Monica Hovsepian, Global Industry Strategist for Financial Services, OpenText

11 Feb 2022 , 12:25 PM

In an interaction with Mamta Maity, indiainfoline.com, Monica Hovsepian Global Industry Strategist for Financial Services, OpenText said “with regional expertise in financial services, public sector, life sciences, supply chain, manufacturing, utilities, and natural resources, OpenText is digitally empowering many of the most innovative organisations in India.

Before we begin, can you tell us about OpenText and its offerings?

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Waterloo, Canada, OpenText is focussed on Enterprise Information Management and listed on the Toronto and NASDAQ stock exchanges, (TSX: OTEX). In our last full financial year (1st July 2020 — 30th June 2021) our revenue was US$3.15 billion, up by 9.7% year-over-year, and a record US$ 1.7 billion from cloud revenues, up by 28.4% year-over-year. We have 15,000+ employees globally spread across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

With work models now in flux, new endpoints proliferating, data under siege, consumer behaviour changing rapidly, and global supply chains disrupted, organisations need to rethink the power  information has to digitally transform their operations so they can support modern work, connect to global commerce, and provide stellar customer experiences.

By offering information technologies and solutions that scale quickly and reliably, we provide the technology and expertise organisations require to build resilience. We help them anticipate and respond to change with dynamic customer experiences, frictionless information exchange, simplified risk management and process automation, cyber resilience, and a platform for innovation.

Our OpenText Cloud Editions (CE) empowers customers to run their software anywhere — hybrid cloud, off-cloud, private cloud, or public cloud platforms of choice, or through cloud API services. CE can be paired with expert managed services to ensure success at each stage of the Information Management journey.

A key component of one of recent releases of CE includes a new cloud platform for Content Services, enabling our customers to power modern work in the cloud. OpenText Core Content and OpenText Core Case Management are multi-tenant cloud offerings combining content management, case management and integration into lead applications like SAP and Microsoft, in turn delivering a unified approach to managing information and an organisation’s content lifecycle in the context of its formal and informal business processes. These are quick and easy to deploy and can be tailored to address unique line of business, departmental, and industry needs.

OpenText provides support to its customers through five cloud editions:

The OpenText Content Cloud empowers modern work by improving user productivity, process stability, and providing solutions to assist with regulatory compliance.
The OpenText Business Network Cloud connects business to global commerce and trading networks through a unified platform for streamlined connectivity, secure collaboration, and real-time business intelligence.
The OpenText Experience Cloud provides a single platform to deliver modern engagements across the customer journey
The OpenText Security & Protection Cloud strengthens cyber resilience by helping organizations to better secure sensitive information, find evidence faster, reduce risk, and detect and respond to cyberthreats.
The OpenText Developer Cloud is a single source of Cloud API services that lets developers quickly bring their ideas to life faster using powerful, developer-trusted APIs.

When did you start India operations? Do you have any customers / partners in India already?

We have a large footprint in India, with 3,000 employees split equally between our Development Centres in Hyderabad and Bangalore. We started our operations in India in 2009 in Hyderabad, and following several acquisitions and ongoing recruitment, we subsequently opened a Development Centre in Bangalore.

In India, OpenText drives real change with high-impact projects enabled by our development centres. These are major innovation centres where products are designed, developed and matured, and continue to be delivered to local companies within India as well as to enterprises across the globe.

Here are some successful customer stories from India:

Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd. – Tata Power DDL is a leading power utility serving a populace of 7 million in North Delhi. The company  implemented OpenTextâ„¢ Documentumâ„¢ as part of their digital transformation journey and response to COVID-19. With help from Documentum, Tata Power-DDL was able to automate complex, information-centric processes, maintain productivity and keep ¬¬¬¬critical business moving forward during the pandemic.

The company ensured employees, customers, regulators, and external stakeholders retained access to mission-critical content and business processes. With Documentum, Tata Power-DDL was able to keep critical users connected and working to provide power to customers, including hospitals, essential utilities like water supply, and pharmacies and laboratories on the front lines of the pandemic. This resulted in higher efficiency, greater speed, and savings.

SAP users have seamless access to the information they need to get their jobs done. The Documentum xCP especially has cut development time and resourcing requirements by two thirds. With OpenText Documentum and OpenText Documentum xCP, customer connection time has reduced from 14 days to just 1 day.

Syngene International – Syngene International Limited is a global scale Contract Research and Manufacturing Organization offering integrated discovery, development, and manufacturing services for novel molecules. The company needed assistance in adhering to strict audit and compliance regulations, which is common in its industry space. Also, the paper-based record keeping was causing delays and proving inefficient. The company started  using OpenText Documentum, OpenText Documentum For Life Sciences, OpenText Documentum for Quality and Manufacturing. Using these products, Syngene International witnessed an improved customer service, enhanced audit compliance and greater automation.

How big is the Indian market expected to be for you? What plans do you have for India?

With regional expertise in financial services, public sector, life sciences, supply chain, manufacturing, utilities, and natural resources, OpenText is digitally empowering many of the most innovative organisations in India.

Following the sudden explosion of remote work, regional and global supply chain disruption, dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour, and escalating cyber security threats, organisations have had to fast-track their digital transformation plans. At OpenTextâ„¢, we have become engaged with more customers around the world over the last fifteen months or so to help refine, implement and accelerate digital transformation strategies. Furthermore, with the India government’s launch of its Digital India initiative, we believe we are well positioned locally to help organisations – across multiple sectors including financial services and the public sector – deliver on their digital transformation goals associated with this government-led initiative.

How has the pandemic impacted the banking sector?

When the pandemic hit, globally, we all shifted to remote work, and our kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms became our offices, banks quickly realized that they needed to serve their customers digitally.  Banks that had a strong digital presence and were at the forefront of digital strategies were quick to pivot.  The ones who weren’t felt the pain. The digital fakers vs the digital doers were exposed.  Customers started exploring digital channels for their banking needs   A user-friendly positive experience, encouraged customers to continue using the digital channel, otherwise they moved to other channels or chose another bank.

Research and studies are showing us now that banks need to change their strategies for the branch.  The age-old debate that the branch will go away is a myth.  The branch is not going away — the role of the branch is changing.  The branch and the branch staff are becoming more of an advisory center.  Furthermore, what we have seen is that the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation projects at banks by three folds.

How will digitising and utilising data help the FSI industry?

Customers today want the same single click, transparent, easy to use, fast engagements that they have when using Amazon, Uber, Netflix, Google, etc.  Banks need to be able to provide the same engagements and level of digital service.  Customer don’t care if banks have silos.  Furthermore, banks need to be able to utilize the data that they currently have on their customers, and the data that customers are generating, across the enterprise and use it securely and appropriately to offer better products and insightful service to their customers.  It is with these insights that banks can build lasting relationships with their customers, throughout the lifecycle of the customer and build loyalty and trust.

What is your opinion on the phenomenal rise of fintech sector in India over the last 4 years?

The Fintech phenomenon is nothing new, globally.  The FinTech revolution was borne out of the 2008 financial crisis.  Initially seen as a threat to banks what we are seeing now is increased investment and partnership of the FinTechs globally.  FinTechs are providing ease of use, digitalization, transparency, speed, agility — to name a few.  With the increased global acceptance and adoption of Open Banking, the role of FinTechs have also become more prominent.

How are banks achieving to meet customer needs and remaining relevant while doing so?

The manner in which Banks can and should remain relevant is by ensuring that they are delivering personalized products, services and communications to their customers throughout the entire lifecycle, seamlessly, in the customers channel of choice. Ensuring that the customer can have 24/7 access to the bank, in their channel of choice in a frictionless, seamless manner and through insightful service is critical.  Receiving personalized engagements, communications and offers that are timely and relevant differentiate the bank and ensure loyalty and trust.  Ensuring security of the customer’s information is at the forefront now, more than ever. 

Customers today are willing to share their information with the bank, only if the bank is going to utilize that information to better serve and sell to them.  Customers today don’t want a mortgage, they want to buy a home — they are looking for the entire experience — the bank needs to shift the mindset of selling the product and delivering the entire experience.

How will the digital shift help the banking sector? How does OpenText help enable this process?

The digital shift is ensuring that banks are now revising their processes and ensuring that employee engagement and customer experiences are at the forefront.  Ensuring that employees have that the right information at the right time, that they have the processes, transparency, the tools to serve customers ensures that they can service customers or spend time on high value services such as advisory services. 

Furthermore, moving to digital process, which are well defined and thought out, ensure that customers can conduct transactions, should they wish to, on digital channels, and reach out to front line staff for complex or advisory services.

How will new payment methods like digital assets improve the scenario?

As a result of the pandemic, there has been a shift to contactless payments and a move away from cash.  Another shift has been a Buy Now Pay Later. Spearheaded by FinTechs, banks have now realized that they need to step in and begin offering BNPL as they are losing market share.

What according to you are going to be the trends specific to this industry?

According to me, the below are trends:

• Delivering enhanced and optimal employee engagements and customer experiences
• Introducing agility into the enterprise
• Ensuring compliance, risk and security
• Implementing cost optimization