The World Bank Group has a massive mission to “help developing countries escape poverty and share prosperity,” says Vijay Yellai, program manager for enterprise resource planning transformation at the World Bank Group. For example, it provides an wide array of financial products and technical know-how in a complex and ever-changing global setting.
 
Therefore, for an institution like the World Bank Group, which provides funding and resources to countries with low bandwidth and infrastructure, IT modernization is no small feat.
 
“So in an ever-changing environment–complexity, risk, and security threats with a global workforce–the World Bank is under pressure to do more with less,” says Yellai. He explains that the challenge is to increase real-time business, as well as quickly respond to changing needs of customers and employees. But also, Yellai continues, “security, risk, and data are key elements. Not to mention the continuous need for business intelligence and quick decision making.” The ultimate goal is to “capitalize on technology to meet our mission and goals.”
 
And although data collection and processing is key to IT systems, an agile and adaptive approach is needed to keep operational and financial systems current in each business. “Data is very fundamental to that. And data and research help us understand how we are addressing the needs, helps us set up priorities, helps us share knowledge, and helps us measure progress.” Yellai says.
 
With a modernized IT system, Yellai says, there are a number of innovations that become possible. Predictive analytics, natural language processing, blockchain, and process automation are a few of the technologies emerging to allow for quicker decision-making and efficiency.
 
“Anything we can do to reduce the work we need to do in technology, but let the technology do more for us, so we can focus our time on the strategic priorities, will be the most exciting thing for us,” says Yellai.
 
This episode of Business Lab is produced in association with Infosys Cobalt.