Simpler Technologies Will Lead To Amplified Possibilities: Altemetrik

Altimetrik has expanded its presence in India by opening its new immersive experience center, Playground, in Pune. Comprising a Design Studio and an Innovation Lab, Playground is claimed to lead Altimetrik’s growth strategy and become the global mecca for industries like banking, healthcare, fintech and manufacturing. By blending technology and innovation with global talent and capabilities, it will be able to reduce time to delivery by up-to 30 per cent. This is the second such center after Bangalore and will soon be an integral part of a network of Playgrounds once similar centers are launched in the United States, Uruguay and other strategic locations.

The Playground, an integral part of Altimetrik‘s strategy, will enable technology-led business transformation for clients globally. With Pune becoming one of the fastest growing cities in the area of digital banking, e-payments and modern-day financial services, the city houses immense opportunities for the industry. It forms a critical part of Altrimetrik’s talent acquisition strategy.

To understand how Playground platform has helped Altimetrik achieve its business objectives, faster delivery rate, and how consumers will benefit from this move, BW CIO spoke to Suresh Nair, Chief Transformation Officer, Altimetrik.

What is the Playground platform in Altimetrik all about?

As opposed to traditional IT, digital requirements do not have everything clearly written or captured in the form of a document. In traditional IT, requirements are given by the customer and companies or vendors implement them. And if you deconstruct this traditional approach any further, you would realize that there is never a real focus on design thinking, end-user experiences or even problem-solving. The end-result is not more than ‘requirements’ being addressed. Thus, Playground’s TAP are very powerful when put together. And this power becomes all the more relevant when digital transformation hits the ground because without having the Talent, Approach and Platforms you cannot connect with your customer or solve their business problems.

How can consumers benefit from the services provided by Altimetrik at its Innovation Centre?

In this hyper-connected world, where disruption is the new normal, the consumer is by all means the focal point of any business or enterprises’ outlook. Thus, we are in the business of simplifying technology-led journeys for our customers and consequently amplifying the possibilities for the end-users (consumers).

Today, almost every IT company has joined the Innovation Centre bandwagon wherein we hear about one getting inaugurated every other day. But we at Altimetrik have a differentiated value proposition here – whether a center of excellence or an innovation centre, the idea revolves only on a technology or a vertical. But we are focusing on building a ‘digital culture’.

How will the future be? How do you compose a business tomorrow? With the way developers are evolving, your CMO tomorrow could be assembling 2-3 components, and making and using his own application on his mobile phone. This is the kind of enablement we want to facilitate in our Playground. It is not about innovation alone. It is about making ‘digital’ happen. Transformation and sustaining the transformed environment is a different space and it needs to be carved out as such. A lot of people talk about transformation without actually getting to the meat of it. Traditional approaches won’t cut it and thus, our ultimate goal is to enable that the right pathway and journey of Business and Digital transformation, across industries and ecosystems.

Technology is witnessing a rapid evolution all over the world for quite some time now. How do you feel this change in technological advancements can be lead into the right direction?

You are absolutely right; pace of innovation has significantly changed. I expect that to continue to accelerate. So the pace at which one need to move also changes if one wants to be a top players in any field. Hence transforming to modern ways of doing business and instilling a culture of innovation so that you can sustain that and build on it is key to success for any top players. We are humbly trying to enable that journey for our partners. 

What role does Altimetrik play in different sectors like Healthcare, Energy, and Banking?

We have a number of initiatives going on in each of those sectors and some additional ones ranging from small ones to extremely large projects. Beauty of transformation is that it can start with a small spark or at a large scale. We engage if the environment and the right support is in place to enable that journey. To that point our partners’ readiness is key to any successful transformation. A lot of firm talk about it, but few have the resolve to face the real challenges exposed by the journey. We engage with partners who are ready to take that on.

To cite an India-specific example, we work with a global payments major where all the 3 tenets of our talent, approach and platforms/technology have come together to deliver significant results and develop a marquee FinTech solution for a digitally-abled and demonetized India.