Having completed his MS from University of Texas and MBA in Technical Management from University of Phoenix, Deepak is a seasoned industry professional with close to three decades of experience in diverse business functions. He joined Pegasystems in 2020, prior to which he has successfully handled managerial across diverse companies such as NetApp, EMC Corporation, i2 Technologies and Adobe, to name a few.

In Conversation with Charulatha, Correspondent, Silicon india. Deepak shared his insights on the current digital transformation landscape, technology disruptions and various other aspects. Below are the excerpts from the exclusive interview

What is the ideal approach for an organization to handle security flaws created by shadow IT and other overlooked threats?
Managing shadow IT is a very daunting task for many organizations. Dealing with security flaws that are created by shadow IT requires a proactive approach from the organization. Few things that businesses can do to address these challenges is by creating awareness among the employees about risks and implications of shadow IT and making them understand that cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility and not just that of the IT teams. Also, strong emphasis must be laid across the organization regarding the importance of following the approved IT practices and immediately reporting any suspicious matters.

Organizations must also establish comprehensive IT security policies and make sure the employees understand the consequences of violating those policies

Organizations must also establish comprehensive IT security policies and make sure the employees understand the consequences of violating those policies. This way, employees get a clear understanding of the adverse effects of using unauthorized technology. Also, companies need to restrict the usage of open source codes within the organization. Furthermore, companies need to constantly monitor their infrastructure and network activity, implementing network monitoring tools to identify any unauthorized applications on the network and provide visibility to the shadow IT activities. Lastly, having an efficient incident response plan and conducting regular security audits and vulnerability assessment & threat penetration tests also go a long way in enabling the organization stay way of any potential cyber threats.

How can citizen developers leveraging minimal code to improve process efficiencies in an organization?
Citizen developers are individuals within an organization who possess domain expertise, but do not have any formal qualification in that area. These developers use low-code/no-code platforms to create applications that automate workflows and enhance process efficiency even without any coding knowledge. Citizen developers have an innate ability to understand both IT and business process, thus enabling to quickly identify problems and develop efficient solutions that meet organization’s need without taking-up additional IT resources. Citizen development empowers business users to play an active role in the application development process from a business perspective. Lastly, it encourages collaboration between business users who bring-in that domain knowledge, IT teams that bring-in the tech expertise, and citizen developers who build anything that the business users require. This collective approach promotes a cross-functional collaboration, thus resulting in a significant decrease in application development times. Hence, it is no doubt that citizen developers have a significant role to play in improving an organization’s process efficiency.

How is AI driving digital transformation and adding value across an organization?
AI is making massive strides in today’s business world and is expected to add over $500 billion to the global economy by 2025. AI increases process efficiency, improve customer experience and finally result in an enhanced revenue generation. AI technology has created a huge revolution across all verticals in terms of making things easier for customers and efficient for the companies. With the emergence of new sub segments such as Generative AI, the entire landscape of AI itself has undergone a thorough metamorphosis in recent times. This has resulted in a complete change in the way people approach digital transformation. Today, AI powered tools & systems are capable of automating any routine task with ease. On the other hand, AI algorithms can analyze large volumes of data to provide meaningful insights that enable businesses to make uniformed decisions.

Tell us about the importance of strategic & operational excellence leadership in an organization’s digital transformation efforts.
Strategic and operational excellence leadership is crucial to drive successful digital transformation in an organization. This involves developing & implementing strategies that align with the organization’s goals, optimize various functions and leverage digital technologies to ultimately achieve efficiency, innovation and growth. Since the pandemic, organizations across all industries have embraced digital transformation like never before in order to accelerate their business goals & aspirations. Most companies take a hybrid approach to digital transformation through investments in open and extensible architecture that can be integrated easily with the already existing infrastructure setup. Thus, a clear vision & strategy, leadership commitment, customer-centric approach, agile methodology and data-driven decision making are some of the key traits an organization must inculcate to achieve an effective digital transformation.

How do low-code platforms simplify installing security patches and help businesses secure their data?
Low code platforms prioritize security as a fundamental aspect of their architecture. This also includes data encryption, role-based access, secure authentication mechanism & communication channels, and many other features. This helps prevent any unauthorized access to sensitive data. Also, low-code platforms significantly reduce the time-to-market by easing the compliance and governance process for an organization. Furthermore, low-code platforms offer a wide scope for quality assurance and testing, thus enabling the organizations to maintain quality standards at par with the industry norms.