Leaders in tech talk digital transformation

As you look ahead, into the future of your organization, there are two outcomes that blatantly stare you in the face: transform or be left behind.

Every leader in an organization understands that change is vital and that data is vital. However, not many understand how to affect that change and become data-driven without the endless meetings, planning and rework.

Even if they know what to do, the next challenge is how to get the “buy-in.” Focusing on the future sets leaders apart but the journey from strategy to execution, and finding the “art of the possible” with the data, can be frustrating.

Tampa Bay Business and Wealth pulled together a group of data and IT professionals to share their experiences, insights and challenges around digital transformation, data enablement and data privacy.

The discussion was moderated by Christopher J. Moyer Sr., president and chief executive officer of SME Solutions Group.

Panelists:

• Jeremiah Lotz , MVP, Digital & Data, PSCU

• Andrew McIntyre, senior vice president for technology and innovation, Tampa Bay Lightning

• Madhavi Othuluru, executive director for technology and operations projects, JPMorganChase

This transcript has been edited for length and brevity.

Forbes said that Tampa has one of the biggest growing technology spaces. Madhavi, what are the current digital transformations within your organization over at JPMorgan?

Othuluru: At this point, COVID[-19] has changed a lot and consumer behavior has changed. We have seen that trend in the market with contactless payments and our clients wanting to keep their money longer, right?

You know ACH is the king of payments, and it still is, but how are we meeting our clients closer? How are we making faster transactions and bringing value to you? How are we producing full suite applications from end-to-end payment solutions?

Payment, essentially, is moving money from one place to the other but what value are we bringing in as a lender, and as a solution provider, to our clients? That’s the trend that’s driving us right now.

I’m going to follow that up with Jeremiah. What are you guys doing to drive digital transformation within your organization?

Lotz: Digital transformation, for us, is we are providing products to thousands of community banks and credit unions. They are products that they use to serve their members, and customers, or that their consumers use directly.

Our products are being distributed to end users, to consumers, through our clients. And so that adds an additional layer of complexity into what we have influence over and what we have the ability to control.

So, for us, that transformation in the digital space is being driven by much of what Madhavi said and what’s happening in this space. From a consumer perspective, it’s being driven by financial institutions focused on how to stay relevant with their clients in this space. And, ultimately, how do we, again to the data component, how do we use the data to create experiences for these end users that create a relevancy for our clients to keep them top of mind for consumers?

Andrew, I’m going to toss it over to you. What do you think are the biggest opportunities presented by digital transformation in your organization?

McIntyre: Digital transformation, for us, is really looking at it through the lens of our various constituent groups. The biggest, and the one that everyone thinks about, is the fan experience. With the experiences that you have from when you arrive to the arena, to finding your seats and to what is your food and beverage experience? All of those pieces are tied into how … we continue to improve and get better.

A key thing that I’ll highlight is that you might have noticed during COVID, we took the opportunity to move towards a cashless arena. That was something that we’ve been debating about for quite some time. That was a big push for us.

We also look at our other constituent groups. Like, what are we doing for our associates? And how are we making sure that the Vinik Sports Group is a great place to work? Whether that’s rolling out new human capital management systems or new rewards, recognition and career development.

Our last piece is our hockey operations group and what are we doing to help our players, our coaches and the team continue to be successful on the ice.

Madhavi, are there opportunities that you’re seeing at JPMorgan with the digital transformation push?

Othuluru: I don’t think it’s an opportunity. It’s what we should be doing right now to stay relevant in the market. We have a lot of [financial technicians] who have siloed focus in payments. JPMorganChase has this huge bank, a huge umbrella, how do we actually make our individual silos provide more value to our customers? I think the one key thing, like I said, is the customers who want end to end solutions like, how do we fund you as a business? And how do we ensure that your clients are getting payment solutions? Or how are we providing solutions to your clients through your platform?

We are now providing the JPMorgan marketplace, just like how you have Amazon Marketplace, where you have the suite of solutions that, for us, we want to be at the beginning of the payment and at the end of the payment, and everything that happens in between. The more we are involved in the client journey, the more profitable. That’s where we are growing and that’s where we want to expand ourselves.

Moving on from digital transformation over to what we refer to as data enablement. Jeremiah, what are some of the data pain points that PSCU is feeling currently? And what are your plans to address them?

Lotz: Data pain points, I think, are really how to take the data and turn it into actionable experiences for the end user. We’ve talked for a very long time about being able to use data to know if I’m planning for retirement or saving for my kids college versus my mother who is not looking for her first home. So presenting the right offer at the right time. But it really is now the expectation.

I think we’re all kind of saying, from a consumer perspective, the expectation is completely different. I know the world is collecting information about me, so use it to my advantage as a consumer and give me a proper experience, give me a beneficial experience.

Andrew, back to you, what are some of the key data enablement strategies that you guys are doing over at Vinik Sports Group? And what would you define as your success criteria factors?

McIntyre: A key area for us, as we look at fan experience is, obviously there’s goals tied to revenue. But the other thing is really focusing on our net promoter scores. And what does the experience look like? Are we making sure everyone is enjoying themselves when they’re at the game? We’re really breaking down every step along the workflow.

Crowd intelligence is a key piece. What that means is monitoring everybody and everywhere. And I know that sounds a little scary, but it is all anonymized data. But it’s really about crowd flow.

Andrew, you talked about crowd intelligence. What can share about what you guys are doing around player and puck intelligence?

McIntyre: There is some really exciting new technology that’s being rolled out across the league in the NHL, it’s called player-in-puck tracking. They’re putting chips in the jerseys as well as the puck itself. And the amount of data that is creating, with regards to looking at player performance, coaching strategies and looking at how you might be able to see the progress of players throughout the entire game is pretty phenomenal.

You’ll see puck speed, you’ll see a time on ice and you’ll see some things of distance traveled. Those are some of the stats that you’ll see coming from this data.

View more photos from the event here.

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