BitDepth #1364

Mark Lyndersay

NEWSDAY · BitDepth1364 Narration

ON JULY 6, Amcham, the American Chamber of Commerce in TT, held the fourth edition of its Tech Hub Islands Summit (THIS).

Republic Bank executive director Derwin Howell proudly announced that the bank would support the summit as title sponsor for another three years.

Ten hours into recordings into the event, I am struck by how familiar it all is.

The local players tend not to change much. There is a dogged corps of people pushing for action on digital transformation.

The imported players rotate, though there is a startling similarity in their messages.

They outline their experiences, chart their difficulties, explain the solutions (not all work) and urge attendees to get started.

It's been four years since I last saw someone from Estonia explaining the advantages of a digital identity and a single encrypted ID card (https://bit.ly/3aUgAzO) outlining the magic of having your personal information authenticate your presence everywhere from an emergency ward to the supermarket.

Both Public Administration Minister Allyson West and Deputy National Chief Digital Officer, National ICT Wayne Nakhid echoed those concepts of cradle to grave digital identification and the associated benefits using the 'pregnant woman having her first baby' trope.

Given the resonance of all the echoes reverbrating through the decades (Here's one from 2008: https://bit.ly/3v6lyjV), Amcham's CEO Nirad Tiwarie and president Toni Sirju-Ramnarine should seriously consider ending these talk shops that go on for days and turn THIS into a do-shop.

"We've been talking about this for too long," Nakhid said.

"The same conversations I'm having now are the same conversations I was having 25 years ago."

When the Deputy National Chief Digital Officer laments the recursiveness of digital transformation conversations, it's time to take note.

Two speakers made me sit up from a disinterested slouch at my workstation and they were talking about quite different subjects, fete tickets and insurance.

Naresh Mongroo, Group Chief Data Officer of Guardian Holdings, offered up frank explanations of his experiences bringing technology change to the company.

Mongroo's blunt words couldn't have been further from his presence. Almost painfully shy, he'd look at the ground and wring his hands while telling this remarkable story.

"You can't slap a transformation programme over your legacy system," he said.

"You have to create a foundation."

Mongroo acknowledged that Guardian Holdings underestimated the level of digital literacy in the organisation.

"You want drivers to lead the digital transformation," he said, "not passengers."

"We have employees who feel that they are part of the company now and yes, we have employees who do not feel that way."

"We want to become a technology company, and we are creating and destroying our current organisation to create an organisational model to reflect that. If you don't use data to drive your decisions, you wont monetise your inve