On the road to transformation and resurgence, companies have been busy implementing numerous changes to meet the disruption caused in the last few years. However, one size does not fit all, and with that comes the capacity to recognise and assess which option will result in the best end in mitigating the event happening in these extraordinary times.
Digital tools assist firms to identify successful business strategies by fostering improved action, and responses, and exposing customer trends. Key trends like data analytics and peer statistics aid the firm in determining the industry’s path and potential future. IT expert Kaushik Bhaduri, Chief Technology Evangelist, ProcessIT Global, an IT service company, shared his thoughts with us.
- Can you share the key IT transformations you’ve seen in your quest to deliver a great customer experience?
Process transformation:
Digital transformation has been happening on the bedrock of process hygiene. Agile IT technologies such as DevOps, DevSecOps and DataOps have driven digital transformation in companies that are on track for the fastest change.
Mainstream Cloud:
Five years ago, cloud deployments were fraught with uncertainties, troubled by complexity and risk. For most enterprises included a few SaaS applications and repository of more experimental deployments of non-critical components for business. As the cloud technologies matured, the real change has been the willingness of organizations and large enterprises to take their applications and infrastructure into a public cloud environment.
Melding of traditional IT silos:
From a business perspective, companies are now trying to create a much more fluid IT environment. This comes from internalizing the idea that small teams of experts can outpace much larger teams, with a prudent combination of creative role definitions, low operational overheads and use of truly flexible tools.
Advent of Big data:
With BitStreams and Data Lakes becoming more ubiquitous, a fundamental shift swept through the core IT philosophy of most companies, as gold-dust insights were continuously unlocked by increasingly powerful analytics and modeling tools.
Customer centricity:
Last but not the least, change in perspective towards customer centricity has also contributed to a sea change of IT in the last 5 years. It comes from a happy acceptance that the customer is the focal point of all decisions related to delivering products, services and experiences. This forward-thinking approach has resulted in increased customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.
- How has customer experience evolved in the last few years, and how do you anticipate technologies will improve in the new normal, in light of the pandemic?
Through the life altering experiences related to the pandemic, such as lockdowns and restrictions of various sorts, virtually every aspect of people’s lives has been impacted. These changes entailed a reimagination and overhaul of how products and services were provided to customers in a safe and sustainable way. Towards this end, the rise in prominence of digital channels of communication and digital platforms of interaction with customers, are most notable developments. From a leadership point of view, it’s become clear that digital technologies will need to be at the heart of future strategies in order to maintain high levels of customer experience. The new uncertainties in the customer’s mind, makes it vital that companies build digital support channels and services that understand the user mindset and concerns first and foremost, whether the company is extending or enhancing existing services or introducing new capabilities.
- Data is the new gold, and information that is lost is extremely valuable. What should businesses do to safeguard the future of data in terms of security and storage?
The catastrophic implications of data loss are well understood, which makes data security and loss prevention of paramount importance to any organization, which is also why Data Security as a Service industry will grow close to 20 billion USD by end of 2025. The future of data security doesn’t lie in any specific tool or technology, it lies in a “prevention” mindset of the organization in control of the data, by that we mean developing an effective DPMS (Data Protection Management System) will be a combination of adopting the right protection and privacy standards, implementing assiduously the 4 pillars of protection (governance, assessment, training, and response) managing the workloads of key data protection officers and enabling the CISO to continually evaluate the Organizational Technology Landscape and creating a security first environment. Having said that, we also would like to point out that while being the new gold, it is well accepted that data in itself are facts without meaning, no data speaks to itself about reality but only acquires meaning when placed in the right context. So, protecting data and maintaining the integrity and agility of the insight generation process is equally important for future growth.
- Cyber security is now a must-have for any company undergoing digital transformation. Can you elaborate on the key ways it can protect a company in the new normal?
The post-pandemic era calls for a greater focus on cybersecurity because of the greater exposure to cyber risk, the inevitable increase in working from home is seen as a major cause for the world-wide increase in the number of cyber-attacks on enterprises. A case in point, between February 2020 and May 2020 more than half a million people were affected by breaches in which the personal data of video conferencing services users were stolen and sold on the dark web. It is beyond critical that businesses prepare for cyber risks by adopting proper security protocols and measures. Simple best practices encompassing employee participation goes a long way in minimizing the threats. Measures such as, employing antivirus protection, increasing cybersecurity and phishing awareness, using VPNs, identifying weak spots and breaches, frequent reviews etc. combined with more technical measures like perimeter hardening, zero trust implementation, cyber crisis simulation, role-based access etc. can effectively reduce the cyber-risk of an organization going forward.
- What, in your opinion, is the future of cybersecurity in terms of enabling businesses to stay on track toward economic recovery?
Covid 19 has ruthlessly exposed multiple shortcomings of our Cyber resilience, it downgraded Cybersecurity to mere collateral damage. At times, the most vulnerable were left without access to what they needed and the government was caught without the means or plans to immediately address those situations. To stay on track towards a macro economic recovery, organizations need to embed stringent security principles early into the software, tools and infrastructure development lifecycle, rather than securing platforms and applications after-the-fact with point solutions. This approach will integrate security at the code or build level, so organizations are able to innovate faster without compromising security later. In our opinion, a layered approach towards Cybersecurity is the answer moving forward, the awareness and responsibilities need to extend over the five layers of Hardware, Software, People, Policies and Processes and Partners/Supply Chains. Through holistic practice of cyber security, can only the chaos and uncertainty that is inevitable during the process of economic recovery can be combated, cybersecurity needs to be a multi-layered strategy that involves all employees, departments, and third parties becoming more aware and more vigilant of all potential threats.
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Sources for highlighted info
Data Security as a Service industry will grow close to 20 billion USD by end of 2025
Source:
IT & BPM Industry in India: Market Size, Opportunities, Growth, Report | IBEF
Between February 2020 and May 2020 more than half a million people were affected by breaches in which the personal data of video conferencing services users (e.g., name, passwords, email addresses) was stolen and sold on the dark web.
