How are industry verticals leveraging digital strategies?

KOCHI, INDIA: CIOs and IT Heads presented case studies on how digital transformation is enhancing the brand recall of their organizations, giving them an edge over the competition in an increasingly competing era?

The CIOs, Jagdish Belwal, CIO, Tata Motors; Satishwar Balakrishnan, Head, IT, IndiaFirst Life Insurance, Rajesh Saboo, Head IT, Future Group, Prasenjit Mukherjee, GM, IT, BSES and Sanjiv Mehta, tech evangelist & sales head, HP, divulged the use cases in a panel discussion, How Digitally Diverse Are Enterprises in Various Industry Verticals? on the second day of C-Change. The discussion was moderated by Anil Copra, Editor, CIOL & PCQuest.

According to Belwal, carfotainment has disrupted the use of digital platforms in the auto industry. Also B-C platforms like Cardekho.com and Carwale.com are compelling the services sector to enhance their digital platform to provide better customer experience. Secondly, emerging technologies such as IoT are enabling the entire transport industry to not only  predict maintenance of the vehicle and related information via sensors.

Saboo narrated how the Future Group was using videos to analyse and predict customer behavior in its retail stores; basis which the retail giant promotes various schemes to the customers on their mobile phones, and can also change product positioning after studying the buying trends of consumers.

Not to be left behind, state-run utility companies too are utilizing the digital platform to enhance customer experience. Speaking about the recent trend of automated meters to track leakages and prevent thefts, Mukherjee commented that BSES was further looking at providing customized services like logical billing, and through data analytics, procuring additional power months in advance to meet the additional demand during the summer season.

Saboo, Balakrishnan and Belwal also admitted that all the organizations, across verticals will have to expand their presence on social media. "The approach will have to be top-down, led by the CXOs  in a bid to attract the Gen X, who is largely influencing and influenced by the discussions on the social media."

Mehta of HP, however cautioned that the time is ripe for all organizations to start building a digital transformation strategy. "Otherwise it will be a case of too much done, but too much late."