Naseem Halder, CISO - ACKO General Insurance

CIO priorities for 2022
Digitalization is no longer an option, it is a basic need to sustain in the market. So it will be more difficult to be decisive about the key priorities, but the goal will be to grow the business. Last few years, throughout the industries, data has become the top driver of any decision-making and indicated top priorities will be –

•  Monetization of Data/Information: Digitalization incubated various sources to enrich the corporate with the structured data and it is the time to maximize the utility of data and showcase the ROI of the recent past investment.

•  Shortfall of emerging technology skill-set and talent: The penetration of cloud infrastructure-based applications is surpassing the legacy or traditional infrastructure application; engaging from ‘anywhere’ culture, emerging cyber security threats require a new level of skill-set and talent to encounter; So, getting talent and retention of talent will be the top priority for any corporate.

•  Data Security and Privacy: Over time, we learnt data is a double-edged sword, especially in the hybrid work culture. So maintaining confidentiality, integrity, and availability will be super critical to protect the business.

•  Next-Gen digital transformation: Next-gen digital transformation is a key focus and digital transformation remains the major initiative in 2022.

Digitization - opportunities galore
There is no doubt in the last couple of years, COVID has been disrupting the business equation and workplace. Digitization is a continuous journey - integrating digital technology, applications and appliances in the offices and home just took pace during the COVID-19 crisis. Nowadays, more people have been working and spending additional time at home, increasing the reliance on various IoT devices, helping reduce CO2 emissions and much more. But still a lot is pending.

At the same time, it is bringing some adverse effects as well, the data security and privacy issues, mental health, social connect become the concerns we are facing; hybrid work models also create various demands, so the problem and demand are the best catalyst to open new opportunities.

Technology & Brand amalgamation
It is evident that data privacy is here to stay. However, data privacy is not only a legal requirement or brands are capturing the data with consents.

Brands want to use privacy as a differentiator, it is super important to know customers’ value, create transparent policies aligned to human/emotional values and value based addressing culture for privacy issues.