Um let's get started. Uh So uh Digital Transformation is um nothing new. Everyone in the industry is jumping on the transformation right now. Um As you know that uh there are a lot of challenges with digital transformation.Did you know that only 33% of the digital transformation initiatives actually succeed? Uh As for mckenzie, why is that? So it's important to understand the challenges associated with the transformation and address them uh uh progressively and proactively. But before we get into the challenges, let's get and be on the same page on what is this transformation? And what does it mean to us? Different people think differently. Some people think digital transformation is just modernizing the technologies. In my view, it is much bigger than that.

It's about a paradigm shift for businesses, a process change uh to address or to get maximize the outcomes. And of course, you use technology to, to achieve that, but that's technology is not the end all. And we've seen it multiple times, we've seen online banking, we have seen how payments have have become uh have been transformed. It's become so easy to pay something through. Uh uh my cell phone. So it's really transformative and it is coming, there are four key benefits for digital transformation. We all know this. But let me just quickly go over that more engaged, happier customers with better user experience, better transformed processes, streamlined, less paper, more automation empowered and happier employees can make decisions faster and help reach the business goals and optimized operations where our support teams can move quickly, can have better insights into systems and have better transparency.

So now that we understand that let's talk about the challenges, I'm gonna talk about top five challenges to the transformation programs. First, the siloed strategy and decision making. Second, the risk averse culture. Third, insufficient funds for core talent and skill gap. And fifth, the digital dexterity of the existing employees, let's jump in. So w challenge number one siloed strategy and decision making. What does it really mean when a business embarks on digital transformation, they look at certain outcomes out of that transformation. But if that strategy and the outcomes are not clearly defined or if is not understood at every level in the organization, different business silos might interpret them differently and come up with initiatives which is not linked to the overarching strategy and the outcomes. So it's important that these strategy, the overarching strategy is clearly defined, have clear definition of key objectives and scope and is communicated top down at every level iteratively here. The keyword is iteratively because it takes time for it to sink in and for everyone to internalize their strategy and the goals. And secondly, tie the transformation to the business objectives. So there's accountability to achieve them next challenge. Number two, risk averse culture, let's face it change is hard. We all are bound to what we think is tried and tested. Our brain is wired for that and risk makes it harder. This resistance to change can be a significant challenge for transformation teams.

How do we address that? Businesses should assess the cultural impediments and catalysts that can expedite versus slow down transformation proactively and iteratively, remember, change is hard. We need to make sure that we are iteratively looking at it and addressing the challenges as they come about, come about in addition to that roll out a training program so that everyone in the organization understand the benefits for the transformation and they can they can vary the risk versus benefit and hence move along with the transformation.

Number three, inadequate funding models. We all know challenges with indeed and also sometimes technology funding can be seen as operational expense. But at this point in the journey for digital transformation, most businesses understand that transformation is an investment, not an operational expense. So let's not talk about that.

The key thing I wanna talk about is the funding model. Digital Transformation is complex depending on the business or the system that you might be transforming and it would need sign it could need significant investment, but it's not always clear upfront exactly what we need and what we are doing. So what I've seen work is to have a seed funding to the initiatives, the key critical initiatives and then have a pool of investment money kept outside to make the flexible funding model as the teams are running into challenges and they find they need funding, they can come to the central governance team and ask for more funding.

Of course, it needs process and of course it needs governance. But having a flexible funding model can make a huge difference in making sure that transformation is progressing in the right pace. Number four, the gap in core digital skills for any transformation experts are required are important for the success of the program. If you're doing agile transformation, you need agile coaches for technology transformation, you need enterprise architects, you need cloud experts, cyber and data experts.

We we need to use two pronged approach for this one, look internally, find the talent in house and create a core team which can work across functional boundaries. And second source talent from outside to strengthen these core teams and expedite the learning process. And last but not the least. Channel number five, upskilling our existing employees, existing employees are super critical for the success of the business. They are the subject matter experts, they make us successful every day. So bringing them along the journey is super important. Roll out a training program.

To upskill the existing employees at all levels and motivate them to learn by tying the learning to the performance goals and create a culture of continuous learning by creating kick days power ups hackathons and celebrate learning. In conclusion, digital transformation is a lot more than deploying modern technologies.

A successful digital program requires not only the right tools but the right guidance, the expertise and the culture shift and last but not the least, distal transformation is a journey is not once and done and it's important to face the challenges head on and I'm sure you will be successful.

So with that, thank you for listening to me and I'm happy to take any questions from startup's perspective. Um I think we have to think about what are the goals of the start up. Um Making sure that uh I think start ups have an advantage over the uh larger corporations because they don't have to worry about uh transforming the existing legacy systems. So if you're thinking from the beginning, um think about using modern technologies from the beginning, think about agile practices and make sure that you're adopting those from the from the beginning. I I hope I answered your question, Jeremy. So learning, uh continuous learning is very important because uh technology is moving very fast. Uh our clients, industry market, everything is moving very, very fast. So continuing to upscale ourselves and our teams uh and having a culture of learning is extremely important uh so that we can take advantage of these skills and continue to uh help upscale uh our systems. Uh It is a journey, as I said, and to continue to progress on the journey, it's important that teams are continuing to upscale themselves. I hope I answered that questions, Jenny.

Sorry, I, I think your question was how does working with partners outside or the play the uh digital Transformation initiatives? Uh I think that's a really good point. Um A lot of times with this current market where experts are not always available, everyone is embarking on the journey.

I think consultants and partners can really help us uh also not building everything from scratch. There are tools already available in the industry. So using some of the tools and building your business around, that is another great way of uh playing into the digital transformation.

So if you're working on a on on automating a workflow, don't build it from scratch. There's already so many existing tools, take a look at it and see if there's any of them work for you more. Uh So the question is, what do you think about the role of digital hubs with a more uh experimental character with the bigger corporations? I'm not quite sure uh what that role of digital hubs, do you mean the role of online presence? What kind of tool do you think would help the company's transformational journey? Can you share some of your experience with certain tools. So um most important tools like I've been, we've been using um Jira for Agile. We're using uh the new technology, we're using Azure uh for cloud, we're using multi cloud strategies with Azure and Aws um more digital uh you know, um design thinking sessions, uh brainstorming um for and, and whiteboards. Really whiteboard is your friend um co for collaboration and being on the zoom, there are so many digital boards. Miro is a great tool that we have been using um for, for thinking through what we want to do. Um And um I think collaboration plus all the modern technologies C A fa microservices. Um Tho those are other tools that we've been using. Is it for C I CD? And yes. Oh Digital hub.

I think that's a great point, Jenny uh having uh digital hubs like start ups within like culture within the large company is super important and critical. Each, each leader needs to think like a business owner within their, within their business unit and think about how a start up would work and, and that start up culture of agility and everyone knowing everything within the organization and having uh power teams uh is super important um that, that culture of learning and uh agility that definitely I think digital hubs uh play a huge role in digital transformation.

So with that, uh I will say thank you, thank you for joining and thank you for all the great questions.