In an email interview with CIOAXIS, Dominic Vijay Kumar, Chief Technology Officer, ART Housing Finance (India) Ltd., shares his insight on the technological aspects from the perspective of a CTO…
Q1. Could you brief us about your current role, and what responsibilities you undertake in your organization?
With over 24 years of experience in the field of IT and an aspiration for young professionals, I am currently serving as a Chief Technology Officer at Art Housing Finance.
Initially, my professional journey began with The Oberoi Group as a System Administrator and went through Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines, The Chancery Group of Hotels, Vana, Dehradun, and RAAS Affordable Housing Finance India Ltd.
My Key Responsibility Areas is as follows…
* Driving and Implementing Digital technology across all functions.
* Ensuring the Tech Stake implemented is used and adopted by everyone.
* Ensure Budgets and Spend are managed.
* IT Governess.
* Information Security and Audits are in line with the regulatory requirement.
Q2. Tell us about your journey in this industry and how the technology has transformed over the years?
My Journey started with of NBFC way back in 2015 ,where Technology and Digitization adoption by the NBFC / HFC’s was at very initial stage and capex was to high to consume with adoption being a major road block, but as the regulator and Customer’s which includes the first time borrowers / Millenium and now its ZenX demand grew for faster loan processing with limited paper work and reducing the number visits and improvised the TAT resulted in the digitisation taking the forefront in driving NBFC / HFC’s to adopted tech platform and also reduction on the fraud and Cyber threats. Today digitisation has played major role in creating paperless office/building new products using the data analytics .AI & ML and RPA has played major in the automating the underwriting, increasing the Customer experience. With Tech Initiatives encouraged by the GOI and Finance Ministry has further enhanced the digital technology in the financial industry.
Major Breakthrough with API’s stack taking over the rebuilding concept and bring easy to use API’s like Account Aggregators / e kyc / e stamp, Fraud management / V courts and availability of e land records in some the states which has given the lender easy access to the data across all platforms right from onboarding to disbarment and managing the life cycle of the customer throughout his journey with lender.
Data being a new oil by Data Analytics / Data warehousing which has played a major role in building different business and product models using the Traditional and Non-traditional data points.
Q03. What should CTOs look for when assessing whether to incorporate AI into their technology strategy?
Look for a range of pre-built models, support for custom model development, and the ability to fine-tune models based on your data. Also, consider if the tool supports real-time analytics and predictions.
* Alignment with your strategic goals and business objectives.
* Availability and quality of the data that supports each possibility.
* Technical complexity and maturity.
* Expected return on investment and time to value.
Q04. Which are the key strategic requirements that you would identify which will change the vision of technology industry?
* Your organization’s vision organization’s vision of the future.
* A clearly Articulated mission and values statement.
* A current state assessment that evaluates your competitive environment, new opportunities, and new threats.
* Optimizing resilience, operations, or trust.
* Scale productivity and customer value by advancing solutions, product delivery and connectivity.
* Pioneering customer engagement, accelerated responses, or opportunity.
* Pursuing sustainable technology solutions.
Q05. What are the crucial qualities required for becoming a futuristic CTO?
* Extensive technical knowledge.
* Staying up to date with tech trends.
* Good communication skills.
* Knowing who to hire.
* Team management.
* Knowing your priorities.
* Strategic mindset.