted and got involved in activities that brought them further closer to the network. This was yet again a significant step towards building the community beyond its traditional barriers.

As our belief goes, The community culture sets the tone for its members. Looking forward to 2022, we envision a year filled with infinite possibilities, as do our community members. In this edition of The Titans, we explore the 2022 plans of CIOs, their digital transformation goals, project implementation strategies, team building strategies and much more. In our special segment on ‘The Business of Data’ we also explore how businesses are looking into data analytics and working on a date-driven model.

This and much more in this January issue of The Titans.

ANUSHREE DIXIT

GLOBAL HEAD, CONTENT AND STRATEGIC ALLIANCES

anushree@gecmediagroup.com

GIGI MATHEW THOMAS, Group Head

V.SENDIL KUMAR, Chief Technology Officer Capital Limited

VIJAY JAIN, Head of IT, Dulsco

COVER STORY

Maturing Cloud Journey

WHERE DO YOU SEE THE INDUSTRY HEADING IN 2022?

In 2022, we see a paradigm shift in technology focus as compared to 2021. While all the focus was on collaboration, enabling the work from home for enterprises and getting things going with minimal disruption, we see the focus shifting in the year ahead, whether this is all now taken for granted.

I believe we will see a lot of attention being given to security, whilst the organizations continue their cloud transformation journey. I also believe we will see a lot of cloud optimization initiatives being triggered to keep the billing under control. There will be more focus on data classification and governance especially as countries visit / revisit their data regulations and policies.

Apart from this, we will see upcoming trends on Metaverse and immersive tech along with the ongoing continued growth in high performance computing, AI/ML, Big Data, Cloud Security, Block chain and sustainability solutions.

WHAT IS YOUR 2022 PLAN FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT? HOW DO YOU PLAN TO TAKE THE BUSINESS FORWARD WITH TECHNOLOGY?

I aim to lead the department to focus on maturing ourselves on the policies and procedures we have adopted. As well as target to improve our security posture and SLA support to the business for both Infrastructure and Applications.

Further efforts will be put into our ongoing cloud journey, while exploring more into the leading trend technologies of today.

HOW DO YOU PLAN TO BUILD YOUR TEAMS?

Team building and upskilling is / should be an ongoing exercise for any team. The team is being upskilled on the many of the niche technology spaces where we have AMCs or partner engaged. At the same time, we have employed a buddy concept, where core members are shadowed by peers, which in turn is a learning experience as well as clarifies the career roadmap for the team members. This mechanism also allows us to plan efficiently in our rosters and vacation cycles with minimum impact in the IT operations.

GIGI MATHEW THOMAS, Group Head – IT & Digital Transformation Ittihad International Investment LLC

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT A TIME YOU LEAD A CULTURALLY DIVERSE TEAM?

I am proud say that I currently have a very culturally diverse team. My team consists of members from various nationalities and age groups. This makes up for a very healthy exchange of thoughts, ideas, hearty conversations and even festivities. I am actually planning a ethnic day for the team, so that once a year we can actually come in dressed according to our culture, possibly even share meals and even learn a few new words!

HOW DO YOU SUPPORT COLLABORATION ACROSS DEPARTMENTS?

Being part of the central IT team, catering to over 25 different entities, across the UAE, means that we have to be dynamic in the way we interact, support and collaborate. We probably may move months on without physically meeting our colleagues, especially with the ongoing challenge of COVID. We ensure to have our weekly drumbeat of meetings, and periodic project discussions which are mainly driven through Teams calls. We encourage video discussions to improve interactions, and we also facilitate unlimited closed user group calls, internal to the group between peers as well as the business. We also active interact and engage through out ITSM tools to ensure prompt resolution of issues.

WHICH WAS YOUR MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO YOUR COMPANY IN 2021 AND HOW DID IT IMPACT OR INFLUENCE THE BUSINESS?

Me and my team spearheaded and completed some significant projects in 2021 to have a lasting impact on the businesses. The completion of the O365 migration, One Drive Migration, Group Level network consolidation, SAP S/4 Hana implementation peaked out performance as the Enterprise IT Division to enable the business as they stepped in 2022.

WHICH TECHNOLOGY/IES DO YOU THINK WILL DOMINATE ENTERPRISE IT IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS?

I believe, we will see many trends gaining momentum as we steer forward into 2022. Some of them being:

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) : Process Automation, I believe will continue to pick up pace as organizations continue to stream line their operations and improve productivity. Repetitive tasks can easily be automated by a variety of solutions available in the market, while the human involvement can be focused on process improvements or enhancements.

Artificial Intelligence /Machine Learning :

we continue to see traction for AI/ML as organizations strive to remain competitive in the markets, along with focus to increase revenue and reduce costs. AI/ML allows businesses to identify and drive new avenues of revenue, helps making informed decisions and open areas to attract new customer and optimization of business operation and improving overall Operational Efficiency

Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality: We will see more and more of VR/AR, as the supporting infrastructure enhances. We see its applicability in various if not all industries, in areas of training, simulations, practising and developing new skills, etc within the organization. Over and above it also opens doors to providing a rich and immersive experience for the customers to improve sales, improves brand awareness, etc

AIOT and IIOT: Industrial IOT is had gained a lot of traction in the last few years and we have seen various use cases of its applicability especially in the utility industries. We are seeing trends of Artificial Intelligence converging with IIOT to better augment processes and decision making and make better use of the industrial data which is already gathered from the difference sources. I believe we will witness many initiatives on this new and upcoming trend.

DO YOU SEE MORE CIOS TAKING UP BOARD POSITIONS?

Yes, I firmly believe CIOs should / and are being welcomed to take board positions, citing the contributions and enablement that IT brings to the businesses. We will see in the coming years, we will see more and more active involvement of CIOs along with decision makers steering businesses to success.

Building Private Infrastructure

WHERE DO YOU SEE THE INDUSTRY HEADING IN 2022?

Pandemic taught us to see the world differently. Company’s not adopting to current Technology/Digital transformation will be left behind the race. Technology driven companies are the leaders in market share. IOT & AI driven, Collaborative, Adoptable, Autonomous sustainable solutions in ICT as well as Telecom and its security are my focus. Most industries are adopting Automation and transformation, cloud adaptation depends on the Business demands. Very near future I could see all companies will move to cloud and will utilise the power of cloud computing & Edge computing.

WHAT IS YOUR 2022 PLAN FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT? HOW DO YOU PLAN TO TAKE THE BUSINESS FORWARD WITH TECHNOLOGY?

We did our best during the peak of Covid-19 building private infrastructure around the Ghasha offshore field of 20~50 km environment where there was limited mobile signal connectivity challenges were more on communicating daily works only through expensive Satellite communication. We built our private network over Autonomous self-operated wireless broadcasting to moving vessels providing high speed bandwidth with latency less than 10ms. 30% service are already on hybrid cloud that also bought forward through private network. We are serving multiple infrastructure on prem for clients/Consultants & contractors with their private secured networks.

VIBIN VIJAYAKUMAR, Head of Department, Senior IT Engineer, Hail & Ghasha Mega Artificial Island Concession Project National Marine Dredging Company PJSC

HOW DO YOU PLAN TO BUILD YOUR TEAMS?

My Team is my success, while building team I was very focused and picky in Flexibility, logical, communicational & good technical skills since it’s a mega project of multi billion US dollar and with a huge manpower multi culture, multi-ethnic & multi-diversity, offshore Oil & Gas Islands risk environment.

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT A TIME YOU LEAD A CULTURALLY DIVERSE TEAM?

Being a mentor in IT department strategy, policy guidelines last couple of years serving 4500 colleagues of multi-cultural and diverse team with in different departments comprise of blue & white collar teams, senior managers, executives working together to achieve the common goal of developing 11 islands inside deep sea around 50km to 80km with 25million man-hours worked without LTI. It’s always challenging to keep-up demands and uplift their morale.

HOW DO YOU SUPPORT COLLABORATION ACROSS DEPARTMENTS?

We have healthy collaboration across all departments. Currently providing best in class IT support and solution services with High speed network connectivity, ERP, unified communication system which help us to collaborate & quickly adopt across same/cross platform for multiple departments approvals. Initially during covid-19 we faced lot of challenges being not connected each other, Offshore-onshore communication with all restricted movements, but we overcome using our common workspace collaborative platform, unified communications, enhanced connectivity, R&D workshops, sharing lesson learned training culture we adopted helped us achieving those challenges within short span.

WHAT ENERGIZES YOU IN YOUR CURRENT ROLE AND WHAT DEPLETES YOU?

My Team, Management encouragement & innovative lesson learned brings in emerging and advance technologies, which works for me as a self-driving force to be a leader and a good role model to influence my children. Surprises in the project and lack of infrastructure by local ISP in project area inside sea, lack of noninvolvement/advance information to us in certain circumstances while key change management in operation depletes me.

WHICH WAS YOUR MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO YOUR COMPANY IN 2021 AND

HOW DID IT IMPACT OR INFLUENCE THE BUSINESS?

Telecommunication & Internet- Hybrid Telecom technology adaptation, Fiber optic connectivity underwater sea 50 km, Advance Automated High speed Wireless communication for Vessels. Delivered Significant Improvement in operational activity, Automating remote process and faster project coordination and closeout.

WHICH TECHNOLOGY/IES DO YOU THINK WILL DOMINATE ENTERPRISE IT IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS?

5G, IOT and AI will play a great role in our environment to provide exponential growth and sustainable productivity for all business units & groups. Technology can showcase those transformation in much simpler visual & predictive analytical forms.

DO YOU SEE MORE CIOS TAKING UP BOARD POSITIONS?

Yes, it’s inevitable for a business to advise on its technology front. Both business and technology need to go toe to toe on the technological front to develop powerful solution to problem.

WHO IS THE ‘CIO OF TOMORROW’ AND WHAT QUALITIES WILL HE/ SHE IMBIBE?

One who bring new ideas with strategic view, implement the gaps in aligning business to deliver successful projects manage using agile methodologies with future ready, while also making sure that his team is supported, motivated, happy and successful.

DEFINE 2022 IN 3 WORDS. Challenging, Opportunity, Decisive

Virtualization and Modernization

WHERE DO YOU SEE THE INDUSTRY HEADING IN 2022?

I expect the industry will focus more on Automation in all their business process. Pandemic has brought organisations to focus more on simplifying each process without compromising on the security, which should tend to reduce the Turn Around Time (TAT). Therefore, it is inevitable for organisations to move towards digital. I feel strongly that technology has helped a lot for the organisations in this pandemic in continuing their business.

WHAT IS YOUR 2022 PLAN FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT? HOW DO YOU PLAN TO TAKE THE BUSINESS FORWARD WITH TECHNOLOGY?

Bringing more Virtualisation across all areas and application modernisation are the focus area. This will help us to enable a Hybrid Cloud. In turn, Hybrid cloud will help us to integrate our public cloud and Private cloud. Further, Hybrid cloud will bring agility and scalability in our resources.

V.SENDIL KUMAR, Chief Technology Officer Shriram Capital Ltd.

As business are in digital, we continuously focus more on Security.

Business and technology are aligned in our group companies. We have mobile applications for B2C and B2B, which helps us to simplify and transact easily. As we have cloud infrastructure we could handle the resources based on the business needs.

HOW DO YOU PLAN TO BUILD YOUR TEAMS?

As technology is rapidly transforming, we need to have a strong team who has skills to manage. We keep recruiting on regular basis at all levels, we need new blood. At the same time, we encourage the existing team by providing lot of trainings, encourage them to do certifications attend sessions on new technologies. We have hybrid environment where we have partners/OEM and an In-house team. This strategy is helping us lot in bringing lot of new technologies by collaborating among them.

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT A TIME YOU LEAD A CULTURALLY DIVERSE TEAM?

I am in this group for more for than two decades. I have handled multiple team and fortunately, the team I handle has thirst on learning things irrespective of age and experience. Our group has culturally diverse team where we handle PAN India. Based on the skills and the employee’s skill we move them to the team accordingly.

HOW DO YOU SUPPORT COLLABORATION ACROSS DEPARTMENTS?

Currently we have automated departments effectively. Pandemic has brought this as our priority for continuing the business. We have tools to raise the ticket, support the same and to escalate to next level based on the SLA. With this tool, we can monitor and trouble shoot the issues, which comes across departments.

WHAT ENERGIZES YOU IN YOUR CURRENT ROLE AND WHAT DEPLETES YOU?

Learning and deploying new things helps me to energize. I never felt my current work as monotonous. Further, Encouragement from the management and business expansions helps technology professionals like us to get motivated.

If some issues like downtime, performance lag, exceeding the TAT arises in spite of testing and validations, we tend to deplete.

WHICH WAS YOUR MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO YOUR COMPANY IN 2021 AND

HOW DID IT IMPACT OR INFLUENCE THE BUSINESS?

We don’t have Work From home environment before Pandemic. Once we sensed lockdown environment, we designed a temporary solution to handle WFH. As lockdown continued, we enhanced the solution and ensured that business never is interrupted. We made WFH at all levels by enabling efficient collaboration mechanisms without compromising on security. We have concentrated my areas like public cloud and block chain. We have hosted one of our group companies application on Public cloud and deployed block chain for our Fixed deposit application.

WHICH TECHNOLOGY/IES DO YOU THINK WILL DOMINATE ENTERPRISE IT IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS?

Areas like IOT, Artificial Intelligence/Machine language, Cloud, Data lake will be focused in coming years.

DO YOU SEE MORE CIOS TAKING UP BOARD POSITIONS?

Yes very much. Business and Technology team aligning will help business to grow and simplify the process.

WHO IS THE ‘CIO OF TOMORROW’ AND WHAT QUALITIES WILL HE/SHE IMBIBE?

Person who understands business flow along with technology skills and have passion to learn will be a CIO of tomorrow. There are lot of technologies in the market but the person should understand the right technology and process for the business he is going to adopt.

DEFINE 2022 IN 3 WORDS. Happy New Normal

AI Based Security Automation

WHERE DO YOU SEE THE INDUSTRY HEADING IN 2022?

The government of Pakistan rolled-out National Cybersecurity Policy in 2021. Therefore a growing number of companies would be taking more focused approach to cybersecurity in 2022. Now that remote-working is a norm, Zero-trust architecture would see a lot of traction, since attackers can masquerade as insider and try to gain access to critical systems. Organizations will invest more in detection and response capabilities at the endpoint, network and cloud that identify attacks in progress.

WHAT IS YOUR 2022 PLAN FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT? HOW DO YOU PLAN TO TAKE THE BUSINESS FORWARD WITH TECHNOLOGY?

Cybersecurity is multi-dimensional risk and requires active understanding of business domain. To secure digital transformation initiatives, I plan to leverage AI based security automation which matches the speed of attack automation; and security intelligence at scale that is analysed in real time. Additionally, we would enhance awareness of staff on latest techniques used in phishing, ransomware and social engineering attacks.

SYED HASSAN ASLAM, Chief Information Security Officer Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited

HOW DO YOU PLAN TO BUILD YOUR TEAMS?

With the ever-growing need for cyber talent, we plan to increase collaboration with industry peers and academia. The company has signed MOU with leading academic institutions to offer accredited training programs to fresh graduates, which helps in building teams and skills pipeline. Additionally, the company has insourced experts for specialised roles to ensure continuity of certain functions. The internal team builds upon the work-performed and adds company-specific domain knowledge for informed cybersecurity risk management.

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT A TIME YOU LEAD A CULTURALLY DIVERSE TEAM?

CDC works with different partners and vendors, each having different organizational culture. CDC has a security-first culture and we constantly try to push this mind-set. CDC voluntarily adopted ISO27001 certification in 2009 and was one of the first organizations to keep entire functions in the scope of certification. Internally, information security department creates influence on other departments by engaging early in the projects, appreciating the right behaviours and providing secure solutions to business departments.

On a personal level back in mid-2000s I led a team of culturally diverse team to develop business continuity plan for a banking client in Oman. Interestingly, the client team also was culturally and functionally diverse. It involved creating shared value-driven vision, partnering with stakeholders, assignment of transition deliverables and ensuring skill development for successful program management. The outcome was a win-win situation for organisation and better business continuity risk management.

HOW DO YOU SUPPORT COLLABORATION ACROSS DEPARTMENTS?

We have formally designated two resources in every department who act as Champions for information security department. Key characteristic of these Champions is to influence within department and domain knowledge. Information security teams work closely with Champions to rollout policies and perform risk assessments. This structure also helps in understanding business challenges and allows agile thinking in terms of alternate solutions.

WHICH WAS YOUR MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO YOUR COMPANY IN 2021 AND HOW DID IT IMPACT OR INFLUENCE THE BUSINESS?

As capital market infrastructure organization, CDC maintains digital safekeeping and asset servicing of financial securities. Investor confidence requires prudent data protection and security, which is only possible through holistic data classification program. During 2021, a lot of effort was put in data discovery, labelling, rights management, mobile device management, data loss prevention and monitoring. Maintaining confidentiality and privacy of personal identifiable information (PII) of investors is at the core of CDC business model.

WHICH TECHNOLOGY/IES DO YOU THINK WILL DOMINATE ENTERPRISE IT IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS?

Enterprise information security technologies that will dominate are:

l User Behaviour Analytics (UBA), to identify anomalous behaviour using big data analytics;

l Data Loss Prevention (DLP), to prevent data breaches using encryption and tokenisation;

l Cloud-based security, to scale data protection with automation and data analytics.

WHO IS THE ‘CIO OF TOMORROW’ AND WHAT QUALITIES WILL HE/SHE IMBIBE?

The ‘CISO of tomorrow’ would possess:

l Business domain knowledge, acting as influencer and educator;

l Tech savvy, building security first approach across organization;

l Business enabler, ensuring data protection as part of hyper-connected business teams and clients;

DEFINE 2022 IN 3 WORDS.

Systematic, Inclusive, Data-driven

The World CIO 200 Roadshow 2021 culminated its grand finale on 6th December. It brought together some of the major names in technology and included a series of insightful presentations, tech talks, round table meetings, fireside chat and incisive panel discussions at Topaz Ballroom, Fairmont Ajman in UAE with the theme of event #ChangeX.

This year, the roadshow has covered 36+ countries and provided a platform to a large number of exhibitors with foremost engaging sessions. Over 4,000 C-Level executives have been recognised in the 2021 edition.

The World CIO 200 Summit event partners were Dell Technologies, Mindware, Automation Anywhere, Arcon, Logitech, AWS, Redington, Zero&One, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Pure Storage, VAD, Akamai, Veritas, BMB, Exclusive Networks, F5, StorIT, Infoblox, Citrix, Laserfiche, TechnePlus, Spectrum Networks, Infinite Blue, BITS, Paessler, Secure Net, Finesse, Commvault, PROW at the Forefront and RNS Technology Services. The summit built roadmaps for strategic decision making and identified yard-

sticks that are the key drivers of growth in the digital world.

The World CIO 200 Summit 2021 grand finale was inaugurated by Ronak Samantaray, CEO, Global CIO Forum and Anushree Dixit, Global Head of Content and Strategic Alliances, Global CIO Forum with their welcome address.

BOTS 4.0

The World CIO 200 Roadshow 2021 grand finale was also an occasion to release BOTS, the Book of Titans, that features CIOs who have executed exemplary projects during the year. The handbook features 200 CIOs whose projects stood out from huge nominations that came in from 36+ countries. In short, BOTS is not only

about the highest-valued projects or projects that involved complex decision making and multiple stakeholders.

DX Inspire 2021 Awards recognised path-breaking organisations that have redefined Digital Transformation to its core and the winners include Gopi Krish, Emmanuel Morka, Praful Thummar, Setiaji Setiaji, Pratap Patjoshi, Qusai Almeqdadi, Damian O’Gara, Uday Awasthi, Suk-Wah Kwok, Mohamed Absar, Bahmini Mohamed, Albenjasim Transforming, Higher Education and M Umar Ilyas.

The Global CIO Forum preferred partner award winners include

Automation Anywhere, Dell Technologies, SAP, Huawei, and Oracle.

Established in 2017, The CIO 200 Summit is a multi-country CIO felicitation ceremony that recognises the achievements of digital leaders. The CIO 200 Awards are not a competition but a celebration of the amazing lives of CIOs and their gamechanging careers.

2020 was an extraordinary year for almost every organisation, as it grappled with the fallout from the pandemic. The CIO 200 Summit 2020 toured 26 countries and gathered over 3000+ representatives in few months. Key stakeholders tabled roadmaps for strategic decision making and identified yardsticks that are the key drivers of growth in the digital world.

The World CIO 200 Roadshow 2020 featured exclusive invitations for country-specific briefings, celebrated the contributions of local CIOs and offered post-event networking opportunities.

Moreover, participants were tapped into the collective wisdom of advisory boards and subject matter experts.

However, CIOs from organisations in the UAE, who have been the catalyst in bringing about change in this challenging year, were honoured with this award. The winners also received blockchain certificates.

of Data The Business

Data is no more the currency, nor the oil. Neither is it at the center of your business. Data, today is ‘Business’ itself. An organization that fails to use its data effectively will be out of business in no time. The last two years proved this to be true in all its senses. While brick and mortar stores curled up to offer enhanced e-commerce options, data became the savior.

Solution providers offering Cloud, Backup, Data protection, Security and Automation boomed in no time, given the fact that protecting the data and automating the processes became a mandate like never before. Work-from-home further propelled the cause and forced organizations to rethink their internal and external data in newer ways and techniques.

Analyze, Detect, Manage

It is very important that organizations, today, have a clear and well-written strategy around how the business-critical data can be analyzed to derive meaningful information and how business can put the data to generate intelligence-driven results. Detection or monitoring of this data has to be entrusted to intelligent/ automated dashboard that can derive operational insights from this data and produce timely reports. The final step of managing this data can be realized by providing a experience-driven analytical platform.

From What to How

Though many organizations have a data analytics and predictive analyses tool in place, most often the tool or the solution is used to understand ‘What’ the meaning of the data is rather than using it to understand ‘How’ it can transform the business. Hence, it is inevitable that businesses start using this data to realize its full potential in being the throttle of digital transformation.

In the following pages, our leading CIOs express their opinions on how they are using data to accurately drive business result in 2022 and beyond.

Identify. Collaborate.Automate

PREDICT, PRE-EMP, PRE-AUTHORIZE: HOW CIOS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022?

The following points are going to be the key for the CIOs to drive a data driven organization culture:

i. Identifying the right business problem

ii. Ensure that the data is reliable and easily accessible

iii. Provide a solution and prove the value of decision making based on data

iv. Create the right organizational structure v. Collaborate

vi. Create Hybrid teams

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSES AND HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAKING

EFFECTIVE

USE OF THIS?

There are following benefits of predictive analysis :

l A scientific approach to planning

l A competitive edge

l New revenue opportunities

l Early detection of potential frauds

l Optimize processes and performance

l Improve collaboration and control

In your opinion how should organizations begin with predictive analyses

l Start with identifying a business problem

l Provide a solution using Predictive Analysis

l Collaborate with the stakeholders

HOW ARE YOU DRIVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S 2022-23 MODERNIZATION STRATEGY?

In my company, the modernization strategy is being driven in collaboration with various stakeholders. There is a digital transformation committee which includes members from various areas of the company and a roadmap has been prepared to transform the company by implementing new systems, processes and constantly developing new skills.

WITH THE OVER-INCREASING IMPACT OF COVID VARIANTS, HOW WILL LIFE, BUSINESS AND PUBLIC HEALTH CHANGE IN 2022 AND WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON YOUR INDUSTRY?

VIJAY JAIN, Head of

Dulsco

IT,

Covid has a big impact on my industry which is a waste management industry. There is a greater focus on hygiene and health on the people involved. Also, there is a new type of waste which includes both persona and protective equipment – used masks, respirators, gloves, wet wipes, antiseptics etc. there is an increase in the volume of waste which needs to be managed in an efficient and effective way. Since it promotes a circular economy with complex processes, continuous automation is going to be key for the success of this industry.

The i2RPA Approach

PREDICT, PRE-EMP, PRE-AUTHORIZE: HOW BUSINESS LEADERS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022?

Business Leaders at our mission critical aviation safety driven organization have and are continuing to use the nuanced meaning of Data leading to Information and Information leading to Knowledge. Business results are influenced by the understanding the transformation at each of the above stages and getting an alignment to measurable Key Result Indicators.

We have initiated a carefully conceived process rationalizations to achieve the use of data to Intelligently Measure Monitor and Manage. The measure step is realized by Reports at an operational procedural and task level. The monitor step is realized by providing operational insights from the Reports, with mSights©, an integrated dashboard for all the maintenance activity that is being undertaken at Air Works. The application compiles and presents all the relevant information pertaining each maintenance check at a single place in an integrated, intuitive, graphical, and interactive manner. The Manage step is realized by providing a Decision Support system and creating experience driven Prescriptive Analytics foundation.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSIS AND HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS?

The primary benefit of Predictive analysis is to foster a Data Sensitive culture and support aggregation of anecdotal and informal bottom-up operational feedback from the organization.

In our industry context, the interactions between the customer, the OEM product supplier, the regulatory bodies ensuring compliance with vital product service engineering activities and meeting the need to keep the aircraft airworthy continuously airworthy requires a pragmatic Predictive capability.

RAMKUMAR MOHAN, CIO Air Works

The derived benefits of Predictive analysis in our independent 3rd Party MRO industry context are to improve the ability of Planning, Scheduling and Task sequencing functions to deal with inevitable unplanned Events.

The derived benefit of Predictive analysis in our industry context, is to be able answer the operational question of what actions are needed to deal with the near real time event “the predictions come true”.

In summary, Predictive analysis is a necessary but not sufficient condition to realize the full potential of data and experience driven digital transformation.

IN YOUR OPINION HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS

BEGIN WITH PREDICTIVE ANALYSIS

It is our view that a cost-effective approach would be to implement an Intelligent Integrated RPA. The key success criteria for our recommended i2RPA© is to identify the key critical processes. An example of a critical process, in a customer facing context: Resolving Billing discrepancies. This process involves Process, Procedures and Tasks.

The i2RPA© approach is:

l To address the Task level Responsibility driven workflow at an individual’s level as a first level RPA.

l The Procedure Level Authority driven process flow is the second level RPA.

l The Process level Accountability driven process flow is the third level of RPA.

This third level is not directly “automation oriented” and involves decision making case flows and involves executing on organization level Key Result Indicator and Key Performance Indicators as an example “All billing discrepancies have to be resolved within 3 working days after an appropriate customer facing escalation has taken place”.

HOW ARE YOU DRIVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S 2022-23 MODERNIZATION STRATEGY?

In our aerospace aviation Product Support Service industry context, modernization means dealing with Uncertainties versus Risks based on state of practice Decision Support Systems at a Responsibility, Authority and Accountability levels.

It is vital for us to understand to make decisions based on Uncertainties as differentiated from Risks. The differentiation is made possible by applying technology processes for Customer Centric processes and merge it with technology objects and artifacts for realizing vision-mission-goal in an operating time frame

1 to 3 years.

In summary, our approach to modernization is not restricted to Data Science driven approach, but a cognitive approach that understands and applies principles of Artificial General Intelligence artifacts as GPT3, Deep learning approaches, Model based Systems Engineering. The MBSE adaptation allows us to shape incorporating Behavioural Economics considerations and continuously evolve to merge customer facing analytics with internal engineering organization driven analytics.

WITH THE OVER-INCREASING IMPACT OF COVID VARIANTS, HOW WILL LIFE, BUSINESS, AND PUBLIC HEALTH CHANGE IN 2022 AND WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON YOUR INDUSTRY?

The impact on our industry is best presented as a Conundrum.

The demand for, travel for leisure, for profit and for life experiences will co-exist and continue to grow. The inevitable transition from Pandemic to Endemic of the Covid and its variants is already happening - also known as new Normal.

The conundrum is Uncertainties and Risks and the need to deal with them in ever decreasing time to react is decreasing. This is the impact. In concrete terms, the impact is to focus on Customer Centric Service design to keep the demand on an upward trajectory of increased revenue and apply technology to deal with uncertainties and risks and keep costs of sales on a downward trajectory.

In summary, the entire drive towards compliance with sustainability goals for the transportation industry and the discernible actions being taken with urban mobility initiatives by the aerospace aviation ecosystem augers well for the wouldbe first-time air travellers.

Using Data as the Building Block of Modernization

PREDICT, PRE-EMP, PREAUTHORIZE: HOW CIOS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022?

When I look at any system being implemented the two key points I ponder on are what goes into it and what will come out of it. Data is what comes out and it drives

KASHIF RANA, Group Head of IT, HSA Group

everything - be it weather data or production data; without this, we cannot make logical business decisions. In one of my previous roles, a +- 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit temperature change meant 50 million bottles stock reduction or addition. Thus, a significant impact on the supply chain and production plans. Gathering the right data will drive an organization’s growth as long as the data been collected is reliable and translated the right way.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSES AND HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS?

With the amount of data been generated or available today, organizations can harvest this to build reliable models for making a business impact. The predictive analysis gives a business sense of direction based on data points. Just see the data been generated by satellite images letting us know what is the direction of the population expansion. The Google data giving us insights to areas of interest or growing interest, the trends being made.

I had the opportunity to build a solution for a business opportunity which I cite here as an example. In the first step, we build a big data predictive analytics solution that scanned all social networks and more to see mention of new entrants to the drinks market. This gave us insights into the growing popularity of any drink and us evaluating the company for future acquisition. Secondly, we build a system to understand and alert us where the next big gathering of people or an event was coming up, whether planned or unplanned. Together, these solutions gave our sales team the ability to plan in less than a few hours to mobilize our sales trucks to the event location to ensure the availability of our drinks to the people. This opportunity would have been missed had we not been harvesting the social media data and translating it to a business opportunity.

IN YOUR OPINION HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS BEGIN WITH PREDICTIVE ANALYSES?

With current challenges in the supply chain and the impact of the pandemic, data plays a more important role, and predicting it is more complex than ever. In one of my events, talking about Digital Twins which is a reflection of the Metaverse in some ways. We can use the Digital Twins to predict what kind of behavior we can expect if we are to change the input parameters. For organizations that are stepping into this at an early stage baby steps are key: building the right data strategy, not building a data warehouse but rather taking smaller steps to build success.

HOW ARE YOU DRIVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S 2022-23 MODERNIZATION STRATEGY?

We are making data the key building block of our modernization strategy and we want to make sure the data we have and what we can bring in is blended using the right medium to help the organization make valuable decisions to drive the business. We have worked on deploying drones to collect soil data, for example, to give us insights to help focus on earth management in return to bringing us better yields on crops which means better ROI on the land investments. We have deployed IoT to collect data on the behavior of our equipment helping us predict the performance of the equipment and get maintenance scheduled.

WITH

THE EVER-INCREASING IMPACT OF COVID VARIANTS, HOW WILL LIFE, BUSINESS, AND PUBLIC HEALTH CHANGE IN 2022, AND WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON YOUR INDUSTRY?

The new normal now is going forward among unknown disruptions and unpredictable challenges. The good news is with all the technologies and the preparedness we had due to Covid we are better prepared going forward. We now know things can be executed differently, the mold has been broken for good. Businesses have been challenged in many ways to be more resilient and think differently, thus, making them more agile to the changing environment. We have learned to work remotely more effectively, to communicate better, build relationships with distances and the list can go on but we are ready. Our industry is very diverse, thus, we do not see any major impact but rather business as usual going forward except for some supply chain challenges.

TOP GLOBAL CIOs

Innovate.Optimize.Evolve

HOW CIOS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022?

Data drives everything that business perform, from engaging partners, investors, clients, internal employees to enable services. The business is heavily reliant on data so in 2022 the CIOs most focus is to automate and mature the existing processes and data handling. This is to prevent data being wasted and to make the data-oriented strategy to drive business forward and effective analysis of data deliver the best services and results to customers. The CIOs focus is also to utilise the unstructured data, which is a real gamechanger, it comes from variety of sources including emails exchanges, earnings transcripts, survey responses, call centres and even video call transcripts, it is difficult to handle but extremely valuable, offering greater insight into customer

needs and market trends. In our case, the core target of Al Ramz is to implement the data-oriented client services utilising or creating Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence capabilities.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSES AND HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS?

Predictive analytics enables businesses to identify potential

EYAD KASHKASH, SVP, Group Head of Information Technology Al Ramz Corporation PJSC

events and opportunities before they occur. Predicative analysis is widely used in identifying potential risks and improve customer services at Al Ramz like improve customer retention, identify profitable customers, improve customer segmentation, improve decision making, predict and quantify risks, predict demand and optimize pricing, find new revenue opportunities to gain a competitive advantage and optimize processes and performance.

Here's the basic process we follow at Al Ramz:

l We analyse our existing data, to learn statistical patterns, these patterns include but not limited to customer data, trading patterns, sectors where customer focus more, products customer interested more, various risks etc.

l From those patterns we create a set of rules, which describes how to apply the patterns to new data.

l We then pass new data through the created models and the rules make some sort of predictions about what may occur in the future.

l Last but not least we compare the predicted data with actual results and improve our model and/or data patterns.

IN YOUR OPINION HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS BEGIN WITH PREDICTIVE ANALYSES

Predictive analytics fits into the spectrum of analytics, started with descriptive which is the most basic of the analytics, it is basically just cleaning, relating, summarising and visualizing your data, really getting to the questions about what’s happening in my business (a decent dashboard) and then there’s diagnostic which is really getting down to why things are happening, what causing my revenue to decline or to increase, how are things related, so if you have got a good base of these then you are ready to move into predictive analytics which is going to dive into what’s going to happen in the future.

HOW ARE YOU DRIVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S 2022-23 MODERNIZATION STRATEGY?

IT modernization, the global threat landscape is constantly evolving and remaining competitive and modernizing our digital environment for great power competition is imperative for Al Ramz. Now fast-evolving engineering is leveraging cloud-based alternatives that integrate DevOps, APIs, serverless architecture, and microservices for business betterment. Incremental integration of company-wide sensory networks and smart (cognitive) computing is renewing archaic IT systems and validating their product-market fit. Our approach is simple. We will increase technological capabili-

ties across the company and strengthen overall adoption of enterprise systems to achieve our digital modernization goals that summarized herein:

l Innovate for competitive advantage

l Optimize for efficiencies and improved capability

l evolve cybersecurity for an agile and resilient posture

l prepare talents for a ready digital workforce

WITH THE OVER-INCREASING IMPACT OF COVID VARIANTS, HOW WILL LIFE, BUSINESS, AND PUBLIC HEALTH CHANGE IN 2022 AND WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON YOUR INDUSTRY?

Experts say that Covid will likely lose its “pandemic” status sometime in 2022 and it will become more seasonal, due largely to rising global vaccination rates and developments of antiviral Covid pills that could become more widespread over the coming few months. The UAE’s high vaccination rate and relatively young population places it in a strong position to withstand the current and maybe the future waves of infections without needing to reimpose the strict measures implemented in 2020.

However, if the virus does become more seasonal, wearing a mask on public transit and indoors during Covid season could become the norm.

Despite Covid variants, UAE enjoyed a strong economic growth in 2021 due to different factors like rebounding tourism, increasing demand of real estate market, EXPO Dubai 2020 and the increase in oil prices, all these factors, supported the UAE stock markets heavily and have had positive performance in 2021. Therefore, the outlook of 2022 is broadly constructive, and UAE stock markets to remain positive.

Integrated Digital Ecosystems

PREDICT, PRE-EMP, PREAUTHORIZE: HOW CIOS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022?

Business in the digital age is impossible without a strong technology platform. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an im-

SHINOJ SEBASTIAN, Group Head of IT, Royal Group LLC

portant exclamation point to make this reality clear to the C-suite and board. With this foundation, CIOs have a unique opportunity to become business drivers by effective analytics of DATA. The biggest issue is that there’s so much of it that companies have tremendous difficulty making sense of it. CIOs can transform enterprise IT, b using Big Data to glean information, that can be applied to improve business performance and productivity in an organization. Predictive analytics of big data formulate business intelligence to take key business decisions.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSES AND HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS?

Predictive analytics transforms Data into Insight. Predictive analytics empowers business leaders to take more faster and confident decisions. We are corporate IT for Royal Group with 200+ companies spanned across 7+ industry verticals. We Have setup a Data Analytics and Business Intelligence strategy to add business value to our group entities and stakeholders. We are looking forward for real tangible benefits not limited to gain competitive advantage, new revenue opportunities, optimize processes and performance, increase utilization of assets, improve collaboration and controls, reduce business risks.

IN YOUR OPINION HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS BEGIN WITH PREDICTIVE ANALYSES?

Following can be a 5-step process to begin Predictive Analysis journey:

1. Find a promising business use case, where company requires solution for that problem.

2. Identify the data you need and cleanse the data.

3. Identify a cross function team to test the data.

4. Create a proof of concept and partner with stakeholders at every step of the journey.

5. Plan a predictive analytics roadmap.

HOW ARE YOU DRIVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S 2022-23 MODERNIZATION STRATEGY?

An organizational modernization strategy is best described as the process of transforming legacy applications and processes to newer systems, frameworks, infrastructure platforms and optimized

processes. Our technology modernization is not just making our applications faster and more reliable but enabling business to decrease costs and increase innovation by transforming the IT landscape into an integrated digital ecosystem with modern workspace. Although we have multiple business verticals across Real estate, Manufacturing, Industrial, Utilities, HealthCare, Retail, Entertainment, Financial Services & Investments, Aviation, etc, we are driving our Enterprise IT strategy to have standardized frameworks and processes while customized applications, processes and workflows do exist.

WITH THE OVER-INCREASING IMPACT OF COVID VARIANTS, HOW WILL LIFE, BUSINESS, AND PUBLIC HEALTH CHANGE IN 2022 AND WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON YOUR INDUSTRY?

The impact of the coronavirus is being felt by all businesses around the world. Being a big group and complex operational structure, our leaders are navigating a broad range of interrelated issues that span from keeping our employees and customer safe, reorienting operations, and navigating government support programs. We foresee to create a balanced workforce of the future, by taking a strategic approach that applies a digital mind-set to the reinvention of work. The positive impact of Covid-19 is Digital Adoption & Transformation, not limited to streamlining of processes, harnessing data, analytics, and automation, shaping entirely new ways of doing business, etc this is about uniting every part of the enterprise in a common purpose.

Leading Continuous Change

PREDICT, PRE-EMP, PRE-AUTHORIZE: HOW CIOS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022?

Certainly, more business automation going to be accelerating in the coming days as well big data will play a huge role in driving business. more enhancement shall and it started with many analytic solutions. Cloud strategy keep going on as its one of the successful and most supportive things that helped business during the pandemic.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSES AND HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS?

Predictive analyses can be used throughout the organization, we are in the hospitality industry depends a lot since years ago on predictive analyses. For Revenue forecast where we try to increase revenue and maximize occupancy, F&B as well were we try to depend on it to get the new F&B concept launched successfully as well our marketing plan depends on it a lot. It helps to reduce the risk of business losses and even to improve operation not forgetting the technology and strategies that need to be deployed.

IN YOUR OPINION HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS BEGIN WITH PREDICTIVE ANALYSES?

It always should start by defining the business goals, as said the predictive analyses can be for increasing revenue or maximizing occupancy for example, so once you define your business goals you can be able to decide on the predictive analyses model that your organization will use and how to use. Even that would support to change from one goal to another as we witnessed during Covid-19 hospitality was hit bad and allow me to say the smart turn around was amazing in UAE; hotels started to focus on maximizing occupancy and staycation which kept business running at healthy levels till business start to recover and then again you see hospitality change behavior to increase revenue without losing occupancy on the right time.

HOW ARE YOU DRIVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S 2022-23 MODERNIZATION STRATEGY?

One of the success elements that I believe in it is, accept, support and leading continuous change. We keep actively monitoring our business requirements and provide the needed tools and mechanisms to support the continuous change needs to be able to coop with market changes.

MOHAMMAD QATTASH, Cluster Director , Information Technology at Fairmont The Palm

WITH THE EVER-INCREASING IMPACT OF COVID VARIANTS, HOW WILL LIFE, BUSINESS, AND PUBLIC HEALTH CHANGE IN 2022, AND WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON YOUR INDUSTRY?

Let me start by saying it’s changed already, but I hope it’s changing for the better now. One of the good things of such impact is that we start to understand and learn from such situations to be prepared and ready for anything, forecasting and flexibility for business changes have changed and start to be more lenient. We had learned to be able to work and plan for a vague future if I can describe it like this. We learned to spend smartly plan well ahead try to be advanced and ready for any change, to be agile in every aspect.

Clear Sequential Objectives

PREDICT, PRE-EMP, PREAUTHORIZE: HOW CIOS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022?

In 2022, CIOs would have been away from developing the infrastructures. They will think about where the company could go in a new way. They would rethink of digital leadership appropriately.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSES AND HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS?

Predictive analytics provides valuable information for decision making. This enables you to take advantage of future

MICHEAL SELVA KUMAR, IT Manager, Golden Tulip Nizwa Hotel

trends and, at the same time, respond to challenges before they occur. Predictive analytics has drawn a lot of attention in recent years.

IN YOUR OPINION HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS BEGIN WITH PREDICTIVE ANALYSES?

Predictive analytics makes applications infinitely more valuable, separates software from competitors, and offers new revenue streams. Find a promising predictive use case are Identify the data you need, Gather a team of beta testers, Create rapid proofs of concept, Integrate predictive analytics in your operations, to develop with Partner with stakeholders.

HOW ARE YOU DRIVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S 2022-23 MODERNIZATION STRATEGY?

An effective modernization strategy doesn’t just make your applications faster and more reliable. It enables you to decrease costs and increase innovation by not simply modernizing your products, but by transforming your product portfolio into a true PLATFORM. Modernizing your applications can be a long journey with many different work streams. Setting clear, sequential objectives will ensure your teams’ focus is on the right items. Ensuring the right people are taking on the right tasks is mission-critical when planning a modernization roadmap. Appointing Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for each application will allow your team to divide and conquer. Develop a systematic approach to the major organizational changes that inevitably come with application modernization. Ultimately, mature technical leadership will ensure your business goals are not compromised throughout the process.

WITH THE OVER-INCREASING IMPACT OF COVID VARIANTS, HOW WILL LIFE, BUSINESS AND PUBLIC

HEALTH CHANGE IN 2022 AND WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON YOUR INDUSTRY?

COVID-19 deasease Embracement of digital technology, either through online services or information-sharing platforms like Zoom, has kept people and consumers connected around the world. Digital savviness will become a necessity, rather than an alternative, for schools, businesses, and healthcare providers. IN all countries, online shopping, including grocery shopping, has become more prevalent. COVID-19 is becoming the accelerator for one of the most drastic workplace transformations in recent years. How we work, socialize, shop, learn, communicate, and, of course, where we work will be changed forever. Person–environment (P-E) fit theories highlight that employee–environment value congruence is important because values influence outcomes through motivation. However, given the current environment, in which the fulfillment of needs and desires like greater satisfaction, higher engagement, and overall well-being is drastically altered, there is an increased likelihood of misfits working in organizations. Due to covid, companies productivity goes low and economically goes down. So automatically companies deside to reduce the employees. Organizations need to use virtual forms of recruitment, training, and socialization in lieu of face-to-face interactions. Human resource leaders within the organization must enhance relationshiporiented human resources systems in order to combat the risk of unforeseen. Entrepreneurs’ struggles are largely caused by the lack of work-related social support in comparison to salaried employees. some entrepreneurs are known to specific sources of social support, such as positive feedback from customers, ultimately enhances their well-being.

The Data Science Approach

PREDICT, PRE-EMP, PRE-AUTHORIZE: HOW CIOS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022?

Data is the most important ingredient of any business, in today’s digital world data is oil for the new economy, generally, stakeholders take a decision based on historical data, applying analytics on BI tools and industry standard reports etc. but now time is to go little bit deeper and close look up on data and do microscopic analysis you may find few surprise patterns, consumer behaviors, buying and consuming behavior changes specially this change occurs post-pandemic and which continuously surprising us and forcing to take a corrective decision for positive and accelerative business results. Data is a reflection of consumers' buying, consuming patterns and CIO always keep a close look at data and continuously does predictive analysis by applying business KPIs and extracting meaningful results to achieve short and long terms business goal.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSES AND HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS?

Predictive analytics is technique of data representation which gives indicative numbers or score to drive your business in right di-

rection, predictive analytics is directly proportionate to accuracy of data, In business, predictive models exploit patterns found in historical and transactional data to identify risks and opportunities. The defining functional effect of these technical approaches is that predictive analytics provides a predictive score (probability) for each individual (customer, employee, healthcare patient, product SKU, vehicle, component, machine, or other organizational unit), Predictive Analyses will help to organised the routine task in more and more productive and improvised way, the organisations gain the highest return on critical assets by supporting predictive maintenance (PdM) programs. Predictive Analytics solution provides early warning notification and diagnosis of equipment issues days, weeks or months before failure. This helps assetintensive organisations reduce equipment downtime, increase reliability, and improve performance while reducing operations and maintenance expenditures.

PREDICT, PRE-EMP, PREAUTHORIZE: HOW CIOS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022? ?

Data is the most important ingredient of any business, in today’s digital world data is oil for the new economy, generally, stakeholders take a decision based on his-

MANOJ SRIVASTAVA, Vice President-IT, EaseMyTrip.com

TOP GLOBAL CIOs

torical data, applying analytics on BI tools and industry standard reports etc. but now time is to go little bit deeper and close look up on data and do microscopic analysis you may find few surprise patterns, consumer behaviors, buying and consuming behavior changes specially this change occurs post-pandemic and which continuously surprising us and forcing to take a corrective decision for positive and accelerative business results. Data is a reflection of consumers' buying, consuming patterns and CIO always keep a close look at data and continuously does predictive analysis by applying business KPIs and extracting meaningful results to achieve short and long terms business goal.

IN YOUR OPINION HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS BEGIN WITH PREDICTIVE ANALYSES

Predictive analysis is a very serious exercise, being a CIO I adopted the 'Data Science' approach to collect raw data from various sources i.e. web, social media, survey, historical and transaction data from the conventical databases, excel and txt files, and kept reading, cleaning and transforming by applying effective AI/ML and NLP methodology and creates 360 views, 360 Views helps to generates a holistic view of the current business and potential futuristic growth, and way to correct it. A visionary CIO is always involved in simplifying the business processes and enabling it with data to dashboard journey, honestly speaking industry standard and best practices business process sometime may not works, business dynamics changing very quickly, especially in e-Commerce space where consumer drive the business, business owner only need to fulfil the requirement and improvise customer experience, so data only speaks and guide us what need to promote the business and effectively serve the best.

HOW ARE YOU DRIVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S

2022-23 MODERNIZATION STRATEGY?

Year 2022-23 is the era of digitalization! most of the industry might be adopted digital strategy while driving business strategy. Digital jumpstarts begin already, only adoption maturity increasing and measured industry to industry, online travel, FinTech, eCommerce supplier, venders and service providers already adopted and reaches ultimate maturity level, manufacturing, automobile or Industry 4.0 may take little more time to reach at digital maturity level. Year 2022-23 may be much matured and visible digital year, where most of business processed digitally enabled and visible to all internal and external users/customers. Digital strategy and journey will be prime agenda of board meetings and business alignment with business partners, vendors and suppliers will be digitally mapped and exchanged agreement, business

partnership electronically signed-up using DocuSign or similar product, internal and external department or organization can be connected and processes through approved digital workflow, most of B2B business will be digitally processed and executed. In year 2022-23 and onwards some of the business may be not eligible to do the business if digitally not equipped, in another word in year 2022-23 onwards we can see massive change over in digital adoption.

WITH THE OVER-INCREASING IMPACT OF COVID VARIANTS, HOW WILL LIFE, BUSINESS AND PUBLIC HEALTH CHANGE IN 2022 AND WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON YOUR INDUSTRY?

Invisible COVID-19 visually impacted the whole world, not only business as usual but also change in our thoughts processes. CXOs mindset also changed, have revised business processes, review IT investments, replanning and revised complete IT ecosystems and architecture. Most of business got affected due to COVID Pandemic, people and business lifestyle has changed in many ways, COVID was good learning phase for all of us which gave us temporary pause to correct ourselves, time for introspection and react on past and current business, processes, health and work life balance etc. most of people lost their job most of left the job and started something own, 85% professional activities gone virtual, web, zoom, teams’ meetings live 24x7, virtual / online shopping increase many folds, online payment mechanism increases – paytm, gpay, wallet payment method enabled every corner. HR flexible enough to offer WFH or WFO as ultimately results loudly speaks and same time people have option to choose, obesely industry got affected due to CORONA Pandemic but industry can do better than past if change the business model.

Using Modernization for Speed, Innovation and Agility

HOW CIOS WILL USE DATA TO ACCURATELY DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS IN 2022?

There is a vast amount of data created every day. The estimate suggests that there will be 175 zetta bytes of data in the global datasphere by 2025. While data on its own is meaningless, when combined with the right business intelligence solutions, it suddenly becomes a goldmine of insights that can reveal trends impacting businesses and our daily lives. As data becomes easily available, it

In the past, such tasks were handled by engineers and data scientists. But with the advent of different BI tools and increasing data literacy, business leaders can easily interpret data and bring predictive analytics into their daily decision-making processes. The nexus between business intelligence and predictive analytics is no secret. On their own, business intelligence tools help you understand what happened in the past or is happening now. When combined with predictive analytics, it suddenly provides a glimpse into the future and lets businesses better position themselves to achieve their goals based on historical data.

Use cases of predictive analytics in Business Intelligence.

1. Reduce Customer Churn 2. Maintain Business Integrity 3. Gain Competitive Advantage 4. Customer Servicing 5. Improve Core Business Capacity

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSES AND HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS?

Predictive analytics uses past and current datasets to forecast events and generate insights. This helps organizations to detect risks and uncover opportunities, by gener-

ANIL KAMBLE, VP - Information Technology at LGT India

ating actionable outcomes that an organization can use to reach its goal.

Predictive Analytics Benefits

Predictive Analytics gives accurate and reliable insights, helping organizations to solve problems and identify opportunities. Such as:

Detecting Fraud

As cybersecurity increases, Predictive Analytics helps to identify abnormalities that may indicate cyber vulnerabilities and threats. This helps organizations put relevant procedures in place, and keep their data and business safe from fraud and other online threats.

Reducing Risk

Predictive analytics is used in the finance and insurance sectors to construct accurate and reliable pictures of customers, to help with effective decision making. For example, credit scores determine the creditworthiness of an individual – which helps to reduce the organization’s risk while approving the loan to individuals.

Optimising Marketing Campaigns

Predictive Analytics helps to analyze data to identify new opportunities to attract or retain customers.

Improving Decision Making

Predictive Analytics allows for more advanced decision-making. The more data that the software has available, the better-informed decisions you can make.

Improving Efficiency in Operations

Predictive analytics is used in many ways in my organization as we belong to BFSI sector. With huge amounts of data and money, the BFSI sector uses Predictive Analytics to detect and reduce fraud, measure credit risk, maximize up-sell and cross-sell opportunities and retain valuable customers. Predictive Analytics can also be used in Debt Collection and Personal Lending as it helps to create a 360-degree portrait of the client, taking into consideration more details than ever before. The Insurance industry uses Predictive Analytics to help businesses prevent customer churn and keep customers for a longer period. We also use predictive analytics to forecast the economy and forecast the sector which will give better returns for our customers.

HOW ARE YOU DRIVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S 2022-23 MODERNIZATION STRATEGY?

Modern application architecture has kept evolving continuously to be loosely coupled, using micro services and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), which provide the foundation for cloudnative applications. The need to evolve, make progress, and stay relevant in the current business landscape, is what sets the wheels of transformation in motion. Some of the typical legacy modern-

ization drivers that necessitate business and IT to explore modernization strategies are:

• Aligning with the organization’s IT vision and goal

• Faster time-to-market – innovation, agility

• Reducing cost

• Improving user experience

• Adhering to compliance and regulatory requirements

• Overcoming skill shortage

• Eliminating complex disconnected monolithic systems and improving integration

WITH THE OVER-INCREASING IMPACT OF COVID VARIANTS, HOW WILL LIFE, BUSINESS AND PUBLIC HEALTH CHANGE IN 2022 AND WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON YOUR INDUSTRY?

The level of volatility will only increase in 2022. New variants will continue to emerge and may cause workplaces to temporarily go remote again. Hybrid work will create more unevenness around where, when, and how much different employees are working. Many employees will be greeted with real wage cuts as annual compensation increases fall behind inflation. These realities will be layered on top of longerterm technological transformation, and ongoing political disruption and uncertainty. Banking and financial enterprises have started shifting their business focus toward digital transformation acceleration and this has enabled them to revisit their operating model activities. With the high demand for cloud-based application development tools and data analytics increasing dramatically in the area, leading BFSIs are striving to bring new technologies to the market and embracing hybrid cloud-based solutions to deliver a higher value proposition and services to financial customers.

Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Racing Strengthen Partnership to Revolutionize Fan Experience

To provide EV engineering capabilities and drive Digital Transformation to enhance performance management

In a bid to focus on responsible business growth that can help shape a better and sustainable future, Tech Mahindrahas partnered with Mahindra Racing, the greenest team in motorsport and the only Indian team to compete in ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, for the fifth consecutive season. This partnership was announced today in Riyadh on the opening race day for Season 8 of Formula E.

As part of the partnership, Tech Mahindra will leverage a dynamic and unique eRace Track Analytics platform with live analytics, wind tunnel simulations, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) powered systems, to develop next-generation state-of-the-art green automotive solutions. Engineering Services will bring in enhanced Performance Management through alternative com ponent design, lighter new materials, Aerodynamics Simulations, Hyper Cloud Compute power and Racetrack Telemetry Analytics.

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., one of the founding members of Formula E, Mahindra Racing has been a pioneer of EV technology. Combining that with next-gen eration stateof-the-art software and analyt ics solutions

from Tech Mahindra, will enable us to deliver superior engineering performance and a thrilling experience to the racing enthusiasts. This partnership is a step further in strengthening our commitment towards clean technology and sustainability.”

CP Gurnani, MD and CEO, Tech Mahindra, said, “With an aim to become a world leader in sustainability practices, Tech Mahindra has been a forerunner in providing next-gen solutions to drive towards a greener economy. In line with this, we are happy to strengthen our ongoing partnership with another Mahindra Group entity to further the vision of ‘One Mahindra’,

and build a more sustainable mobility solution by integrating differentiated technological innovation with a world-class design. As an organization with a purpose, we had committed to reach net-zero before 2050, and our ongoing collaboration with Mahindra Racing is yet another milestone towards achieving that goal.”

Sustainability is an integral part of Mahindra Racing. As the greenest team in motorsport, Mahindra Racing has a vast number of sustainability credentials including the first and only motorsport team to be certified a Net Zero Carbon footprint since inception, the first Formula E team accredited to the FIA Environmental Accreditation Programme and the second motorsport team in the world to achieve highest Three-Star Sustainability Accreditation.

Dilbagh Gill, Team Principal and CEO, Mahindra Racing, said, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with Tech Mahindra and leverage their expertise to

help achieve our goals on track, as well as play an integral part in our ‘Race to Road’ programme. We are committed to find credible, advanced and next generation mobility solutions while being kind to the planet and pledge to greater Return on Climate and Environment (ROCE). With Tech Mahindra’s support, we aim to achieve our on-track goals in an environmentally responsible fashion, using industry-leading energy efficient and sustainable solutions.”

Jagdish Mitra, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Growth, Tech Mahindra, said, “With Tech Mahindra’s expertise on driving performance for 15+ Electric Vehicle brands and 10+ sporting brands, we are poised to build and re-imagine the fan experience for racing enthusiasts. In line with this, we are now strengthening our long-standing partnership with Mahindra Racing, ‘The Greenest Team in Motorsport’ to use our core competency in electric vehicle engineering and tech innovations to deliver unparalleled fan experience, enhance engineering performance and provide sustainable e-mobility solutions on the racing track.”

Tech Mahindra has been focused towards sustainable and equitable growth. It is the only Indian company among 44 companies to be awarded HRH The Prince of Wales’ Terra Carta Seal in recognition of its commitment to creating a sustainable future. As part of NXT.NOWTM framework, which aims to enhance ‘Hu-

MeitY CoE Enterprise Innovation Challenge with NASSCOM calls for tech innovation to achieve ESG Goals

As businesses and corporates undergoes a paradigm shift leveraging ESG measures to compute the ethical and sustainable impact of their investments, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) Centre of Excellence (CoE) for IoT & AI in collaboration with KITS (Karnataka Innovation & Technology Society) and Nasscom launched the 2nd edition of the Enterprise Innovation Challenge (EIC) with a focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals.

Initiated in 2021, EIC aims to leverage the innovations created by Indian entrepreneurs and nurture sustained engagements

between innovative start-ups and enterprises. In the virtual inaugural session of the EIC Challenge esteemed panelists called for a greater role of technology in nation’s ESG goals.

The use cases will undergo rigorous brainstorming and evaluation until the most commendable and cost-effective innovative solution is shortlisted. Interested entities will avail these solutions for

augmenting, improving, and scaling up the ESG challenges defined by the enterprises

Calling for greater role of technology in achieving ESG goals, Mr Abhishek Singh, CEO, Digital India, MeitY, said “As we mature into a truly global economy, ESG will be one of the top priorities for our industry and for all of us. Recently at COP26, our Hon’ble Prime Minister made the net zero commitment and this will require each one of us, including government and the industry to put our best foot forward to ensure that we are able to put forward a sustainable agenda which not only takes care of our present day needs but also the needs of the future. Even in corporate governance, what we really need is that if our unicorns have to become real value adding companies and if our startups have

to go up and become the best in the world, the adoption of ethical corporate governance standards become very important part of it. I am sure that the solutions coming out of the Enterprise Innovation Challenge will help not just corporates but also the Government.”

In her inaugural address, Ms Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, said “Today ESG has become a top priority not just for governments but also for our clients, investors as well as for employees across the Tech industry. There has been a sharp rise in conversations around ESG, companies are not just becoming alert to ESG performance of vendors or partners that they are willing to work with, but investors also are using ESG as metrics to drive investments. In India alone, the assets under management for ESG funds rose by 2.5 times in just a year. From 275 million USD in Fiscal Year 20, the assets under management for ESG funds went up to 650 million USD in Fiscal Year 21”

Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General, TERI (The Energy & Resources Institute) said “To move in the right direction for ESG, one of the most fundamental and crucial thing is mindset. As a society we need to adopt the right mindset to achieve our goals. From an industrial perspective, it is not only the production and processes but also the raw material which goes in which needs to be looked into from our ESG goals perspective.”

Ms Mona Soni, Global Head of ESG Technology, S&P Global Sustainable1 said “More than ever, investors and companies seek evidence-based insights, high quality data and advanced analytics to support the decisions driving their strategies linking sustainability and business performance. Technology will be a key lever in accelerating progress and supporting innovation in this rapidly evolving ESG market.”

This MeitY initiative, in collaboration with KITS (Karnataka Innovation & Technology Society), Government of Karnataka and Nasscom which aims to foster innovation in the space, also presented some unique use cases like ‘Market transformation towards Sustainable Palm Oil’ establishing the linkage between sustainable palm oil and biodiversity conservation, climate and how it can help attract youth attention and possible action on this issue. Another use case by Novartis titled ‘Environmental sustainability – thermal renewable energy’ focused on looking for scalable and reliable alternatives to natural gas, diesel, and other carbon-generation sources to produce thermal energy. And the Use Case of Diageo ‘Accelerate to a Low Carbon World– Moving towards NET ZERO CARBON’ highlights its efforts towards achieving NET ZERO Carbon in its direct operations by innovative to reduce carbon in the value chain by 50%.

Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia Selects Thought Machine to Build a State-Of-The-Art Islamic Digital Bank

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE/AETOSWire)-- Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia (ARBM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the world's largest Islamic bank by assets, Al Rajhi Bank of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), has selected Thought Machine, the cloud native core banking technology firm, to power their upcoming nextgeneration digital bank and strengthen their position as a leader in Islamic banking.

Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia embarked on a multi-year digital transformation in 2021 and the Bank will deploy Thought Machine’s core banking engine, Vault, to launch a new digital bank in 2022 with a range of sophisticated retail and SME financial services, such as savings and financing products.

The unique design of the Vault platform will enable Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia to deliver on their ambitions and launch an endto-end next-generation bank. The bank will harness Vault’s Universal Product Engine to design, launch and manage a full suite of products on a single, clear architecture.

Furthermore, Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia is building a full suite of Shariah-compliant products and Vault’s product building capabili-

ties will be instrumental in allowing the bank to build and offer services tailored to their customers’ individual needs.

Thought Machine has been selected by a number of tier one and large retail banks and the company also works with smaller, agile fintechs and challengers. Clients include JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, ING Bank and SEB.

In 2019, Thought Machine opened its APAC HQ in Singapore and was selected by Standard Chartered Bank to power their greenfield digital banking service, Mox. Across Asia Pacific, Thought Machine has more than 50 employees and continues to execute its growth strategy to supply more banks with cloud native core banking technology in 2022.

"Thought Machine has been selected by a number of tier one and large retail banks and the company also works with smaller, agile fintechs and challengers. Clients include JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, ING Bank and SEB.

In 2019, Thought Machine opened its APAC HQ in Singapore and was selected by Standard Chartered Bank to power their greenfield digital banking service, Mox. Across Asia Pacific, Thought Machine has more than 50 employees and continues to execute its growth strategy to supply more banks with cloud native core banking technology in 2022."

- Arsalaan Ahmed, CEO of Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia

“We are delighted that Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia has selected us to power their new bank. As a leader in Islamic banking, Al Rajhi Malaysia Bank has a considerable opportunity to launch an exceptional next-generation banking service – and we have no doubt they will succeed. We look forward to working together to deliver on their ambitious and exciting vision.”

-Paul Taylor, CEO and founder of Thought Machine

About About

Thought Machine

Thought Machine was founded in 2014 with a mission to enable banks to deploy modern systems and move away from the legacy IT platforms that plague the banking industry. We do this through our cloud native core banking platform, Vault. This next generation system has been written from scratch as an entirely cloud native platform. It does not contain a single line of code which is legacy, or pre-cloud. We are currently a team of more than 500 people spread across offices in London, New York, Singapore, Sydney, and Melbourne, and have raised more than $340m in funding at a $1bn+ valuation. For more information visit thoughtmachine.net

ARBM, a wholly owned subsidiary of the world’s largest Islamic Bank, Al Rajhi Bank Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was locally incorporated in October 2006. Following its official launch in 2007, ARBM became the first Arab bank to start its operation in South East Asia, as part of a Shariah compliant banking group that is instrumental in bridging the gap between modern financial demands and intrinsic values, whilst spearheading numerous industry standards and development.

At ARBM, we believe that the one thing that holds the world together as people of different nationalities, races and cultures are values. Values define us, unite us, and garner trust from those we serve. Deeply rooted in Islamic banking principles and operating on the same platform as its home bank, ARBM was established on the bedrock values of Integrity and Transparency, Passion to Serve Our Customers, Solution Oriented, Modesty, Innovativeness, Meritocracy and Care for Society.

ARBM continuously endeavours to expand its suite of products and services to meet the financial needs of its customers, delivering innovative Shariah compliant financial solutions across retail, corporate, treasury and investment segments. Today, ARBM operates through a distribution network of 16 branches nationwide.

Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corporation (Malaysia) Bhd (ARBM)

Etisalat crowned as the strongest telecom brand in the world

Etisalat has been ranked as the world’s strongest telecom brand and is the first in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region to achieve this milestone recognition by Brand Finance, the world’s leading brand valuation authority.

With a telecom portfolio of well over US$ 12.5 billion, Etisalat not only retained its AAA brand rating but also its position in MEA as the strongest brand across all categories and the most valuable brand portfolio . These accolades underline the UAE’s leadership position globally in its cutting-edge telecom infrastructure and strategic advances in digital transformation.

ENG. HATEM DOWIDAR, CEO, Etisalat Group

Eng. Hatem Dowidar, CEO, Etisalat Group, said: “To be recognised as the world’s strongest telecom brand and as the most valuable telecom brand portfolio in MEA underline the success of our strategic initiatives to build a robust telecom infrastructure that creates added value for our customers wherever we serve. With our relentless focus on being customer-centric, we continue to push our horizons by investing in next generation technology that enhance our service offering and help shape the digital future.”

DIEZ announces new leadership team to steer new growth path

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ), appointed a new leadership team to drive DIEZ's free zones and central divisions towards a new era of excellence and integration.

DIEZ aims to raise Dubai’s position as a regional and global investment destination and contribute to achieving the emirate’s strategic priorities through its economic zones, which are the Dubai Airport Free Zone, Dubai Silicon Oasis, and Dubai CommerCity. Further, DIEZ aims to boost economic growth, contribute to shaping the future economic map of Dubai, and create more diverse investment opportunities.

SHEIKH AHMED BIN SAEED AL MAKTOUM, Chairman of

Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ)

HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum emphasized that the new appointments for the Authority's top leadership positions came in line with the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in developing and strengthening the role of human resources for sustainable growth, business expansion, and in consolidating the emirate's position as a global investment hub. He called on them to strengthen the spirit of teamwork and openness, foster best practices, improve commercial services and solutions, and stimulate the culture of innovation and proactive thinking while keeping pace with the rapid economic developments.

DR. MONA AL ALI, Manager of the Badiri Academy

Badiri Education and Development Academy, the knowledge and capacity building arm of NAMA Women Advancement Establishment (NAMA), has underlined its commitment to shaping women’s developmental journey and preparing them for the changing nature of the workplace by enhancing access to knowledge, capacity building and skills development.

At a roundtable organised recently at the Women’s Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, the NAMA affiliate brought together representatives from international organisations and learning providers to stimulate conversation on opening new doors for women by equipping them with upskilling and reskilling opportunities in preparation for future work requirements.

The roundtable titled, ‘Women and Future jobs: What It Takes to Succeed’, organised in partnership with Education For Employment (EFE), Ministry of Human Resources & Emiratisation; HSBC, LinkedIn, and Coursera, took place against the backdrop of the Global Goals Week, which was held in the UAE for the first time outside of the UN General Assembly in New York.

In her opening remarks, Dr. Mona Al Ali, Manager of the Badiri Academy, stated how the Covid-19 pandemic has triggered permanent shifts in the way we work today. Citing a recent research report, she said: “20% of women employed today will see their jobs replaced by automation by 2030 and more than 52% of these comprise of jobs in the services and clerical sectors. This means millions of people worldwide will be faced with career shifts or must retrain for new kinds of work. Developing skills that are in demand is essential to providing women the flexibility and mobility to transition to the new world of work.”

Badiri calls for a holistic skills development approach to advance women in the future workplace at Expo 2020 Dubai

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