Interview with Gaurav Bhatia, Chief Digital Officer at NewDay USA

In this interview, https://www.thedigitalenterprise.com/interviews/interview-with-gaurav-bhatia-chief-digital-officer-at-newday-usa/, Chief Digital Officer at NewDay USA explains their motivation to go ‘digital’ owing to changing customer preferences and the steps involved in this. He also suggests how understanding the customer journey is the key to identifying gaps and developing processes while leveraging martech and adtech platforms. Gaurav has over 15 years’ proven experience in using technology and data for marketing across banking, finance, and travel industries. In his senior leadership roles at Capital One, Sabre Holdings, NIIT Technologies and most recently, at AARP Services, Gaurav has helped integrate digital marketing with traditional marketing, while expanding digital capabilities in various functions for these companies. A speaker/moderator at digital tech industry conferences, Gaurav has also been a guest speaker on Digital Marketing and Innovation at Northwestern University. 

Question : Thank you so much for taking our questions! Tell us a little about your business and your specific role?

Answer From Gaurav Bhatia : NewDay USA is a nationwide VA mortgage lender focused on helping active military personnel, veterans and their families achieve their financial and housing goals. It is headquartered in Fulton, Maryland, 25 miles from Washington DC. The company employs best practices in mortgage lending and career growth for mortgage professionals. Consistent with its mission, NewDay USA is a philanthropic partner of numerous organizations focused on assisting military veterans and their families in need.

I am the Chief Digital Officer for the company helping grow the digital capability of the organization, create new digital experience for our prospective and existing customers

Question : When did you first realize that you had an issue that needed a digital solution? What was the nature of the problem you set out to solve?

Answer From Gaurav Bhatia : Typically, our customers are veterans that are over the age of 55. They have interacted with our brand through television advertising and direct mail. We have seen a shift in behavior and expectation and, our customers are finding us digitally and interacting with us through those channels as well. We need to be able to meet our customer expectations, and as a result we have been expanding our reach through digital channels.

We continue to invest in TV and Direct Mail and now are enhancing those with digital, email and social media. Digital allows us to serve our customers where and how they choose to interact with us. It also allows us to service them outside the traditional working hours.

Question : What were the challenges you faced at the time as you began the process of evaluating solutions?

Answer From Gaurav Bhatia : We first defined use cases and customer journeys, so that we have a full view of how the customers choose to interact with us. We then evaluated the processes, technology and the organizational capability that we had currently. We wanted to ensure we take a strategic view of the business and execute our marketing program based on our customer needs. We developed the capability in the marketing channels that needed to grow and used the marketing technology that would help us leverage the data to develop a program that would be a win-win for the customer and the business.

We had to run the business on a day to day basis, so we continued to enhance our existing program while we built the new capability and enhanced the existing channels. It was a partnership with our agencies, internal teams to make sure we are creating a futuristic program that was leveraging our core business and the foundation we had for the past two decades.

As we put together the program, we realized that we had to look at all the possible internal and external marketing and technology solutions, data, legal and compliance requests to create something that would help us achieve the business objectives. It was more of taking a 360-degree view of the customer. We had to be agile, since we did not have all the details, and as we procured more information we made decisions. It was not perfect, but we need to continue the momentum and move forward.

Read the full interview of Gaurav Bhatia, Chief Digital Officer at NewDay USA on The Digital Enterprise.

Interview with David Sikora, CEO at ALTR

In this interview, David Sikora, CEO at ALTR elaborates on blockchain’s “digital truth”, why enterprises need to start treating data like they do their money, addressing data breaches in the midst of a digital initiative and stresses the need for a proactive rather than a reactive approach to security.

Question : Tell us about your product/business and your specific role?

Answer From David Sikora : I’m the CEO at ALTR, and have been in the tech industry for more than 20 years, including serving as the executive chairman at Stratfor, and leadership roles at Digby, Motive and Pervasive Software.

ALTR has been getting a lot of attention since recently emerging from nearly 4 years of stealth R&D. We have launched the first commercial software package that unlocks the security benefits of blockchain for the enterprise.

It may be useful to give you some context around why we have decided to launch ALTR. As more and more companies are jumping on board with cloud and IoT, new threat vectors to data are continually being introduced –Jupiter Research estimates the cost of these threats will exceed $8 trillion by 2022. It’s a toxic mixture of temptations and economic incentives that reward bad actors, who are always one step ahead of security providers, trapping them in a losing cycle of software patches and new applications.

That’s where ALTR comes in. Our platform is based on proprietary blockchain technology called ALTRchain. This is the first and only high-performance, enterprise-ready blockchain for data security. In fact, we are the first company to commercialize blockchain technology for this purpose and see this as a fundamental shift away from failed perimeter systems.

Question : What is the core issue your product/technology aims to address and what sets it apart from the other players in the market?

Answer From David Sikora : In our view, we have a choice between change or breach. Network-focused security isn’t enough because it can never reduce the sheer number of vulnerabilities. If the current “cyber security industrial complex” were so effective, then we have to ask ourselves “why are there so many breaches?” and “why are they happening with increased frequency?”

I mentioned that we spent 4 years in R&D creating the ALTR platform. It was the need to create a new security architecture that actually led us to blockchain, and not the other way around. Experts have been talking about the cybersecurity potential of blockchain for a long time. Rather than continually trying to put band-aids on the existing attack surface in an enterprise, we have found a way to reduce it to potentially zero using patent-issued blockchain technology. In the purest architectural sense blockchain has the capacity to create “digital truth” – we have harnessed this capability to allow an organization to monitor, govern and protect their critical data in ways that have not been done until now.

Question : What’s the one industry, sector or role that your technology is most relevant to?

Answer From David Sikora : I’ll answer this by focusing on a role. Our technology is the most relevant to the CEO and the Board of Directors at any large enterprise that houses sensitive data – either critical customer data or sensitive digital intellectual property.

The enterprise has to start treating its data like it does its money, meaning that the executive suite builds competency in understanding how it flows and what it means, makes policy for how it is used and accessed, and exerts control in governing and protecting it.

We’ve crafted a toolkit that deals with data in a way that stakeholders outside of IT can understand and manage.

Read the full interview of David Sikora, CEO at ALTR on The Digital Enterprise.

Interview with Adam Weinstein, Co-founder & CEO at Cursor

In this interview, Adam Weinstein, Co-founder & CEO at Cursor discusses the challenge with fragmented data and AI’s potential in the times to come. Prior to Cursor, Adam was the head of LinkedIn’s developer platform and the head of data and analytics at Bright (an AI-powered recruiting platform acquired by LinkedIn for $130M). Adam’s passion for data has been ever since the start of his career as part of the first business intelligence team at ExactTarget (later acquired by Salesforce for $2.5B). Today this has seen him establish the tech start-up with brands like Apple, Slack, Atlassian and more.

Question : Tell us about your product/business and your specific role?

Answer From Adam Weinstein : I am the co-founder of Cursor, a data search and analytics hub, and have been entrenched in the data space for the past decade. I was the first BI hire at ExactTarget, which was acquired by Salesforce for $2.5B in 2013 (now called Salesforce Marketing Cloud), and later led analytics at Bright, an AI-powered recruiting platform acquired by LinkedIn for $130M. From there, I helped lead analytics at LinkedIn, where I was responsible for building out LinkedIn China. It was during this process that I came up with the idea for what would become Cursor.

In short, I wanted to create a solution that would make answers to data questions easier to find. Cursor takes all of a company’s data assets and makes them searchable and actionable. It’s as accessible to a company’s data analyst as it is to senior executives (CEOs,VPs, etc.).

Question : What’s the one industry, sector or role that your technology is most relevant to?

Answer From Adam Weinstein : We designed Cursor to be relevant to any individual at a data-driven organization, intentionally making it vertically agnostic. We have teams at industry-leading organizations, including Apple, Atlassian, and Slack, Terminix, Ticketmaster, and beyond that have already adopted the platform.

Question : What are some of the common challenges your customers approach you with?

Answer From Adam Weinstein : Our customers say they’re in need of a solution that allows them to search across the entire breadth of their data and analytical assets as they’re currently housed in disparate locations (cloud, personal machines, etc.)

They’re also looking for something that’s easy to deploy and doesn’t require extensive internal resources or requirements.

Read the full interview of Adam Weinstein, Co-founder & CEO at Cursor on The Digital Enterprise.

Interview with Nav Dhunay, founder & CEO at Imaginea Ai

In this interview, Nav Dhunay, founder & CEO at Imaginea Ai speaks about the need to overcome psychological barriers to embrace technology, how AI can pave the way for real transformation, how proper education around new technologies and collaboration is critical for improved implementation. Nav is one of the leading figures in oil and gas technology innovation and is a serial entrepreneur having attained a hard-won collection of tech startup hits in his repertoire.

Question : Tell us a little about your business and your specific role?

Answer From Nav Dhunay : I’m the founder and CEO of Imaginea Ai. We are in the process of building the Imaginea Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem, an infinitely scalable platform designed to put precision artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the hands of individuals and organizations around the world, democratizing its availability.

Our platform is powered by Blockchain and we will officially be launching our fully regulated Security Token Offering (STO) in the coming weeks.

My role within the day to day running of the company is to ensure that each member of team is empowered to do their best work. I’ve built several technology-focused companies during my career and have seen first hand that every great innovation comes from strong teams who collaborate and actively experiment.

Question : What is the typical nature of challenges you encounter – or expect to encounter – from enterprises looking to move the needle on digital transformation?

Answer From Nav Dhunay : Fear, I think, is number one. Throughout history, major technological change has always been met with a certain level of fear and it’s certainly a challenge that we regularly see in businesses in the early stages of adopting new and progressive technologies.

We are living in a time where technology is evolving at an incredible pace and, although we do seem to be gradually moving away from the science fiction-based fear of sentient robots taking over the world, there are fears around jobs being lost to increasingly sophisticated technologies.

We also find there are concerns around the perceived security risks of adopting new technologies. These concerns can be legitimate in some cases but can often be overcome through understanding the ways that risks can be mitigated with proper foresight and organization-wide diligence.

Question : Using technology to affect transformation usually starts with a transformation of beliefs and mindsets. Do you plan to consult clients and help them make that important shift in mindset to move ahead on a particular project or Implementation?

Answer From Nav Dhunay: Having clients that do not fully believe in or understand a new system often leads to issues down the line. When it comes to AI, it can often be a tool that enables individuals and teams to be more effective rather than replacing them and once that is properly demonstrated, it can pave the way for real transformation.

AI is already becoming pervasive and adopting tailored solutions can ensure businesses stay competitive and operate in the most efficient ways possible. This can be met with some resistance but examples are increasingly easy to point to. Modern day retail for one heavily depends on AI. From automating delivery routes and predicting buying trends, to improving online conversions through AI-powered website testing, the technology touches more and more points within the path from product creation to consumer purchase.

Read the full interview of Nav Dhunay, founder & CEO at Imaginea Ai on The Digital Enterprise.

Interview with Steve Andriole, Professor at Villanova University

In this interview, Steve Andriole, Thomas G. Labrecque Professor at Villanova University elaborates on the major drivers for digital transformation – fear and failure, the necessity to ‘see’  and uncover inefficiencies and how existing tech infrastructures may actually impede DX. Steve is the Thomas G. Labrecque Professor of Business Technology in the Villanova School of Business at Villanova University where he teaches strategic technology, innovation and entrepreneurialism. He is also the author/co-author/editor of 35 books on information technology, technology trends and business technology management.

Question : Tell us a little about your business and your specific role?

Answer From Steve Andriole : I am a professor in the Villanova School of Business at Villanova University where I research and teach emerging business technology and digital transformation. I have also helped companies, government organizations and even universities adopt emerging technology to transform their business processes and whole business models. I have worked in industry as a Chief Technology Officer and a Chief Information Officer, and have consulted with companies, government organizations and universities whose business processes and business models need emerging digital technologies to stay competitive.

Question : What is the typical nature of challenges you encounter from enterprises looking to move the needle on digital transformation?

Answer From Steve Andriole : The most powerful motivation (to engage in digital transformation projects I’ve encountered) is fear. Many companies and organizations see digital technology as a weapon that can be used against them – or by them – to capture market share. But the same companies and government organizations are usually constrained by organizational change, cost and challenges integrating new technologies into existing (and resistant) technology architectures and infrastructures: many companies and organizations are constrained by massive investments in “older” technologies architectures and infrastructures, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and other applications that are decades old.

Digital transformation is by nature disruptive and many companies, government organizations and universities are intimidated by change on any level, especially change that requires new investments and re-engineered business processes. There’s also often a lack of knowledge about emerging technologies – like AI, RPA, distributed ledger technology, Regtech, cryptocurrency, virtual/augmented reality and even IOT. When combined with only a modest modeling of existing business processes, the lack of knowledge about emerging technologies places many companies at major competitive risk – even if they fail to understand the nature or severity of the risk.

Question : Using technology to effect transformation usually starts with a transformation of beliefs and mindsets. How do you consult clients and help them make that important shift in mindset to move ahead on a particular project or implementation?

Answer From Steve Andriole : My approach generally begins with opportunity costs – what organizations are losing by failing to adopt new technologies. Yes, I deliberately leverage the “fear card” because it’s effective:

Once they’re scared enough, the “pitch” shifts to opportunity gains with preliminary transformation ROI models. All of that said, if the key decision-makers suffer from a severe case of “if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t fix-it” the fear/opportunity approach will fail. So the “best” opportunities for digital transformation ironically often come from the most distressed companies and organizations.

Read the full interview of Steve Andriole, Professor at Villanova University on The Digital Enterprise.