Kostas Fiakas, INFORM LYKOS: “We continue to invest and grow in new market segments and new markets geographically”

“Projects Leaders with positive attitude, knowledge of their domain and share of information and intelligence, is the best practice to allow companies moving in positive disruptions.  Since every business has its own goals, it is vital to know what exactly the goals you intend to accomplish in your Digital Journey in order to align priorities and develop a focused plan. We have set a customer centric strategy, in line with our vision and for satisfying the needs of our customers,” Kostas Fiakas, Chief Strategy Officer INFORM LYKOS, told The Diplomat-Bucharest.

What leadership skills do you find most useful in the current changing work environment?

The pandemic brought significant changes and forced circumstances. We at INFORM have adapted to the new era in a well-organized and developed manner. We have set specific workgroups per area, including the needed experts and leaders in order to drive the internal and external, with customers. Projects Leaders with positive attitude, knowledge of their domain and share of information and intelligence, is the best practice to allow companies moving in positive disruptions.  

Which are the empowering mindsets  for building the sense of meaning & purpose, both for employers and employees, to keep each other engaged in reaching the business objectives  in the next year?

I would say that it is a period of analysis of Portfolios and Solutions, giving space for introducing new Solutions and Services. Since every business has its own goals, it is vital to know what exactly the goals are you intend to accomplish in your Digital Journey in order to align priorities and develop a focused plan. We have set a customer centric strategy, in line with our vision and for satisfying the needs of our customers, providing the best quality Solutions and Services, at the most advantageous prices on the market.  

Do you think the pandemic boosted digital transformation evolution to a level that would have reached, without the current context, in a couple of years?

Partly this is true. The level of digital adaptation, not only from country to country, but also from one industry to another, has significant differences, and thus in many cases the aforementioned timeframe is rather short. 

This, of course, has been – quite abruptly – accelerated, leading to a necessity of digitalization to take place within months.  A need that was obvious but it should take some time to be adopted.  Organizations, not just in Romania but globally, rediscovered and redefined their needs so as to be able to operate in the safest way possible in an emerging and world conquering digital transformation.

Inform Lykos is very active in digital transformation area. What are the latest services you provide in this field?

INFORM places its activity in a focused context of Digital Transformation solutions which include Cognitive Automation, Intelligent Chatbot Journeys, Interactive Documents, Know your Customer & Business Solutions including ID Verification, V-Banking, Paperless Branch Concepts including all eSign options, Document Management and eArchiving Solutions. 

Regarding RPA (Robotic Process Automation) area, what are the benefits that such a solution has brought your business customers?

We use Robotic Process Automation (RPA) under Cognitive Automation Concepts, utilizing pre-defined business logic, established rules and structured data to automate business processes like:

§  Applications handling

§  Feeding information to multiple systems

§  Lots of Data intensive work

§  Integrations, mergers, migrations from old systems to new

Software robots can also be implemented to postpone IT investments.  RPA can be a more inexpensive and quicker solution to the same problem. RPA’s competitive advantage comes from its light structure. The high cost and operational impact related to reinventing badly integrated IT can be avoided.

Hence the Benefits RPA has brought to our business customers, among others, are:

• Cost reduction
• Greater accuracy, near 100% accuracy and exceptions handling
• Delivery speed, Cost Savings and Fast ROI, intuitive, code-free interface that makes programming robots fast and easy
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Empowered employees do what they do best – solving problems, improving processes
• Greater productivity i.e. It can handle document-intensive work seamlessly
• Integration with multiple platforms
• Scalability and AI enablement

Also, what improvements can we expect in the next period in this direction?

It is important that we continue to invest and grow in new activities, market segments as well as in new markets geographically.

We have recently launched new Solutions, like the Paperless Branch and V-Banking, but the most important for our customers is the integration capabilities we could provide them with other solutions like: Intelligent Document Understanding through Powerful AI OCR engines, eSign Platforms etc.  All our focus has been placed upon meaningful digital transformation Solutions, which can provide an actual competitive advantage to our customers.

What should be a leader’s power message on business resilience conveyed to peers, partners, and employees  for 2021, in order to enhance the trust and engagement?

Starting with, I would like to mention that one of the most important aspects at INFORM is to make sure that all colleagues are working under safe conditions. Taking it further, leaders need to understand what inspires and motivates their colleagues.

There is a wide range of motivational models that can be adopted. It is no longer a secret that Motivation is seen as a necessity for increased productivity and for creating a positive environment. Recognizing the efforts, maintaining transparency in decisions, consulting them on certain project decisions, benefits from satisfactory results, are just a few directions for great functioning working environment and healthy relationships.