Straight Talk Special Issue: Financial Services - 39

RAHUL SINGH

President, Financial Services
HCL Technologies
Rahul Singh is President of HCL Technologies' Financial Services Division oﬀering IT, Infrastructure and BPO services to
HCL's global clients across Banking, Capital Markets and Insurance. He is responsible for leading this business,
developing client relationships and investing in strategic initiatives.
Backed with 30 years of rich experience, Rahul is credited as a pioneer in the Financial Services-Business Process
Outsourcing.

The adoption of
emerging technologies must be
accompanied by a digitized
infrastructure. Experimentation
with disruptive technologies
and the testing and roll-out of
services must be balanced with
the upgrading, digitization and
maintenance of the legacy
infrastructure on which IT
operations are currently based.

Even as trends emerge from
time to time, the best way to
secure the future is to secure the
basics. CEOs must work on
divergent, multi-pronged
strategies that will both secure
and upgrade the relevant,
necessary infrastructure, while
also preparing it for experiments
with newer, value-driving
business models.

Most of our contributors say it is important for a wide-ranging
view of the business to be inculcated and developed within IT
departments, which will generate more eﬀective business
decisions and help departments steer clear of costly endeavours
that don't add value. A common refrain is that new technologies
need to be tested in controlled conditions and then slowly rolled
out, so as not to upset established systems.

While there is no single "correct"
approach for doing this, most of the
contributors to this issue emphasize
the need for ﬁnancial institutions to
be more integrated into the lives of
their customers, which in-turn will
inform their IT decisions. This entails
not only changing their high-level
strategic focus but promoting a
customer-oriented mindset
throughout the organization.

Collaboration and strategic partnerships will
be a key to future success. As more and
more ﬁnancial institutions pool their
resources to test new customer-centric
products and services, often in laboratory
conditions, this will help them develop POCs
and roll-out policies.

In broad terms, the points of view in this issue reﬂect a growing realization among IT professionals in ﬁnancial
services that the approach to digitalization and disruption needs to be multi-pronged. It needs to grow out of
customer feedback. It involves intelligent collaboration with innovative partners, collaboration that leads to the
development of new products and services that not only enhance the customer experience but can be proﬁtably
monetised into new business areas.
Thus, disruption, although it poses serious existential risks to banks and ﬁnancial services, provides an opportunity
for renewal and a generational change that banks and ﬁnancial services must welcome and pursue.
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Straight Talk Special Issue: Financial Services

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Straight Talk Special Issue: Financial Services