Is software-as-a-service the way ahead for the BFSI sector?

Ajay Vernekar, CIO, SBI Life Insurance

We've seen the insurance industry getting revolutionised with the SaaS throughout the past decade. I've seen this myself as I've experienced the developments and digital transformations that have happened at speed. I would be comfortable to say that the SaaS offerings that we have received from various software companies have been truly instrumental in enabling and powering our digital transformations across organisations. So, I look forward, and I'm really hoping these solutions will growing exponentially, serving our customer expectations and our growth stories supported by these SaaS offerings by large organisations.

Dr Ravi Duvvuru, Founder & Designated Director, Duvvuru & Reddy LLP & Member, Advisory Group of the Regulatory Review Authority set up by the RBI

I think there is no option because with the complexity which is happening and the way the regulatory framework is going on, and the obligations on the regulated entity. You need to have solutions like this so that you are fast, flexible, accurate and process data in a manner which your stakeholders would want you to. There's no option. You have to go for a SaaS solution.

Vijayant Rai, Executive Director – BFSI, Microsoft India

If you look at Microsoft, we are a very large SaaS provider, so we have a ringside view of how it's being consumed. We look at 5 or 6 things. How could financial services organisations increase or improve their customer engagement and the customer experience side of things? How could they empower their employees? How could they improve productivity? And then also at aspects like automation, modernisation, and how do they manage with security and compliance? And SaaS is at the front and centre of that. So today, if you look at employee productivity, what you would find is essentially SaaS platforms that empower that will become far more potent in the days to come, with things like AI being infused into it. 

Anand Raisinghani, Vice President & Head, Professional Services, BFSI, Telecom & Media, SAP India

Warren Buffett correctly said: ''Reputation is everything, it takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.” And if you think about that, you'll do things differently. It's very important to understand that when we talk about a regulated industry like financial services, there is a significant onus that's left to all customers, all the service providers who are endowed with maintaining that level of trust and security to the common citizen. There is no doubt that the pace of innovation that is warranted can only come when you leverage technologies that are offered on the cloud as a platform. I genuinely believe that from a segment standpoint, there is always going to be an oversight that's going to come into play in terms of the cost of maintaining the level of security and transparency that is owed to the end customers.

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