The Capgemini and Efma report, ‘World FinTech Report 2021’ highlights how FinTechs demonstrated resilience during COVID-19. With some verticals recording double-digit growth, and FinTechs beginning to mature, there is greater pressure on incumbent banks to embrace digitalisation far deeper and with more commitment than ever before.

During this period, FinTechs proved themselves to be not only competent competitors but also partners. Banks have the edge over FinTechs when it comes to reach and trust, however, to remain relevant they must overcome their weaknesses: in particular, addressing issues with legacy IT, and delivering a better customer experience.

So how exactly can Fintechs and incumbents work together not just for the benefit of the partners, but for customers and the economy as well?

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, Sandeep Bagaria, chief executive officer, Tagit,  shares his insights and experience working with incumbents in Asia.

1.       Describe the (business) state of the financial services marketplace in Asia today?

2.       Are traditional financial services institutions (FSI) sufficiently responsive to the disruption occurring even before COVID-19?

3.       Why are some traditional (smaller) FSI opting to partner with Fintechs?

a.       How do the traditional FSIs finance these projects?

4.       How does a Fintech work with a traditional FSI to modernise its infrastructure? (perhaps cite the tagit work with Singapura Finance – just be cautious not to make this like a sales pitch for tagit).

5.       Lessons to draw to mitigate fintech-incumbent project failures?

6.       Who should take charge from inside incumbents to ensure that the partnership with Fintech delivers on its objectives?

In a February 2021 report, Morgan Stanley’s global head of M&A, Rob Kindler said: “All the elements are there for an active M&A market in 2021, from corporations looking for scale and growth to private equity firms and SPACs looking to invest capital.

Just what exactly is driving M&A activities, particularly in Asia, and what is the role of the CFO, particularly in these uncertain times?

William Foo, Chief Financial Officer at Everise, shares his experience and thoughts on the character, experience and expertise that CFOs bring to the M&A table, post-COVID-19.

Agile started off as a discussion on how to improve product development. That was in 2000. 20 years on, is the context in which it was conceived still relevant?

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, Cliff Berg, founder of Agile 2 and consultant and founder of Agile Griffin, and Lisa Cooney, principal agile coach at Axios. They share their views on how Agile 2 addresses the limitations of the original Agile manifesto.

They are two of the seven co-authors of Agile 2: The Next Iteration of Agile, available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format. 

1. What do you mean by Agile?
2. In the context of present-day business operations, including the disruption caused by COVID-19, is Agile still relevant?
3. What is Agile 2 and how is it different from the first iteration? [Cliff + Lisa]
4. Was there any specific group that was left out in developing Agile?
5.  For Agile 2 to work in Asia, what needs to happen from the perspective of leadership, culture, approach to technology, approach to business?
6. What must Agile practitioners leave behind to shift to Agile 2?
7. Is there a place for low code, no code, iPaaS in Agile 2?
8. What is your advice to CIOs to make Agile 2 relevant to the organisations they support today?

Not since the introduction of GDPR or the General Data Protection Regulation have we seen a resurgence in discussion around the protection of personal privacy in light of the growing calls against indiscriminate use and possible abuse of customer data.

But just how do you deliver or tailor a solution to a customer without violating the rights of the customer to his or her privacy? At the same time, how do you create a marketing program that adheres to privacy regulations but is sufficiently economical for the business to create a sustained campaign?

David Black, founder and CEO of Blackbox Research, shares his thoughts on the economics of building a sustainable customer engagement strategy that adheres to the rights to privacy and the protection of a customer’s data.

1.     Please describe privacy in the context of information security, data protection and the private sphere. How are these connected (if at all)?

2.     Are businesses and regulators in Asia aligned in the interpretation of the boundaries of customer privacy? Are there any differences in Asia as it relates to the protection of customer privacy?

3.     What are the challenges that businesses must overcome to achieve a balance between privacy and innovation?

4.     What stood out in the recent Blackbox research?

5.     Observers say that COVID-19 accelerated (is accelerating) digital-led innovation. How should enterprises push the boundaries of customer engagement and innovation without overstepping evolving regulations that protect privacy?

6.     What is your advice to businesses pursuing the need to engage while observing privacy expectations?

How business was conducted changed dramatically in 2020 due to COVID-19, driving companies of This 2021, IDC expects worldwide UC&C growth to be driven by customers across all business size segments (small, midsize, and large) with interest especially in video, collaboration, UCaaS, mobile applications, and digital transformation (DX) projects. 

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO Peter Quinlan, VP of business collaboration for Tata Communications speaks about how UCC needs to evolve to meet the new way of working.

Peter, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1.       How will the nature of work continue to evolve? 

2.       In the context of our new way of working, what is Unified Communications and Collaboration?

3.       Will UCC tools become less important as most Asia Pacific organisations look to adopt a work anywhere arrangement? 

4.       How can organisations enhance or tailor their UCC capabilities to align with their new work arrangement – be it hybrid, remote or office-first?

5.       What new features can employees expect from their UCC tools in the coming months or years? 

6.       What technologies will shape the future of UCC capabilities?

7.       Enterprises are spoiled for choice when it comes to UCC tools, technologies and services. What is your advice to CIOs when re-architecting their communication strategy to support the new normal?

8.       What questions to ask providers?

9.       30 seconds, what is Tata Communications’ value proposition in this space?

Gartner says site reliability engineering (SRE) enables organizations to fulfil their reliability needs at scale to support the demands of digital business. 

Site reliability engineering (SRE) promises methods to improve resiliency in organizations while they pursue agility in digital transformation. 

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, Wes Hummel, Vice President of Site Reliability and Cloud Engineering at PayPal sheds light on the value of SRE in cloud-first business operations.

Questions covered include:

1.       Site Reliability Engineering – what is it and why is it important in the context of today’s multi, hybrid cloud environments?

a.       Your current role is VP of site reliability and cloud engineering at PayPal. What does this role mean (as viewed from PayPal, its partners and customers)?

b.       SRE sounds likes a stressful role. How do you minimise undue stress in the role?

2.       Today we see the convergence of on-prem, private, public, hybrid multi-cloud including edge.

a.       How do you design and sustain an architecture that delivers the reliability of on-prem, the performance of edge, and the availability of cloud?

b.       Given that PayPal outsources its compute needs to multiple cloud service providers, how do you ensure that the cloud service providers meet their SLA obligations to PayPal. And how does PayPal ensure resilience in the face of unrelenting disruptions?

c.       M&A is a common strategy for businesses, including PayPal. What are the challenges companies will face as they integrate the disparate IT infrastructure including applications, and what is the role of the SRE in these scenarios?

3.       As organisations continue to move critical business applications to the cloud, what is your recommendation to businesses’ IT teams and CIOs to ensure they minimise third-party-originated disruptions that may impact their brand?

4.       What are the tools of the trade for an SRE and do you see emerging technologies like AI as relevant in the performance of the function particularly in a multi-cloud environment?

5.       Any learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic as viewed from the perspective of the SRE function?

Some time back Gartner proclaimed "The Data Centre is Dead". Gartner was clear that the days of the traditional enterprise-owned data centre serving as the sole location to source IT services were waning.

According to Statista, in 2021, the US had over 2,670 data centres. China was a distant 4th place with 416 data centres.

Should companies still own their own data centres - co-located or on their own private property? Large banks with deep pockets will argue "yes" and part of this can be attributed to the risk posture their industries need to adopt. For other industries, its as much an economic as it is an operational issue.

Haji Munshi, Group CEO of Cloud Kinetics, joins PodChats for FutureCIO to discuss:

1.       Reportinker says COVID-19 has been a catalyst for data centre buildout in Asia. It didn’t differentiate though between individual company-owned as opposed to businesses that offer data centre services. 

a.       So, is Gartner’s proclamation of the death of the data centre, an exaggeration?

2.       According to Gartner, workload placement is moving to the cloud. This is creating a baseline for infrastructure strategy based on workloads rather than physical data centres. How should the CIO and Infrastructure & Operation heads rethink their infrastructure strategies to accommodate this shift?

3.       Given all the emerging new technologies like AI, automation, edge computing and the list goes on, what is the right mindset that CIOs and leadership need to take towards developing a strategy that will provide the resilience and futureproofing they want to achieve in the years ahead?

4.       As a consulting business, what are the most common observations you have about the customers you engage within Asia?

5.       Concerns about vendor lock-in? 

a.       How to address security around hybrid multi-cloud?

b.       How will the CIO address the lack of in-house skills?

6.       What is your prognostication about the future state of data centre buildout and use in Asia in 2021 and 2022?

At a time when users are clamouring for a way to have easier access to data they need to do their job, security professionals are calling for what looks like the reverse – more controls.

Is zero trust what we need? Will it prevent the next Colonial Pipeline, Sunburst or AXA Asia attack?

At the 25 May 2021 IBM media briefing on Zero Trust, Matthew Glitzer, vice president, IBM Security – APAC; Chris Hockings, chief technology officer, IBM Security, ANZ; and Shaibal Saha, digital trust leader, IBM APAC, came together to share their perspective on how cybersecurity is evolving in the region.

At a time when users are clamouring for a way to have easier access to data they need to do their job, security professionals are calling for what looks like the reverse – more controls.

Is zero trust what we need? Will it prevent the next Colonial Pipeline, Sunburst or AXA Asia attack?

At the 25 May 2021 IBM media briefing on Zero Trust, Matthew Glitzer, vice president, IBM Security – APAC; Chris Hockings, chief technology officer, IBM Security, ANZ; and Shaibal Saha, digital trust leader, IBM APAC, came together to share their perspective on how cybersecurity is evolving in the region.