Coffeeside Chat with CEO

The #coffeesidechat series of Sella India aims at bringing out insights from various leaders who have been an indispensable part of our 25 year journey. In the first episode of the series, we have our CEO, Mr. Srinivas Lingam sharing with us who we are, what we do and also how we do it well.

1.     How has the 25-year journey of Sella been in terms of evolving as a business?

Sella India was started in the year 1997 in Chennai and we have grown from a team of 5 to a larger family of 300+ now. Indeed, there has been a lot of transformations in terms of business domains and technology as the decades passed by.

We spent the first decade in product development on H2O (Host to Open) in the domain of Core Banking, covering customer information, accounting system, currencies & many related modules. We then ventured into Investments & Payments, Credits/lending & Risk Management.

By 2010, we worked on end to end product development for Axerve (a payment gateway) and also Hype (an Electronic wallet). An architecture team was also built in parallel and from building products, we also ventured into normatives/regulations and anti-money laundering. As far as Data management is concerned, we started with Data Quality and now delved into Data Analytics as well.

By 2016, Fabrick also grew with new developments and two years later with DevOps, for the first time we moved towards infrastructure management from pure software development and we have been going strong.

2.    How has the technological transformation at Sella India been and what can a new joiner look forward to here?

We have been into rearchitecture moving from Client Server Architecture to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Currently, at the group level, the organization is transitioning towards simplifying the banking experience for its customers and is in the process of adopting the Web 3.O wave that is emerging in the financial segment at a revolutionary level.

Anybody joining us now will get to be part of this exciting journey.

3.    About 48% of your current workforce has spent more than a decade at Sella India. How has it been possible to achieve this success in talent retention?

Our key initiatives drive towards Learning & Development, Creating connectedness & sense of belonging, Equitable & competitive pay structure, talent engagement & recognition.

Learning has been a critical employee value proposition for the organization. As a product organisation we have been forerunners in implementing new technologies towards enhancing our product and this has been the mainstay to our learning culture in the organisation for many years now. We have a strong skill framework and digital learning policy that are strongly tied to growth outcomes. Our learning ecosystem is designed to drive rapid learning outcomes with significant impact on business.

We strive hard to enhance the employee experience at various stages of the employee life cycle by collaborating and brainstorming with the relevant stakeholders.

4.    What forms the core of your cultural DNA?

One of the key aspects of Sella culture is the sense of belonging and connectedness that each employee feels. While it is imbibed in the DNA of the organisation, there are a few initiatives that augment the same as HR & CEO Connects, Monthly Calendared events, Town halls, Employee Resource Groups, Rewards & Recognition, Health & Wellness sessions and CSR Activities. We promote equity and inclusivity through flexibility and gender encompassing/neutral policies in various aspects for the organisation.

These initiatives have resulted in maintaining the voluntary attrition at 18.9% for the year 2022. As per the AON survey, BFS Captives were facing an attrition rate of 23% for the calendar year until September 2022. In the annual Cultural Value Assessment conducted for the Sella Group, Sella India’s scores was 80. The cultural entropy was only 7% with no limiting factor in the top values. Work life Balance, positive attitude, employee recognition and employee health were considered as top Current Cultural Value for the organisation as per the 2021 CVA report for Sella India.

We thank Lingam for taking time out to share his views for the series. Stay tuned as we bring in more wonderful & insightful conversations from our leaders!

 Ciao.