WFH will lead to newer opportunities

The day 3 of the Digital Technology Senate had two panel discussions and a partner session from MongoDB. The Panel Discussion: How COVID has amplified the digital experience of BFSI Industry consisted of panelists from BFSI, regulator and vendor / partner.

#TechSenate | The role of #CTOs and #CFOs will see a huge change in a #postCovid world: Sanjeev Chopra, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director, @IFFCO__TOKIO at the #DigitalTechnologySenate – #BFSI Track #TechnologySenate @srikrp @NivedanPrakash

— Express Computer (@ExpComputer) July 2, 2020

Puneet Gupta, Managing Director, NetApp India & SAARC aptly commented on the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, “IT will no longer remain just a support system, it will be now at the core of every business,” He said.

Work from home will be a key component of running businesses, if not on a wider scale, then atleast to a major extent. “Physical branches have always been important at Mahindra Finance, but our large network has also allowed our workforce to work from anywhere,” said Gururaj Rao, CIO, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services. At the field level, the company has had a seamless transition so far.

#TechSenate | Organisations are looking to drive change that goes beyond this #pandemic: Girish Nayak, Chief – Customer Service, Technology and Operations, @ICICILombard at the #DigitalTechnologySenate – #BFSI Track #TechnologySenate @srikrp @NivedanPrakash

— Express Computer (@ExpComputer) July 2, 2020

The challenges were small, given the opportunities presented by remote working approach. “The challenges have also lead to a lot of innovations. We have now realised the possibilities that were earlier not known to us,” said Yusuf Pachmariwala, EVP & Head of Operations, Tata AIA Life Insurance.

For Vishal Anand Kanvaty, Senior VP – Products and Innovation, NPCI, the remote working environment has been as productive as an office environment.

Companies have also seen a huge adoption of the digital channels. “We are very happy with the digital adoption by customers,” said Rao. For Universal Sompo General Insurance, the company marked a growth of 16 percent during the lockdown, said Anupam Singh, Head-IT. The peripheral applications are now integrated with the core application. The management stressed on building data enrichment capabilities, and efforts have begun in this direction.

#TechSenate | Our remote working environment has been as productive as an office environment: Vishal Anand Kanvaty, Senior VP – Products and Innovation, @NPCI_NPCI at the #DigitalTechnologySenate – #BFSI Track #TechnologySenate @srikrp @NivedanPrakash

— Express Computer (@ExpComputer) July 2, 2020

Vikas Malhotra, Head of Enterprise Business, LogMeIn said, “The demand for our solutions has seen a significant spike,”
     
According to Goutam Datta, Chief information and Digital Officer, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, “The pandemic has forced us to rethink, redefine and become agile; A new concept has now come in – the new normal or the new abnormal; The need to have good partners has increased in the times of Covid-19,”

The session MongoDB Data as a service platform was presented by Suvig Sharma, Senior Director APAC, MongoDB and Himanshu Mali, Senior Solution Architect, MongoDB. They presented on how MongoDB solves the data related challenges for organisations. There’s an increasing use of data for last mile services, enrichment and personalisation. “We have over 18,400 customers across all industries,” said Sharma. In 2017, MongoDB became the first database company to go public in 25 years. From an operations perspective, organisations are looking at robust solutions. “We offer Data as a Service with Operational Data Layer,” said Mali. Data in silos prevents organisations to unlock the true value of data. MongoDB’s flexible document model makes it easier to work with MongoDB.

#TechSenate | Our entire peripheral applications are now integrated with the core application: Anupam Singh, Head-IT, @Universal_Sompo at the #DigitalTechnologySenate – #BFSI Track #TechnologySenate @srikrp @NivedanPrakash

— Express Computer (@ExpComputer) July 2, 2020

The second Panel Discussion: Solving Spend Challenges in Times of Uncertainty saw participation from Nitant Desai, Chief Operations and Technology officer, PNB Housing Finance; Sanjeev Chopra, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director, Iffco-Tokio General Insurance; Girish Nayak, Chief – Customer Service, Technology and Operations, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and Manjusha Nair, Country Director and VP for Service Delivery, India, SAP Concur.

Sanjeev Chopra, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director, Iffco-Tokio General Insurance, said, “Financial plans need to be recalibrated in accordance with the ‘new normal’ situation. Organisations need to reorganise their priorities in terms of spending. In a post Covid world, we have to look at reallocation of manpower resources,” Technology spends will increase, because organisations are now more and more adopting digital. Cost optimisation has become more important as revenues take a hit.

Organisations will rescale, reinvent digital technologies and also retract some of the older technologies.

According to Desai, “The right spend on technology should be the priority for organisations,”

Organisations can look at spend management controls in the applications. “An integrated solution can provide a single source of truth,” said Nair. 

Nayak said, Organisations are looking to drive change that lasts beyond this pandemic. Covid-19 has fast forwarded digital transformation, not just in organisations, but also at the customer’s end. The whole experience during the lockdown has been game changing for both, the company and our customers. “We always had digital solutions, but adoption has now seen a huge increase,” said Nayak.