An Indian origin technocrat working in Qatar Islamic Bank, has won the CIO of the year award at the MEFTECH
Innovation Awards 2016. Details of Gopi Krishnan’s achievements
Indian origin Gopi Krishnan, chief information officer/chief digital officer at Qatar Islamic Bank, has won the CIO of the year award at the MEFTECH Innovation Awards 2016 held in Abu Dhabi to recognize the innovations by MENA-based financial institutions during the last two years.
Gopi Krishnan, a seasoned banking & technology professional with successful track record of spearheading technology and business transformations for the past 19+ years, has won the award for his leadership role (40%) for efficiency and innovation (30%) and for improvement and growth (30%).
In deciding on Gopi Krishnan for the award, the jury considered that in 2015, under his guidance, the bank’s ‘IT 2.0’ has brought about sweeping changes in the Group IT structure from People, Process and Technology perspectives aimed at group synergy, solid enterprise architecture, cost rationalization, control improvements and customer satisfaction. “Envisioning in providing the best in class technology services to its internal and external customers, Krish has successfully spurred IT in multiple technology initiatives to keep pace with the rapid technology advancements in the banking and financial services space,” the bank’s explanation said.
REVAMP
With him at the helm, the bank has successfully undergone a transformation program (iCAN) which included a complete revamp of its IT infrastructure landscape, migrating into a new core banking platform and consolidating various legacy systems, and the program which went live in February 2016 has enabled the bank to improve time to market of innovative products; uplift the quality of customer service; enhance and largely automate operational processes. Spanning across more than 30 vendors engaged in this program with ~ 145 resources onsite in addition to offshore resources, the program has been the biggest transformation initiatives in the bank’s history.
INTEGRATED STRATEGY
He has also put in place an integrated IT strategy for group entities; post-merger consolidation of Asian Finance House (AFH) and managed Group IT on a shared services model moving towards IT as a profit-center. He is also leading the 3-year digital transformation journey within the group using mobility, social media, data analytics and cloud technologies to catapult the ‘QIB Banking Experience’ to the next level and to become the ‘Most Technologically Advanced Bank’ in Qatar.
In recognizing his efficiency and innovation, it was pointed out that QIB ‘IT 2.0’ under Krish has been a culmination of multitude of technology deliverables and these initiatives have also served to bring about new capabilities to the bank’s IT infrastructure in terms of agility, resiliency, scalability and supportability. Continued investment in the digital space and implementing new / upgrading existing satellite systems has further enhanced the ‘QIB Banking Customer Experience’, the filing said. The bank said the iCAN program which went live in Feb 2016 has not been just another core banking transformation, it has helped develop the bank’s employees’ capabilities, performance and knowledge and broaden their banking expertise and acquire new skills by developing their current mode of operation and implementing new banking processes and procedures in accordance with the highest banking standards adopted by leading international and regional banks.
PROJECTS DONE
Other IT and business projects under the ambit of QIB ‘IT 2.0’ included the implementation of IP telephony, anti-skimming on ATMs, a second SMS gateway with Vodafone for high availability / improved performance, redundant internet link for high availability, a mailer system to automate the cards packaging process, PayGate for automating the SWIFT message search, archival and reporting, Customer Complaints Management System (CCMS), revamping of QIB website and intranet, Operational Risk Management System (ORMS) – phase 1 and set up of group-wide video conferencing facility.
The bank claimed his contribution towards improvement and growth resulted in the creation of a number of IT processes based on ITIL Best Practices Framework. Eighteen existing IT Policies have been revisited and updated, while 25 new policies have been developed in 2015. In the Risk Management space, a comprehensive Current State Assessment (CSA) exercise was conducted by the IT team internally. The exercise involved examining the bank’s IT landscape to identify the risks / issues, recommend corrective / preventive action, estimate efforts / cost associated with these actions, target resolution dates and ownership. The CSA findings along with those of internal audits, external audits, operational risk RCA reports and IT incident reports were logged in an IT Risk Register for proper tracking and closure.
MANUAL EFFORTS
The bank also said ‘IT2.0’ under the guidance of Krish has eliminated significant manual efforts imbibing principles of ‘doing better, faster and cheaper’. These technology initiatives have also resulted in enhanced and pro-active levels of deliverables and substantially eliminated the inherent ‘fire-fighting’ and reactive approach. He has also contributed to revenue increase by implementing many technology led initiatives in alternative channels, personal, wholesale, SME, treasury and wealth management divisions.
