Digital Transformation as an Equaliser in the Post-Pandemic Era
Sumanta Roy
Vice President and Regional Head – Middle East, Africa, and the Mediterranean, TCS
The ABLF Talks | The ABLF City | August 10, 2021
Speaker Introduction
Sumanta Roy is a leading voice in inclusive digital transformation, bringing nearly three decades of experience across industries and geographies to his role at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Based in Dubai, he has partnered with governments, financial institutions, telecommunications operators, and retailers to drive cloud adoption, streamline operations, and enable digital service delivery. Mr Roy’s vision places people at the heart of digitalisation, ensuring that technology, processes, and talent evolve together to create lasting impact. A strong advocate of localisation and women’s empowerment, he spearheaded TCS’s all-women delivery centre in Riyadh, which employs over 800 women, the majority of whom are Saudi nationals.
Moderator: Eithne Treanor, Founder and CEO, E Treanor Media
Date: August 10, 2021
Prepared by: The ABLF Research Council
Event: The ABLF Talks, hosted virtually at the ABLF City
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Executive Summary
At a pivotal ABLF Talks Live session, Sumanta Roy framed the COVID-19 pandemic as a global inflection point for digital transformation. Organisations with established digital infrastructures adapted quickly, while others condensed multi-year strategies into months. Mr Roy emphasised that digitalisation is not just about technology, it requires cultural change, workforce training, and systemic redesign. He identified three persistent barriers to inclusion: limited infrastructure in underserved areas, inadequate identification systems, and low financial literacy. Drawing from TCS’s work in the Middle East and Africa, he offered practical pathways to bridge these divides through cloud-based service delivery, targeted digital learning, and cross-sector collaboration. He also called for dismantling legacy systems, building end-to-end digital customer journeys, and leveraging innovation ecosystems such as fintech and open banking to accelerate transformation. His example of TCS’s Riyadh delivery centre illustrated how corporate initiatives can align commercial success with social progress.
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The ABLF Insightfolio features researched, knowledge-led whitepapers that capture the strategic perspectives and insights of Asia’s foremost thinkers, policymakers, business leaders and social scientists.
Derived from the impact-led dialogues at the ABLF Talks, these policy-shaping documents are designed to inform, inspire, and ignite action across all sectors, from inclusive growth and sustainability to innovation and digital transformation.
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