Nilupa Kiringoda, Senior Director Delivery, Sysco LABS Sri Lanka, the captive innovation centre for Sysco Corporation, the global leader in foodservice, shared perspectives and insights on digital transformation in the post-pandemic era during the inaugural Spectrum 2022 forum, held virtually and organised by the Economic Times of India, recently.

Spectrum 2022 Sri Lanka edition was centred around the theme ‘Digitally Inclusive: Economic Resurgence’ bringing together more than 30 international and high-profile keynote speakers and over 500 delegates generating new ideas through provoking conversations and debates. Sysco LABS sponsored the forum in the capacity of ‘powered-by’ partner.

Kiringoda was amongst a prestigious panel of speakers from Sri Lanka. He shared insights on the topic ‘The Post-Pandemic Digital Enterprise’: a pressing issue faced by many companies in the wake of the pandemic. His presentation focused mainly on digital transformation in the post-pandemic world, its challenges, trends and future technology.

Addressing the participants, he further noted that digital transformation was a substantial initiative although executing a digital transformation strategy is easier said than done. Moreover, despite most companies recognising it as a crucial initiative, only a handful have been successful in a full 
end-to-end implemented. 

Discussing the obstacles faced in the journey towards digital transformation, he listed as main factors the lack of vision, resistance to change, companies being bound by legacy technology and an inflexible 
organisation structure.  

Commenting on technology trends of the future he said, “Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, everything as a service, internet of things (IoT), data analytics and customer data platforms are among the top digital trends. Especially IoT since it provides data and AI, which powers responses. AI-embedded IoT simulates intelligent behaviour and supports decision-making with minimum human interaction, demonstrating the power of digital transformation. It is never too late to consider a digital transformation project.”  

As the world evolves to embrace digitalisation as the norm in the post-pandemic era, Spectrum Sri Lanka 2022 was a unique virtual summit that delivered deep insights addressing the most pressing issues in building an inclusive digital charter to help transform Sri Lanka into a smart economy. 

The summit covered both policy and technology aspects in equal measure and was beneficial to public and private businesses in laying the foundation towards driving digital transformation and reaping the advantages of post-pandemic growth economy.