By Siddharth Shankar, BW Businessworld
As technology advances, companies have an ultimate necessity to encompass technology. This is because technology has transformed several elements for the better.
10 years ago Nokia CEO Stephen Elop shot off his burning platform memo as a way of shaking up the phone company’s leadership in the light of the competition from iPhone and Android devices. This fiery term comes from the analogy of standing on an oil platform at sea that’s on fire – the urgency to save yourself is so great you take action and jump off into icy waters. In terms of business, burning platform is a term used to describe the process of helping people see the dire consequences of not changing. “Today, Indian enterprises are on a burning platform too, many are feeling the heat, many don’t realize it yet” affirmed by Swaroop Repaka, Director Strategy – Clear., who was making a keynote address at the 5th Edition of the CFO and Finance Strategy Awards 2021, organized by BW CFO World and BW Businessworld.
While addressing the occasion on a virtual summit Swaroop said “The big audit firms are not a tech first firms, they infact use a lot of legacy systems and have smaller tech teams. More important they don’t create a common work bench across your teams and that becomes important in the current era. Its not just about you and your tax team along with your tax consultant being on the same platform, it has to be your procurement team accounts team even your vendors, dealers’, distributors all of them have to be on a common platform. Same is the case with ERP.”
Talking about the future of technology in businesses Swaroop opined “Everything will be automated, all business processes. There will be AI based data surveillance, not just you but the government also surveilling your data. While B2C data like facebook and google has is commonly talked about but in B2B segment the government has all the data, right from every single invoice. Using AI technologies imagine the kind of surveillance they can do, and I believe they have starting work on it.” Talking about the linking of the e-way bill to the Fast tag system Swaroop went on to say “Imagine if they started to link Direct and Indirect tax system, it will open up a seamless interaction across your entire vendors and distributors ecosystems. Leading to a deep technology led proliferation.”
Not since the industrial revolution has business experienced such rapid and profound changes as it is seeing today. As technology evolves, companies have an ultimate need to encompass technology. This is because technology has transformed several elements for the better. “Technology is not just a Good to have, it’s a must have, its important for a business’s survival” says Swaroop