Digital Business Methodology - The Present Scenario, Use Cases & Future Prospects

By siliconindia  |  Friday, 15 September 2023, 13:39 IST

Holding an MBA in Information Technology from Uptron ACL and MCA in Computer Applications from Anna University, Ranga boasts of a three decades long career during which he has successfully handled key roles across Snobol Computers, CSC, Visa, and Paypal prior to joining Altimetrik in 2017. In a recent conversation with Siliconindia, Ranga Kanapathy, Chief Transformation Officer, Altimetrik shared his insights on various aspects pertaining to digital business methodology in the current scenario. Below are the excerpts from the exclusive interview

Briefly explain the difference between digital transformation and digital business methodology.

Digital is one of the most discussed topics among the boardrooms across the world today. The terminologies too are changing in accordance to the evolving customer preferences and tech advancements. Since every business now wants to have a digital presence, how the business is getting evolved is the methodology around it. This includes various processes such as technology, people transformation, infrastructure and investments. On the other hand, there are many traditional companies who have been successful and are evolving significantly over the last few decades. As they mature, they are now wholeheartedly embracing digital technologies and thus aspire evolving into a digital business. However, for this change, their existing infrastructure, process and people need to undergo a complete transformation to be able to support digital business model. While digital transformation stops here, digital business methodology enables businesses to use new technology and stay in tandem with the changing market dynamics.

Throw some light on the role of digital business methodology and digital business platforms.  

Digital business methodology is all about how to leverage the infrastructure and the platform for the digital business model. So far, every person in an organization was skilled differently – be it a domain expert, technology personnel, application developer, program manager and the project manager. While all of these personnel should come together to support a digital business, a majority of them have not upskilled themselves over the few years since the onset of the digital revolution. As a result, it is important to have a methodology in place for them to be prepared in terms of infrastructure, people, process and culture. To summarize, digital business methodology supports the entire digital commerce and digital economy. Cloud technology has been a true enabler in this regard, wherein you can simply rent-out the service and start reaping the abundant benefits it has to offer instead of investing hefty monies on owning any infrastructure.

Tell us about a few latest technologies that are empowering businesses in today’s digital scenario.

Today, the core services are becoming different and data services are being categorized differently altogether. As a result, the concept of how you use data and technology is more critical than ever before. Thus, data - commonly known as the ‘single source of truth’ in today’s technology context – is stored across various forms in an organization. Bringing data together from all these data points through a data mesh in an organized form is paramount for businesses today. Furthermore, businesses are leveraging AI and ML to derive meaningful insights from this data, which has made the entire decision making process easier and more risk-free for the organizations. Thus, I personally that irrespective of the rapid pace at which technology is advancing lately, data will continue acting as the primary fuel for all other modern day technologies to operate on.

Suggest a few ways in which companies can combine digital and human capabilities to achieve enhanced business outcomes.

Today, human, digital and data are becoming increasingly crucial and form the triangular dots that form the basis of an organization. For instance, self-driven cars analyze driver behavior, captures the road information that the vehicle is travelling on and then integrates it with data of its own self to makes autonomous driving more safe and efficient. Additionally, this data and tech integration also enables the vehicle to offer recommendations based on the driver’s past behavior pattern such as stopping at a particular coffee shop or even remind him/her of any purchase/activity that was to be done on that particular day. Similarly, IoT is enabling individuals to even automatically order groceries or other products when they are about to get over without the hassles of personally checking them periodically and ordering them manually. This way, human, digital and data are working in close coordination with each other to offer a hyper personalized experience to customers.

How can the Indian government leverage digital business methodology to the maximum benefit of the general public?

I recently read an article about a system that is being implemented in Hyderabad, wherein the traffic information is recorded and captured LIVE, and based on the current traffic condition of the road, the time and the location, you can reroute the traffic using AI technology. If the governments across the country install this system in their respective states, it will no doubt act as a lifesaver for many metros, cities & towns which are plagued by severe traffic congestion.

Given the humongous amounts of patient data that is being generated and stored in India today, another vertical where digital business methodology can have a significant impact is the healthcare sector. If all the data that is being generated across the country and stored securely and used in the right way, we will be able to have a very efficient predictive disease management and thus help a lot of patients take precautionary even before the onset of any kinds of symptoms.

How do you expect the digital business transformation to evolve in the near future?

India is already one of the strongest digital ecosystems in the world, and the rate of adoption of digital technologies here is larger than any other part of the world. For instance, India tops the chart in terms of total number of digital payments that are happening annually. Going forward, India must focus more on innovation to evolve to the next level of digital ecosystem and continue to grow further.

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