Category: Digital Transformation

Wooden blocks spell FMCG, with text about digital compliance and growth.

The New Era of FMCG Audits: How Digital Compliance Is Becoming a Growth Multiplier

Auditing Reinvented: How Leading FMCG Companies Are Turning Compliance into a Competitive Advantage In the world of FMCG, speed is survival—but compliance is non-negotiable.While companies invest millions in sales automation, logistics, and analytics, one critical process often remains trapped in spreadsheets and signatures: the audit. At Indus Net Technologies (INT.), we’ve seen this story unfold repeatedly—and we’ve built the fix. The Silent Crisis in FMCG Audits Across warehouses, branches, and depots, audit teams still wrestle with manual checklists, paper records, and scattered Excel sheets. That may sound manageable—until you zoom out. Missed deadlines in internal audits cost companies millions in compliance penalties. Inaccurate asset records invite red flags during statutory audits. Lack of visibility makes it impossible for CFOs or COOs to know what’s really happening across 100+ sites. This isn’t just inefficiency—it’s risk. Under India’s GST, MCA, and ICAI norms, maintaining real-time visibility of inventory, scrap, and asset records isn’t optional anymore. It’s a compliance necessity. The FMCG Audit Challenge Is Bigger Than It Looks Let’s put numbers to it. A typical FMCG company with 25 warehouses, 50 branches, and thousands of assets faces: 100+ audits a year 10,000+ records per audit cycle 30% of man-hours lost to reconciliation and report preparation Multiply that by rising compliance demands and staff turnover, and the result is clear:Operational excellence becomes impossible without audit intelligence. ⭐ Want to Eliminate Manual Errors and Audit Delays? Get a quick demo of how INT.’s Audit Management System can automate 90% of your audit workflows. 👉 Request a Demo with INT.’s Audit Experts Where Digital Audit Management Steps In INT’s Audit Management System (AMS)—a unified digital platform—automates, monitors, and optimizes every audit function. Whether it’s a warehouse stock check, damage & destruction record, scrap audit, or QR-based asset verification, AMS transforms how audit, compliance, and operations teams work together. 1. Warehouse Audit Real-time stock reconciliation with ERP sync Risk-based audit scheduling Geo-tagged evidence for every finding Auto-generated compliance reports 2. Damage & Destruction Audit Photo evidence with timestamps Automated GST credit reversal tracking Multi-level approval workflows Audit-ready documentation for regulators 3. Scrapping Audit Complete traceability of scrapped goods Digital scrap registers and valuation logs Alerts for threshold breaches or approvals pending 4. Asset Verification Audit QR-based tagging & real-time verification Geo-fencing and location authentication Exception reports for missing or mismatched assets Compliant with ICAI’s asset verification standards Every module connects back to a central dashboard—providing leaders with live visibility, risk heat maps, and audit completion rates across every site. The Compliance Advantage: Moving Beyond Firefighting With AMS, audit isn’t just about catching errors—it becomes a strategic enabler. Proactive compliance: Always ready for statutory or internal reviews. Zero surprise audits: Real-time dashboards eliminate last-minute chaos. Reduced dependency: Field teams self-manage via digital workflows. Data-driven decisions: Audit insights fuel performance improvement. For one of India’s largest FMCG leaders, deploying AMS across its digital audit and IT systems delivered measurable impact—transforming compliance from a burden into a business strength. From Compliance Burden to Business Confidence In a business climate where trust defines brand value, audit excellence is no longer a back-office metric—it’s a leadership advantage. The ability to show, in real time, how every warehouse, branch, and office upholds compliance standards builds: regulatory assurance investor confidence supply-chain reliability market resilience The Future Belongs to Transparent Enterprises As India’s FMCG sector scales toward a USD 220B+ industry by 2027, the companies that thrive will be those who invest in digital compliance ecosystems—where governance isn’t enforced; it’s engineered. INT’s Audit Management System helps make that future real: One platform for all audits Full compliance readiness Actionable insights that make enterprises reactive to resilient 🚀 Ready to Transform Your Audit Operations? See how AMS can give your organization 100% digital compliance across warehouses, branches, and assets—in just weeks. 👉 Schedule a 15-minute consult with our Audit Transformation Lead, Souvik Chaki

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QA in digital transformation: role, strategy, and scalable delivery.

QA in Digital Transformation: Role, Strategy & Scalable Delivery

Role of QA in Digital Transformation & Scalable Software Delivery Digital transformation isn’t just about adopting new technologies—it’s about creating systems that can scale, adapt, and perform flawlessly in real time. And at the heart of every successful transformation initiative lies Quality Assurance (QA). Modern QA is no longer a gatekeeping function at the end of development—it’s a continuous, integrated enabler of digital acceleration. In this guide, we’ll break down the evolving role of QA in digital transformation journeys, how it supports agile and DevOps initiatives, and best practices for scalable QA delivery. QA in Digital Transformation: The Highlights 🧪 QA is critical in reducing risk and accelerating innovation during digital transformation. 🔄 QA practices are evolving with Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, and cloud-native architectures. 📈 Scalable QA strategies require test automation, continuous feedback, and team integration. 💡 QA drives business value by ensuring product reliability, speed, and user experience. Why QA Matters in Digital Transformation As companies move toward cloud-native platforms, microservices, and digital-first business models, QA ensures these changes don’t break critical systems or user trust. The Stakes Are High: One bad release = lost users One missed bug = security vulnerability One untested scenario = broken integrations QA’s Strategic Role in Digital Transformation: Validates business logic across legacy and modern systems Ensures release confidence across multiple devices and environments Enables faster, high-quality iterations via test automation and CI/CD How QA Supports Agile, DevOps & Modern SDLCs Digital transformation goes hand-in-hand with agile methodologies and DevOps pipelines, which demand speed, collaboration, and quality at every stage. 🔁 QA in Agile: Participates in daily standups and sprint planning Helps define acceptance criteria and testable stories Conducts exploratory and regression testing within sprints 🔄 QA in DevOps: Builds automation suites integrated into CI/CD Enables “shift-left” testing—catching defects earlier Tracks quality metrics like test coverage, flakiness, and defect density How is QA integrated into DevOps and Agile? QA collaborates closely with developers, product managers, and DevOps to write, run, and automate tests within the SDLC—often in real time. Building Scalable QA for Digital Delivery Scaling your QA function means ensuring quality across: Multiple product lines High-velocity releases Diverse platforms (web, mobile, API, cloud) Best Practices for Scalable QA: Test Automation at Scale: Use frameworks like Selenium, Cypress, Playwright Automate UI, regression, and smoke tests Continuous Testing in CI/CD: Integrate testing into Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab pipelines Test Environment Management: Use containerized environments (Docker/K8s) Maintain parity across dev, staging, and prod Real-Time Reporting: Use dashboards, alerts, and defect analytics for visibility Cloud Testing Infrastructure: Use platforms like BrowserStack and Sauce Labs for cross-browser/mobile testing 🚀 Need to scale QA for your digital transformation roadmap? Explore INT Global’s QA Consulting Services for flexible, automation-first solutions tailored to your growth needs. QA as a Business Enabler, Not Just a Gatekeeper Modern QA delivers more than defect detection—it delivers business value. Business Outcomes from Strong QA: 💰 Lower Cost of Failure: Early bug detection reduces production rework 📱 Superior User Experience: Fewer crashes, faster apps, better usability ⚙️ Operational Efficiency: Devs spend less time fixing bugs, more on building 🚀 Faster Time to Market: Releases are tested, stable, and production-ready Case Study: QA in Action During Digital Transformation A global logistics provider migrated its legacy ERP to a cloud-native SaaS solution. QA played a central role: Automated over 3,000 test cases across modules Built CI/CD pipelines for daily builds Cut release cycle from 6 weeks to 1 week Reduced post-release defects by 70% 🔧 Transforming digitally? QA is your safety net. Talk to our QA transformation experts and see how we can help you implement scalable QA for faster, safer delivery. 📚 Frequently Asked Questions ❓ How does QA support digital transformation? QA ensures that new technologies, platforms, and features are tested, reliable, and secure—critical for successful transformation outcomes. ❓ What is scalable QA? Scalable QA refers to practices and infrastructure that can grow with your product—supporting larger user bases, frequent releases, and broader testing needs. ❓ Why is automation important in digital QA? Automation reduces testing time, increases coverage, and ensures repeatability—essential in CI/CD-driven development. ❓ What challenges do teams face with QA in transformation? Legacy systems Tool integration Team silos Inconsistent environments ❓ What QA tools are used in digital transformation? Common tools include Selenium, TestRail, Jenkins, Cypress, Postman, JMeter, BrowserStack, and cloud-based test labs.

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overall equipment efficiency

What are the common pitfalls of improving Overall Equipment Efficiency and how to avoid them?

Most enterprises, be it in biopharmaceuticals or other industries will naturally strive to enhance their overall equipment effectiveness/efficiency (OEE) in a bid to stay competitive in a fast-changing global environment. However, there are several OEE optimisation mistakes that are avoidable for Biopharma and other industrial players. Knowledge of the right OEE fundamentals is also necessary for proper implementation and optimisation alike. Here’s taking a closer look. OEE fundamentals at a glance Here are some key points on overall equipment effectiveness/efficiency (OEE) that are worth noting. Now that you have a basic grasp of the OEE fundamentals, it is time to look at how you can avoid common mistakes within the fold of your optimisation efforts. OEE Optimization- Mistakes to Avoid Let us look at a few common overall equipment effectiveness optimisation mistakes that Biopharma companies often end up making. As can be seen, while striving to enhance OEE is always desirable, it is important to set realistic benchmarks and look at surrounding issues that your system may not always help you detect. Avoiding these mistakes will undoubtedly be beneficial for Biopharma companies in the long run. FAQs What risks are associated with neglecting the impact of external factors, such as supply chain disruptions, on OEE in the Biopharma industry? There are several risks that are associated with neglecting the sheer impact of external factors on OEE like disruptions in the supply chain. Biopharma players can face risks like improper forecasting and risk management, inventory management woes, higher loss ratios, poor delivery of requirements, and even quality drops. How can a lack of standardized metrics and benchmarks hinder OEE improvement efforts in the Biopharma industry? The absence of standardised benchmarks and metrics will naturally bog down OEE improvement initiatives in the Biopharma industry. There will be no clarity on what to measure and fix with most companies calculating OEE in the wrong way as a result. What risks are associated with setting unrealistic OEE improvement goals in the Biopharma sector? There are associated risks for Biopharma companies setting OEE improvement goals that are unrealistic. These include insufficient visibility, decisions based on wrong or limited analytics, not accounting for actual issues in the calculation, and focusing on the wrong metrics at the outset. How does Equipment Utilisation impact time-to-market for biopharmaceutical products? Equipment utilisation has a huge impact on the time-to-market threshold for biopharmaceutical products. Proper utilisation and productivity will help combat unplanned downtime and sudden disruptions, while enabling smoother delivery as per targets without frequent changeovers or higher occurrences of rejects. Faster time-to-market is a necessity for staying competitive in the current scenario and suitably utilizing equipment is necessary for this purpose. How does a lack of scalability in OEE improvement solutions pose challenges for growing Biopharma companies? Non-scalable solutions for OEE improvement may pose various challenges for growing Biopharma entities. They may be bogged down by issues like improper risk management and higher loss ratios along with poor inventory management and real-time performance tracking.

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5 healthcare companies that have transformed digitally

5 Healthcare Companies that have Transformed Digitally

As the world seeks more efficient, patient-centric, and accessible healthcare solutions, companies have emerged as pioneers, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in this critical sector. In this blog, we will explore 5 healthcare companies that have explored the power of digital transformation to reimagine the way we approach medical care, manage health data, and deliver life-saving treatments. From telemedicine breakthroughs to cutting-edge health data analytics, these organisations are at the forefront of a digital healthcare revolution that is changing lives, improving patient outcomes, and shaping the future of the industry. Join us as we delve into their inspiring stories and discover how they’re leading the charge towards a healthier and more connected world. Grail: Grail, a cancer detection company developed a blood test that can detect over 50 types of cancer early, when they are most treatable. The company’s test uses ML to analyse DNA fragments circulating in the blood, known as circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). Grail’s test is still in the early stages of development, but it has the potential to transform cancer detection and treatment. Tempus: Tempus, a data-driven precision medicine company, helps clinicians make better decisions for their patients with cancer. The company’s platform collects and analyses genomic and clinical data from millions of patients to identify new patterns and insights. It then uses this data to develop personalised treatment plans for each patient. The platform is used by clinicians at over 800 cancer centres around the world. Meddo: Meddo, a digital healthcare platform, provides telemedicine services and other healthcare solutions to hospitals and clinics. The company’s platform offers a variety of features, including online doctor consultations, patient record management, and e-pharmacy services. Meddo’s platform is used by over 1,000 hospitals and clinics in India. Practo: Practo, a digital healthcare platform, connects patients with doctors and other healthcare providers. The company’s platform offers a variety of services, including online doctor consultations, appointment booking, and medical record management. Practo has over 150,000 doctors and 20,000 clinics on its platform, and it serves over 100 million patients each year. PharmEasy: PharmEasy, an online pharmacy delivers medicines and other healthcare products to customers’ doorsteps. The company’s platform offers a wide range of products, including prescription medicines, over-the-counter medications, and personal care products. PharmEasy also offers a variety of services, such as online doctor consultations and diagnostic testing. The digital transformation of the healthcare industry is rapidly changing the way that healthcare is delivered and consumed. The healthcare companies listed above and many more like them are leading the way in this transformation, and they are making a significant impact on the health and well-being of people in India and all across the world.

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Insurtech Revolutionises Insurance with Personalised, Faster, and Affordable Solutions

Insurtech is the latest phenomenon that is revolutionising insurance across the spectrum. The insurance industry is innovating with the use of technology with an aim towards making products, services and solutions more affordable, personalised and quicker for customers. Here are some of the digital technology offerings that are playing a major role in this space: AI (Artificial Intelligence)- This is one of the biggest innovations contributing towards automating the processing of claims, enabling better detection of frauds and also enhancing customer service. AI enables more accurate and improved pricing and assessments of risks. It helps insurance companies manage risks better while lowering costs simultaneously. It also ensures that customers get more personalised and cost-effective insurance offerings. 2. IoT- The Internet of Things is another aspect which enables cost reduction and personalisation alike. It also boosts customer experiences greatly. The insurance industry is leveraging IoT devices for collecting information on consumer behaviour and environments, including home security, driving habits, health, and so on. This is facilitating accurate assessments of risks and pricing, while helping develop new products tailored to customer needs. For example, IoT devices may be used to develop insurance products where customers are charged on actual driving distance and usage. 3. Blockchain– This digital technology functions through distributed ledgers, enabling transparent and secure transactions without centralised intermediaries. It is being used in insurtech for streamlining the processing of claims and lowering frauds along with enhancing overall data security too. 4. Mobile Apps- Insurtech also functions through new-age mobile apps for boosting customer experience and making claims processing simpler. Customers are getting more personalised recommendations and higher control over their policies. Mobile apps are also being used for tracking the status of claims, managing policy data, and getting personalised advice on products based on their behaviour and specific requirements. 5. Telematics- It is already being used for gathering data on customer driving behaviour and performance, enabling more accurate assessments of risks along with better pricing strategies. Products are thus tailored to meet the needs of customers in a more personalised manner. Why insurtech is gaining ground in the insurance industry These are some of the chief reasons behind the rising popularity of insurtech solutions throughout the mainstream insurance sector. FAQs 1. Can Insurtech solutions replace traditional insurance providers? Insurtech solutions can be replacements for conventional insurance offerings. However, they will not replace traditional providers completely. Rather, these companies will work closely with insurtech players to come up with better products and services for their customers. 2. Are Insurtech solutions regulated? The insurance industry is one of the highest-regulated sectors in the world. Insurtech is also similarly regulated since it is used by insurance companies for carrying out many of their functions. 3. How does Insurtech impact the insurance industry? Insurtech positively impacts the insurance industry by helping it reduce costs, automating manual and repetitive tasks, personalising customer experiences, scaling up overall efficiency, and making products/services more affordable for customers. Customers get more control over their journey with the insurance company and wait times are reduced considerably as well. 4. How can Insurtech solutions improve claims processing? Insurtech solutions can automate claims processing, thereby saving time and money for the company. They can gather data and verify the same minutely in quick time, while also eliminating frauds alongside. This leads to more accurate processing of claims without any risks of losses/fraud.

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Hackathon Diaries #3

Hackathon Diaries #3 Digital Democracy: Web-app Vote, One-click Remote

The INT. Hackathon 2023 was a call to all the tech enthusiasts, problem solvers, and innovators at our company to be a part of an electrifying opportunity to showcase their abilities, collaborate with their peers and bring their groundbreaking ideas to life. This offered a platform that left every one of us awe-inspired and amazed through the unleashed creativity.  In this edition, our tech gigs focused on our commitment to the Digital India initiative as we are already serving a plethora of government bodies time and again. ‘Digital Democracy’ is what the team emphasised with the motto, ‘No stress, no mess, just a simple click and your vote is expressed.’ Digital Democracy Digital democracy is a cutting-edge web application to revolutionise democracy through a decentralised voting system. It harnesses the power of blockchain technology to ensure secure, transparent, and tamper-proof elections. It acquires the potential to avoid long queues and outdated voting systems to welcome a new era of democracy. The Team Shankha Chatterjee Shankhya Subhra Datta Lokenath Karmakar Sayantan Sur Market Potential Increased demand for remote voting: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend of remote voting, as more people are looking for safe and convenient voting remotely.  Blockchain technology adoption: Blockchain technology is growing across a variety of industries, and its potential applications for voting and elections are increasingly being explored. Potential cost savings: An online voting app with blockchain can provide cost-saving options compared to traditional voting methods, such as paper ballots and in-person voting. Problem Statement Voting: India is the largest democracy in the world, however only 67% of people vote Security: Electronic voting machines are vulnerable to hacking, tampering, and other forms of interference hampering the voting procedure Transparency: Voters face ambiguities in the counting of their votes and the accuracy of results Reliability: The data stored in the database can be hampered and manipulated resulting in trust issues Paper trail: Voting solutions lack a paper trail making it difficult to audit the results raising the possibility of disputes Expensive: Current conventional voting system is costly The Solution and Its Benefits Digital Democracy – A Voting Web-App having the following features: Decentralised identity verification through Blockchain technology allows each voter to create a unique digital identity that is linked to their physical identity Tamper-proof and transparent ledger to provide an immutable record of all casted votes, making it more difficult to breach results Maintaining privacy to keep an individual’s vote secret Voters would be incapable to give their voting rights to third parties  Easy voting and making everyone eligible to vote Maintaining immutability by keeping the unmodifiable records of the casted votes on the blockchain The system is easy to use and accessible to all voters, regardless of their technical abilities Facilitating seamless verification of votes to ensure validity  The system upholds voter anonymity to ensure their choices remain private The solution processes votes quickly and efficiently to make the results available on a real-time basis  The system is resilient to cyber-attacks and can withstand attempts to compromise the integrity of the voting process How It Works Workflow #1 Workflow #2 Tech Stack FrontEnd: React Js Backend: Node Js Web 3.0: Metamask, Solidity, Polygon, and Hardhat Database: MongoDB Future Business Scopes The platform can establish partnerships with other companies or organisations to offer additional services, such as voter education materials or voter outreach campaigns. These have the potential to generate revenue through joint marketing efforts or revenue-sharing agreements.  Tie up with the government and corporate sectors  The online voting system can offer customisation services for election authorities, like creating custom ballots or integrating the system with existing voter databases

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Neobanks: The next revolution in financial services in 2022

Neobanks is a term that many of us have heard increasingly over the last couple of years and with good reason. The banking and financial services industry (BFSI) is finally seeing widespread digital transformation over the last few years. New or neobanking is a phenomenon that encompasses multiple new moot points for the sector. These include widening the customer net to include more younger adults and teenagers or the tech-savvy generation to swift and hassle-free onboarding processes, contactless payments, greater financial literacy and user-friendly content, and most importantly, easier access to loans and other offerings. A Little More About Neobanks Neobanks may help in filling up the vacuum between services offered by conventional banks and increasing customer expectations in a digital era. They are rapidly transforming the very nature of fintech as we know it and this trend looks set to continue in 2022. However, neobanks, while similar to digital banks, are slightly different propositions. They are financial institutions providing more affordable options to conventional banking for customers. They do not have physical branches in most cases, providing more inclusive services than conventional players and in a more efficient manner. They deploy AI and other technologies for personalizing services while lowering operating expenditure. These neobanks may not have their banking licenses but depend upon licensed services from banking and other partners. The RBI still does not permit 100% digital banks and hence this unique operational model. While conventional banking players have earned the trust of customers over decades and are better funded, they are sometimes bogged down by legacy mechanisms while finding it harder to quickly keep up with the evolving requirements of tech-savvy and younger generations of customers. At the same time, there is a large section of un-served or under-served customers who are not under the purview of the conventional banking sector and never will be. Neobanks are steadily making finance solutions for this ever-expanding demographic. Core Pointers Worth Noting Neobanks are deploying technological expertise and innovation toward launching newer customer offerings and partnering with more providers for serving customers faster than their conventional counterparts. They cater majorly to SMEs and retail customers who are under-served at conventional lenders. They tap into mobile-driven operational models while ensuring superior customer support. Neobanks are finding acceptance amongst investors who envision a brighter future for these institutions. To put a few statistics into context, neobanks raised a whopping $230 million in 2020 alone as per reports. The growth potential is immense- India had 54% of the population covered by smartphones as of 2020 and this could jump to 96% by 2040 according to estimates. Although 80% of the country has access to a single bank account at least, universal financial inclusion is still some way off. Gen Z surprisingly executes 80% of transactions using cash despite being digitally savvy. They are under-served by the mainstream banking sector which mainly targets salaried customers. A majority of this population enters working life without much knowledge of finance and financial products. Simultaneously, with financial independence, they desire more customized products and simplified knowledge-gathering and marketing interfaces. Neobanks are taking care of this category with 2022 poised to witness rapid expansion with youth-based finance offerings. Traditional banks do not always enable stand-alone bank accounts for minors without guardians. Neobanks are filling up this gap rapidly. Neobanks are also offering comfortable and phone-based finance experiences while enjoying exclusively curated, simplified and gamified content for increasing financial literacy. With fast onboarding, quicker digital account set-up procedures, minimal documentation and other features, neobanks are swiftly scaling up their customer base. How Does It Stack Up? As mentioned, 2022 could be the year of youth-centric financial services and products. From contactless and prepaid cards to other contactless financial offerings, online payments, and category-wise spending limits, a lot is in store for customers. Neobanks are empowering younger customers while encouraging them to be financially responsible. This will be ensured through gamified and highly intuitive financial content for higher awareness and education alike. Of course, the neobanking industry is anticipated to touch $333.4 billion in market size by the year 2026, indicating a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 47.1%. However, neobanks do have their own sets of advantages and disadvantages as observed to date. The trust factor is of course where they will face hurdles in mounting challenges to conventional banks. Neobanking may come up with models such as freemium subscriptions, memberships and other ‘experiences before you pay’ initiatives for building trust. Neobanks have lower costs and credit risks, enabling them to offer inexpensive products and solutions to customers with maintenance fees levied every month. These banks also ensure app-based or mobile banking solutions along with facilitating the faster establishment of accounts while processing reports quickly as well. Those providing loans may bypass the regular lengthy application procedure, choosing highly innovative blueprints for credit evaluations instead. Of course, regulatory issues will be there since the RBI does not officially provide recognition to neobanks as of now, especially since they lack physical branches. Customers may also face some hurdles concerning getting support in person as well. At the same time, the overall service spectrum at neobanks is comparatively lesser than conventional banking institutions. Yet, 2022 could well be the year of neobanking, a year when conventional models give way to simplified, youth-centric, and most importantly, more convenient personal finance solutions.

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FinOps Is The Solution To Bridge The Cloud Gap In Banking

The COVID-19 pandemic made cloud adoption mainstream worldwide and across almost all business sectors. With more companies switching to flexible and scalable IT expenditure models, Cloud FinOps helps keep cloud spending under control while managing the same seamlessly. But that’s for the enterprise space. How then is FinOps filling up cloud gaps in the banking sector? Let us find out. FinOps And Its Functioning Framework FinOps is a cloud-based operating model, enabling a paradigm shift with systems, best practices and tools that collectively optimize and control cloud spending at organisations. It necessitates enhanced cost awareness and promotes this philosophy through a collaborative ecosystem encompassing finance, IT, engineering, business and procurement divisions of any company. Through the promotion of optimized and responsible spending and scaling up accountability from a financial perspective, FinOps enables informed and improved decision-making for businesses. The core of the system is the centralized model of reporting and governance that enables better optimization of public cloud-based resources. The entire spending and performance matrix is brought into a single, decipherable space visible at every level of the company. The Three Phases Of FinOps Inform- Teams throughout the entity are given higher visibility and decision-making capabilities along with allocating cloud spend for showback and chargeback more accurately. Benchmarking via KPIs and metrics for performance tracking and spurring ROI while remaining within the forecasting/budgeting spectrum. Optimize- Actions taken for the identification and tracking of efficiency drives include reducing cloud wastage, storage access optimization and rightsizing resources that are not utilized, under-utilized or over-used. This includes enhancing automation and optimizing the utilization rate while enhancing instances reserved for discounting. Operate- Companies should keep adopting cloud-based usage and governance controls for their resources in the cloud. The phase will also encompass analyzing overall business goals against metrics and overall effectiveness with a view towards KPI-driven improvement. How It Can Help In The Banking Space? FinOps mechanisms may help banking and financial services firms with the following: Forecasting spends. Application of best practices on optimizing costs. Take decisions informed by metrics. Ensure continual savings on costs and greater value. Central governance teams were deployed with finding cost optimization opportunities in sync with cloud providers. Internal benchmarking of metrics, systems and KPIs for tracking performance vis-à-vis business goals for real-time decisions and enhancements. Governance systems are tailored and executed for tracking spending along with optimization recommendations. Opportunities are continually found to optimize cloud architecture and managed services. Real-time insights on costs are available for people at all organisational levels. Such visibility helps manage budgets and detect spending issues before they snowball into severe monthly shocks. FinOps will ultimately mature towards a watershed mark where unit economics or business value will directly correlate and link to cloud spending. Hence, greater spending clarity and the accuracy of metrics will help banking and financial services players (and companies in all other sectors) build achievable goals based on business performance while identifying areas for spending to scale up returns from investments in the cloud, simultaneously generating added value. Wrapping Up FinOps is thus the best solution for filling up the cloud gap in banking and financial services, something that is a necessity in today’s ever-evolving business lexicon. FinOps helps businesses view the tangible value achieved and fills up the gap through a more structured perspective toward controlling cloud service costs and realization of anticipated values. FinOps also has the scope of showing the value of the investment made in the cloud by the organisation, irrespective of its current stage. With banking and other financial services players increasingly transforming towards cloud-based organisations, effective management and spend optimization will be crucial for them. That is the area where FinOps can play a vital role.

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World Earth Day – Role of Digital Technologies in Correcting Environmental Impact

Environmental impact, natural calamities and global warming are the biggest moot points today among policymakers and corporates worldwide. While Nature’s Fury is not fully in our hands, technology can be a future safeguard in terms of better response systems, mitigation strategies and correcting environmental impact. With World Earth Day around the corner on 22nd April 2022, now is the time for countries and authorities to adopt comprehensive digital technologies for managing environmental impact, and conditions and contribute towards futuristic, sustainable and sound policymaking. Digital Technologies- How They Stack Up? Digital technologies may enable easier decision-making and response systems through their integration into environment-linked data. For instance, with New Delhi suffering from toxic air quality last winter, residents were able to track everything on the GEMS Air (Global Environment Monitoring System Air) site in real-time. GEMS Air is one of the numerous technologies deployed by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) for tracking environmental conditions at local, global and national levels. In the near future, integrated digital data platforms will help countries understand, track, manage and mitigate environmental hazards including growing air pollution and harmful emissions. Multiple public and private sector players are already tapping into digital technologies and data for scaling up environmental action plans. At a time when the world is battling pollution, loss of biodiversity and climate change, digital technologies are enabling transformational measures for safeguarding nature, lowering pollution and boosting overall sustainability. GEMS Air for instance is the biggest air pollution network worldwide, encompassing almost 5,000 cities. More than 50 million people accessed it in 2020 as per reports. It is now playing a crucial role in alerting citizens about risks with real-time updates. How Other Digital Tools Are Contributing To Much-Needed Environmental Action? Big data and other technologies are helping generate timely and effective insights. For instance, farmers now have accurate data on weather and predictive modelling/forecasting applications. They can lower the usage of water, conserve natural resources and prepare for calamities. Applying digital technologies to environmental information is helping in better management and regulations. For instance, migrations of birds are hard to track and cover various regions. This is a major obstacle to conservation efforts in this space. Yet, forecasting models are now helping understand patterns and variances in migration. This knowledge is helping combat migration issues with better policies. Non-governmental change agents are also being mobilized through environmental insights and information, including corporates, communities and organisations. Some tools are already tapping data on emissions of methane already and offering analytics to companies for building future sustainability goals. Simultaneously, digital technologies are playing a role in enhancing overall accountability among all stakeholders, veering policy-making away from distractions towards hardcore and understandable analytics and environmental data. Minimizing environmental impact, identifying potential problems and finding solutions are processes made faster and easier through digital technologies. AI and big data analytics along with IoT, social platforms and mobile applications are contributing towards enhanced sustainability, lower resource usage and greater awareness. At a rudimentary level, these technologies are digitizing workplaces, production units and establishments, making them more environment-friendly and conserving more resources as a result. More corporates are depending on AI and IoT along with analytics for coming up with futuristic and more sustainable practices that lower carbon emissions and minimize wastage. Big data analytics is already at work in certifying products based on their environmental sustainability quotient. Blockchain may be used for greater sustainability in the future, scaling up lifecycles of products, maximizing usage of resources and lowering emissions, thereby greatly contributing to lowering environmental impact. These are only a few of the multifarious use cases of digital technologies and their role in mitigating environmental impact. One aspect is crystal clear- A fusion of environmental understanding, policies and sustainability with digitization is mandatory. It is digital transformation that will enable countries to move towards lower resource wastage, higher conservation and more sustainable ecosystems. On World Earth Day, it is time to embrace the power of technology and use it for environmental good.

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Challenger Bank Is The New Coopetitive Competitor

Challenger banks have witnessed phenomenal growth over the last few years, becoming marshals of the global fintech space. These banks have set the cat amongst the pigeons in conventional banking globally with more innovation, digital-led offerings and unique and multi-dimensional customer service.  With a customer is king template and the spirit of coopetition or positive collaborations in the space, challenger banks could well be the fast-growing Davids amidst banking Goliaths today. A Little About Challenger Banks Challenger banks are intrinsically technology companies, tapping their expertise and software to streamline and digitize conventional retail banking. These entities are strongly leveraging digital channels for distribution (usually mobile-based) to provide highly competitive services in the retail banking segment. These include savings and checking accounts, credit cards, insurance and even loans. How Do They Differ From Their Regular Peers? Retail banking has always emphasized the presence of a branch and in-person experiences, while challenger banks are always tech-driven, depending on desktop/mobile platforms. They harp on customer experiences and continual improvement, targeting those desirous of online banking without visiting any retail point. Challenger banks are gaining ground among customers who are shying away from conventional bankers and institutional players post the worldwide financial crisis. They are posing a literal challenge (true to their name) to the business models of retail bankers. This is being done through low and transparent fees charged to customers, faster service offerings and superior user experiences via 24-7 agile digital platforms, which can give legacy banking software a run for its money. Challenger banks are also reaching out to under-served or un-served demographics (for conventional retail banks), including those in lower-income groups or without credit histories, for instance. The Digital Banking Revolution And What It Means Reports highlight 240,000 bank branches throughout Europe in 2019 when digital banking was still in its nascent stages. Yet, challenger banks are expanding with the premise of people moving completely towards mobile and digital banking in the future. Digital banking has broken records ever since, with branch counts in Europe reducing to 165,000. It could well go down even more over the next few years, per domain experts. Some reports forecast how 3.6 billion global citizens (almost 1 out of 2 adult individuals) will use digital banking by 2024, across desktop and mobile channels. The United Kingdom (UK) has already embraced the Digi-banking wave and more countries in the continent are in the queue. The coronavirus outbreak added fuel to the fire, leading to the closures of several retail banking branches and accelerating the adoption of digital banking platforms. Global usage of mobile payment and banking apps went up by 26% in H1 2020, per surveys. Challenger banks are feeding off this digital shift, while conventional bankers continue maintaining branch-based models, developing their online offerings simultaneously. How Coopetition Is The New Mantra For Challenger Banks? What is this new keyword coopetition that is being widely discussed at a global level? What has it got to do with worldwide fintech and challenger banks? The word fuses the terms competition and cooperation. This means that challenger banks are partnering with conventional banking institutions for building new services, products and industry solutions. Many industry stakeholders feel that this is the best future pathway for the banking and financial services sector in terms of innovation. They highlight collaboration and teamwork as necessary virtues for creating a future ecosystem that serves customers even better and in more innovative ways. Key Schools Of Thought And Developments  The collaboration will ultimately unearth higher consumer benefits, and feel industry veterans. Fintech players/challenger banks and conventional banks may not always be competing in the same segments. They may have different customer sectors and demographics. This may help in building newer avenues for feeding off each other, stimulating a spirit of continual learning and growth. Coopetition may not only encompass teaming up to build new products and services but also knowledge exchange via webinars, forums, industry conferences and best practices. Some feel that competition and coopetition represent similar ideals. Businesses will always have goals putting them directly against other entities in the same industry. However, this does not hinder collaborative work in areas beyond the competition. Some of these areas highlighted by experts include enhancing overall financial inclusion for instance. Several challenger banks are already partnering with conventional peers for enhancing outcomes for consumers, including more people who would not normally fit into traditional lenders’ profiles. Some Other Things Worth Noting Some industry experts also opine that almost 1/3rd of the millennial generation may have already switched to digital banks as primary providers of checking accounts. Hence, they claim that digital entities are not challenger banks anymore but are a part of the mainstream. Some claim that this indicates how digital banks have already won the battle against their traditional counterparts while some indicate this as a natural response to the shifting demands of consumers. Some feel that banks and institutions should sync their future goals digitally with building experiences for consumers. More than 50% of people will only work with institutions offering digital account opening in the future according to these experts. Many flags the role played by legacy vendors in the global banking sector with outdated technological expertise and acquisition-driven approaches toward future innovation. The Core Takeaway The whole world is closely following the next phase of the ever-evolving relationship between conventional lenders and fintech players (challenger banks).  How will it pan out? Can conventional lenders adopt a more agile mechanism towards shifting consumer preferences, teaming up with challenger entities to speed up their procedures, include more people into the portfolio and build innovative experiences for customers? Can coopetition work in such a hotly contested space? Will this become a successful operational model for the BFSI sector globally?  An insular way of doing business is no longer possible technologically at least. If you keep that aspect in mind, think how Apple offers Google apps in its App Store or how Microsoft has gone ahead to include not just the Windows OS for

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