Ranga Reddy, Global CEO - Maveric Systems on Scaling New Heights in Digital Banking

The Hans India reached out to the CEO of Maveric Systems, Ranga Reddy, or Ranga, as he is fondly known, was among the first to notice the emergence of independent testing and assurance services as a fast-growing niche area that allowed for a differentiated service offering in analready overcrowded IT services space. With 20 years of banking focus, Maveric Systems now has its global presence across 10 countries and 3 continents, specializing in 4 key business units - Data, Digital, Core & Quality Engineering; talking about this, he shared his views on 'Expansion in business units across geographies.'

All About Ranga Reddy - Global CEO, Maveric Systems

Starting as a management consultant, over 15 years, he worked with organizations like World Bank, American Express, Reckitt and Coleman, Arthur Andersen, Ernst & Young, Polaris Software, AT Kearney, NDDB, and the Government of India, across the areas of business strategy, people management, change management and transformational leadership.

Ranga formed Maveric Systems in 2000 – a BankTech specialist, driving technology transformation initiatives of global/regional banking leaders and Fintechs. Since its inception, he has been sharply focused on building an organization committed to customer success and steeped in a culture of adventure and learning with the freedom to learn from exceptional leaders, experiment, and constantly innovate as a way of life. His efforts have made Maveric the tech partner of choice for various banking leaders across Europe, the Middle East, and APAC regions, with Expansion across Continental Europe and the US in progress. Maveric is strongly recognized for its banking credentials and differentiated talent with layered competency – banking domain and tech specialization supported by a culture of commitment.

He is an avid adventure sports follower. Several employee engagement practices, such as the annual walkathon where more than 100 associates walk for 100 kilometres, the annual expedition where every six months, 15 associates are taken on an exploratory trip of Himalayan ranges where they are given one-on-one mentorship, are conceptualized by him.

Please introduce Maveric Systems to our readers...

Since 2000, Maveric Systems is a niche, domain-led, BankTech specialist that partners with global banks to solve their business challenges through emerging technology. Our 3000+ technology specialists and proven frameworks help our customers navigate a rapidly changing environment, enabling sharper definitions of their goals and measures to achieve them. An unsullied track record of playing a pivotal role in 65+ banking transformation engagements is a true validation of our success.

Over the past four years, we have exponentially scaled our partnership with 4 of the global top 10 banks and multiple regional banking leaders through high-demand tech services across data, digital, core transformation as well as quality engineering. Our Customer Intimacy Model, driven by insight, multi-layered engagement, and relentless focus on delivery impact, has created strong customer trust and helped scale the team from 900 to 3000+ associates. Differentiated talent with layered competency – deep domain and emerging tech leadership, supported by a culture of ownership, energy, and commitment to customer success, further sets us apart from other industry players.

Our global presence spans 15 countries with regional delivery capabilities in Bangalore, Chennai, Dubai, London, Poland, Pune, Riyadh, and Singapore. IDC has recognized Maveric among the Top 100 in the IDC financial insights fintech rankings. Furthermore, the Everest group featured us in the 2021 PEAK Matrix assessment for global banking applications and digital services. In addition, we have received multiple recognitions from several industry associations, some of which include Best Banking Transformation.

Partner Europe 2021 by Global Banking & Finance Awards®, Best Open Banking and API Solutions Provider 2021 by MEA Finance, and winner of IBS Intelligence Global Fintech Innovation Awards.

Maveric Systems:

Mission and Vision By 2025, we aim to be recognized as the top 3 BankTech solutions specialist transforming digital ecosystems of retail banking, corporate banking, and wealth management areas by - Gaining leadership through ecosystem-led, proven solutions for CXO challenges in the areas of customer experience, digital operations, connected core, and regulatory compliance. - Becoming a technology partner of choice to 7 of the top 15 global banks and 15 of top 50 regional banks and select Fintechs. - Further invigorating our delivery model, talent nurturing process, and customer-centric culture assures heightened customer mindshare and builds competitive differentiation.

How many associates are Maveric Systems planning to hire?

We are looking to hire 1200+ associates over the next 12 months to help with our growth journey. In March, we started with about 2,000 people (only delivery team), and we are likely to end up with 3,200 employees by March 2022. We are looking to hire associates across Chennai, Bengaluru, and Pune.

What's the primary focus of our hiring strategy, and where do they plan to grow?

Maveric's hiring strategy is focused on two fronts. The first one aims to expand the organization's capabilities across high-demand tech services in digital, data, core banking, and quality engineering. The organization is looking at meeting the hiring needs by focusing on Bengaluru, Chennai, and Pune as key locations.

Secondly, in line with strengthening banking technology expertise across the focus streams of customer experience, digital operations, connected core, and regulatory compliance, Maveric is also looking for leaders who are masters in building ecosystem-led, breakthrough business solutions for solving CXO challenges across these areas. In addition, Maveric is also looking for leaders with expertise in delivering impactful initiatives/engagements across the digital ecosystem value chain in retail banking, corporate banking, and wealth management.

Which all key verticals do Maveric Systems plan to strengthen?

When compared to a strategy involved in expanding coverage across verticals, our focus has always been on being narrow and deep – building deep capabilities in banking. Since inception, we have been focused on driving transformation needs across retail banking, corporate banking, and wealth management. In addition, we now focus on creating ecosystem-led breakthrough business solutions across customer experience, digital operations, regulatory compliance, connected core, and cloud enablement.

Customer Experience: Helping clients deliver personalized consumer experiences via engagement-led solutions in the face of industry disruption. Formidable strategies and approaches recommended by Maveric specialists will engineer customer experience journeys across the lifecycle of customer acquisition, onboarding, continuous engagement, and retention.

Digital Operations: Leveraging a suite of next-gen technology, platforms, digital lab, proprietary tools, and industry-proven approaches to automate operations, streamline processes, and enhance security at every step.

Regulatory Compliance: Improving regulatory report submissions by reducing the data management burden of companies. Maveric aims to rethink data architecture, centralize reporting, and enhance RegTech capabilities to help banks stay compliant.

Connected Core: Driving services across the entire lifecycle of core banking systems across consulting, implementation, migration, development, and support.

Cloud Enablement: Creating an agile and scalable cloud infrastructure that empowers banks to rapidly innovate and adopt technologies around customer journeys and digital channels. This will entail robust methods and best-of-breed approaches for seamless cloud migration.

What's the next-gen bank tech transformation in the IT Industry looking like?

Faced with evolving customer desires, emerging technologies, and innovative business models, banks will need to start designing strategies to help them prepare for future banking. Customers' banking expectations have risen as technology has advanced, thanks in part to the instant and personalized services provided by leading Fintechs. They have demonstrated what is possible and the importance of having a digital strategy for all banks that can be executed nimbly. Providing a frictionless, hyper-personalized customer experience, irrespective of channels and modes of access, would be paramount. For achieving this, several technology initiatives not restricting to AI, ML, analytics, cloud architecture, etc., would need to be deployed. Equally important is using analytics to improve customer acquisition and retention and reengineering front, back, and middle office operations through new-age technologies.

The advanced digital changes, accelerated by COVID-19, will also assist banks in dealing with the more challenging operating environment brought about by the pandemic. It will be a critical step toward increasing profitability and returns in the sector in the long run.

What is your opinion about the pandemic's impact on the Indian economy?

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on India has mainly been disruptive in terms of economic activity and human life loss. Almost all sectors have suffered as domestic demand and exports have plummeted, with a few notable exceptions where high growth has been observed. The pandemic remains a health and humanitarian crisis, with far-reaching business and economic consequences.

Financial services firms can assist consumers and businesses in weathering the current economic downturn. Banks in India have prioritized the retention of critical staff at branches while temporarily redeploying staff to handle customer inquiries via phone or online. They've also installed mobile ATMs and implemented doorstep banking for senior citizens and other customers who require extra assistance. COVID-19 will influence our actions as customers, citizens, and employees in India and worldwide. As people become more concerned with their health, industries will need to understand how they can become a part of this new health ecosystem that will likely monopolize customer thinking in the future.

How did Maveric Systems thrive under the pandemic?

Adapting quickly in an unforeseen state is the biggest lesson out of Pandemic. And digital technology has played a vital role in this entire phase. I am sure everyone agrees to this. For Maveric, the first and foremost priority was to find an optimum balance between associates' wellbeing and managing client's project delivery. As an organization that believes in staunch delivery commitment, we could crack this code concisely with a highly differentiated approach.

Our internal IT teams made every arrangement for our associates to connect and collaborate seamlessly from their remote distributed locations. We ensured our governance processes were streamlined to monitor our delivery progress closely. This provided a comprehensive level of project transparency across the board. HR teams and leaders advocated supporting and monitoring their teams through constant communication on associates' wellbeing.

Our business continuity plans (BCP) were designed to adapt, reflect and improvise constantly; this cyclic approach worked in tandem by keeping the customers' and employees' interests at heart in all the planning and decision-making scenarios. This worked in our favour to quickly adjust to the changing environment, making it easy for us to implement several protocols across our daily processes with seamless governance.

Functions such as HR & recruitment, learning & development, etc., had to remodel their approach. Virtual hiring and onboarding saw great success, followed by continuous e-learning programs introduced by L&D teams. All of this was made possible through digital technology.

Throw some light on "Talent Strategy," the key to developing employees' capabilities and resilience.

Collaborate, communicate, and connect; these three terms have been monumental when it comes to scaling the productivity of employees or even leaders, for that matter. The pandemic has created profound and immediate changes to how societies operate and how individuals interact and work. Technology has helped us connect with them better, be available for them around the clock, and closely monitor their wellbeing. This way, working from anywhere has become a terminology. Organizations adapting to this change show their flexibility quotient without losing sight of their cultural fabric.

Continuous learning is key to developing employee capabilities. With the speed of technology change, employees must be eager to adopt self-learning and learning by choice with a clear goal in mind. This is also the principle behind our Hire and Nurture initiative. We onboard talent with potential and interest around a specific area and nurture them with carefully curated learning programs for mastery in their chosen field.

What is your success mantra?

Being focused on a single stream and building mastery around it has been key to our success. Our focus on the banking domain and building capabilities and competencies for driving banking technology transformation has enabled us to be the partner of choice for various global and regional banking leaders. Since inception, our mantra has been narrow and deep instead of broad and superficial.

We have always been focused on building a fun-loving, energetic community of individuals with a culture of adventure and learning. Having the freedom to learn, make mistakes, and innovate simultaneously, access collective organizational wisdom imparted by exceptional leaders who have traversed the path has helped us differentiate the talent we bring to every engagement. Our customers appreciate our differentiated talent with layered competency – banking domain and tech specialization supported by a culture of commitment.