Vijaykumar Dayinde is the Chief Information Officer at Malaysia Airports. A dynamic and visionary IT leader, Vijaykumar Dayinde has played a key role in successfully implementing several key digital transformation projects to restore confidence in air travel through the implementation of contactless technologies, provide passengers with an enhanced, safer and seamless airport experience, and raise service standards to create a more seamless guest experience at KL International Airport (KLIA). Vijay has over 23 years of experience in IT strategy, planning, transformation delivery and operations across various organizations globally. In an exclusive interview with us, Vijay shares his thoughts on which areas technology leaders will prioritize spending this year and how the challenging global geopolitical situation will impact IT budgets in 2024.
As CIO of Malaysia Airports, what is your top priority this year?
This year, our first focus is on improving passenger experience through digital transformation. Secondly, for airports, we are also focusing on commercial services because aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues compete almost equally. The focus is on how to improve commercial services by leveraging personalization and analytics.
Underlying all this is technology, particularly focusing on biometrics for self-service check-in and self-service baggage drop, at 39 airports across Malaysia. Additionally, we are working to transform our legacy check-in system, also known as the Common Use Passenger Processing System (CUPPS), which was deployed over 20 years ago. We are migrating CUPPS from on-premise to the cloud.
And when it comes to commercial activities, we want to move to centralized data processing, enable retailers to automate and provide advanced analytics for upselling. This year we also started our ERP transformation with a move to the SAP S/4HANA cloud solution.
Additionally, data and analytics is an area where we continue to focus. And in parallel with these digital transformation efforts, we can't avoid the cybersecurity aspect. So, we are investing heavily in the cybersecurity aspect, putting more controls in place and strengthening our protection through a program called the Cybersecurity Acceleration Program (CSAP). Currently, we have completed CSAP 1.0 and are now in the 2.0 phase.
What technology are you most excited about this year and how do you plan to implement it at Malaysian airports?
Almost every CIO and CTO is excited about these emerging technologies. For example, everyone is excited about GenAI these days and trying to adopt it. What I feel is that you need to be careful and strategic in choosing where you invest your time, money and resources because not every technology is right for you depending on the nature of your business or industry. So the right use case is very important.
In our case, as I mentioned earlier, we are mainly focusing on cloud technologies such as CUPPS and ERP migration, because we want to accelerate our digital transformation while taking advantage of the flexibility and scalability that cloud infrastructure offers. In fact, we were able to migrate three airports to the new check-in solution within two months, and this will continue to be our main goal.
Therefore, it was clear that our architectural strategy had to follow a cloud-first design, which is guiding Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd's (MAHB) Airport 4.0 digitalisation drive.
According to a Gartner report, global IT spending is expected to reach $5 trillion in 2024, a 6.8% increase from 2023. Generative AI (GenAI) was a big talking point in 2023, but in the short term, there won't be any significant change to IT spending growth. Where do you think technology leaders will prioritize spending the most?
From a technology perspective at Malaysia Airports, spending is prioritized based on which digital transformation initiatives meet business needs. It is important to prioritize spending in terms of business outcomes and business value.
They also need to step up their assets in terms of protection, with cybersecurity and data protection being other spending areas, followed by disruptive technologies such as GenAI.
Another key area where we are prioritizing spending is on reskilling and developing our workforce. As technological change accelerates, there is a constant need to ensure that our workforce is reskilled and up-skilled.
Given the challenging geopolitical situation and a return to slower global economic growth in 2024, how do you see this impacting IT budgets?
Geopolitical issues are certainly expected to impact global economic growth. As for Malaysia Airports, it managed to achieve its highest ever profit after the pandemic last year, with pre-tax profit reaching nearly RM500 million.
When it comes to IT budgets this year, I feel that cybersecurity and risk management need to be prioritized. Digital transformation efforts are important, but cybersecurity is a non-negotiable investment to weather the geopolitical situation and ensure business continuity. Threats will continue to grow this year, and that is inevitable. Hence, cybersecurity budgets need to be prioritized.
Additionally, we are committed to continued investment in digital capabilities, as they enable us to maximize operational efficiency and adapt to market trends. Of course, CIOs will always face challenges in obtaining the necessary funding. In my view, there needs to be a clear value proposition and business value, which must be reflected in ROI if possible.
