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Opening Comment: Pravir, with your extensive history of global successes in technology, innovation and leadership, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in and do this interview. Thank you!
A: Thank you. I am glad to participate.
Q1: What key lessons and tips can you share in your current areas of responsibility?
A:
IT strategy and innovation: Evolving business models require us to constantly innovate and provide the best fit technology with tangible business benefits. For example, while channel migration is a strategy followed by many banks, our customers can view their entire relationship through a single browser window. To enhance the relationship value further we offer a plethora of services like online fund transfers, bill presentment and payment, secure messaging, shopping on the site etc. I believe that one should innovate around existing and future technologies to meet both transient and persistent business needs. As an organization we need to scour for technologies whose inherent capabilities solve business problems or enable strategic business opportunities.
Enterprise architecture: Enterprise architecture is made up of business and technical components. We believe that planning processes are usually cyclical and undergo continuous renewal. Hence, at ICICI, the architecture is always evolving. Our enterprise architecture is completely aligned to our overall business strategies. For example, we consciously allow image transfers across our networks only during the night to optimize bandwidth utilization. Our network, application and business teams constantly meet and discuss to ensure consistency with the our overall strategy. Enterprise strategy, I believe, should be designed for change, interoperability and agility. It is also advisable to include compliance as a keystone of any strategy.
Process automation: Process automation helps technology to achieve operational excellence. It plays an invaluable role in reducing response times without compromising on the quality of output. The relevant process automation areas would be the repetitive tasks associated with the IT operations processes, IT change and configuration management and infrastructure provisioning. In our scenario, systems like LanDesk orchestrate processes relating to configuration and change management.
Leveraging technology synergies across multiple companies: Using technology smartly across the spectrum is the key to higher technology adoption and faster return on investments. We believe that our solutions should help cater to the needs of the entire enterprise i.e. the bank as well as all group companies. Since most of our group companies have similar key business processes, appropriate technology is selected and products are invariably leveraged for group wide consumption. The Business Rules Engine, for example, has been integrated into key processes within our banking and the insurance businesses. An identified team focuses on leveraging learning and best practices across the entire group. Similarly, the infrastructure services team uses a combination of knowledge, experience and expertise to manage to offer shared services to the entire group.