Digital Transformation is beyond technology; it’s a culture change

by | Apr 17, 2018 | Data and Analytics, Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is a buzzword that has taken the world by storm. Is it just about technology or there’s more to digital transformation?

It is a fast moving world, and technology is evolving each day with a rapid pace. The new age customer likes speed, innovation and convenience. That’s where enterprises began to realize the need to reinvent their business models and transform digitally. While most industry leaders are already en route digital transformation, several enterprises worldwide are gradually stepping up.

But what does it take to make this buzzword a business reality? How long does digital transformation really take? From a broad perspective, digital transformation is mostly about bringing in new technology and digitizing business processes. However, if you dig in deeper and take a closer look, there’s a lot more to it than just technology implementation. Digital Transformation is a culture; an ongoing, long-term process. It touches all aspects of an organization, including its various departments, its people, processes and policies.

Digital transformation is beyond digitization; it calls for a change in organizational culture. As a CIO, you must understand that there are several layers to digital transformation hidden beneath technology implementation. Here are 4 critical aspects to an enterprise-wide digital transformation apart from implementing technology innovations.

Change Management

Even the smallest of organizational changes are faced by employee resistance; and we’re talking of digital transformation here. Before you set on a journey to transforming your business digitally, it is important to ensure that your people are comfortable with the new change. There are three key stages to an effective change management in an organization.

Awareness – Educate your people about digital transformation, and the value it holds for the organization and them.
Assurance – Build confidence in your workforce that digital transformation is for good and it will make work easier for them.
Assistance – Support them throughout the transition phase. Be a mentor, be a guide.

Training and Development

Implementing innovative technology and latest applications is a great initiative, but it’s of no good if your people are not competent with it. As a CIO, it is an implied responsibility that you must train your workforce with the new technology coming in.

Conduct Learning & Development programs that equip them with the upcoming business processes and develop their skills to keep up with the change. It will not only prepare them for the upcoming digital transformation, but will also enhance their productivities. Additionally, it will help you retain valuable employees, and drive digital transformation smoothly.

Enterprise-wide Digitization

True digital transformation is when your entire organization is influenced digitally, including your front end activities, back end processes, day-to-day operations and complex business critical activities. It could be as simple as implementing and AI-enabled bot on your company website or as complex as automating your enterprise’s risk management practices.

Digital transformation is not an instant process. It takes months, even years for an enterprise to fully transform digitally. It is a continuous process that fetches long-term benefits for an enterprise. The best strategy to carry out an enterprise-wide digital transformation is to focus on one department (or process) at a time, and integrate them together over time.

Risk Assessment and Plan of Action

Digital transformation leads to massive business change. However, it carries a set of challenges and risks that need to be addressed cautiously. It involves huge investments and business efforts to implement or migrate to new technology. For successful digital transformation, it is critical that you deploy the right technology in the right department and choose the right implementation partner.

Before you start with the implementation, revisit the areas of risk and come up with a plan of action to cope up with the risks. It could be internal risks, such as lack of IT resources to carry out the project, or external factors like stringent governance regulations. A strategic risk assessment can help you manage any risks that come along and implement digitization successfully in your enterprise.

The whole idea behind digital transformation is to help businesses grow and stand out in the cut-throat competition. Successful digital transformation is digitization runs across your entire organization and your people, processes and policies are in sync with the digital revolution.

Prakash Balebail is the founder and CEO of Estuate. He comes with over two decades of experience in driving digital transformation across industries and strong expertise in disruptive technologies like AI, Automation, IoT and Machine Learning.

 

Prem Shankar Patel
Senior Manager
Prem brings nearly three decades of analytics and information management experience to Estuate. He is a recognized expert who has received several awards over the years. In 2003, he was awarded the Center of Excellence (CoE) Champion Award for introduction of advanced training and certification for BIDW architects and consultants. In FY03-04 and FY04-05, he received the Best Faculty of the Year Award for his significant and effective contribution as a faculty member in the delivery of BIDW training. Previously in 2005, he received the Feather in My Cap (FIMC) Award for defining metrics for BIDW projects and establishing organizational norms. Prior to joining Estuate, Prem worked in various strategic positions at Wipro Limited and R S Software (India) Ltd. He holds an M. Tech in Computer Science from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
Nagaraja Kini
Founder and Chief Financial Officer
Nagaraja has more than two decades of engineering, business development, consulting, alliances and management experience in software development, integration and implementation. He has worked extensively with global teams to consistently simplify ERP implementations for businesses. Nagaraja brings with him the commitment, willingness, and capability to anticipate and act on the continually evolving needs of a business.
Prior to founding Estuate, Nagaraja served at Oracle as Director in Application and Industry Solutions group within Global Sales Support. Nagaraja holds a Master of Technology in Industrial Electronics from the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, and a Bachelor’s in Engineering from the SJ College of Engineering, Mysore, India.
Nagaraja Kini
Founder and Chief Financial Officer
Nagaraja has more than two decades of engineering, business development, consulting, alliances and management experience in software development, integration and implementation. He has worked extensively with global teams to consistently simplify ERP implementations for businesses. Nagaraja brings with him the commitment, willingness, and capability to anticipate and act on the continually evolving needs of a business. Prior to founding Estuate, Nagaraja served at Oracle as Director in Application and Industry Solutions group within Global Sales Support. Nagaraja holds a Master of Technology in Industrial Electronics from the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, and a Bachelor’s in Engineering from the SJ College of Engineering, Mysore, India.
Marc Hebert
Chief Operating Officer
Marc joined Estuate in December, 2008 as its first Chief Operating Officer. Marc is a recognized expert on offshore outsourcing. He has appeared on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, was interviewed in Investor’s Business Daily, and has been widely quoted in major media publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Financial Times, New York Times and Boston Globe on offshore outsourcing. He is recognized as an “IBM Champion” for his role in expanding the market for IBM’s Information Lifecycle Governance product line.
Prior to Estuate, he served in leadership roles at large global corporations, including as the CMO at Virtusa Corporation; EVP, Marketing and Alliances for Sierra Atlantic; and Vice President for eight years at Oracle Corporation. Marc holds a Bachelor of Science degree in experimental psychology from Harvard University, and an MBA from Stanford University.
Marc Hebert
Chief Operating Officer
Marc joined Estuate in December, 2008 as its first Chief Operating Officer. Marc is a recognized expert on offshore outsourcing. He has appeared on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, was interviewed in Investor’s Business Daily, and has been widely quoted in major media publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Financial Times, New York Times and Boston Globe on offshore outsourcing. He is recognized as an “IBM Champion” for his role in expanding the market for IBM’s Information Lifecycle Governance product line. Prior to Estuate, he served in leadership roles at large global corporations, including as the CMO at Virtusa Corporation; EVP, Marketing and Alliances for Sierra Atlantic; and Vice President for eight years at Oracle Corporation. Marc holds a Bachelor of Science degree in experimental psychology from Harvard University, and an MBA from Stanford University.
Seemakiran Upadhya
Global Delivery Head and Managing Director, India
Seemakiran brings to Estuate more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry. She has been successful in building high-performing teams for the Delivery, Sales, and Operations departments. She was instrumental in setting up Estuate’s India center. Prior to joining Estuate, Seemakiran worked at Satyam, where she developed, tested, and implemented software projects in Oracle Technologies across multiple domains. She is highly proficient at working with a global client base.
Seemakiran holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Karnataka University.
Seemakiran Upadhya
Global Delivery Head and Managing Director, India
Seemakiran brings to Estuate more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry. She has been successful in building high-performing teams for the Delivery, Sales, and Operations departments. She was instrumental in setting up Estuate’s India center. Prior to joining Estuate, Seemakiran worked at Satyam, where she developed, tested, and implemented software projects in Oracle Technologies across multiple domains. She is highly proficient at working with a global client base. Seemakiran holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Karnataka University.
Prem Shankar Patel
Senior Manager
Prem brings nearly three decades of analytics and information management experience to Estuate. He is a recognized expert who has received several awards over the years. In 2003, he was awarded the Center of Excellence (CoE) Champion Award for introduction of advanced training and certification for BIDW architects and consultants. In FY03-04 and FY04-05, he received the Best Faculty of the Year Award for his significant and effective contribution as a faculty member in the delivery of BIDW training.
Previously in 2005, he received the Feather in My Cap (FIMC) Award for defining metrics for BIDW projects and establishing organizational norms. Prior to joining Estuate, Prem worked in various strategic positions at Wipro Limited and R S Software (India) Ltd. He holds an M. Tech in Computer Science from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
Prem Shankar Patel
Senior Manager
Prem brings nearly three decades of analytics and information management experience to Estuate. He is a recognized expert who has received several awards over the years. In 2003, he was awarded the Center of Excellence (CoE) Champion Award for introduction of advanced training and certification for BIDW architects and consultants. In FY03-04 and FY04-05, he received the Best Faculty of the Year Award for his significant and effective contribution as a faculty member in the delivery of BIDW training. Previously in 2005, he received the Feather in My Cap (FIMC) Award for defining metrics for BIDW projects and establishing organizational norms. Prior to joining Estuate, Prem worked in various strategic positions at Wipro Limited and R S Software (India) Ltd. He holds an M. Tech in Computer Science from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
Sreekantha B. S.
Head Strategic Projects
Sreekantha brings to Estuate more than 33 years of experience in IT. He has successfully sold and delivered over 130 turnkey software projects worldwide for various clients across a variety of sectors - from software, finance, manufacturing, utilities, services, and more. Prior to joining Estuate, Sreekantha led Buzznet (a Malaysian software company) for 17 years and Inventa Corporation (a US-based software company having an office in Malaysia) for 6 years.
Through his experience, Sreekantha brings in-depth knowledge of software engineering, delivery, and implementation of software projects across all technology sectors that have emerged over the last 30+ years. Sreekantha holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Communications from Mysore University and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from Newport University, USA.
Sreekantha B. S.
Head Strategic Projects
Sreekantha brings to Estuate more than 33 years of experience in IT. He has successfully sold and delivered over 130 turnkey software projects worldwide for various clients across a variety of sectors - from software, finance, manufacturing, utilities, services, and more. Prior to joining Estuate, Sreekantha led Buzznet (a Malaysian software company) for 17 years and Inventa Corporation (a US-based software company having an office in Malaysia) for 6 years. Through his experience, Sreekantha brings in-depth knowledge of software engineering, delivery, and implementation of software projects across all technology sectors that have emerged over the last 30+ years. Sreekantha holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Communications from Mysore University and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from Newport University, USA.
Naveen Shankar
Associate Director – Talent Acquisition
Naveen is a seasoned professional in the field of Human Resources and brings to Estuate a rich experience of 14 years. He holds more than 12 HR-related certifications, including some in the space of Diversity & Inclusion. Over the years, he has been consistently recognized as a change maker in his respective organizations. Before joining Estuate, Naveen led ForthPage as the Director-Cofounder.
He has also worked with organizations such as General Electric, Time Inc., and Lumen Technologies in critical HR-centric roles. Naveen holds a Master of Business Administration from XLRI - Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur.
Naveen Shankar
Associate Director – Talent Acquisition
Naveen is a seasoned professional in the field of Human Resources and brings to Estuate a rich experience of 14 years. He holds more than 12 HR-related certifications, including some in the space of Diversity & Inclusion. Over the years, he has been consistently recognized as a change maker in his respective organizations. Before joining Estuate, Naveen led ForthPage as the Director-Cofounder. He has also worked with organizations such as General Electric, Time Inc., and Lumen Technologies in critical HR-centric roles. Naveen holds a Master of Business Administration from XLRI - Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur.
Piyush Singh
Practice Head - Insurance
Piyush has fifteen years of work experience, including one year with Estuate. Piyush holds a Master of Computer Applications degree from Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune. Piyush is a highly accomplished professional with a wealth of experience in IT services and product engineering. Piyush has worked with PwC and Accenture in the past and his last positions were Delivery Manager and Dev Lead respectively.
He has received the Great Performance award from PwC and the ACE award from Accenture. Piyush has also delivered many end-to-end projects on a medium to large scale.
Piyush Singh
Practice Head - Insurance
Piyush has fifteen years of work experience, including one year with Estuate. Piyush holds a Master of Computer Applications degree from Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune. Piyush is a highly accomplished professional with a wealth of experience in IT services and product engineering. Piyush has worked with PwC and Accenture in the past and his last positions were Delivery Manager and Dev Lead respectively. He has received the Great Performance award from PwC and the ACE award from Accenture. Piyush has also delivered many end-to-end projects on a medium to large scale.
Subbarao Satyavolu
Vice President - Service Delivery, Americas
Subbarao is a results oriented Senior Leader with 30+ years experience in Enterprise Solution Consulting, Enterprise Program Management, Digital Enterprise Transformation/IT Modernization, Product Engineering, Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), IT Service and Operations Management (ITSM/ITOM) and Strategic Account management. Global experience in building & managing high performing teams in solving complex business & technological challenges for the clients
Subbarao is a proven problem solver with extensive experience in the IT industry. He has been recognized as an outstanding performer by his employers, Hitachi/Sierra Atlantic and Computer Sciences Corp (CSC). Subbarao has also been certified in Six Sigma and Project Delivery Excellence by CSC University. In addition, Subbarao is certified in Supply Chain Management and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). He holds an M. Tech in Computer Aided Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.
Subbarao Satyavolu
Vice President - Service Delivery, Americas
Subbarao is a results oriented Senior Leader with 30+ years experience in Enterprise Solution Consulting, Enterprise Program Management, Digital Enterprise Transformation/IT Modernization, Product Engineering, Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), IT Service and Operations Management (ITSM/ITOM) and Strategic Account management. Global experience in building & managing high performing teams in solving complex business & technological challenges for the clients. Subbarao is a proven problem solver with extensive experience in the IT industry. He has been recognized as an outstanding performer by his employers, Hitachi/Sierra Atlantic and Computer Sciences Corp (CSC). Subbarao has also been certified in Six Sigma and Project Delivery Excellence by CSC University. In addition, Subbarao is certified in Supply Chain Management and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). He holds an M. Tech in Computer Aided Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.
Satya Bobba
SVP, Global Head of GRC and Customer Success
Satya Bobba brings more than 20+ years of experience in building market-leading enterprise SaaS products and solutions. Her experience spans engineering, cloud strategy, business development and customer success. Her passion is to help customers achieve GRC goals while simplifying their processes and reduce implementation costs. She brings more than 14 years of domain experience in building and delivering GRC solutions to top enterprise customers across Financial Services, Life sciences, Hi-Tech, Healthcare and Quality verticals.
Prior to joining Estuate, she worked at MetricStream as AVP Cloud Strategy, Global Head of Platform Engineering and Head of Advanced Engineering GRC Products and Services. Earlier in her career, at AOL and Netscape she held technical roles in enterprise server technologies and personalization frameworks. She has a bachelor degree in Computer Science from Andhra University.
Satya Bobba
SVP, Global Head of GRC and Customer Success
Satya Bobba brings more than 20+ years of experience in building market-leading enterprise SaaS products and solutions. Her experience spans engineering, cloud strategy, business development and customer success. Her passion is to help customers achieve GRC goals while simplifying their processes and reduce implementation costs. She brings more than 14 years of domain experience in building and delivering GRC solutions to top enterprise customers across Financial Services, Life sciences, Hi-Tech, Healthcare and Quality verticals. Prior to joining Estuate, she worked at MetricStream as AVP Cloud Strategy, Global Head of Platform Engineering and Head of Advanced Engineering GRC Products and Services. Earlier in her career, at AOL and Netscape she held technical roles in enterprise server technologies and personalization frameworks. She has a bachelor degree in Computer Science from Andhra University.
Prasanna Kulkarni
Vice President - Sales and Marketing
Prasanna is a seasoned Technology & Sales leader with over two decades of valuable global experience. Prasanna has been with Estuate for the past 5 years, leading the Sales and Marketing department with excellence. Prasanna holds a Bachelor of Engineering from GCoE, Amravati and a Stanford Advanced Program Management qualification from Stanford Center for Professional Development. Before joining Estuate, Prasanna held various leadership roles at HCL, Wipro, Nihilent Technologies, and Godrej.
Prasanna Kulkarni
Vice President – Global Sales and Marketing
Prasanna is a seasoned Technology & Sales leader with over two decades of valuable global experience. Prasanna has been with Estuate for the past 5 years, leading the Sales and Marketing department with excellence. Prasanna holds a Bachelor of Engineering from GCoE, Amravati and a Stanford Advanced Program Management qualification from Stanford Center for Professional Development. Before joining Estuate, Prasanna held various leadership roles at HCL, Wipro, Nihilent Technologies, and Godrej.
Stanley Perumala
Global Practice Delivery Lead
Stanley Perumala is the Global Practice Delivery Lead with 8.6 years at Estuate. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from International Technological University, which is his area of specialization. Stanley has 16 years of experience and has held various positions at Netpace, Cognizant and Hewlett-Packard. He has received multiple accolades for his achievements such as building an innovation segment with zuora and leading the BRM practice.
Stanley is a key contributor for the BRM practice, having built the team from the ground up and building the core team for the same.
Stanley Perumala
Global Practice Delivery Lead
Stanley Perumala is the Global Practice Delivery Lead with 8.6 years at Estuate. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from International Technological University, which is his area of specialization. Stanley has 16 years of experience and has held various positions at Netpace, Cognizant and Hewlett-Packard. He has received multiple accolades for his achievements such as building an innovation segment with zuora and leading the BRM practice. Stanley is a key contributor for the BRM practice, having built the team from the ground up and building the core team for the same.
Prakash Balebail
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Prakash brings more than two decades of software development & implementation experience, including over 16 years in several key roles in Oracle Corporation. His management principle has been to provide commitment to continuously improve how he serves all of his customers, partners, and employees by anticipating their needs and exceeding their expectations through a culture of creativity & forward thinking.
Prior to founding Estuate, Prakash was the Senior Director in Oracle Applications Global Sales Solutions team, which built complex Oracle E-Business Suite application demonstrations for Sales activities. Additionally, he had leadership roles in the development of Oracle’s much-acclaimed Business Flow Accelerator (BFA) for the E-Business suite. During this time, Prakash also built the highly-regarded India operations team from the ground up. Prakash holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Karnataka University in India.
Prakash Balebail
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Prakash brings more than two decades of software development & implementation experience, including over 16 years in several key roles in Oracle Corporation. His management principle has been to provide commitment to continuously improve how he serves all of his customers, partners, and employees by anticipating their needs and exceeding their expectations through a culture of creativity & forward thinking. Prior to founding Estuate, Prakash was the Senior Director in Oracle Applications Global Sales Solutions team, which built complex Oracle E-Business Suite application demonstrations for Sales activities. Additionally, he had leadership roles in the development of Oracle’s much-acclaimed Business Flow Accelerator (BFA) for the E-Business suite. During this time, Prakash also built the highly-regarded India operations team from the ground up. Prakash holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Karnataka University in India.
Geetha Somayaji
Vice President Finance & Human Resources
Geetha brings over two decades of experience to Estuate in her role as an accomplished leader of Finance and Human Resources. Since joining the company in 2011, she has been instrumental in developing the financial infrastructure of the company alongside the founders, and she has come to be known a a cherished mentor to many within the organization. Geetha holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration and Accountancy from Bangalore University, India.
Prior to her role at Estuate, she worked in payroll processing and tax returns for Gene's Fine Foods and Jay's Tax & Keeping Services. In her personal time, Geetha enjoys exploring the outdoors and spending quality time with her family.
Geetha Somayaji
Vice President Finance & Human Resources
Geetha brings over two decades of experience to Estuate in her role as an accomplished leader of Finance and Human Resources. Since joining the company in 2011, she has been instrumental in developing the financial infrastructure of the company alongside the founders, and she has come to be known as a cherished mentor to many within the organization. Geetha holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration and Accountancy from Bangalore University, India. Prior to her role at Estuate, she worked in payroll processing and tax returns for Gene's Fine Foods and Jay's Tax & Keeping Services. In her personal time, Geetha enjoys exploring the outdoors and spending quality time with her family.