CIO Academy Asia (CIOAA), a leading community-based platform for senior tech leaders in ASEAN, is pleased to announce the formation of its first ASEAN Digital Transformation Council (ADXC) for the term of 2020-21.

Role of the Council
Since its inception five years ago, CIOAA has constituted a Council of senior technology leaders to guide its thought leadership initiatives and programmes. The objective of the Council is to gather an experienced group of technology leaders to share their best practices; lessons learnt and highlight use cases that can translate to sharing with the rest of the technology community in CIOAA’s regional engagement platforms.

The last Council (chaired by Mr Foong Sew Bun*, the Group Head of Technology Services at DBS Bank) ended its term after a year-long tenure last November.

2020 Council
CIOAA is convening the new 2020 Industry Council at this unprecedented tumultuous period. For the first time, the Council will incorporate senior technology executives not based in Singapore. The inclusion of senior Malaysian, Indonesian and Thai Council members reflects the regional nature of CIOAA more expansive activities across the ASEAN region in the last 24 months. The new Council will be chaired by Mr Arvind Mathur, CIO of Kellogg APAC and the Middle East.

The Council will gather at a critical time when the role of technology is arguably best placed to help governments and businesses in the ASEAN region recover from both the health and economic crises. The region is adjusting to the New Normal of remote working; accelerated acceptance and adoption of technology right across all industry sectors; and the increased attention to AI, analytics and robotics as part of the response to the business challenges. The new Council will play an important role in helping amass a body of knowledge that can help businesses in the region to recover – sharing the best practices in people, processes and technology for successful digital transformation for enterprises in the region.

At its first Council meeting on 3 September, the ADXC members weighed in on a Digital Transformation Framework (attached in Annex A) based on a three-stage developmental model (over 24 months) and critical nine elements necessary for a successful transformation. The Council’s work for this term will hope to yield a practitioner’s insights into many of these elements (e.g., culture, infrastructure, security). It is hoped that these insights can be compiled into a reference toolkit that will enable senior business and technology leaders to operationalise their digitalisation strategies to prosper in a post-Covid environment.

Chairman Arvind Mathur said: “The Covid19 crisis has quickened the pace of digital transformation across all industries. The Council represents a senior group of technology practitioners who are well versed in helping their own organisations meet the challenges of transformation. Leaders are expected to develop new instincts and muscles for running their business digitally. We hope to contribute to the community and chart out a practical framework for digital transformation that leaders in the region can take to thrive in the post-Covid world.”

* Mr Foong was appointed as Chairman when he was Deputy Chief Executive of GovTech Singapore.