The Gartner Symposium Blogs – Day 1

The Gartner Symposium is on in sunny Goa. And for those of you who couldn’t make it, you can still get a lowdown on what’s happening at perhaps India’s most definitive conference on the digital future. Anoop George, Suyati’s Director of Marketing, is right where the action is, and will be posting his expert take on what’s hot, and what’s not, at the symposium.

The Gartner symposium opened to huge crowds today at Goa, as expected. ‘Leading in the digital world’ is the theme, and in the course of four days it would cover pretty much everything about the ‘Nexus of Forces’ and their impact on carving out the business of future. In case you are wondering what this nexus implies, it is the convergence of four factors that has been defined very comprehensively by Gartner – Mobile, Social, Cloud & Information. This nexus is slowly reengineering every enterprise, and the way business is being driven. Today, the marketing and IT functions are coming together, to present solutions that are very much expected by the new gen user, or customer. For Suyati, this further validates our focus areas. Being actively present in all these four layers defined by Gartner, we offer an unique advantage to our end customers, making it easy for them to really Lead in this Digital World.

The sessions by David Furlonger and Peter Redshaw drove deep into the banking landscape. The move towards Open Banking and Digitalization through Multichannel touchpoint integration, as well as the increasing adoption of Apps, Appstores and API platforms is seen as the next phenomenal shift. The fundamental implication here, is that controls are being transferred from the banks to its users! Though this would mean increasing challenges in security, regulatory compliance, complexity and integration, the end result would be a Bank as a Platform!! Juergen Weiss focused on the Mobility for Insurance sector, where he stressed the need to create a strategic framework revolving around mobility, rather than just building a few cool Apps that might be used just once a year!! Contextualized services keeping the end-user in mind, delivered on native mobile/web/hybrid platforms and maybe even integrating with gamification technologies is what will be the real game changer!!
The sessions ended with an industry keynote by Dr. Anil Khandelwal, former Chairman & Managing Director of Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank. The presentation was an audio visual treat with Dr.Khandelwal inspiring one and all with how he scripted the turnaround story of Bank of Baroda by imbibing the best practices in technology, human resources, customer relations, strategy and leadership. He dwelt on the transformation from being ‘A bad apple in the public sector basket’, to being one of the most valuable banks, delivering a massive200% growth in 3 years. ‘Being in the public sector is not an excuse’ was how he rightly put it, emphasized with anecdotes of how innovation became a core of their transformation. This was an inspiring end to an exciting day!!