French bank SocGen's arm to work with Indian startups
BENGALURU: French bank Societe Generale's Indian captive is looking to work with Indian startups and has changed its hiring practices to recruit from top Indian engineering colleges as it focuses on innovating for its parent company.
The Global Solutions Centre used has narrowed the number of colleges it hires from, focusing now on mainly the best engineering colleges, as it now looks to build digital solutions.
"In the past we were more open in where we went to hire but now we are focusing on the top engineering colleges. We are even hiring through hackathons. It is not at the same scale but we are still growing," Veronique Sani, Chief Executive Officer, Societe Generale Global Solutions Centre, told ET.
SocGen's captive employs about 8000 people in Bangalore and Chennai. The company has also expanded its office in Whitefield. The new office has been designed keeping in mind the company’s need to attract workers who might previously have chosen to work for a startup.
With telephone boxes and sailing boats, the goal is to create an environment that is separate from a corporatized back-office. The captive wants employees who work in the new office function as startup within Societe Generale and experiment with potentially disruptive ideas.
"The activities we do here are things that require more collaboration. We co-locate different teams working on projects. The idea is to create a smaller company within the bank, to model what the bank of the future will look like," Sani said.
Sani said that the role the India unit was playing had become more important as the talent shortage in IT had been exacerbated by the rapid shifts in technology. She
SocGen GSC has worked with the National Association of Software and Services Companies to create incubator program called Catalyst, which was launched last April. The ten-week program works on themes like artificial intelligence, big data, voice-to-text and client sentiment analysis.
"The mission is innovation and we are looking at how to work with startups to foster that. The role we can play is one of diisruptor within the Group," Sani said.
Unlike, other financial services firms, SocGen typically did most of its work in-house and now even banks that had outsourced a large proportion of their technology spending are moving towards its model.
"We use service providers when we need to, But within the group, the idea has always been to do more of the work in-house. We have a smaller proportion of work being outsourced compared to some competitors. But now I see that more banks are looking at doing more of their IT work in-house," Sani said.
The Global Solutions Centre used has narrowed the number of colleges it hires from, focusing now on mainly the best engineering colleges, as it now looks to build digital solutions.
"In the past we were more open in where we went to hire but now we are focusing on the top engineering colleges. We are even hiring through hackathons. It is not at the same scale but we are still growing," Veronique Sani, Chief Executive Officer, Societe Generale Global Solutions Centre, told ET.
SocGen's captive employs about 8000 people in Bangalore and Chennai. The company has also expanded its office in Whitefield. The new office has been designed keeping in mind the company’s need to attract workers who might previously have chosen to work for a startup.
With telephone boxes and sailing boats, the goal is to create an environment that is separate from a corporatized back-office. The captive wants employees who work in the new office function as startup within Societe Generale and experiment with potentially disruptive ideas.
"The activities we do here are things that require more collaboration. We co-locate different teams working on projects. The idea is to create a smaller company within the bank, to model what the bank of the future will look like," Sani said. Sani said that the role the India unit was playing had become more important as the talent shortage in IT had been exacerbated by the rapid shifts in technology. She
SocGen GSC has worked with the National Association of Software and Services Companies to create incubator program called Catalyst, which was launched last April. The ten-week program works on themes like artificial intelligence, big data, voice-to-text and client sentiment analysis.
"The mission is innovation and we are looking at how to work with startups to foster that. The role we can play is one of diisruptor within the Group," Sani said.
Unlike, other financial services firms, SocGen typically did most of its work in-house and now even banks that had outsourced a large proportion of their technology spending are moving towards its model.
"We use service providers when we need to, But within the group, the idea has always been to do more of the work in-house. We have a smaller proportion of work being outsourced compared to some competitors. But now I see that more banks are looking at doing more of their IT work in-house," Sani said.
