'Digital Scaling Is About Deriving Physical, Hybrid And Digital Channels To Customers'

The BW CIO Imperatives sheds light on the scalability of digital banking and the process of acquiring customers which were explained in detail by Parag Rao, Country Head-Payments Business and Marketing - HDFC Bank.

He further said, "It's not about creating digital channels for customers but to derive physical, hybrid and digital channels to them."

He further explains that the entire banking industry is learning and adapting to digitisation and HDFC Bank is still channelizing the components of digital banking.

"The only thing I know is that customers are adapting to digital banking and that has forced us to adapt to the revolution."

Parag further explained the pillars of driving the digital strategy and understanding the customer mindset. Data Foundation, decisions, design and distribution are important to understand the customers in the digital environment.

At the event, he also mentions the advantages of deriving the pillars by stating some fact figures. He said,"We got a 40 per cent increment in acquiring customers by understanding the data and providing the right product for the right type of customer."

The amenities to set out in digital banking explained by Parag include Reliable vendors, strong operational capabilities and effective marketing. He also states that HDFC has added digital channels to the physical channels in order to attract more customers and provide them with more options to transact with daily.

He further added, "We use conventional channels to transact daily and if we have to adapt to digitisation then the power of demonstration is extremely important."

Parag Rao also spoke about the Information Technology infrastructure at HDFC Bank and the developments made in order to scale the customer base. He said, "The base layer of I.T. infrastructure was provided with a digital layer which sharpened the existing capabilities at HDFC Bank to acquire 35 Million odd customers."

The BW CIO Imperatives event hosted at the ITC Grand Central on the 20th of July, 2017 provided insights on digital banking and the scalability of the evolution.