Friday Sep 20, 2024
Friday Sep 20, 2024
Wednesday, 12 February 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The amount of data in circulation across the globe is growing exponentially. It is predicted by 2025 that the total amount of data worldwide will be 175 zeta bytes and the only way to physically store this would be on a cloud. On this note, KPMG in Sri Lanka, along with the local partner of Google Cloud Finetech Consultancy Ltd, hosted a breakfast forum at The Kingsbury Colombo for the CIOs of leading corporates in Sri Lanka.
The forum was enriched by guest speakers APAC and Japan Google Cloud Head of Search and AI Diana Britt and KPMG Sri Lanka Director Sashi Dharmadasa.
Setting the tone for the morning with an emphasis on Google’s mission to “Organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, Britt embarked on a conversation on how to transform today’s corporates to be future-ready with the use of Google Cloud.
Britt shared an important thought pointed out by Google’s Project X Lab Head of Moonshots Astro Teller: “10x is easier than 10%”. A 10% improvement is usually achieved by focusing on existing tools and assumptions aimed at incremental improvements. Aiming for a 10x improvement would mean that the focus is more on creativity and bravery that lead to a new paradigm. Such improvements that happen rapidly cause disruption across industries. Google Cloud is the future of data management that is already causing disruption in many countries.
Google Cloud has been deployed across many industries with a promise of delivering high quality results. The uses of Google Cloud have been tested in the real estate sector as a support function for financing, refinancing, underwriting and compliance. Quicken Loans is a leading mortgage lending company headquartered in Michigan, USA, which has incorporated Google Cloud into its operations and seen its transformation with the increasing amounts of data to be managed.
The evaluation of a cloud service needs to happen in one of the two following ways – increase of productivity or reduction of costs. The key decision makers need to commit to this decision as it determines the Return on Investment. As the Partner of the event, KPMG’s value addition to cloud computing was highlighted by Director Sashi Dharmadasa, stating that KPMG in Sri Lanka will provide its expertise on how companies should prepare to incorporate disruptive technologies into operations. With the partnership of KPMG and Finetech Consultancy, KPMG will support entities with the necessary organisation required to deploy technologies such as Google Cloud and enable them to be future-ready.
Dharmadasa also elaborated on the “KPMG Powered Enterprise” – a four-stage model used by KPMG professionals to help entities successfully transition into digitally enabled ones. The KPMG Powered Enterprise will help organisations jump-start their digital transformation journey with a combination of agile functions and industry best practices, helping change the organisation’s attitude towards embracing change and exploiting new technologies.
The pressure will continue to build for corporates as disruption forges ahead in multiple aspects. The cost of incorporating the latest technologies into operations is a major pressure point, as investment could easily become obsolete with the rate of disruption increasing at lightning speeds. Companies may have to change their attitude towards digital transformation and plan their long-term strategy, as the necessary investment is considerable and should not be short-term focused. The workforce will need to be open to learn, relearn and unlearn the ways of operating in newly high-tech environments.
KPMG Sri Lanka’s IT Advisory Division is headed by Priyanka Jayatilake and continues to provide high quality, robust solutions to entities willing to take on the challenge of digital transformation and enabling them to outperform others in their industries.
