Exclusive Interview: Meetu Singh, Head, Xebia Agile Consulting & Training Unit

In an exclusive interview with DQ Channels, Meetu Singh, Head of XACT (Xebia Agile Consulting & Training Unit) shared her views on how AI and Cloud tech is changing the face of Banking and its customer outreach and GTM strategies for India. 

How does Xebia intend to differentiate itself from its competitors?

Our key differentiators are new-age technology/tools hands-on experience, our thought leadership in adopting Agile ways of working and our culture towards customer-centricity. Xebia comes with a blend of exposure to domain & technology and internal to our organization it is supported by CoEs (centre of excellence) structure. Delivery and respective CoEs collaborative efforts are what drive the right-fit solution to our client. We focus on outcome-driven engagement and promote more risk-sharing models which enable the right set of Agile mindset adoption. Our geographical spread across the globe adds to this value-creating dimension.

What are your plans to overcome the challenges thrown by Covid-19 to businesses and markets?

Interestingly COVID has exposed our readiness to deal with different situations and think out of the box approach, all said and done IT industry strived and worked pretty well during the COVID, though I should say those initial 2 - 3 weeks would have been a struggle, the industry discovered the ways of working and remote approaches were adopted quickly. All clients of the IT industry who were worried about security and other such policies started to behave and adopt the new ways of working.

COVID has enabled the cost of operations to come down (in terms of Operational cost), Efficiency has increased, but also the norm that any person is always available for any type of discussion at any point of time (Clock’s and time – do not matter) has been the biggest drawbacks.

At Xebia we are investing in tools for meetings, discussions, collaboration and also creating regular touchpoints with employees with Global meetings, exchanging information, releasing e-newsletters, creating virtual offsite (where work is not discussed).

Speaking of engaging the customers, I believe customers are now more involved with teams, the reason being could be it's not face to face to avoid any disconnect people prefer to be on call and mention their views. Cadence culture has taken a leap jump now, we are able to now connect with a diverse set of stakeholders at the customer end and engage them on their requirements, which was earlier difficult due to travel costs and stakeholder’s resident at different locations and time zones.

All in all, it has proven to be a new norm and more mutually beneficial for everyone be it employees, management, clients and stakeholders.

What are your growth plans for the next three years in terms of technology overall and also specific to Agile?

Growth in Agile Business for Xebia has been decent and consistent, there is a decent pipeline and demand for our services and knowledge sharing. Our growth plans are primarily focusing on setting ourselves more firm in the global market and doubling the headcount by March 2022 and growing in the US, Canada, Nordic, UK and Benelux region. We are now going for a local presence in these regions and supporting the needs of the customer.

What are the region-specific challenges when implementing new technologies in APAC?

When we speak about APAC – The language barrier is a major concern – Like for Customers in Vietnam or places like Indonesia, Also as these are developing countries like India, the cost is a primary concern for the customers and organization in APAC. Another challenge is how each region influences the way agile mindset is adopted and practised, being working in various geographies we have now understood the variation that we need to address while we are helping our customers in their digital transformation journeys.

How AI and Cloud tech is changing the face of Banking and its customer outreach?

Using Cloud-based technology is now default and given. Cloud computing is expected to be one of the fastest-growing technologies in the coming years. Business applications will be the largest market for cloud services spending, with a gradual transition from on-premise to cloud-based services especially for general business applications like customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Banks are expected to enter the cloud computing arena cautiously, with no single cloud services delivery model being a silver bullet for best meeting their demanding business needs. Cloud computing can offer financial institutions a number of advantages, including:

• Cost savings
• Usage-based billing
• Business continuity
• Business agility
• Green IT

When a bank moves into cloud computing, there are two primary challenges that must be addressed:

Security: The confidentiality and security of financial and personal data and mission-critical applications is paramount. Banks cannot afford the risk of a security breach.

Regulatory and compliance: Many banking regulators require that financial data for banking customers stay in their home country. Certain compliance regulations require that data not be intermixed with other data, such as on shared servers or databases. As a result, banks must have a clear understanding of where their data resides in the cloud. Financial institutions must select the right service, deployment, and operating models to address security and compliance concerns. In the initial phases of cloud computing adoption, it is expected that banks will own and operate the cloud themselves with service providers taking increasing ownership and control of the cloud infrastructure as cloud computing matures and more rigorous controls become available.

What are your views on digital currency in India?

Let’s understand for the common man … what digital currency is:

• It is a payment method that exists only in electronic form and is not tangible.
• It can be transferred between entities or users with the help of technology like computers, smartphones and the internet.
• Although it is similar to physical currencies, digital money allows borderless transfer of ownership as well as instantaneous transactions.
• Digital currency is also known as digital money and cybercash.
• g. Cryptocurrency

A few benefits of using Digital Currency:

• It would reduce the cost of currency management while enabling real-time payments without any inter-bank settlement.
• India’s fairly high currency-to-GDP ratio holds out another benefit of Digital Currency - to the extent large cash usage can be replaced by it, the cost of printing, transporting and storing paper currency can be substantially reduced.
• It will also minimize the damage to the public from the usage of private virtual currencies.

But then the bigger question is are we matured enough as a country to use the digital currency when the majority of the population has little or no access to electricity (Power Failures are a norm), the need and requirement of a smartphone, ability to understand things … though I should admit, that today majority of the street side vendors (who may not be greatly educated) are using Mobile Wallets to accept payments … but then this is what is seen in larger cities of India … what about the remote villages of North India or Eastern part of our country.

The way forward for me is for India to adopt a sure but steady approach of creating a Digital Rupee, that will provide an opportunity for India to empower its citizens and enable them to use it freely in our ever-expanding digital economy and break free from an outdated banking system.

Looking into its impact on macroeconomy and liquidity, banking systems and money markets, it is imperative for policymakers to thoroughly consider the prospects of the Digital Rupee in India.

What is your GTM (go to market) strategy for the Indian market?

Sales should always be a “sensing” organization, attuned to changes in customer needs, sentiment, shifts in demand, and the requirements of different buying stages. But those senses are being flooded as customers shift to digital engagement, leaving sellers with more channels to cover and more interactions to manage.

The pandemic has amplified these challenges, exposing weaknesses in existing sales models and gaps in digital readiness. In many ways, this data revolution in sales matches what happened to market departments three to five years ago, when they were forced to reorient their functions to be more analytically driven. With more data flowing in from nontraditional sources such as video calls and webinars—few of which are captured by current sales processes—understanding which customers to focus on, what they care about, and how they want to engage can often feel like a guessing game.

However, at  Xebia we have reduced that guesswork. We are bringing science to sales and are harnessing data in ways that deliver double-digit gains in return-on-investment (ROI). At Xebia we have started with centralizing commercial operations and generating insights from internal and external data sources, including web and email scrapes, information from virtual calls and pitches, and other analyses. These improved insights allow our sales organizations to be more agile in aligning their resources and adapting their operating model.

To hardwire these capabilities, smarter automated processes are getting developed into a new operating model. Performance metrics and coaching are then tailored to the needs of the company and the requirements of the individual salesperson. The result is a domino effect: one event triggers the next, and the impact grows cumulatively

Many sales organizations face significant challenges in guiding teams dispersed across large territories. This limits the ability of sales reps to share best practices, access valuable customer insights, and expedite sales processes that can make a meaningful difference to their bookings. To make the most of the abundance of data and draw the right insights, forward-thinking sales leaders have centralized commercial operations functions and created “commercial hubs” that distribute better and more targeted insights as well as drive more agility in the organization.

Commercial hubs bring together three elements: the right talent with deep experience in sales, analytics and data science, and product; an operating model capable of interacting seamlessly with the reps (including the ability to tailor those interactions); and access to a data and analytics infrastructure optimized to the hub’s needs. This kind of hub can develop and scale the delivery of tailored insights and sales plays to reps, track and manage performance, provide coaching based on what’s working in the field, and enable day-to-day efficiencies that eliminate waste and drive bookings.