In an exclusive interaction with APAC News Network, Subhamoy Chakraborti, CTO, ABP Group outlines the myriad digital initiatives undertaken and how cloud and change management are beneficial for a media house.
As the CTO of the ABP group, what are your roles and responsibilities in driving the digital transformation of the print media and allied digital businesses?
As a CTO of the overall ABP Group, I take care of the overall IT strategy and digital transformation of the group. This includes IT infrastructure, networks, information security, SAP, digital and analytics.
What are the key digital initiatives undertaken at the ABP group to address the multiple B2B, B2C and B2E platforms launched?
Over the last 5 years, ABP has launched multiple B2C platforms.
- In 2019, we launched in. This is a unique platform, which solves the admission problems, giving a single portal to search for schools, compare, get application forms and make the submission. This has been very successful in East India and now expanding in other geographies.
- In 2020, we launched in. Ananda Publishers is the most popular book publishing house in Kolkata. We have built an e-commerce portal for the customers to buy Ananda Publishers books online.
- In 2021, com was launched which has now become a one-stop portal for Bengali culture. This is now one of the most popular digital platforms, which brings stories, movies, podcasts, news, blogs and many other types of contents in a single platform.
- In 2022, in was launched for the millennial. This brings all the news about entertainment world as well as the latest tit-bits in tech.
- In 2023, we launched our podcast platform friendsdigital.com. With regular releases of podcasts by popular RJs from 91.9 Friends FM, this is a happening place for all the audiophiles.
We also launched multiple B2E products over the last 5 years.
- On the internal side, we had multiple product launches.
- On the internal employee side, we made massive transformation to ease the life of employees. Employee self-service is at the core while planning all these digital interventions. We have taken a mixed approach of in-house and best-of-the-breed solution when it came to solving HRTech.
- On the people side, we created our own performance appraisal platform. We are also using one of the leading vendors for recruitment management solution. These platforms sit on top of SAP.
- On the analytics side, we had taken multiple strides and currently working on predictive side for multiple functions.
From a media perspective, how does the ERP function in that setup and how are the different functions synergized with it?
SAP is at the core of the IT landscape. IS-Media is used at both MSD and MAM side. We are at this moment waiting for direction from SAP on IS-Media porting to S4/HANA.
For classifieds business, we have recently implemented a made-in-India product (AdCraft) which has worked out pretty well.
What has been the policy of ABP group in terms of cloud adoption especially when you need to prioritize agility and speed to market?
We had adopted cloud-first strategy five years back. Our policy has been to take up cloud for B2C products, which require agility and faster time to market. Today it is counterintuitive to plan B2C applications on traditional on-premise setup. We are currently working on modernising the SAP Infra landscape
How does a media group like ABP drive change management and what are the initiatives you have undertaken?
Change management is at the heart of any thriving business. Weare not an exception. Interestingly in my experience of over 21 years in Tech, BFSI and Media industry, I have seen IT to be the change agent in most of the cases, as IT brings new ideas and new possibilities to the table for both the business and the support functions.
Personally I love this part of my job most, as incremental small changes can make a major difference over a significant period of time. I believe that the change agenda must start from the IT team itself. The IT team champions this thought process and the team has been very supportive and flexible in adopting the new realities always. It goes without saying that you would need support from the senior management in such change initiatives, which has always been there for us.
As a media group how are you looking at mitigating challenges arising from new age technologies like deep fake, AI impersonating people and duplicated voices?
It is an evolving scenario right now, though very concerning too. Wider policy level decisions need to be taken to control this menace with punitive measures, while awareness is also important.
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