Mitel-Unicom Digital Transformation Summit Focuses on Business-Led Digital Strategy

CIOs are losing their sleep at night by the promise and peril of digital transformation, even though much of digital transformation involves rapid experimentation and frequently changing tracks. CIOs need to get it right more often. This resonated recently at the Digital Transformation Summit in Mumbai. Themed around ‘Digital Transformation – Providing a Path to the Future’, the summit witnessed a healthy participation of more than 140 CIOs from different verticals.

At the summit, the impact and importance of digital transformation was widely discussed. Expert speakers underlined that digital is shaking up what it really means to be a CIO in today’s world. CIOs should understand their legacy systems and processes to have a strategic view and to be a leader in the digital transformation journey in the organization. CIOs need to decide on cloud options, agile development, mobility management and managing shadow IT amongst others.

In his welcome note, Anurag Kumar, Managing Director and VP – India & Bangladesh for Mitel, said, “Digital transformation is changing the game for today’s businesses. With rapidly evolving technologies, it’s more important than ever to give machines a voice so that they can take actions using data and can service customers. This will allow organizations to address challenges and manage customers effectively.”

Implementing Business-led Digital Strategy

‘Business-led digital adoption will help organizations to achieve their goals and grow their business,’ was the takeaway from the keynote delivered by Shankar Jadhav, Chief Strategy Officer, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Jadhav also insisted on bringing in human angle to all digital goals and advised CIOs to adopt solutions that are viable in the medium and long-run.

Indian organizations need not entirely copy what their global counterparts are doing or willing to do. Geographic challenges and local issues in India are different which demand for a localized digital approach, added Jadhav.

A Path into the Future

Enterprises are facing a stiff challenge from advances in digital technology, which has led to the spurt in business models and optimization of resources. Especially CIOs are not yet able to chalk out a proper plan for the migration of their organizations to cloud environment. Harnessing the power of big data, machine learning and VR becomes difficult for them without entirely moving to digital platforms. “Engagement with customers at all levels will help organizations to achieve their goals. Customer experience does end at the sale of the product or the service. It is an ongoing process that can result in great customer experience if the best of the communication tools are used,” said Pierre-Jean Chalon, Senior Vice-President, APAC, Mitel while addressing the gathering.

Addressing the challenges

As discussed, several CIOs are not clear as to how to begin with digital. While CEOs are putting pressure on them to revamp organizations’ face using digital tools, their problem lies in handling the legacy systems and gradually moving the applications to the digital platforms. The topic resonated loudly during the panel discussion. The panelists who addressed the queries from the audience included Ritu Madbhavi, CIO of FCB Ulka Advertising, Richard de Souza, MD of Mahindra Integrated Business Solutions and Shankar Jadhav, CSO of BSE and Pierre-Jean Chalon, Senior Vice President, APAC, Mitel.

During the discussion, the audience came forward with pertinent questions. They also wanted to know about the role and future of cloud telephony which is the mainstay of Mitel. Cloud telephony is a key component of digital adoption for organizations that helps them communicate across using the cloud channels.

In his closing remarks, Vinod Tekchandaney, Director, Unicom Infotel, thanked the audience for their overwhelming participation in the summit.

In essence, the summit ended on a high note with CIOs, IT heads and CTOs sharing experiences, thoughts and ideas over the networking dinner and cocktail.