The inaugural edition of Elevate saw the country’s leading ICT business leaders come together to discuss path-breaking strategies for digital transformation.
Spread across two-days, Elevate 2018, powered by Dimension Data with CIO Partner CORE Media, was a resounding success. Over 100 ICT thought leaders from around the country, and across industries and verticals were on hand to participate in the interactive DigitAll Dialogues at the Hyatt Regency in Pune.
Kiran Bhagwanani
John Lombard
Mrutyunjay Mahapatra
Nina Simosko & Ravi Srivastav
Panel discussion on ‘Using Digital to Elevate Enterprise IT from the Mundane’
Panellists: KN Murali, Head-Solutions, Dimension Data, Vineet Bahal, SVP, Nihilent, Kalpana Maniar, President and Group CIO, Edelweiss, and Meenakshi Vajpai, CIO, Vodafone,
Moderator: Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst, Founder and CEO, Greyhound Research
Elevate 2018 also featured two informative panel discussions with industry thought leaders. The first revolved around digital transformation and the necessity to constantly engage with business. Panellists addressed various aspects of its key benefits, including improved stakeholder experience, new revenue streams, and ability to manage risks proactively, reduce costs and improve efficiencies. They also stressed that digital transformation means different things to each organisation as they are at different levels of maturity, with different digital capabilities. While customer experience is no longer a new goal, the panel emphasises that the need and speed to deliver it have changed. This means strong management of the backend, or else there will be no transformation of the customer experience. Drawing from this, KN Murali shared how Dimension Data has reengineered itself to align with the new digital dialogues and changed how they converse with clients.
Panel discussion on ‘Playing with Boundaries for a Digital Customer Experience’
Panellists: Raghuveer HR, Director Sales, Dimension Data, N Jambunathan, CEO, C-Edge, Sachin Jain, CIO, Evalueserve, Achal Kataria, VP IT, EXL, and Anil Shankar, CIO, Shoppers Stop
Moderator: Anoop Mathur, President, CORE Media
This panel brought to light how customers expectations are constantly changing, increasing the importance of customer journey mapping, and the need to use the latest tools/technologies available to deliver a superior experience. Panellists discussed the importance of the move from SMAC to BRIM (bitcoin, robotics, IoT and machine learning), and the need to find the right partners who can work collaboratively to achieve goals.
Chhavi Rajawat & Vijay Ramachandran
ICT leaders Ritu Madbhavi, CIO, FCB Ulka, Deena Dayalan K, Senior Director, Sears IT and Management Services, Rajendra Deshpande, CIO, Intelenet Global Services, and Balaji Subramaniam, National Manager – Security Business, Dimension Data, present the outcomes of their Sandbox sessions.
The event ended on a high with four truly innovative Sandbox sessions (hybrid cloud, digital infrastructure, digital workplaces and CX, cyber security) that encouraged ICT leaders to share knowledge, discuss their experiences, the challenges faced, and ideate for possible solutions. This led to many animated discussions with CIOs eagerly coming together to present the way forward. The interactive Sandbox sessions also drove home a key point of Elevate 2018—that the future of technology lies in collaboration and co-creation, through which the depth of knowledge and innovation can truly be explored.