| |December 20209The Indian Consumers have also become very demanding and want personalized service on a re-al-time basis. Organizations that do not recognize this and embark on an aggressive digital transfor-mation exercise, will soon face an existential crisis. A key component in the execution of the Digi-tal transformation journey in any organization is a well calibrated adoption of Technology. It is the bedrock on which customer journeys are reimag-ined, processes simplified and platforms are cre-ated to engage with the customers on different channels. The customer has to be at the cen-ter of any Technology strategy and not the sophistication of the technology per se. The two most important parameters leading to a delightful customer experience are speed and convenience. Ergo, the tech-nology architecture that is defined has to be very flexible, modular, and based on open architecture which would allow them to connect to various external part-ners easily and quickly.However, despite the implementation of ad-vanced technologies, many organizations fail in their Digital Transformation exercise, because of inadequate or poor Transformations. People often read and treat `Digital Transformation' as one term which in reality are two very distinct terms. Digi-tal means putting in place the necessary technolo-gy framework be it apps, bots, middleware, portals etc. to enable an organization to change its business models, improve operational efficiency, enhance customer service etc. and Transformation means actually doing it. And herein lies the most difficult part and the most challenging hurdle to cross. It es-sentially means questioning the status quo, dramat-ically changing the existing business models, de-stroying some of them, creating new processes, and completely re-imagining the customer segments and journeys. It isn't easy for an organization to let go of its wisdom and learning that are carefully con-structed over the years in favor of new ones which seem very radical. This is where the buy-in and the commitment of the top management play a crucial role. It is absolutely critical for the top management to be completely soaked into the new Digital para-digm and come out with a compelling digital value proposition and create a continuous roadmap for a new customer value. A true Digital Transforma-tion can only be driven top-down and not bot-tom-up and is always accompanied by cultural and behavioral changes.Another structural change that is caus-ing a major disruption in the digital land-scape in India is the advent of Fintechs. Interestingly, what started out as a com-petitive distribution channel to the fi-nancial services sector, is now morph-ing into a strong collaborative partnership. While the banks and NBFCs have the scale and deep domain expertise, Fintechs provide the nimbleness and the technology which acts as a great equalizer. It would be difficult today for financial services orga-nizations to serve customers at a large scale and sim-plify processes for greater efficiency without adopt-ing the technology prowess of the new age Fintechs. Many of the complex segments in a financial digital journey like credit assessment, e-KYC, reading of bank statements, document uploads etc. provided by Fintechs as open APIs can easily be integrated into the technology ecosystem of any financial services organizations resulting in a much faster deploy-ment of digital banking products. The collaboration between Fintechs and Financial services organiza-tions is here to stay and will only become stronger in the years to come.To sum up, a Digital Transformation in an orga-nization is not a one-stop solution to be implement-ed by a small core separate team. It requires a mas-sive organizational upheaval in terms of rebooting age-old processes and business models and can only be successful if driven strongly by the CEO and the top management. It's also important to note that it's a continuous journey and it's not necessary that all that is attempted will succeed. It's better to fail fast, absorb the learning, recalibrate the journey and move ahead quickly. WHAT STARTED OUT AS A COMPETITIVE DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL TO THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR, IS NOW MORPHING INTO A STRONG COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPMani Mulki,CIO
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