Digital Transformation reaching up its new horizon
Today we are living in an age of digital transformation, but unfortunately as seen in the last 20 years, the industries were never able to accomplish this transformation before COVID-19 break through. The pandemic forced us into this digital transformation. Everything has converted - our world, fun, entertainment, communication, watching movies, banking transaction, our intimate social interactions into one single gadget. This is a new paradigm, home and laptop have become the harsh realities of today's existence.
To live in a safe and peaceful manner, responsible digital learning is required. While people will be able to exploit the benefits of the internet age, they also learn how to navigate the digital world without getting exploited. Cyber Security today is as complex and as an enterprise. The business world exists today on cyber security. When we see the statistics, nearly 74% transition is not happening to the most secured gateway because of the security purposes. Today, all over the globe IT behemoth is happening on the cloud. IT ecosystem is a very complex network where at large points vulnerabilities arise.
Lastly, the length between ransomware and data breaches is continuing to blur every single day. At the back end of the ransomware attack, it is a phishing attack. “It is spearfishing people who deserves position, power and capability to give you all that data access by fooling. Ransomware having the capability to get into your data and literally encrypt it in a manner which will be next to impossible for you to do anything with that. In this Covid-19 situation, nearly 11 big data breaches have occurred costing nearly $144.2 billion. COVID-19 has changed completely everything. It has been the biggest transformation mankind has ever seen. Also, the biggest digital transformation, which we have always visualize and the company has always wanted to happen.
Digital Transformation can also be described as an integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how to operate and deliver value to customers. In the wake of global pandemic, it has become critical for an organization's ability to adapt quickly to supply chain disruptions, time to market pressures, and rapidly changing customer expectations. The face of digital transformation has taken a smiling curve, with the new norm Work from Home or socially distant work room.
Newer technology is continually evolving, and in the coming days we are going to witness several game changing tech trends to hit the market.
“Schneider Electric is powering the digital economy"
Jaya Mahadevan, Director - Channel Sales, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric India
Digital transformation impact on customer experience
“Schneider Electric is proving the power of digitization in energy management and industrial automation with the help of high-quality technological infrastructure such as the IoT enabled ExoStruxure which can be employed across Homes, Buildings, Data Centres, Infrastructure and Industries. A user of the EcoStruxureplatform can experience technology at every level from Connected Products to Edge Control and Apps, Analytics and Services. Businesses are undergoing a major digital transformation and EcoStruxure IT is helping them tackle complex IT and data center environments with cloud-based management systems, big data analytics and more”.
Different ways of seamlessly delivering data & insight
“Schneider Electric is powering the digital economy. If data is to be the fuel of the fourth industrial revolution, it needs a strong foundation for growth. High-performing data centers combined with sophisticated edge computing are unleashing the potential of the fourth industrial revolution. There is no universal approach when it comes to data and computer systems, as every company has unique requirements. Decisions need to be made whether to send data to the cloud, process it on local servers, or handle it on edge devices.
A robust and scalable digital infrastructure, in the cloud and at the edge, is crucial to meet the increasingly sophisticated demands of users. Companies must provide a reliable, on-demand digital service that moves seamlessly between devices and ensures the highest levels of cybersecurity. An investment in a best in class data center is also an investment in cyber-security. With the right data strategy, businesses can anticipate customer needs and gain insights that will help them to innovate and evolve.
Today’s world is purely driven by technology, which makes it even more crucial to upskill and reskill oneself to be at par with the changing dynamics of the work culture.
With our EcoStruxureplatform, it has been possible to create a responsive workplace of the future that is fueled with data and digital technology. For instance, the EcoStruxure Workplace Advisor, a suite of flexible digital services to create smart offices, has helped building managers to create smart workplaces that optimize use of space, improve comfort and employee experience, enhance productivity, and reduce facility service costs in new or retrofit buildings”.
IceWarp's custom-made solutions allow organizations to work efficiently
Pramod Sharda, CEO, IceWarp India & Middle East
Digital transformation impact on customer experience
“Today, companies are looking for digital tools and solutions that can be used remotely anywhere, anytime on their choice of device. In order to keep up with this new mantra of “always-connected” customer, we are rapidly moving from an increasingly-digital world to one that is digital-only. In this era of work-from-home and hybrid work culture, there's an ever-increasing demand for all-in-one collaboration solutions. In response to the global shift in work models, usage patterns and customer feedback, enhanced features and conveniences are innovated in video conferencing and collaboration solutions. There are a bevy of new aspects that make remote work more pleasant, simple, personalized and secured for end-users. Organizations need collaborative tools wherein the true digital transformation would happen. Seamless collaboration within teams or external world is necessary to bring in the digital experience especially in the current scenario with pandemic and post pandemic world.
There has been a progressive development of capabilities to enable the end customers to attain their tasks using the video mode of connectivity with the team, vendors, and users”.
Different Ways Of Seamlessly Delivering Data & Insight
“Today every organization is looking for solutions or platforms that can be used to engage with their partners, customer and employees across geographies in one go giving them an upper edge. One of the biggest advantages of the IceWarp platform is the scalability and platform approach that allows users to leverage our solutions for messaging, video conferencing, sending updates and multiple other things. To build and devise tailor-made solutions that best fit customers, IceWarp analyzes the problem areas that keep an organization from achieving the set goals. We design systems and practices to overcome the difficulties that have delayed them in the past. By collaborating and understanding the unique business requirements, IceWarp is able to generate custom-made solutions that allow an organization to work more efficiently and communicate proactively with their clients”.
Preparing to get into the phase of next normal
“The current scenario has opened up newer avenues with demand increasing for collaboration tools.
Today, everyone is virtually attending webinars, meetings, collaborating on the go with multiple devices. This all has further fueled the growth for players like us. And, we, being flexible enough in our offerings; by catering to the market by helping brands/organizations save their TCO (Total cost of ownership). Our strategy is in line with the customer requirements where data location to be local (IceWarp has cloud infrastructure in local datacenters) is a concern to maintain regulatory compliances as well as giving an extra edge by the flexible offering of space too- ‘pay for what you use’ model. Moreover, we specialize in hybrid implementations wherein customers can build a hybrid environment wherein IceWarp can co-exist with any other email solution MS Office 365 or G Suite”.
Poly foresees hybrid working to be the future
Ankur Goel, MD, Poly India & SAARC
“Workspaces in the next era –
In the “next normal,” we need to create workspaces that give people choice places to collaborate, think, create or simply check in with others.
Home working and co-working spaces will rise in prominence, but even with all the benefits they bring, we’ll still see a need for a central company workspace for idea generation, collaboration and to give the workforce its sense of identity.
Therefore, we foresee that hybrid working is the future. Traditional offices won’t disappear, but it will take new form and shape and people will split their time between home office and office. There will be an effort to reduce the actual office space, and workplaces will be fitted out differently catering to the need to meet and collaborate on projects. Even if this move to reduce physical office space does not become mainstream, organizations will have to repurpose or redesign the workspaces. The number of people physically attending a meeting will reduce, with some opting to continue to interact through video and collaboration solutions. There will be a need to have smaller huddle rooms for when colleagues choose to interact face-to-face - these huddle rooms will be fitted with high quality videoconferencing systems.
Across all these workspaces, the focus will be on creating environments that motivate and empower hybrid workers to be productive and do their best work. A few tips I would like to give for getting into the next era are -
Rethink work patterns - Hybrid working brings flexibility on ocation, times and days that work is carried out. Review and revise work-from-home policies and focus on what employees need to be productive in their role.
Foster better collaboration - Encourage inclusive and productive work as teams become more virtual in nature. Create engaging and productive virtual workspaces, using noise-cancelling and intelligent acoustic solutions in dynamic headsets and video soundbars.
Optimize investment - Banish under-utilized office spaces that bring little return on real estate costs. Prioritize investment beyond the office walls to create flexible, collaborative, technology enabled personal workspaces everywhere”.
Role of Poly for the hybrid working era
“At Poly, our mission has always been to create amazing new ways to hear, see, work, and work together more easily. We are the global communications company that powers authentic human connection and collaboration and are equipped to help companies shift to the hybrid working era. We offer premium cameras, great headsets, personal noise canceling speakerphones and the software for IT to manage and support work anywhere it happens; our products work virtually with all of the leading ecosystems including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype for Business among others and offers customers a great collaboration experience no matter their work location , at home or in the office.”
Though the new normal may soon become a daily routine for all or some, Digital Transformation, has found out new skies to soar high, and now it’s’ NO looking back!
"Our goal is to safeguard organizations while driving digital transformation and growth"
Ajay Dubey, Country and Channel Head, Forcepoint
Digital transformation impact on customer experience
“Digital transformation should improve the customer experience for all. Systems will be faster, better connected and integrated: movement to the cloud drives cost savings for enterprises which should, ultimately, be passed on to the customer.
Digital transformation also has its challenges for enterprises- the biggest challenge was of course the rapid shift to remote working, which accelerated digital transformation plans. Forcepoint helped customers shift from a business continuity mindset to more of a business-as-usual one: we saw people focus more time and energy around fine-tuning and making access to networks and applications more granular, as well as reviewing their security posture to include their data protection needs.
Our goal is to safeguard organizations while driving digital transformation and growth. To this end, our solutions adapt in real-time to how people interact with data, providing secure access to customers while enabling employees to create value”
Different ways of seamlessly delivering data & insight
“Empowering companies’ and the employees to perform in today’s business environment demands a shift in how we think about data security. In the constant state of change that has become our new normal, reactive policies are no longer enough to keep us safe. Organizations require a proactive stance on data protection.
Forcepoint a leader in Dynamic Data Protection (DDP) which uses Gartner’s CARTA framework for data protection. DDP offers individualized adaptive data policies, delivering cloud-hosted behavioral analytics and is built on our award-winning enterprise DLP. A risk-adaptive approach combined with behavioural analytics identifies users that exhibit highly risky behaviour against set policies. These users receive a series of warnings before eventually being blocked and stopped. We call this moving “left of breach” – identifying and stopping the data breach, before it happens”.
Preparing to get into the phase of next normal
“In this digitally transformed landscape where the new normal is remote work and the new perimeter is the user, Forcepoint continues on its journey to secure users and data across the enterprise. In 2020, we launched an entire suite of new products over cloud platform to help organizations move forward in the next normal. Dynamic Edge Protection (DEP) is the industry’s first human-centric SASE solution which allows users access to web, cloud or private apps through Security-as-a-Service.
Forcepoints also understands that a strong network of dedicated channel partners is an important parameter for our success. Therefore, training and enablement for resellers and distributors is a major area of focus for 2021.”
"At Aeris, we strongly believe that IoT is a technology of hope”
Ranjeet Koul, VP and Country Manager APAC MEA, Aeris
Digital transformation impact on customer experience
“Research from IDC shows that two-thirds of the CEO’s of Global 2,000 companies will shift their focus from traditional, offline strategies to more modern digital strategies to improve the customer experience before the end of the year, and, 79% of companies admit that COVID-19 increased the budget for digital transformation.
Clearly, companies investing in holistic digital transformation in these connected times, will reap exponential benefits with increased business and customer value along with enhanced customer experience. With digitization of customer-facing processes and all touch points of interaction; managing the customer experience in the true sense of designing customer interactions to not only meet, but, exceed customer expectations and optimizing it leads to clear and tangible results for the business”.
Different Ways Of Seamlessly Delivering Data & Insight
“Aeris' full-stack IoT technology is helping companies transform unconnected products into connected services which deliver seamless engaging end-user experiences powered by data-driven insights. Across a wide variety of industry sectors, Aeris offers solutions for some of the most demanding customers of IoT services today. Implementing an IoT solution can be complicated, but we're here to make it simpler.
Aeris Communications enables smart flow management for data, insights, and cost controls and our IoT suite of solutions help to get data quickly, which can be accessed from anywhere, anytime and on any device of choice. This helps improve business processes and automate most of the routine tasks, freeing employee bandwidth for more complicated and specialised tasks, enabling them to move up the value chain of jobs”.
Preparing to get into the phase of next normal
“Covid19 forced everyone to adopt to the ‘New Normal’, championing the disruption caused by creating a balance between what worked before and now is critical for organisation’s success.
Our clear goal is to develop a balanced, effective remote working formula for a distributed workforce along with accelerating best practices around collaboration, flexibility, inclusion, and accountability. At Aeris, we strongly believe that IoT is a technology of hope.”
Pitney Bowes investing in the right set of automation technology and infrastructure for strong future foundation
Pankaj Sachdeva, Vice President, Innovation and India Site Leader, Pitney Bowes
Digital transformation impact on customer experience
“Today, the companies are looking for digital tools and solutions that can be used remotely anywhere, anytime on their choice of device. In order to keep up with this new mantra of “always-connected” customers, we are rapidly moving from an increasingly-digital world to one that is digital-only. In this era of work-from-home and hybrid work culture, there's an ever-increasing demand for all-in-one collaboration solutions. In response to the global shift in work models, usage patterns and customer feedback, enhanced features and conveniences are innovated in video conferencing and collaboration solutions.
Organizations need collaborative tools wherein the true digital transformation would happen. Seamless collaboration within teams or the external world is necessary to bring in the digital experience especially in the current scenario with the pandemic and post pandemic world.
There has been a progressive development of capabilities to enable the end customers to attain their tasks using the video mode of connectivity with the team, vendors, and users”.
Different ways of seamlessly delivering data & insight
“Pitney Bowes use digital technologies for both our customers and our workforce. For customers, we leverage usage data from our mailing devices, including hundreds of thousands IOT devices, and shipping solutions to predict patterns, customer issues, service requirements, to ensure a seamless user experience. Once given the permission, our AutoInk solution also automates the entire process, including ordering the supplies.
On the operational front, we are predicting volumes from different regions and seasons, estimating delivery times and return proportions, detecting anomalies in the parcel journey, automating our fulfillment and sorting centers, to empower our workforce for the dynamic customer requirement”.
Preparing to get into the phase of next normal
“We are preparing our products, infrastructure, processes, and talent to leverage digital transformation at scale. We are investing in the right set of automation technology and infrastructure to build a strong foundation for future. On talent, we are upskilling existing workforce and hiring from universities and industry on various digital technologies and domain depth. Additionally, we are closely aligning our sales, marketing; services functions with the Product and Innovation teams to cover every customer touch point and thus provide the holistic digital experience.”
"Autodesk aims to support businesses during any time of uncertainty"
Alok Sharma, Channel Sales Head, INDIA and SAARC, AutoDesk
Digital transformation impact on customer experience
“Digital transformation aims to give an enhanced customer experience by integration of technology into all areas of a business, resulting in fundamental changes in how a business operates and the value they deliver to their customers. Heightening the customer experience with insight, immediacy, and personalization is the key to a great customer experience.
In the post Covid phase, businesses will focus on the strategy for enhancing customer experience by analysing data and further adopting the digital route to fulfil the needs of the consumers. Autodesk with its cloud-based technology support can further support the companies in enhancing the customer experience by improving their product”.
Different ways of seamlessly delivering data & insight
“We’ve all needed to adapt and think differently about harnessing technology to unleash innovation and turn the challenges we face today into tomorrow's opportunities. Our technology solutions such as BIM 360 and Fusion 360 are cloud based and in the era of connection, they further analyse and give insights for better planning and design. BIM solutions for the construction industry are helping them reduce risk; optimize design; deliver more successful, predictable project outcomes-and win new business. Fusion 360 gives product developers parametric and direct modelling, mechanical engineering, drawings, visualization, simulation, machining and additive manufacturing, all in one place and is available on demand from any device.
During the spread of the pandemic, businesses have focused on reskilling, upskilling, and personalized education to help their employees not only adapt to today’s technological changes but also develop a mindset that embraces continual learning. We arm innovators with the tools and knowledge to make decisions that lead to sustainable outcomes and shape a thriving future for all”.
Preparing to get into the phase of next normal
“We have unveiled initiatives to support our employees, customers, partners, and communities. While we have efficiently adopted remote working, we have also focused on an increased need to collaborate and stay connected.
COVID-19 has created an opportunity for upskilling to help build resilience in careers. While there was already a massive skills gap, it became exacerbated by the pandemic. With the convergence of industries, more roles and new jobs are opening up without the talent base to fill them. We are offering a wide range of resources, including webinars, courses, and certification preparation in Design & Manufacturing, Architecture, AEC and Construction, and Media & Entertainment for upskilling and reskilling of employees.
At Autodesk, we aim to support businesses during this time of uncertainty. Under ‘Technology Impact Program’, Autodesk has been donating software to nonprofits, startups, and entrepreneurs that are using design for environmental or social good. With advanced manufacturing techniques, Autodesk is further helping companies find manufacturing facilities to put solutions into production and help fight COVID-19.”
"2010 saw the blooming of Digital Transformation, today has reached newer heights"
Sudhir Kunder, Senior VP & National Head: DE-CIX Interwire, India
Digital transformation impact on customer experience
“Digital transformation involves adopting technology into every facet of one’s business to drive enhanced customer experience. Even though digitalization began to take root in the year 2010, it wasn’t the ‘Thing’ it has become today.
With surging Internet traffic, the pandemic brought to the forefront the importance of stable interconnection. Enterprises experienced a huge shift in embedding digital plans into their systems, with more and more business-critical workloads running in the cloud, such that activities generally conducted in a time frame of 5 years moved to a 24-month window.
Cloud technologies like AI, IoT, etc. are used to gather customer insights, carry out a predictive analysis and bring in better customer experience. In addition to this, process automation tools are used to save on resources and enhance user satisfaction.
While we’ve seen a digital disruption in the past decade, this transformation is here to stay and is only set to accelerate”.
Different ways of seamlessly delivering data & insight
"In a globalized world, economic growth and the development of societies in most regions are now based on digital communication and digital services, and these in turn depend on the underlying digital infrastructure. Internet Exchanges, such as Mumbai-IX, are key to improving the quality of performance of digital applications and digital communication – for businesses, for medical facilities, for education, recreation/entertainment and news and media outlets – for all users, wherever they are. As a result, interconnection will become more and more important, and the infrastructure for interconnecting networks will become the foundation of the economy and industry – as essential to future life and business as power and water lines are today”.
Preparing to get into the phase of the new normal
“Even before the current COVID-19 crisis, we were seeing huge investments in new digital services and digital infrastructure. But what’s happening now, in response to lockdowns around the world, will change the game in many areas of activity. Businesses are shifting from monolithic, on-premise IT systems to platform-based models in which companies take part in ecosystems to share data and intelligence, and assemble solutions with third-party components. While cloud solutions facilitate data storage and handling, interconnection platforms are keys for the many-to-many data exchange.
In early 2021, we will be introducing a new service at Mumbai-IX – direct access to the Microsoft Azure Peering Service. The service will provide highly reliable and optimized Internet connectivity to Microsoft's services – improving the user experience for Microsoft’s SaaS services by offering the shortest network path to the nearest edge POP in the Microsoft network. This is just one of the services that we provide to enterprises to ensure low-latency, secure and robust connectivity for their digital transformation”.
"We are bullish about our future prospects and confident about our value proposition"
Digital transformation impact customer experience
“Businesses need to approach digital transformation from a ‘people first’ point of view. Customer experience optimization and process optimization must go hand in hand.
The need to transform digitally is typically the outcome of business challenges, uncertain market conditions, and other pain points. Digital transformation can provide both the business and its customer’s shared value and help transform the customer experience.
SMEs who have always used paper-based manual processes to run their business will find that technology adoption helps them reduce costs, automate business processes, improve workflows, and create better operational efficiencies”.
Different ways of seamlessly delivering data & insight
“Helping SMEs navigate the digitization journey has always been a key focus for Deskera. This not only helps empower them to ensure business continuity and build a competitive edge but also helps contribute towards economic growth, job creation and productivity, especially when you consider that SMEs are the backbone of most economies in our region.
We have been seeing significant tailwinds since our pivot earlier this year to launch a free business super app and revamped web product – thereby strengthening our all-in-one solution for SMEs.
Currently, 300,000+ business owners run more than USD1 billion in businesses on Deskera.
We launched the free full-featured mobile business app and our new revamped easy to use All-in-one product to help SMEs run every facet of their business seamlessly - from Accounting, Inventory, Attendance, Expenses to Tax Management. The product is fully built in-house, underlining the strength of our engineering team”.
Preparing to get into the phase of next normal
“Apart from launching the super app, we recently undertook a brand refresh and revamped our web offering. This helps us meet the dynamic requirements of small businesses. It’s been a busy year and a positive one for us, considering the situation many companies find themselves in due to the pandemic’s impact. The pandemic has inadvertently moved an entire segment online and that has helped accelerate our business momentum. Similarly, even in developed markets, the ecosystem is highly fragmented with different solutions for different requirements. Our value proposition for SMEs is an all-in-one solution that gives you everything to run their business – from accounting to payroll, from CRM to inventory management, and from help desk to email marketing – on the web and on mobile. Mobile play is critical for markets such as India, where we have leapfrogged from the PC era to the smartphone revolution. We are bullish about our future prospects and confident about our value proposition and our role in enabling the ecosystem and empowering the next wave of digital businesses”.
"Brightcove at the forefront of digital transformation provides power of video to explore"
Subhashish Gupta, Managing Director, Sales, (India/SAARC), Brightcove
Digital transformation impact on customer experience
“As the digital world is constantly expanding and innovating, consumers across the world are keeping pace with all these changes. So, for a business to thrive and remain relevant with customers, it has to embrace a digital transformation. Brightcove has been at the forefront of this digital transformation, and is focused on leveraging the power of video to help big brands do big things.
While companies have been using video for many years, the pandemic has forced many to intensify their efforts to remain connected with consumers and employees. Of course, face-to-face communication can never be replaced, but video has proved to be absolutely essential in maintaining that human connection.
“According to the recent Q2 2020 Brightcove Global Video Index, consumers spent 152% more time watching retail video on smartphone devices and 1060% more time on connected TVs. Plus, enterprise video views saw a 93% increase year over year on all devices. The results are clear: As consumers spend more time engaging with brands across all devices than ever before, a shift to a video-first strategy is the way forward for retailers and enterprises”.
Different ways of seamlessly delivering data & insight
“The work-from-home mandates have led to a continuing rise in video communication.
Organizations must innovate with ways to ensure employee efficiency, along with integrating video in their business continuity plans for external and internal communications.
To help companies securely manage business communications, Brightcove offers a business continuity suite of solutions to support communication across the enterprise.
Our industry-leading video technology enables our customers to virtually perform vital business operations, ensures business continuity for organisations, and maintains competitiveness when staff, suppliers, and consumers have minimal in-person interaction.
One major digital advantage that organisations are discovering is the use of virtual events. Brightcove delivers a profound, immersive virtual events experience with the ability to capitalise on ROI, scalability, flexibility, and networking capabilities. Our video technology is helping organisations to create video that opens hearts and change minds while delivering a story that will inspire and inform audiences across the world”.
Preparing to get into the phase of next normal
“Even as India embraces a new kind of normal post-lockdown, we expect organisations to adopt a pandemic-proof approach to their interactions with customers, partners, vendors, and employees. Organisations are likely to adopt a hybrid model when it comes to in-person events. Consumers will want to choose from, or even demand, both in-person and online choices, so we will see a hybrid model for events moving forward.
Whether it's engaging a distributed workforce, boosting employee morale, training recruits, or driving sales amid brick-and-mortar closures, Brightcove’s expertise and innovation will be in full force as it helps organisations realize their true video potential”.
Though the new normal may soon become a daily routine for all or some, Digital Transformation, has found out new skies to soar high, and now it’s’ NO looking back!
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