Share This Article
Digital ring will be an “arena” where well-established companies and new entrants will debate (and not fight) on how to succeed in the technological revolution.
Update – The event took place and you can read the “Top 5 takeaways on digital transformation from DLA Piper Digital Ring“
The DLA Piper Digital Ring and its goal
As published in a previous blog post available HERE, my law firm DLA Piper arranged for the 15th of October 2018 an event named “Digital Ring” at the Milan Stock Exchange together with the largest Italian newspaper.
The goal of the event is to have in a format similar to a political face-to-face debate between candidates for the success in a political campaign, the debate – or better the digital ring – between well-established and “traditional” companies and new entrants that are meant to disrupt the market rules.
Below is an outline of each of the sessions and some insights on the topics that might be covered:
Finance, Bank vs Fintech
There is no doubt that the banking sector is the one that might face the most relevant changes in the coming years. Regulations like the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) oblige banks open up their APIs to service providers which led to the growth of competition from companies that used to operate in completely different markets.
This is the case of Alipay that is the payment harm of Alibaba that will debate in the DLA Piper digital ring with Intesa Sanpaolo that is one of the largest Italian banks which is not just adopting a “wait and see” strategy, but is considerably investing in innovation.
The debate is not only in the payment industry though, and Moneyfarm is a major example of how value added services supported by a strong technological background can replace traditional services and reach a much broader audience. Are we turning to a “bank of things” model of business?
Bank and Insurance Companies: The unexplored value of data and their exploitation
Data is commonly defined as “the oil of the future“, but less than 1% of collected data is actually exploited. There is a rush to collect as much data as possible, but not many companies have a long term strategy to turn such data in services for customers and additional values for them. At the same time, banks and insurance companies are aware that they cannot miss this opportunity, otherwise it will be too late.
In this context, Octo Telematics had a major role in supporting the innovation of the insurance sector through their telematics technologies. But there are companies like Generali that decided to create a company dedicated to Internet of Things and Connected Insurance services through Generali Jeniot.
The question is whether such companies are ready to change their model of business to embrace innovation. And Microsoft will be able to give us an overview of where other jurisdictions are heading and what we should expect in the coming years.
Also, we will discuss on whether stringent European rules like the GDPR represent an obstacle towards innovation or they can be seen as an enhancer of trust which will be speed up the process of adoption of these technologies.
Turism: Major hotel chains vs IT platforms
The hospitality sector was been traditional for centuries and is now facing fast technological disruption. Companies like Booking.com first and more recently Airbnb foster hotel chains like Starhotels to change their model of business. There is no doubt that these new players increased the level of competition, but the issue is around what shall be done by hotel chains to react.
The increase of the level of services which is also supported by technological innovation might represent a major route, also because the collection of more information about your guests allows to offer considerable value added services that are tailored on their needs. But this means that hotel chains will have to compete with IT platforms in their field, as they will have to do during the DLA Piper digital ring.
At the same time, this is a very litigious field where regulators might play a considerable role. But the hope is that the end result will be the growth of the whole market.
e-Commerce: the new routes of the sales and brand protection
e-Commerce is a “must have” channel of distribution for any major brand nowadays. And we will discuss the topic with some of a “pioneer” of what they call “Ecommerce 4.0” like the Giglio Group and a major global group like QVC, with also the support of Confindustria Moda which will give an outline of where the market is heading.
At the same time, the digitalization of sales leads to enhanced risks of counterfeit products and we will discuss, also with the support of Certilogo, about what strategy can be adopted to limit such risks.
Finally, we will see what are the new tendencies in the digital fashion industry, also discussing about influencers and how they should be exploited, also taking into account the new stringent regulatory restrictions.
This is just a snapshot of the topics that we will discuss and you can find the agenda and how to register to the event HERE.
