NE BUSINESS BUREAU
NEW DELHI, MAY 16
With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting businesses globally, technology will play a “stronger role than ever before”, enabling economic recovery, Microsoft India President Anant Maheshwari said on Friday. Speaking at the Microsoft Envision Forum 2020, Maheshwari noted that the coronavirus pandemic has changed businesses, communities, industries and the world, forever.
“No one company is going to solve a challenge like this alone, and it is going to take the private and public sectors working together to turn the tide on COVID-19. As we continue to work through the current situation and plan for the future, it’s clear that the change required is enormous – as is the potential opportunity across industries,” he said.
He added that technology will play a key role in management of social sector programs across education, health and public distribution, helping to strengthen the economy.
“Technology will play a stronger role than ever before – enabling economic recovery and helping each one of us achieve more,” he emphasised.
The event, which was organised digitally, saw industry leaders across banking, financial services and insurance, manufacturing and retail sectors deliberate on the need for innovation and real-world digital transformation.
Aarthi Subramanian, group chief digital officer of Tata Sons, said COVID-19 will accelerate the scaling of digital across industries and investments in cloud, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
“Digital transformation in companies will focus on new end-to-end customer journeys and we will see an increase in adoption of automation in manufacturing industries. They will also invest in enhancing employee engagement given the remote working model,” she added.
Intelligent manufacturing for a better future
Mayur Danait, CIO, Pidilite, said, “Manufacturing has always been a traditional business but post COVID, the sector will have to reinvent to enable a seamless partner ecosystem. Use of IoT to drive shop floor efficiencies and the use of digital collaboration, predictive analytics, bots and gamification of experience to drive engagement with end-users and channel partners are likely to be the norm going forward”.”
Reimagining retail industry after lockdown
Sanjay Bhattacharjee, Head – CRM, Titan Company Limited, said, “There has been a paradigm shift in consumer mindset – from retail therapy to the inability to step out from home to physical distancing. The way customers shop has and will change dramatically, and this is the new reality in which we all have to function now. How brands are interacting and engaging with their customers makes a lot of difference. Going digital is the key to enable a virtual experience for customers – right from viewing products on the app to booking a product to its delivery. Through remote communication platforms, retail brands have the opportunity to establish a deeper connect with the buyer community than before.”
Rebuilding fiscal services sector post-COVID
According to Anoop Mahapatra, Deputy Managing Director, State Bank of India, “SBI has been playing a pivotal role in the country and over the past decade the bank has been investing heavily in building an robust IT ecosystem to digitally transform the banking experience at SBI. It facilitated running the entire ecosystem seamlessly even during a difficult time such as now. Our 22000 branches and network of 58000+ ATMs are working seamlessly on a robust IT platform. Around 90% of the total transactions go through anytime channels i.e. other than branch channel and as such the post COVID impact on customer service is insignificant. Although there has been some drop in loan requirements, to overcome this SBI has a strong end-to-end AI/ML platform with number of AI based pre-approved loan products, to provide loans with ease and we hope the traction for the same will be built up in the coming days.” The State Bank of India has also leveraged Microsoft Teams for its large workforce to stay productive and collaborate while working from home.
