Report on DIGITAL DISRUPTION AND TRANSFORMATION SUMMIT 2017
Friday, 28th July 2017 at Hotel Hilton, Guindy, Chennai
FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council organized the Digital Disruption and Transformation Summit 2017 at Chennai on 28th July 2017 wherein more than 300 IT Professionals including CEO/CTO/COO, LoB
Heads, Head of Operations, Head of Finance, Head of Strategy, Head of Digital, Head of Multi-
Channel, Head of Innovation, Head of Transformation, CIO, Head of IT, eCommerce, Planning from manufacturing & Service Industry and Educational Institutions participated. TRIL (Ramanujan IT
Park), ELCOT (Government of Tamil Nadu), VIT University, Accenture, Latitude Fintech, Auronya College (Puducherry) were main sponsors while Business Line was the Media Partner for
the conference. The other associations such as NASSCOM, CIOKLUB, SPIN, CSI, IEEE, eWIT, PMI,
IOD, TCC, HCC, ACC, SICCI supported the conference.
Mr. Ar Rm Arun, Chairman, FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council & Chairman, Valingro Group said everyone now wants a chief digital officer (CDO) in their business because marketing and IT are
fighting. It’s got to be about fusion. He said successful transformation is also about how businesses
mesh the old and the new, and that he is a firm believer in automation processes. “People can resist for as long as they want, but if a process can be automated, automate it. There will be a big
productivity uplift, as well as efficiency. Additionally, he focused on customer experience and engagement as important factors of digital transformation.
Mr. Rajaram Venkataraman, Convener, Technology Panel, FICCI TNSC & Founder and CEO, Navya Insights said the summit aims to equip stakeholders with the necessary knowledge for doing
business in a world where technological disruption is commonplace. It will address how the business landscape has already been affected by big data, online analytics, the Internet, and
artificial intelligence, as well as what we can expect from these in the near future.
Mr. R. Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice Chairman, Cognizant India said digital technology is
creating more jobs not just in the IT sector, but across all industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, real estate and retail. It enables delivering better value and services to consumers and
also help employees get better pay. He added global technology spend will increase, not decrease
in future, and this will create a lot more opportunities for the IT industry. The Indian IT industry is likely to grow 7-9 per cent. No other industry is growing at this pace, he said. “A lot of people have
written negative things about the IT industry; but it is still the sunrise industry. He said there is going to be a net addition of nearly 1.5 lakh jobs to the industry. It may be less when compared
with previous years. But this should be looked from the perspective of the industry size of $150
billion. The 7-9 per cent growth is still very healthy, and still there are a lot of opportunities.
Mr. Avnish Sabharwal, Managing Director (Digital, Strategy and Innovation), Accenture said the average lifespan of an S&P 500 company has decreased to less than 18 years from around 60
years. Multiple companies like Kodak have disappeared from the Fortune 500 list, replaced by
platform companies such as Amazon and Google.
Dr. C. Velan, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer, TRIL Infopark Ltd (Ramanujan IT City) said India is popular for being an IT/ITES destination and according to estimates, is poised to
increase its worth to $ 220 billion by 2020. The industry has been a major contributor in buying up
commercial office space in the real estate sector.
Dr. Rajendra Kumar, I.A.S, Chairman & Managing Director, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT) said that to enable digital transformation in the government sector, there
should be a long-term digital strategy aimed at exploring the potential of new technologies. The
goal must be end-to-end transformation of the entire business processes and not just the delivery interface.
Mr P Murari IAS (Retd.), Adviser to FICCI President & Former Secretary to President of India
provided the concluding remarks
Mr Ruban Hobday, Head, FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council proposed the vote of thanks.
After Inauguration, the conference had three plenary sessions (1) Disruptive Technologies and
Trends causing disruption and opportunities for Transformation (2) Digital and end-user Industries
(BFSI, Healthcare, Real-estate, Manufacturing, Education, Cyber Security etc.) (3) Opportunities, Strategies, Skilling for surviving and thriving in the emerging Digital World (Creating New Markets,
Encourage entrepreneurship, Upskill on Digital, Problem solving, Business Value creation) which was addressed by eminent speakers including Dr. Sougata Ray, Professor of Strategy and
Innovation, IIM Calcutta, Ms. Kalpana Balasubramanian, Partner and Head of Robotics and
Cognitive Computing, KPMG, Mr. Amit Saha, Regional Head – IS, Asia Pacific, Syngenta, Mr. Praveen P S, Country Manager & Blockchain Evangelist, Transaction Network Services, Mr.
Balasubramanian Vedagiri, SVP and CDO, Mphasis, Mr Raman Padmanabhan, President & CEO, Thryve Digital, Dr. C. Velan, ED & CEO, TRIL Infopark Ltd (Ramanujan IT City), Mr Sushmitshri
Babu, Founder, Latitude Fintech, Prof. Anuj Sharma, Founder Dean, Auronya College, Puduchery,
Dr.Amar Prasad Reddy, Director General, National Cyber Safety and Security Standards, Dr. Yogesh Kumar Bhatt, Vice-President, IT Education & Training, Manipal Global Education, Dr. Harish
Pant, Managing Director, Hampson Industries, Dr. K K Raman, Partner, Business Excellence, KPMG, Mr. Naru Narayanan, President, TiE Chennai, Mr. Mohan Narayanaswamy, MD & COO, Inautix
Technologies, Mr. Ramesh Krishnamurthy, CTO, Indium Software (India) Ltd, Ms. Sadhana
Somasekhar, Founder and CEO, Zeus Mentors
Dr. G. Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor, VIT University delivered the valedictory address and distributed the awards & gifts to the participants.
Caption L to R: Mr Ruban Hobday, Head, FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council, Mr. Avnish Sabharwal, Managing Director (Digital, Strategy and Innovation), Accenture, Mr. Ar Rm Arun,
Chairman, FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council & Chairman, Valingro Group, Dr. Rajendra Kumar,
I.A.S, Chairman & Managing Director, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT), Mr P Murari IAS (Retd.), Adviser to FICCI President & Former Secretary to President of India, Mr. R.
Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice Chairman, Cognizant India, Dr. C. Velan, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer, TRIL Infopark Ltd (Ramanujan IT City), Mr. Rajaram Venkataraman,
Convener, Technology Panel, FICCI TNSC & Founder and CEO, Navya Insights
******