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Global Survey Ties Digital Investments to Growth, Business Resiliency During Pandemic

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<p>It’s no surprise that COVID-19 changed—and accelerated—most organizations’ IT plans. As a result, technology executives are increasing their investments in digital technologies. They’re also speeding up what were once multi-year technology plans.</p>
<p>Conducted by MIT Technology Review Insights in association with VMware, <a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/microsites/cio-vantage/vmware-global-mit-executive-study.pdf">Digital Acceleration in the Time of Coronavirus</a><sup>1</sup> reveals how technology strategy contributed to business resiliency and growth. The survey showed that companies ahead of the digital curve were best positioned for success at the onset of the pandemic and in the uncertain times ahead.</p>
<p>In one of the first signs of changing priorities resulting from the crisis, companies quickly shifted to accommodate a surge in the remote workforce. Before COVID-19, on average, only 8% of workforces regularly worked remotely. During the pandemic, this shot up to an average of 27%.</p>
<p>Globally, 75% of respondents believe digital transformation efforts were accelerated by the pandemic. One-third anticipate budget increases for digital investments. Now, IT teams plan to address the shortcomings exposed during the pandemic by prioritizing:</p>
<ol>
<li>Cloud.</li>
<li>Modern apps and infrastructure.</li>
<li>Cybersecurity.</li>
</ol>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23544" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Survey_digital-transformation-accelerated-by-pandemic_VMware-RADIUS.png" alt="" width="936" height="152" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Survey_digital-transformation-accelerated-by-pandemic_VMware-RADIUS.png 936w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Survey_digital-transformation-accelerated-by-pandemic_VMware-RADIUS.png?resize=300,49 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Survey_digital-transformation-accelerated-by-pandemic_VMware-RADIUS.png?resize=768,125 768w" sizes="(max-width: 936px) 100vw, 936px" /></p>
<p>For many, COVID-19 challenged existing business continuity plans. Nearly two-thirds (63%) indicate they had business-continuity plans in place prior to the crisis. However, for many, these were oriented toward traditional disaster recovery. Fewer than half (46%) felt their plans were effective when attempting to cope with the shutdowns.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23545" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/survey_successful-business-continuity-plans_VMware-RADIUS.png" alt="" width="936" height="167" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/survey_successful-business-continuity-plans_VMware-RADIUS.png 936w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/survey_successful-business-continuity-plans_VMware-RADIUS.png?resize=300,54 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/survey_successful-business-continuity-plans_VMware-RADIUS.png?resize=768,137 768w" sizes="(max-width: 936px) 100vw, 936px" /></p>
<h2>Global Industry Priorities</h2>
<p>Industry-specific themes also emerged across regions. Removing decades-long barriers, healthcare—more than any other industry—is accelerating digital transformation in response to COVID-19. In financial services, there’s evidence that mobile applications are becoming the foremost destination for customer service. Nearly all surveyed financial services leaders (98%) said they’re increasing or maintaining focus on digital-first customer experiences within applications.</p>
<h3>Healthcare</h3>
<p>More than half of healthcare organizations surveyed (51%) are increasing patient experience investments. The most critical is telehealth services worldwide, filling a much-needed gap in serving healthy populations as they care for the sick. Popular solutions include virtual desktops and wearables that can enhance care provider engagement and patient outcomes. To learn more, read the <a href="http://blogs.vmware.com/industry-solutions/2020/12/15/mit-technology-review-8-trends-shaping-health-it/">healthcare insights blog</a>.</p>
<h3>Financial Services</h3>
<p>Almost two-thirds of financial services organizations (65%) said they’ve expanded agile practices and continuous delivery (CD) methods in response to new modern app demands. Securing those apps is also being prioritized. More than half (53%) instituted “secure-by-design” application development. Both initiatives are critical to enabling apps to become the main customer experience destination for banking services. To learn more, read the <a href="https://blogs.vmware.com/industry-solutions/2020/12/15/mit-technology-review-impact-of-digital-investments-on-financial-services-organizations-throughout-pandemic/">financial services insights blog</a>.</p>
<h3>Government</h3>
<p>For government leaders, the number one priority and challenge is protecting against cyberattacks and securing data and information. Close to half of respondents indicate they’re allocating a “significant” share (defined as more than 25%) of their IT budgets to security and threat management.</p>
<p>Many are choosing solutions that build in security, rather than bolt it on, from data centers to multi-cloud and endpoint devices. At the same time, agencies increasingly look to boost agility and efficiency with public cloud and FedRamp Authorized cloud services that power and secure enterprise infrastructure and apps. To learn more, read the <a href="http://blogs.vmware.com/industry-solutions/2020/12/15/mit-technology-review-8-government-it-trends/">government insights blog</a>.<strong> </strong></p>
<h3>Telecommunications Providers</h3>
<p>Services delivered across networks will drive a more fully connected world. Telecommunications providers are enabling customers across all industries to reimagine application development and delivery. To help consumers and enterprises alike realize the potential of 5G, telco providers must first continue to invest in their own digital transformation—from core to edge.</p>
<h3>Retail</h3>
<p>During the pandemic, distributed work capabilities quickly turned into business continuity must-haves. When asked about the greatest employee experience challenge, most retail leaders cited providing employees with the physical equipment necessary to be productive remotely. This includes capabilities provided by the combination of personal devices and secure digital workspaces.</p>
<h3>Manufacturing</h3>
<p>Nearly three-quarters of manufacturing IT and business technology decision makers (73%) placed employee efficiency and workflow automation as the highest priorities. By achieving efficiency gains through modernizing infrastructure, cost-conscious manufacturers can keep improving IT operations.</p>
<h2>Becoming Future Ready</h2>
<p>COVID-19 work-from-home orders and shutdowns provided sudden, dramatic proof of the value of digital technologies. Now facing new business pressures, new enterprise technology priorities are emerging.</p>
<p>Future-ready organizations possess technologies that are highly flexible and capable of supporting remote operations and distributed workforces. And in these uncertain times, these enterprises are best positioned to succeed.</p>
<p>To learn more, download “Digital Acceleration in the Time of Coronavirus”:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/microsites/cio-vantage/vmware-digital-acceleration-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-north-america.pdf">Outlook North America</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/microsites/cio-vantage/vmware-digital-acceleration-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-europe.pdf">Outlook Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/microsites/cio-vantage/vmware-digital-acceleration-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-asia-pacific.pdf">Outlook Asia-Pacific</a></li>
</ul>
<p>And be sure to check out the <a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/microsites/cio-vantage/vmware-global-mit-executive-study.pdf">Top 10 Trends Shaping IT Resilience</a> for a roundup of the most salient global insights from the study.</p>
<p><em><sup>1. Global survey of 600 C-level and IT executives, as well as in-depth interviews from public- and private-sector organizations in three regions—Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America—conducted between June-August 2020.</sup></em></p>


core/freeform

VMware Staff

Global report shows that IT organizations with an existing digital-first operating model proved to be best-prepared for disruption. Explore the findings.

IT organizations with an existing digital-first operating model proved to be best-prepared for disruption. Explore the findings.

Global Survey Ties Digital Investments to Growth, Business Resiliency

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Survey Ties Digital Investments to COVID-19 Business Resiliency, Growth

Posts

<p>Look at any major tech news site, and you’ll see blockchain listed as a top emerging technology. It’s also a rising priority for organizations globally. In fact, a 2020 Deloitte Insights report revealed that 55% of surveyed senior-level executives said blockchain “will be critical and in our top-five strategic priorities” in the coming two years.<sup>1</sup></p>
<p>Next-gen enterprises move beyond company boundaries to deliver value to customers and partners by harnessing end-to-end, cross-industry workflows. This requires a single source of truth, for which blockchain is well-suited.</p>


core/pullquote

<h2>What Is Blockchain?</h2>
<p><a href="https://news.vmware.com/blockchain/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Blockchain</a> creates something called a “distributed ledger.” It’s very similar to a general ledger used in financial operations or like your personal checkbook. Debits in the left column, and credits in the right column. It’s distributed to <em>all</em> parties involved in the transaction, so everybody gets a copy. Even business rivals can collaborate on the same distributed ledger because of its built-in privacy with integrity.</p>
<p>The parties involved can be companies that operate independent general ledgers. Without blockchain, these separate general ledgers exist in siloes. With blockchain, however, an immutable and secure distributed ledger can be created and maintained by a network of companies.</p>
<h2>What Does Distributed Trust Mean?</h2>
<p>Blockchain creates and distributes “trust” among all parties for a transaction, powered by a distributed trust infrastructure. It simplifies processes and establishes seamless trust by guaranteeing that everyone’s ledgers are all the same. No one can make changes unless everyone agrees. And when agreement is reached, everyone’s ledgers are updated with the exact same information at the exact same time.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23527" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/blockchain-vs-database_vmware-radius.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="363" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/blockchain-vs-database_vmware-radius.jpg 650w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/blockchain-vs-database_vmware-radius.jpg?resize=300,168 300w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" /></p>
<p>Another key term is “multi-party workflow,” where companies and individuals work together. Popular examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li>A transaction between a buyer and a seller.</li>
<li>Movement of funds between one bank account to another bank account.</li>
<li>Supply chain management and operations.</li>
</ul>
<p>Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) promises a new, more efficient process that potentially reduces the cost of infrastructure. At the same time, the emerging tech can potentially solve a major challenge facing all industries in our digital age: trust, privacy and confidentiality.</p>
<p>“DLT can provide a way for participants to share information in a way that maintains privacy and confidentiality, but also shares a single source of truth to reduce overall cost for non-productive activities,” said Horacio Barakat, vice president of corporate strategy for Broadridge Financial Solutions.</p>
<h2>How Can Business Leaders Use Blockchain Technology?</h2>
<p>Much of the blockchain interest is being driven from the top down into IT. As shown in the Deloitte study, senior executives are incredibly interested in blockchain. Distributed trust infrastructure could solve business problems that haven’t been solved by other technologies or processes.</p>
<p>Across industries, leaders want to take manual or digitally disparate processes and streamline those significantly. Warranty claims offer an example of very manual processes with multiple parties: buyer, manufacturer, distributor and claims department. All have disparate data sets, rules and processes that often conflict today. This could be quickly streamlined by a chain of records that all match perfectly for everyone in the blockchain consortium.</p>
<p>The same concept applies to insurance, government, online retailers, hospitals and transportation. Basically, any service that requires multiple parties—and that’s pretty much every business today in our digital world—can and eventually will benefit significantly from blockchain.</p>
<p>Financial services, with all the different data sets and records, is perhaps the most used example.</p>
<h2>Why Is Blockchain Particularly Relevant for Financial Services?</h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="VMware Blockchain for Financial Services Customers" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g5g5aoWwSrc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Accenture estimates that 90% of banks have funded blockchain pilot or production programs.<sup>3</sup> Why? <strong>All financial services transactions are multi-party workflows.</strong></p>
<p>Banks are in the business of sending money to other banks in a secure, trusted manner. Each bank is a node in a network of banks. Even the simplest financial services transaction is a multi-party workflow. For example, let’s imagine that a consumer is about to pay her $50 grocery bill with a Visa debit card. How many parties are involved?  At least five:</p>
<ol>
<li>The consumer</li>
<li>The consumer’s bank</li>
<li>The grocery store</li>
<li>The grocery store’s bank</li>
<li>Visa</li>
</ol>
<p>Now, imagine the universe of financial services companies:</p>
<ul>
<li>Banks</li>
<li>Broker-dealers</li>
<li>Investment managers</li>
<li>Payment processors</li>
<li>Insurance companies</li>
<li>Industry utilities or clearinghouses</li>
<li>Government-sponsored entities</li>
<li>Central banks</li>
<li>And many others</li>
</ul>
<p>Complicated rules govern the funds flowing among these many financial services companies. Also, regulators and auditors need to review financial operations data on a regular basis. DLT helps streamline and simplify these flows. It also helps streamline and simplify reporting and auditing.</p>
<p>Another important capability of blockchain is “smart contracts.” These computer programs automatically execute, control and/or document legally relevant events and actions according to the terms of a contract or an agreement. With smart contracts, financial transactions can be streamlined, radically eliminating manual processing. Smart contracts also automate reporting and enable real-time auditing.</p>
<h2>Blockchain in the Real World: Co-Innovation Spotlight</h2>
<p>A powerful financial services case study is the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="VMware Blockchain for Australian Securities Exchange" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9yrQYwn519w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>For more than 25 years, ASX has used its proprietary Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) to record and manage shareholdings and transactions. However, the legacy system is now past its prime. Originally designed to support 25,000 trades per day, today’s CHESS has evolved to meet the demands in a constantly changing market ecosystem, said ASX CIO Dan Chesterman.</p>
<p>ASX needs a new solution that supports growing trading markets—locally and globally:</p>
<ul>
<li>Meets high resilience and stability benchmarks.</li>
<li>Reduces risk and cost in its user operations.</li>
<li>Enables the benefits of secure data sharing, while protecting its customers’ privacy.</li>
</ul>
<p>So, the company is turning to DLT.</p>
<p>“When we determined that we needed to replace CHESS, we looked around, but there isn’t a shrink-wrapped system that can be easily implemented. We recognized that significant investment was needed,” Chesterman said.</p>


<p>The ASX team set forth on an audacious project to transform the way it conducts its billion-dollar business. They realized that partnership with experts was the best path forward. Chesterman and his team are working with Digital Asset and VMware to co-innovate their new DLT solution. They’re also tapping a number of specialist consulting and solution providers, who are creating software that can leverage the distinctive capabilities of this modern infrastructure.</p>
<p>“(Financial services companies) are significant businesses with significant implications as to what happens if these businesses don’t open in the morning and deliver the value to those markets. Because of that, just using native blockchain for those apps wouldn’t work,” said Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO, Digital Asset.</p>
<p>“The stack is very complicated. When we started our approach, we actually developed our very own blockchain. Very early on, we started realizing that there’s going to be this very clear separation throughout the stack, where companies like Broadridge or ASX are going to be at the top of the stack,” Rooz said. “They’re going to develop these applications. They’re going to operate them. They’re going to offer these products to their clients.</p>
<p>“Then, we thought about the language layer that will be used to build these applications. In our opinion, there’s not going to be one ledger. And, therefore, this abstraction will be called the ledger, and the application should have this clean separation,” he continued.</p>
<p>“At the bottom you have this distributed ledger—the infrastructure that’s going to drive these apps. Each one of these layers requires its own expertise, its own knowledge. So, when we found out VMware was working on blockchain, we were bullish on creating this partnership to bring our expertise together with VMware’s expertise. We saw that that combination would be really powerful.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vmworld.com/en/video-library/search.html#text=%22blockchain%22&#038;year=2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Watch this on-demand VMworld 2020 session to learn more about the co-innovation between ASX, Digital Asset and VMware</a>.</p>
<h2>Blockchain: Emerging Technology or Solution for Today?</h2>
<p>Like so many innovations before it, blockchain is <em>new</em>. And like all the new tech innovations before it, that means risk. Standards haven’t been developed. And according to leaders surveyed in the Deloitte study<sup>1</sup>, there are many adoption challenges, including:</p>
<ol>
<li>Replacing or adapting existing legacy systems (35%)</li>
<li>Potential security threats (34%)</li>
<li>Concerns over sensitivity of competitive information (34%)</li>
<li>Lack of regulatory clarity (32%)</li>
<li>Lack of in-house capabilities (skills and understanding) (31%)</li>
<li>Challenges in forming a consortium (31%)</li>
<li>Burdensome regulatory environment (30%)</li>
<li>Uncertain ROI (29%)</li>
<li>Lack of a compelling application of the technology (29%)</li>
<li>The technology is unproven (27%)</li>
</ol>
<p>Since you don’t do blockchain alone, interoperability is vital. Vendors like Microsoft and Oracle are coming out with blockchain solutions, but companies don’t want to get locked into a single vendor. And if members of a consortium run different software or languages than other members, you have a major compatibility issue.</p>
<p>“For me, the difficulty and the challenge we need to solve for is creating the necessary network of participants that actually agree on a new way of doing things and a new way of communicating,” said Barakat.</p>
<p>Barakat believes that partnership and collaboration is the best way to take blockchain and DLT from an emerging technology to a new standard.</p>


<p>He points to the three key elements of expertise needed to bring blockchain to broad, enterprise-grade adoption:</p>
<ol>
<li>The “grand idea” (aka the new technology)</li>
<li>The understanding of the market</li>
<li>The enterprise-grade infrastructure to deploy at scale</li>
</ol>
<p>“Those three pieces, that is the co-innovation. You wouldn’t be successful without any of those three pieces,” Barakat said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vmware.com/products/blockchain.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Learn more about VMware Blockchain</a>.</p>
<p><sup>1. Deloitte Insights. &#8220;Deloitte&#8217;s 2020 Global Blockchain Survey: From Promise to Reality,&#8221; 2020. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/6608_2020-global-blockchain-survey/DI_CIR%202020%20global%20blockchain%20survey.pdf<br />
2. International Data Corporation (IDC). &#8220;Worldwide Blockchain Spending Guide,&#8221; 2020. https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=IDC_P37345<br />
3. Accenture Digital. &#8220;Blockchain Technology: How Banks Are Building a Real-Time Global Payments Network,&#8221; 2016. https://www.accenture.com/t00010101T000000Z__w__/fr-fr/_acnmedia/PDF-35/Accenture-Blockchain-How-Banks-Building-Real-Time-Global-Payment-Network.PDFla%3Dfr-FR%23zoom%3D50</sup></p>
<p> </p>


Blakely Thomas-Aguilar

Momentum is growing for blockchain, particularly in financial services. Here's what you need to know about enterprise blockchain and popular use cases.

Read about the trending blockchain market opportunities, tech innovation and use cases.

Blockchain: What Business Leaders Need to Know

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<p>DBS Bank has a history of innovation. As Southeast Asia’s largest bank, DBS is today a tech company that happens to provide financial services. That ambition requires significant investment in technology and, more importantly, its people.</p>
<p>“The reason we’ll outperform our competition isn’t because of tech or IP, but because our people believe in what they’re doing,” said Piyush Gupta, DBS Group CEO.</p>
<h2>Using Tech to Protect</h2>


<p>Every part of DBS’ business—from cash management to private banking and from SME to retail—is enriched by digital transformation.</p>
<p>When a DBS Bank employee tested positive for the novel coronavirus earlier this year, the bank used data from office access cards and personal calendars to conduct contact tracing within days. With the Covid-19 spreading, within weeks, they rolled out digital platforms that enabled business customers to submit forms without visiting a branch. These measures helped reduce risk and protect employees and customers amid Covid-19.</p>
<p>In a traditional bank, it takes months or more to roll out updates and new services. DBS did it in weeks and days.</p>
<p>“Through our partnership with DBS, their developers can self-provision the infrastructure that they need within the same day and serve their customers quickly,” said Sanjay Deshmukh, vice president and managing director for Southeast Asia and Korea at VMware.</p>
<p>Digitalizing DBS’ internal processes generated an abundance of benefits. By adopting continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), DBS rolled out releases 10 times faster than before. For example, agile processes and a modern computing and cloud infrastructure enabled DBS to use video analytics to determine office space occupancy and decompress work areas. By ensuring safe distancing guidelines were properly implemented, DBS was able to provide a safe working environment for employees required to come into the office for critical banking services.</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="The secret behind the innovative architecture of the &#039;World&#039;s Best Bank&#039;" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bmT5Y02mjz8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>“Right now, the crisis may seem like the worst of times because IT folks are working hard to keep the lights on. But it’s also the best of times because it has brought forth the value of technology and the investments we’ve made to modernize our technology stack,” said Jimmy Ng, CIO and head of technology and operations at DBS.</p>
<p>As a result of the pandemic, DBS is exploring new business continuity innovations. Gupta believes 5G will make it easier to work from home. It also offers new customer value by extending relevant banking services, like mobile ATMs, to more locations quickly.</p>


<p>When DBS recognized the need to make the switch from legacy systems to an updated infrastructure, they didn’t want to lose their existing talent pool. Instead, they invested in programs for employees to “re-skill” themselves and learn how to operate the new systems. DBS also decided to bring more of its technology talent in-house and create its own core competencies. This came in the form of building a “development shop” specifically for DBS talent.</p>
<p>&#8220;DBS is committed to doing our part to build a strong pipeline of talent in Singapore equipped with the right skills for the new digital economy,” said Ng. The financial institution will complement training with hands-on experience in managing DBS&#8217; private cloud, from engineering a resilient active-active cloud platform to automating cloud operations at scale.</p>
<p>Cloud skills are highly relevant as DBS powers ahead with their digital transformation journey and contribute to Singapore&#8217;s aspiration to be a Smart Nation. In 2019, the bank was named World&#8217;s Best Digital Bank by <a href="https://www.euromoney.com/article/b18k8wtzv7v23d/worlds-best-digital-bank-2018-dbs">Euromoney</a> for its industry leadership in leveraging digital technology to shape the future of banking – one of four global Best Bank accolades DBS has been awarded since 2018.</p>
<p>“We continuously innovate to better serve the nation. Towards this end, we always explore ways to continue providing robust cloud infrastructure for our business needs,” said Gupta.</p>
<h2>Getting Future Ready</h2>
<p>Organizations like DBS continue to adapt, respond, and accelerate their business in this new digital paradigm. On this journey, it’s imperative to upskill the workforce and train a new generation of tech talent.</p>
<p>As part of its commitment to support Asia’s digital ecosystem, VMware announced its “Getting Future Ready” initiative. In partnership with Singapore-based companies, including DBS, the initiative will deepen the country’s expertise and specialization in next-generation technologies. Conducted in-person and online, the program provides trainees with the opportunity to learn and engage with industry specialists through hackathons, hands-on labs, gamification, and more.</p>
<p>“The vibrancy and strength of Singapore’s innovation economy, along with its deep pool of tech talent, serve as a powerful testament to the country’s Smart Nation ambitions,” said Adrian Hia, country manager, VMware Singapore.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-23378 size-full" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Screenshot_2020-11-24-Search.png" alt="" width="1446" height="413" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Screenshot_2020-11-24-Search.png 1446w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Screenshot_2020-11-24-Search.png?resize=300,86 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Screenshot_2020-11-24-Search.png?resize=768,219 768w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Screenshot_2020-11-24-Search.png?resize=1024,292 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1446px) 100vw, 1446px" /></p>


<p>Join former VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta as they discuss the current business climate, including the growth opportunities of shifting to run like an agile tech company and the partnership between the two organizations allowing for innovation to thrive.</p>

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As organizations grapple with the impact of COVID-19, DBS approaches everything through the filter of disruption, technology and nurturing.

As organizations grapple with the impact of COVID-19, DBS approaches everything through the filter of disruption, technology, and nurturing.

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Why DBS Bank's IT Team Makes People the Priority during the Pandemic

<p>For iSelect, forward-thinking decisions made prior to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the importance of cloud transformation.</p>
<p>The insurance, utilities and personal finance purchasing service prides itself in being more than simply a comparison website. The majority of iSelect’s customers chose to speak over the phone with one of the company’s 190+ trained specialists.  As a high-touch service driven by human connection, the pandemic presented iSelect with a number of business continuity challenges. To support employee productivity, iSelect needed to fast-forward its already planned cloud transformation to:</p>
<ol>
<li>Secure access to core business applications and sensitive customer data.</li>
<li>Set-up quality call connections in employees’ homes without lag.</li>
<li>Continue collaboration and digital connection.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Adapting to the New Normal</h2>
<p>The swift work-from-home transition was made possible by iSelect’s cloud transformation. In fact, the demands of the pandemic expedited its journey.</p>
<p>“We were already on a cloud transformation journey and have been working towards cloud-native. In January, we refreshed our hardware. And during that transition, we set the devices up on the cloud, so we could manage the devices centrally,” said Shannon Henwood, head of technology, iSelect.</p>
<p>In hindsight, this was extremely fortunate timing. Most organizations would never embark on an extensive transformation during a time as critical as a pandemic. But “that was how it happened,” Henwood said. And while it was a complex undertaking, iSelect’s success story demonstrates what’s possible.</p>
<p>With support from VMware and AWS, iSelect lifted its entire computing and storage infrastructure from the data center to the public cloud—within mere weeks.</p>
<ol>
<li>Migrated existing physical and virtual servers to the cloud infrastructure.</li>
<li>Refactored for the advantages of cost-savings and scalability.</li>
<li>Retired legacy applications.</li>
</ol>


<h2>Reaping the Fruits of Cloud Transformation</h2>
<p>Simultaneously, iSelect reaped the advantages of cost optimization. “Being cloud-native means you no longer need to go buy storage, but instead, use it when you need it,” explained Henwood. Cloud transformation proved “very effective in terms of cost,” he continued.</p>


<h2>Ensuring Triple Protection against Cyberthreats</h2>
<p>Alongside empowering employees, a vital element was ensuring that customer data remained secure. This is especially important as <a href="https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/cybersecurity-for-a-remote-workforce/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cyber risks increase with a remote workforce</a>.</p>
<p>Henwood believes security is everyone’s responsibility, and employee accountability is key. iSelect prioritizes integrating resources that focus on getting ahead of emerging threats. With <a href="https://cloud.vmware.com/vmc-aws" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">VMware Cloud on AWS</a>, iSelect has a more secure infrastructure and connectivity. Additional authentication and encryption on telephony add an extra layer of security.</p>
<p>And since <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/our-hardware-is-under-cyberattack-heres-how-to-make-it-safe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">compromised hardware can undermine</a> additional layers of the system’s cybersecurity, iSelect no longer “[has] to worry about the data center anymore or hardware going down or connectivity issues by being in the cloud,” Henwood said.</p>
<h2>Looking Forward</h2>
<p>When asked if he will go back to the way it was before, Henwood replied, “No. Technology and enablement wasn’t front and center previously. And we want to keep innovating and using technology in a smart way that keeps up this new efficiency. Needing to have someone physically set up a computer in a particular location is no longer viable. I do not want to go back to that.”</p>
<p>Ultimately Henwood said, “Flexibility is key. The only constant is change. I do not know what will happen in the next six weeks, but we need to keep an open mind. Keep looking at emerging technologies. Keep being creative. And change is coming, so brace for it.”</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"></a></p>


For iSelect, forward-thinking decisions made prior to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the importance of cloud transformation.

iSelect Accelerates Its Cloud Transformation | VMware Radius

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<p>March 2020 was an unforgettable month for employees at the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). As COVID-19 cases climbed across Asia, the Indian government announced total lockdown of its 1.3 billion citizens, giving less than 4 hours’ notice before the order took effect.</p>
<p>For the very first time, NSE employees had to experiment with working from home while daily trading volumes doubled to 4 billion orders per day.</p>
<p>As the world’s largest exchange in derivatives trading, all eyes were on NSE. Getting things right from the start has never been more critical.</p>
<h2>Change Is the Name of the Game</h2>
<p>Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, NSE had already begun re-imagining business processes and modernizing applications.</p>
<p>“In less than 24 hours, we worked with VMware to roll out the <a href="https://www.vmware.com/products/workspace-one.html">Workspace ONE solution</a> to all essential staff. In the next two weeks, all NSE staff had access to their virtual desktops,” shared Shiv Kumar Bhasin, chief technology and operations officer at NSE.</p>
<p>Looking back, Bhasin said the impact on productivity was powerful. He shared that NSE made critical changes that would’ve taken twice the amount of time in pre-COVID days. He attributes the speed of development to the exchange’s hybrid cloud. This model enabled seamless collaboration between agile teams working remotely.</p>
<p>Development tools were also made available through cloud. Now, developers can access resources at any time in an agile and secure manner. At any point, developers can connect up to five devices and choose to work on the most suitable device for the task at hand.</p>
<p>“Whenever we noticed a skills gap, we were able to crowdsource external talent from the best and brightest developers across the world and easily collaborate through the cloud. These cloud-native solutions were then moved to NSE’s on-prem data servers to ensure the exchange continued to fulfill stringent regulatory and data security requirements,” said Bhasin.</p>
<p>This level of collaboration would have been impossible if NSE’s hybrid cloud solutions did not fulfill security requirements. “As a capital markets leader and frontline market regulator, NSE relies on a cybersecurity-conscious critical infrastructure platform to meet the highest regulatory compliance,” said Bhasin.</p>
<p>For example, NSE needs to ensure data on Indian entities remain within the geographical limits of the country. This means it could only utilize secure servers based in India.</p>


<p>Many organizational roles deserve significant praise for business continuity efforts during the pandemic. Their business continuity plans (BCPs) kept operations going and ensured that employees stayed connected, secure and productive.</p>

<h2>Benefits Beyond Workplace Productivity</h2>
<p>Employees save precious time and headspace when they no longer need to commute to work in the <a href="https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/traffic-index/ranking/">fourth-most congested city in the world</a>. In Mumbai, commuters previously spent an average of 209 hours a year stuck in traffic. Working from home also improved air quality. With fewer cars on the road, Mumbai recorded a <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/air-pollution-levels-in-mumbai-drop-by-76-post-lockdown/articleshow/75708175.cms">76% decline in particle</a> matter and NO<sub>2</sub> concentration levels, the steepest decline out of five major cities in India.</p>
<p>Without the burden of the commute, parents and primary caregivers now have more opportunities to participate in the workforce. They can bring their diverse talents and backgrounds to make the exchange more inclusive.</p>
<h2>Turning to Customer Experiences</h2>
<p>“We were focused on the core systems to ensure they could be taken into the next generation. But as soon as the pandemic happened, our priorities changed,” said Bhasin. “We have to first address various touchpoints we have with members. They are legacy channels and are not end-to-end digital in nature.”</p>
<h2>Automating Business Processes</h2>
<p>NSE learned that automating services and minimizing in-person human interaction catered to end-user needs. Whether it’s services for customers or employees, automation is now at the heart of delivering more meaningful customer engagements and employee experiences. NSE is also actively moving towards a self-service model for its IT needs.</p>
<p>Bhasin said, “Cloud technologies have enabled NSE’s digital transformation journey and created better collaboration for our distributed workforce.”</p>


<p>The global pandemic exposed many vulnerabilities across the business landscape. Organizations have realized the need to become more resilient and flexible in the face of future challenges.</p>

As the world’s largest exchange in derivatives trading, all eyes were on the National Stock Exchange of India at the start of the pandemic.

All eyes were on the National Stock Exchange of India at the start of the pandemic.

At 4B Transactions a Day, Every Nanosecond Counts

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At 4B Financial Transactions a Day, Every Nanosecond Counts

<p>Application modernization is at the forefront of most enterprise transformation initiatives. Modern apps help organizations adapt quickly in changing times, whether that means:</p>
<ul>
<li>Rapidly introducing new ways of serving customers wherever they are; or</li>
<li>Enabling digital collaboration when in-person communication is disrupted.</li>
</ul>
<p>And app modernization is on the rise, gaining traction in some unlikely places.</p>
<p>Founded more than 130 years ago, <a href="https://www.northerntrust.com/united-states/home">Northern Trust Corporation</a> has transformed itself into an agile, digital institution. Cloud and related technologies create exceptional experiences for its customers and employees.</p>
<p>“We&#8217;ve been on a cloud journey since early 2013 and made some bold early bets on hyperconverged infrastructure, software-defined data centers, containers, platform as a service and CI/CD (continuous integration, continuous delivery),” said Vijay Luthra, Northern Trust Chief Technology Officer, during <a href="https://www.vmworld.com/">VMworld 2020</a>. Luthra joined VMware experts for the VMworld 2020 Solutions Keynote “Modern Apps — Get Better Software into Production Faster.”</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23264" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Vijay_Luthra_VMware.png" alt="Vijay Luthra, CTO, Northern Trust" width="980" height="475" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Vijay_Luthra_VMware.png 980w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Vijay_Luthra_VMware.png?resize=300,145 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Vijay_Luthra_VMware.png?resize=768,372 768w" sizes="(max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px" /></p>
<p>“We also made big bets on an event-based fabric, as well as a service mesh,” Luthra continued. “As we move toward (becoming) a real-time, agile enterprise, our investments have allowed us to easily transition to a hybrid cloud architecture with microservices leveraging cloud-based services for compute, while data continues to securely reside in our private cloud.”</p>
<p>Throughout its transformation, Luthra said, Northern Trust’s application modernization efforts yielded measurable results. The company’s developers:</p>
<ul>
<li>Reduced time to market by 70%.</li>
<li>Cut the resources required for build activities by 80%.</li>
<li>Boosted production deployments six-fold, automating 100% of those deployments.</li>
<li>Significantly improved reliability and stability.</li>
</ul>
<p>Northern Trust achieved these results through an architecture that’s responsive to internal stakeholders’ needs, while giving developers the platform they require to deliver capabilities at a high velocity.</p>
<p>“Our cloud journey has evolved quite a bit over the years,” Luthra said. “However, our commitment to delivering products and services to our clients rapidly by providing a frictionless experience to our developers remains as important as ever.”</p>
<h2>Modern Apps Deliver Business Outcomes</h2>
<p>The architectures on which modern apps are built and the platforms through which they’re delivered continue to evolve. This new model gives organizations the ability to run apps over multiple clouds and embrace autonomous, self-service development models.</p>
<p>“Cloud and cloud-native architectures have lowered the barrier to entry for building new applications,” said Ajay Patel, general manager, modern apps at VMware. “Seventy-five percent of applications supporting digital business today are expected to be custom built. That&#8217;s because modern apps deliver real business impact.”</p>
<p><strong>Business leaders want to modernize their apps for three primary reasons:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Build new revenue-generating customer experiences.</li>
<li>Manage growing volume of software and vulnerabilities.</li>
<li>Take advantage of innovations offered by the cloud.</li>
</ol>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23263" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/enterprise_app_modernization.png" alt="Why Are Enterprises Modernizing Apps?" width="1365" height="636" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/enterprise_app_modernization.png 1365w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/enterprise_app_modernization.png?resize=300,140 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/enterprise_app_modernization.png?resize=768,358 768w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/enterprise_app_modernization.png?resize=1024,477 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1365px) 100vw, 1365px" /></p>
<p>And how enterprises modernize their apps will depend on various factors, including where those apps will live—on-premises, in a public cloud or at the edge. Organizations may decide to “lift and shift” some applications, essential migrating legacy applications to the cloud as they are. Teams may also:</p>
<ul>
<li>Containerize legacy applications.</li>
<li>Rewrite legacy code.</li>
<li>Disaggregate legacy code into microservices.</li>
<li>Build new cloud-native apps.</li>
</ul>
<p>The more teams steer development efforts toward cloud-native apps, the more they can enjoy the benefits of automation and more quickly launch new features and capabilities.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23260" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/defining_app_modernization.png" alt="Defining Application Modernization" width="1430" height="697" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/defining_app_modernization.png 1430w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/defining_app_modernization.png?resize=300,146 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/defining_app_modernization.png?resize=768,374 768w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/defining_app_modernization.png?resize=1024,499 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1430px) 100vw, 1430px" /></p>
<p>“VMware is uniquely set up to deliver application speed and agility with the infrastructure modernization to move across any cloud,” Patel said. In fact, VMware offers the <a href="https://octo.vmware.com/the%E2%80%AFcounterintuitively%E2%80%AFfastest-path-to%E2%80%AFapp-modernization-part-1%E2%80%AF/">counterintuitively fastest path to app modernization</a>.</p>
<p>The lightweight container model for cloud software is popular because it supports greater speed and agility, results in apps that can run anywhere, simplifies DevOps and more.</p>
<h2>The Keys to Rapid App Development</h2>
<p>Today, enterprises across industries can take advantage of VMware vSphere 7 with Tanzu, available in a variety of editions. It embeds Kubernetes in the vSphere control pane, allowing organizations to easily run containers and virtual machines (VMs) side by side. And it’s an ideal foundation for addressing app modernization from the infrastructure up.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23261" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/app_modernization_infrastructure.png" alt="How to Address App Modernization Infrastructure-Up" width="1283" height="649" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/app_modernization_infrastructure.png 1283w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/app_modernization_infrastructure.png?resize=300,152 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/app_modernization_infrastructure.png?resize=768,388 768w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/app_modernization_infrastructure.png?resize=1024,518 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1283px) 100vw, 1283px" /></p>
<p>For developers, Tanzu Application Service—the application runtime environment—is now available on any cloud, according to James Watters, vice president in VMware’s Modern Platforms Business Unit. Watters told VMworld 2020 attendees that Tanzu Application Service is especially suited to developing Java apps using VMware Spring microservices, an increasingly popular approach to app modernization where code is developed in small, independent pieces.</p>
<p>“As you enable developers to move faster, they want to move more independently and they want to be able to scale parts of their codebase independently. And that&#8217;s really where this trend around microservices comes from,” Watters said. “Microservices—especially Spring microservices—have really started to digest and transform the world of legacy middleware.”</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23262" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/addressing_app_modernizations.png" alt="How to Address App Modernization Application-Down" width="1247" height="751" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/addressing_app_modernizations.png 1247w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/addressing_app_modernizations.png?resize=300,181 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/addressing_app_modernizations.png?resize=768,463 768w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/addressing_app_modernizations.png?resize=1024,617 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1247px) 100vw, 1247px" /></p>
<p>When Northern Trust brought in Tanzu Application Service, it established an operations and engineering team that was focused on developer productivity and speed to market. “Some of our most critical applications are moving toward microservices and leveraging the Tanzu platform for higher resiliency and time-to-market benefits,” said Luthra.</p>
<p>For Northern Trust, agile development drives transformation and app modernization.</p>
<p>“We&#8217;ve taken a unique approach to ensure we stay laser-focused on what developers need, as well as to ensure cross-functional teams come together to enable a high-velocity delivery model,” Luthra said. The company completely reengineered its client-facing business processes, leveraged cloud-based machine-learning and artificial intelligence to mine data and improve communication with clients. The team also reimagined customer-facing experiences by using its hybrid cloud to deliver secure, scalable mobile apps.</p>
<p>“Northern Trust is committed to investing in our technology by continuously rationalizing and transforming our application portfolio,” Luthra said. “Post-COVID, the transformation will only accelerate, and a hybrid cloud architecture will be the foundation of our digitalization strategy.”</p>


<p>To drive real impact, you need to get applications into production, faster.</p>

Northern Trust Corporation transformed itself into an agile, digital institution with an architecture and platform for app modernization. Read their story.

App Modernization at Northern Trust | VMware Radius

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<p><div id="attachment_22243" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22243" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22243 size-full" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maribel-Lopez.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maribel-Lopez.jpg 400w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maribel-Lopez.jpg?resize=150,150 150w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maribel-Lopez.jpg?resize=300,300 300w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><p id="caption-attachment-22243" class="wp-caption-text">Maribel Lopez, technology industry analyst and strategic advisor, <a href="https://www.lopezresearch.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lopez Research</a></p></div></p>
<p>At the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations quickly deployed technologies to enable basic <a href="https://news.vmware.com/nologies/tips-enabling-remote-workforce" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">remote work</a>. But some things just broke when people couldn’t sort out issues face-to-face, says Maribel Lopez, technology industry analyst and strategic advisor at Lopez Research. And that’s forcing leaders to completely rethink how they use enterprise technology.</p>
<p>To meet new and rapidly shifting needs, companies are working to adapt and accelerate digital experience delivery. “Even if they were digital, it’s a <em>new</em> digital,” says Lopez. “So out of this very tragic event, there will be some positive outcomes.”</p>
<h2>How Industries Drive Future-Ready Transformation</h2>
<p>Purely physical processes were obvious targets for change as companies pivoted early in the pandemic to respond to digital-only engagement. A few examples include SaaS-based web conferencing apps and cloud-based e-commerce websites.</p>
<p>Despite the digitization of some key processes, Lopez says, “Now business leaders are being reminded that many processes are still physical and must become digital if their companies are going to thrive.”</p>
<p>Fixing those gaps serves as a catalyst for organizations across industries to take a closer look at what <a href="https://news.vmware.com/digital-transformation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">digital transformation</a> has taken place and what still needs to be done to future ready businesses. Here are a few examples.<strong> </strong></p>
<h3>Healthcare</h3>
<p>Modernization of the healthcare system has been underway for years. Due to the pandemic, however, providers rushed to enable non-essential staff to work from home. They also built pop-up hospitals so essential doctors and nurses could better care for patients.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, healthcare organizations are launching app-based consumer solutions, such as telehealth services, to ensure the continued health of patients and vulnerable populations.</p>
<h3>Retail</h3>
<p>Out of necessity, the retail industry shifted its focus to help shoppers get the products they need as quickly as possible—online, at curbsides, and in stores. To completely transform, though, requires a better understanding of the end-to-end customer experience, for example, why loyal consumers add to shopping carts but never complete a transaction, and the building of modern apps with associate-friendly workflows such as real-time inventory checking.</p>
<h3>Financial services</h3>
<p>In an industry built on relationships, in-branch banking and in-office advisor experiences once dominated. Personal engagement and regulatory requirements created a culture of heavily controlled IT. Now, financial services teams are looking for ways to stay in compliance, while supporting distributed advisors and clients from anywhere.</p>
<h3>Education</h3>
<p>The pandemic forced colleges, universities, and primary and secondary schools across the world to move learning online. This proved the distance learning model can work, but it will need to be further examined and modified to prioritize equity for all.</p>
<h2>The <em>New</em> Digital: The App Experience as the Customer Experience</h2>
<p><div id="attachment_22203" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://news.vmware.com/nologies/businesscontinues"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22203" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22203 size-medium" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/VMware-Truth-About-Transformation-r6v1-Intro_16x9-300x169.gif" alt="" width="300" height="169"></a><p id="caption-attachment-22203" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://news.vmware.com/nologies/businesscontinues">Dive deeper into a new global survey that reveals the &#8220;Truth About Digital Transformation.&#8221;</a></p></div></p>
<p>While we know now that digital transformation isn’t failing, per say, have organizations fully embraced the idea that the app experience is the customer experience?</p>
<p>Lopez isn’t so sure. “I think the app experience was always supposed to be part of the customer experience. What happened was the rest of our experience was so broken that in most cases, we couldn’t do cross-channel well.”</p>
<p><strong>She cites two examples:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>When ordering products via the web is faster than navigating 10-plus clicks on a smartphone, why would people use an app?</li>
<li>When changing airline reservations is faster through the app, why would people pick up the phone?</li>
</ul>
<p>True digital transformation means delivering the same one-or-two click experience across every channel—web, mobile devices, tablets and more. Lopez believes, “Teams now have to focus on pervasive experience. No matter where you are, you have a similar feeling that you can get the same things done no matter the device.”</p>
<p>Traditionally, developers have been unable to give people everything they can get in a PC experience because so many processes are highly customized,” she says.</p>
<p>Enterprises must step back and examine the parts of each process to find the pieces delivering the value. For example, do customers come to a business for its highly customized supply chain process or its product? Chances are it’s the product, she says. This should be a signal for the organization to reduce some customization in favor of providing more consistent cross-channel experiences.</p>
<h2>The Power of Design Thinking</h2>
<p>The way to uncover an app’s essence is to take complicated applications through a <a href="https://news.vmware.com/nologies/design-thinking-julie-stanford">design thinking process</a>. This ensures teams distill each app to its core value with the optimal workflow—whether that’s enabling dynamic pricing or expense report approvals.</p>
<p>A workflow is an action. And when you see organizations with really good workflows, you’re looking at very good business processes. Under the surface, those workflows touch multiple apps to fully complete a process. Think about service technicians with iPads, for example. They can tap into one app and seamlessly launch three or four different workflows. According to Lopez, this capability “becomes very interesting and very powerful.”</p>
<p>“I see teams redesigning this way now and a big move toward the concept of human-centered design. For example, in automotive companies this is now pervasive thinking, which is really important,” she says.</p>
<p>In short context, connection through integration and cross-channel consistency will make modern apps more impactful and useful. Only then can the app experience truly be the customer experience.</p>
<h2>The Third Dimension: Infrastructure Implications</h2>
<p>Enabling connected workflows in and across apps will require more than development skill sets. “It’s going to take a rethink of infrastructure and security, too,” says Lopez.</p>
<p>When the pandemic hit, nearly all organizations were doing some form of a <a href="https://news.vmware.com/c/cloud/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cloud strategy</a>. “Everybody was looking at public, private and hybrid cloud. Everybody was thinking about or already building a multi-cloud strategy,” she says. Multi-cloud involves having parts of infrastructure on-premises and parts in the cloud.</p>
<p>The biggest challenge facing teams was adding and migrating workloads between cloud options. Now that work is different, Lopez believes we’ve entered into “the third dimension, which is some portion of always-distributed workers—but not always the same group of them.”</p>
<p><div id="attachment_22220" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://news.vmware.comcustomer-app-experience-business-success/"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22220" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-22220" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Modern-App-Customer-Experience_VMware-RADIUS-2-300x158.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="158"></a><p id="caption-attachment-22220" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://news.vmware.comcustomer-app-experience-business-success/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Related Story: The Connection Between the App Experience &#038; Customer Experience</a></p></div></p>
<p>Productivity is paramount in all cases, so the infrastructure has to change. Teams can no longer optimize computing resources for work across a single building or campus. Instead, they must consider how to scale resources and end-user access at different periods of time and locations using clouds with virtual desktops (VDI), as an example.</p>
<p>In this new world, IT will have to reimagine what infrastructure gets served from where and how security can be maintained but done differently—without burdening workforces. IT has to consider where workloads live (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google or another cloud platform) and how to take previously locked down workloads to other places. Enterprises need a clear multi-cloud strategy and understanding about how to integrate points that previously weren’t considered part of the corporate enterprise, Lopez says.</p>
<p>As a result of this shared experience, Lopez believes the whole concept of infrastructure and how it’s managed will be more diverse. “Less centralized, but still very directed just not all in the same way,” she says. For example, enabling employees to have access to everything they need will be important. Yet, resources are likely to be delivered a certain way when someone is in the office and a different way when working from home.</p>
<p>Technical support structures must change, too. Without human-to-human interactions, how do employees and customers get queries answered and challenges solved when there is no one to call? This is where chatbots come in, says Lopez. She cites a recent example where chatbot technology enabled the automated distribution of information without going through redundant questions. This streamlined interaction made the person-to-person engagement, once it did happen, more effective.</p>


<h2>The Best Human-First Enterprise Tech Platforms…Wait for It…Aren’t Even Built Yet</h2>
<p>Although teams are trying, Lopez hasn’t seen an ideal human-first technology platform for the enterprise. “They aren’t built yet. But we’re getting closer with some human-first mobile apps and aligned IT and business leaders willing to take on the bigger issue, which is the process,” she says.</p>
<p>It’s possible now to deliver faster, easier access to data and apps in technologies like the <a href="https://news.vmware.com/c/digital-workspace/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">digital workspace</a>. But if the experience with individual apps is still poor, people will be frustrated. Part of the challenge, says Lopez, is terminology, which is often too technical and not human-centric. The other is the end-to-end process.</p>
<p>Technology will need to get simpler and self-service has to become the norm, not the exception. Yet, teams can’t use automation as a crutch to avoid rethinking broken processes, says Lopez. Apps and devices must be so easy that anyone can troubleshoot them. It’s going to be impossible with flex remote working schedules to scale effective tech support at work. And it’ll be even harder for industries like retail to help non-tech savvy customers to navigate grocery shopping online, she says.</p>
<p>Emerging technologies like chatbots and <a href="https://news.vmware.com/artificial-intelligence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">artificial intelligence</a> can help, she says. But the key to success is on her wish list: better conversational and natural language interfaces.</p>
<h2>Embracing Future-Ready Business</h2>
<p>Despite the debate, digital transformation efforts are succeeding. But it can be even more successful when businesses embrace a <em>new</em> digital. Yet, how they get there will depend on their willingness to envision customer and employee experiences differently. Ultimately, successful future-ready businesses will find the connections and redefine the workflows that matter. And only through this reimagining will app experiences truly become the customer experience.</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="The Debate About Digital Transformation" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v_5_v3YV4xY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>


<p>A new global survey reveals that organizations rapidly shifted their digital transformation priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>

At the start of the pandemic, some things worked and others just broke. And that’s forcing leaders to rethink digital transformation.

What the Pandemic Teaches Us About Digital Transformation

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<p><div id="attachment_22071" style="width: 224px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://news.vmware.com/-author/bernard-kwok-vmware-china/"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22071" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-22071" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Bernard-Kwok_VMware-214x300.jpg" alt="Bernard Kwok_VMware" width="214" height="300"></a><p id="caption-attachment-22071" class="wp-caption-text">By Bernard Kwok, President, Greater China, VMware</p></div></p>
<p>We are living and working through an extraordinary time. We’re all feeling the impact of this pandemic in one way or another. For countless businesses across all industries, the disruption has been severe. And there is a very human element to this, too. If a business cannot continue to operate, there are serious consequences that go far beyond the bottom line.</p>
<p>In the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, many organizations have been forced to shift their mindset to think about their business continuity plans and remote work best practices and capabilities. It has been empowering to see organizations—particularly those that did not previously consider the need for remote work—identify creative ways to protect their workforce. At the same time, they’re delivering on their customer promises during a time when their services may be more important than ever.</p>
<p>Here are a few examples I’ve heard from APJ businesses in the past few months.</p>
<h2>1. Diagnosing Patients in Guangzhou From Afar</h2>
<p>The healthcare industry has undoubtedly been the most disrupted industry during this period. As hospitals focused on treating infections, it became critical that non-frontline staff were able to continue to treat other priority patients. People may typically think of medical staff needing to be available to physically see patients, even in one of the most human-to-human industries in the world. But technology has enabled some aspects of roles to be delivered remotely.</p>
<p>The Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Hospital and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center protected non-frontline staff by setting up its 300-member medical imaging team to work remotely. By making all X-ray, CT and MRI images available on a <a href="https://www.vmware.com/topics/glossary/content/virtual-desktops" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">virtual desktop</a> through the cloud, 300 doctors accessed this vital service at all hours from any location. This meant that productivity during this crucial time was unaffected.</p>
<h2>2. Keeping Enterprises’ Finances Afloat</h2>
<p>Periods of unexpected circumstances lead to unforeseen financial difficulties for many businesses. During this time, access to finance and transformation support is critical, particularly for underserved small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) borrowers.</p>
<p>My team recently worked with Chailease International Finance Co., Ltd., a professional financial leasing company. They provide systematic and comprehensive financial services for SMEs.</p>
<p>We helped Chailease International to rapidly scale their <a href="https://www.vmware.com/topics/glossary/content/virtual-desktop-infrastructure-vdi" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">virtual desktop infrastructure</a> (VDI) to support 60 percent of the remote working needs of its employees. In only one week, they implemented about 600 virtual desktops. By making secure virtual desktops available to staff online, employees worked from home with exactly the same technology experience as the office. Because of this swift response, Chailease International customers experienced no drops in service.</p>
<h2>3. A New Meaning to Taking a Call from Home</h2>
<p>A traditional call center setup involves many people seated in close proximity for long stretches of time. To remain operational and protect the health of its employees, the largest call center of a leading Chinese telecom operator in the region spun up a virtual call center. This quick action empowered approximately 20,000 employees to work remotely with only a simple internet connection—all with no downtime for customer inquiries.</p>
<p>Once installed, the telecom company realized that it could offer this virtual call center solution to its business customers, who were also looking for best-practice remote working solutions.</p>
<h2>4. Studying at Home</h2>
<p>With social distancing and “shelter in place” mandates, many schools and colleges shifted to online learning platforms. Digital education platforms empower teachers and students with excellent remote experiences. Administrative staff also benefit from capabilities like digital document signing and verification processes, ensuring unexpected situations like class suspensions don’t negatively impact operations.</p>
<p>To support &#8220;uninterrupted learning,&#8221; National Taipei University in Taiwan built an online learning platform and successfully deployed 100 new virtual desktops. Now, the educator can teach as they did in physical classrooms, including rollcall, group discussions and more. In addition, virtual desktops also enable teachers to manage course progress and students’ learning status. With the help of software tools, teaching is now enriched and efficient, helping maintain consistent quality and positive experiences.</p>
<h2>Leading through Disruption</h2>
<p>The pandemic has already changed the future of work. Companies are really thinking about their digital transformation strategies and how teams collaborate and serve customers. They’re also finding smarter ways of getting business done.</p>


As China returns to work in the wake of COVID-19, we take a look at how organizations safeguard employees with remote work best practices.

Remote Work Best Practices Out of Greater China | VMware Radius

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<p><em>VMware’s <a href="https://news.vmware.com/agents-of-change/">Agents of Change</a> initiative celebrates technology leaders who challenge the status quo. By harnessing the power of <a href="https://news.vmware.com/digital-transformation/">digital transformation</a>, they create unlimited possibilities for their businesses. Here’s the next technology leader in the Agents of Change series: Jose Luis Romanos, Chief Technology Officer, CaixaBank</em><em>.</em></p>
<p>CaixaBank is the leading retail bank in Spain. CTO Jose Luis Romanos knows the vital importance of customer experiences.</p>
<p>“It’s a difficult time for banks,” Romanos explains. “Banks are dealing with a lot: strict regulations, new competitors from outside the traditional financial services industry and fickle customers with increasingly high expectations. Transforming the customer experience gives us the opportunity to differentiate ourselves. To do it successfully is tough. A customer’s relationship with their bank is really complex. However, it really is a case of adapt or die.”<em> </em></p>
<h2>Customer-Centric Digital Transformation</h2>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19036" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Role-of-the-Banking-CTO_VMware-Radius-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576"></p>
<p>CaixaBank’s dedication to delivering the best customer experience is culturally ingrained. Unwavering commitment from the board reinforces this focus daily from the top-down. The bank states publicly that company leadership and growth come from providing customers with the highest quality of services.</p>
<p>CaixaBank designed its IT team to support this strategy. Romanos guided the bank through a technological and cultural transition. The bank moved away from a traditional IT infrastructure to a software-defined environment. Today, agility, scalability and flexibility characterize the bank’s IT platform. These capabilities are ideal for:</p>
<ul>
<li>Rapid response to market trends.</li>
<li>Swiftly introducing and refining services for its customers.</li>
<li>Experimenting with new technologies.<em> </em></li>
</ul>
<p>“I’m really proud of that transformation and that we did it so fast. Occasionally, when you’re dealing with projects of this scope in such a large organisation with so many systems, they can seem like a fantasy. You have the feeling you’ll never achieve the goal,” he says.</p>
<h2>Building Trust to Drive Change &#038; Digital Transformation</h2>
<p>When asked what characteristics enabled him to successfully champion and lead the program, he initially points to his business acumen:</p>
<blockquote class="center">
<p>You won’t get very far spearheading change if people don’t trust your acumen. As a leader, you must have the ability to make good judgments and take quick decisions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“However, more important is the ability to sell excitement. You must get people bought into your concept, then a debate opens up and people start proposing new ideas. Now they’re excited about the potential of the project, then they will start transmitting that excitement to others.”</p>
<h2>Emerging Tech Plays a Part in Digital Transformation Investments</h2>
<p>When looking to the future, Romanos highlights artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive banking, both investment areas for CaixaBank.</p>
<p>“AI is hot in banking technology today and is being used to offer consumers new products. But it’s cognitive banking, which takes AI to the next level that gets me really excited,” he says. “But the banking industry needs to see the big picture and use our imaginations. It’s more than just adding some chat bots. Here we have the opportunity to do something really unique to re-invent the customer experience. I’m excited by what’s going to come.”</p>


<p>This article is the latest in the Agents of Change series, a look at how technology leaders challenge the status quo to discover new possibilities for their organizations.</p>

Watch this video to learn how CTO Jose Luis Romanos designed his IT team to help CaixaBank use digital transformation to gain a competitive advantage.

CaixaBank's CTO explains why customer-centric digital transformation is the difference between growth and failure.

For This Banking CTO, Digital Transformation Means “Adapt or Die”

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Video: CTO Reveals His Customer-Centric Digital Transformation Strategy

For CaixaBank&#8217;s CTO, Digital Transformation Means “Adapt or Die”

CaixaBank CTO explains why customer-centric digital transformation is the difference between market growth and company failure.

For this Banking CTO, Digital Transformation Means "Adapt or Die"

<p>“Be a disruptor. Don’t wait for others to disrupt your business.” This leadership advice comes from Ilan Buganim, <a href="https://english.leumi.co.il/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bank Leumi</a>’s CTO and CDO—the latter of which could as easily stand for chief of “Disruption” as it does “Data.” Under his guidance, Israel&#8217;s oldest banking corporation embraced technology to change the way it operates and today leads the digital banking sector in Israel.</p>
<p>Buganim acknowledges that being a disruptor is not always easy: “As soon you disrupt your industry, your competitors try even harder to outwit you. To remain at the top, you have to think differently and act differently, and find opportunities where others haven’t looked.”</p>
<p><div id="attachment_18176" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-18176" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-18176 size-full" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/VMware_FFG_Bank-Leumi_1200x675_14.png" alt="Digital_Banking_Disruption_Bank_Leumi_CTO" width="1200" height="675" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/VMware_FFG_Bank-Leumi_1200x675_14.png 1200w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/VMware_FFG_Bank-Leumi_1200x675_14.png?resize=300,169 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/VMware_FFG_Bank-Leumi_1200x675_14.png?resize=768,432 768w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/VMware_FFG_Bank-Leumi_1200x675_14.png?resize=1024,576 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><p id="caption-attachment-18176" class="wp-caption-text">VMware’s Agents of Change initiative celebrates smart CIOs who challenge the status quo. By harnessing the power of digital transformation, they create unlimited possibilities for their businesses. Here’s the next leader in the Agents of Change series: Ilan Buganim, CTO and CDO of Bank Leumi.</p></div></p>
<h1>Foreseeing the Future of Banking</h1>
<p>Leaders of Bank Leumi pride themselves on taking a different approach to the market. The Bank was ahead of the game in anticipating how the banking sector would change, and foresaw the upcoming impact of financial technology (fintech) and tech companies.</p>
<p>Having also observed huge changes in consumer behavior with the advent of social and mobile, the bank surmised that customers were ready for a new kind of banking: intuitive, digital and personalized. So Buganim’s team began to create a digital foundation to support the Bank’s vision of being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeyRD3cCQSw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Google and the Facebook of the financial industry</a>.</p>
<p>“We built a very agile, cloud-based infrastructure to support constant innovation,” said Buganim. “It enables the Bank to rapidly respond to changes in the market and build new services really quickly. We can be first to market with unique banking services that people want today.”</p>
<p>This is how Bank Leumi built and launched <a href="https://www.pepper.co.il/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pepper</a>—a fully mobile, personalised bank—in less than 15 months. “With Pepper we’re creating a revolution in how Millennials think about and manage their money in the digital world. That’s pretty exciting,” he said.</p>
<p>Pepper later became the groundwork for a new, cloud-based <a href="https://ir.vmware.com/overview/press-releases/press-release-details/2017/Bank-Leumi-Collaborates-with-Temenos-and-VMware-to-Create-an-Advanced-Digital-Banking-Solution-for-Financial-Services-Organizations-Globally/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">digital banking platform</a> available to banks worldwide. Bank Leumi, recently awarded the title of <a href="https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-us/press/dell-technologies-announces-customer-award-winners.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dell Technologies Innovator</a>, now partners with tech companies on this solution, as well as other banks undergoing their own digital transformation.</p>
</p>
<p><center><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nePzAvYEetI" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></center></p>
<h1>Leading a Digital Revolution</h1>
<p>Reflecting on the changing role of IT, Buganim said, “Technology is a key differentiator in finance. CTOs need to steer and lead the business’ technology path.”</p>
<p>He continued, “However, disruptive technologies now emerge faster than most organizations can absorb. This leads to increasingly complex technology environments that are hard to maintain and even harder to secure. The CTO has to constantly balance and improve seemingly conflicting requirements like agility, security and performance.”</p>
<p>“It can be tough,” he admitted. “But I wouldn’t want it any other way.”</p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>This article is the latest in the </em><a href="https://news.vmware.com/agents-of-change"><em>Agents of Change</em></a><em> series, a look at how technology leaders challenge the status quo to discover new possibilities for their organizations.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://news.vmware.com/agents-of-change"><strong><em>Learn from other Agents of Change.</em></strong></a></p>


Israel's oldest banking corporation leads the country's digital banking sector by embracing technology. Ilan Buganim, Bank Leumi’s CTO and CDO, reveals how.

Ilan Buganim, CTO and Digital Banking Disruptor - VMware News and Stories

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<p>For most organizations, agile culture and methodologies are limited to software development—but they shouldn’t be, according to Andrei Popov, CIO of Raiffeisenbank, the Russian arm of Austria’s <a href="https://www.rbinternational.com/">Raiffeisen Bank International</a>.</p>
<p><div id="attachment_18058" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-18058" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-18058" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Agent_of_Change_Raiffeisenbank-1024x576.png" alt="Agent_of_Change_Raiffeisenbank" width="1024" height="576"><p id="caption-attachment-18058" class="wp-caption-text">VMware’s Agents of Change initiative celebrates smart CIOs who challenge the status quo. By harnessing the transformative power of technology, they are creating unlimited possibilities for their businesses. Here’s the next individual in the Agents of Change series: Andrei Popov, CIO of Raiffeisenbank.</p></div></p>


<p>“The spirit of agile techniques, which have transformed software development, can and should be applied across the organization,” he says. “It improves collaboration, innovation, a focus on what’s really important to the customers and trying to do it faster.”</p>
<p>What started off with the adoption of agile in the developer-led teams at Raiffeisenbank, soon radiated out to other core functions and eventually went on to impact the entire organizational culture. Popov continues, “If I look at everything I’ve achieved in my role as CIO over the last seven years, I think the shift to an agile-inspired culture is one of my most significant contributions. It helps the bank understand what is really important and valuable, and not get bogged down in formalities. After all, as the bank’s CIO, I should be the catalyst of a progressive culture.”</p>


<p>Popov’s passion for agile has in part come from the pressure on the bank to constantly and rapidly innovate, in order to remain one of the leading banks in Russia. “The new world of banking is undoubtedly digital,” he reflects. “Technology underpins the products and services that solve our customers’ problems. Our IT department must facilitate rapid innovation for the banks to remain successful.”</p>
<p>The bank’s <a href="https://www.vmware.com/it-priorities/modernize-data-centers/software-defined-private-cloud.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">private cloud</a> is key to enabling the developer teams to work at a rapid pace, and the recent deployment of VMware vRealize <a href="https://cloud.vmware.com/cloud-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cloud management platform</a> has accelerated the developers’ cycles by another 10 percent. This, in turn, has increased the bank’s time-to-market. Popov says, “Our VMware-based cloud helps us create the very solutions that meet the needs of our customers.”</p>


<p>The bank also relies on its cloud for experimentation with new technologies. Popov considers blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to be the key disruptive trends of today, and the bank is independently investigating all of these, as well as with start-ups and customers. “While they are exciting on their own, the golden opportunity lies in how these will all intersect. And the race is on to achieve that. It will be a game-changer for sure,” he muses.</p>
<p>Popov laments the lack of experts in these fields, which can hinder progress and adoption. “Finding and educating specialists in areas like blockchain and AI is one of the bank’s biggest challenges right now,” he says.</p>
<p>However, despite the skills shortages that inevitably accompany new technologies, Popov is hugely optimistic about the impact these can have not just in the banking sector, but beyond in society. “New technology really excites me because it gives us the opportunity to do something really meaningful—to cooperate and solve the world’s big problems.”</p>
</p>
<p><center><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nugPr38StGk" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></center> </p>
<p class="commentable-section" data-section-id="686197982"><em>This article is the latest in the <a class="local-link" href="https://news.vmware.com/agents-of-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Agents of Change</a> series, a look at how technology leaders challenge the status quo to discover new possibilities for their organizations.</em></p>
<p class="commentable-section" data-section-id="844448788"><strong><em><a class="local-link" href="https://news.vmware.com/agents-of-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener" name="&#038;lpos=apps_scodevmw : 112">Learn from other Agents of Change.</a></em></strong></p>


Raiffeisenbank’s CIO shares insights into developing an agile culture and creating a cloud foundation for repeatable innovation and disruptive tech.

Andrei Popov, a CIO Advocating Agile Culture - VMware News and Stories

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